I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

I, Robot was one of Asimov's first works and, while some of his later books were better, I, Robot is simply a classic of pure sci-fi and shaped the worldwide view of robots. The book is rather short, and should probably have been longer. But it's actually a series of short stories. Each one is superb writing and the book as a whole (along with Foundation and Pebble in the Sky) demonstrates the reason Isaac Asimov became such a success. The lack of detail does leave I, Robot with a feeling of incompleteness when read, but overall this book is great and an absolutely vital read for hardcore sci-fi fans.

I do believe that this is Asimov's best. It changed my vision of the future and my outlook on robots. I read this book in conjunction with Ray Bradbury's - The Martian Chronicles. Even though these books had very bleak similarities to each other, I was astounded by the calibre of the writing of both these men. I, Robot examines both the physical and phsycolgical drawbacks of having robots as slaves because, as we all know, slaves think, act and feel on a parallel level to our own.

This book is simply "The Bible" on artificial life. It is the book upon which all robots are based, in any reality, real or imagined. If you haven't read this book you must go back and start over again.