The Illustrated Man By Ray Bradbury ‘Sixteen illustrations, sixteen tales. I counted them one by one. Primarily my eyes focussed upon a scene, a large house with two people in it. I saw a flight of vultures on a blazing flesh sky, I saw yellow lions, and I heard voices.’ Ray Bradbury was one of …
Tag: robots
The Heart of the Robot
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro A Review 'Josie came hurrying to me. She put her arms round me and held me. When I gazed over the child's head, I saw Manager smiling happily and the Mother, her face drawn and serious, looking down to search in her shoulder bag.' Klara, the eponymous narrator …
Space Detectives
The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov 'And at the very moment he felt Daneel's hand clamping down upon his shoulders ..... But surely a robot would not dare use violence on a man. That thought was dominant. Daneel could not prevent him forcibly, and yet Baley felt the robot's hands forcing him down.' Written sixty …
Foundation's End
At the end of last year, I promised to finish my series of blogs on the Foundation books of Isaac Asimov, so here goes! Asimov wrote seven Foundation novels altogether, the first three appearing first as short stories in the 1940s and 50s. See https://bookheathen.wordpress.com/2016/09/15/history-of-the-future/ He followed those in the 1980s with two more - …
Nine Good Reasons
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov Forget the film! Whatever its merits or demerits, the movie starring Will Smith has almost no connection at all with the short story collection having the same title. Three of Asimov's characters - Susan Calvin, the robopsychologist, Robertson, the head of US Robots, and Lanning, one of its directors, do …
To Boldly Go (2)
Asimov and the Golden Age of Science Fiction The mid 20th century ushered in a golden age for science fiction writing and space opera. Drawing from new scientific discoveries and aided by advances in cinematography, the settings for the stories became more exotic and more colourful. Science fiction began to lose its pulp image. Now …
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