Series
The Positronic Robot Stories
Isaac Asimov, William F. Wu, Tricia Reilly, Rowena Akinyemi, Jerry Oltion, Mark W. Tiedemann, Mickey Zucker Reichert, Roger MacBride Allen, Arthur Byron Cover, Bruce Bethke, Cordell Scotten, Michael P. Kube-McDowell, Mike McQuay, Rob Chilson, Robert Thurston, Stephen Leigh, Alex Irvine, Connie Willis, David Fickling, Hal Clement, Harlan Ellison, Harry Harrison, Mike Resnick, Pamela Sargent, Poul Anderson, Robert Sheckley, Robert Silverberg, Rosemary Border & Sheila Finch · 34 novels · 2 novellas · 14 novelettes · 33 short stories · 7 collections · 1940–2016
Isaac Asimov's positronic robot stories, gathered in collections such as I, Robot (1950) and The Rest of the Robots, depict a future in which robots built with artificial "positronic" brains work alongside humans under the Three Laws of Robotics, rules meant to keep them from ever harming the people they serve, while the stories repeatedly test the limits and unintended consequences of those laws. Asimov later wove this robotic future into the same continuity as his Foundation series, which is why the two are grouped together within the foundation-universe here. The stories span decades of Asimov's career, from the 1940s magazine originals through later collections and continuations.
Summary by Loreful, from public sources
- Genre
- Theme
- Place
- Time
- Tone
- Audience
- Form
Reading order
The order the books came out.
- Mike Donovan(10 works)
- Susan Calvin(23 works)
- Elijah Baley / R. Daneel Olivaw(8 works)
- Isaac Asimov's Robot City(18 works)
- Omnibus editions(11 editions)
Map
The Positronic Robot Stories at the centre, 10 subseries around it, its books fanned around what holds them. Pick anything for its details, and zoom out for similar series in orbit — the reading order above lists the same books as text.
Stats
By decade
- 1940s11
- 1950s11
- 1960s2
- 1970s5
- 1980s21
- 1990s24
- 2000s12
- 2010s3
Shape
34 novels · 2 novellas · 14 novelettes · 33 short stories · 7 collections
29 authors
reads like:science fictionrobotsour worldfar futuremysteriousadult
Mood
Grim and intense: 51% of this series' placed works, the catalog's 46%.
this series · the catalog · brighter = more books69 of 90 works carry a tone
Edges of the map
- Robot Dreamsdarkest
- Lennybrightest
- The Complete Robotcalmest
- Prodigymost intense