Being an internet-type in my day job, I’m pretty familiar with Cory Doctorow. I like his stance on copyright laws and I like how he’s used Creative Commons to licence his books. I’ve never actually *read* any of his work before though, so I, Robot is my first foray into Doctorow’s imagination.
The first thing I’ll mention is the style. Doctorow has an easy, unreflective style of writing that makes I, Robot not just a pleasure to read, but believable. The world is ever-so-slightly removed from our own – what ours would be if a few laws were passed and we slipped down the slope just a little. Some authors take a long time justifying their setting – Doctorow’s world is just there and it makes sense.
It explores Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, but not in the way you might think. The protagonist lives in a society where robots are governed by them. (This looks a bit like Britain circa 2020, where you can only watch the BBC and you can’t blow your nose without paying tax on it.) There’s a war with Eurasia, which has non-Three-Law robots but a strangely moral, utopian society. It’s a refreshing change from the usual “robots are going to kill us all!” mentality.
I grew up on Asimov and the Foundation Series is still my keystone for judging the sci-fi I read now, so I’m inclined to judge derivative works harshly. Like I said above though, Doctorow’s world is believable. The Three Laws are slotted into this nanny-state framework, and the story plays on our normal fears and reactions. The protagonist, like us, is a law-abiding citizen. Like us, he finds humanoid robots pretty creepy. Like us, he sometimes wishes the government would bugger off.
I, Robot sticks to one theme, follows it through to an interesting conclusion, and is altogether a great short story. It also taught me what the hell Dentifrice was, so bonus points for that.
The story is part of a collection called Overclocked, which no doubt I’ll be reading shortly. There’s no Amazon link this time – you can download I, Robot and all the other Overclocked short stories from Doctorow’s Site, for free 