Teaser Tuesday (71)

Time for Teaser Tuesday, everyone! This weekly, bookish meme is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

Rules:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week, my teaser is from Cosmic Critiques: How & Why Ten Science Fiction Stories Work. Technically it's non-fiction but there are, of course, ten stories in it.

"If you don't like what you observe?"
   "Perhaps we will do something about it. Perhaps not."
   He threw back his head and laughed. "You will die, die, die," he said.

-p. 43, from "Transstar" by Raymond E. Banks

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What are you reading right now? Got a teaser to share?


-----The Golden Eagle

Teaser Tuesday (42)

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading--rules are as follows:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week, my teaser is from Nightfall by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg. This book is taking me forever to get through, for some reason.

(SOURCE)

"We just found--he came walking right into the dome--you won't believe this, Dr. Athor--"
   "Slow down, child. What happened? Who came walking in?"
   There were sounds of a scuffle in the hall, and a sharp clang.

-p. 169

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Got a teaser, or thoughts on the book you're reading? Feel free to share them in the comments!

Happy Summer everyone!

(SOURCE)

-----The Golden Eagle

Teaser Tuesday (38)

Teaser Tuesday is here again! This weekly meme is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

Rules:

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week my teaser is from Forward the Foundation by Isaac Asimov.

(This isn't actually the cover to the library's copy that I'm reading. But it's more interesting.)

Seldon said finally, "I fail to see why the two should be mutually exclusive."
   "So do I, Hari, but where's the value of psychohistory if it shows us only what we would see anyway? This is showing us something we wouldn't see. What it doesn't show us is, first, which alternative is better, and second, what to do to make the better come to pass and depress the possibility of the worse."

-p. 114

**********

***I will do my best to get around to blogs today, but the browser I usually use is acting up (it won't open and processes are still running even after I close it) and Internet Explorer is horrible.***

Anyway. If you have a teaser, or thoughts on the book you're reading, feel free to leave them in the comments!

-----The Golden Eagle

Teaser Tuesday (29)

Somehow I managed to get mixed up with this. It was supposed to be 28 last week, but I put it down as 27 . . . ah well. Today is Teaser Tuesday, regardless! Check out MizB at Should Be Reading for more on this meme.

Rules for participating:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week my teaser is from Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov. I am not crazy about the book so far--it's not bad, exactly, but I certainly don't think it's the best book in the Foundation Series.

Bander, despite its paean to freedom, found this unique opportunity irresistible. There was no way it could speak to robots on a basis of intellectual equality, and certainly not to animals.

-p. 184

*****

Got a teaser to share, or some thoughts on a book you're reading? Feel free to leave them in the comments!


-----The Golden Eagle

Teaser Tuesday (20)

This is my 20th Teaser Tuesday post!

Wow. 20 weeks! I remember when it was still something like 7 . . . and a lot of you have been around for the entire duration!

But besides my own little milestone, this weekly meme is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

Rules for participating:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

(Some of the other covers are so unappealing . . . I don't know why it's so hard to find a really good SF book cover.)

My teaser is from The Positronic Man by Isaac Asimov. I just finished it yesterday, but since I'm not sure what I will be reading next I decided to post from the book:

"Are you saying you don't want me to put the trousers on?" Andrew asked.

   "I didn't say that."

   "But you think it's a peculiar idea."

   "Well--"

   "You do."

-p.103

(Note: Andrew is the robot, the main character in The Positronic Man.)

If you have a teaser, please feel free to share it in the comments! :)


-----The Golden Eagle

Book Review: I, Robot

Title: I, Robot

Author: Isaac Asimov

Publisher: Bantam Books

Genre: Science Fiction

Page Count: 224

Rating: 5 out of 5

Cover Rating: 4 out of 5. I like the red and black, and the robot is good. The background is okay, although I wish that the actual title of the book was bigger than the author's name. I don't really like it when they do that.

Back cover:

They mustn't harm a human being, they must obey human orders, and they must protect their own existence . . . but only if doing so doesn't violate rules one and two. With these Three Laws of Robotics, humanity embarks on perhaps its greatest adventure: the invention of the first positronic man.

Isaac Asimov's I, Robot launches readers on an adventure into a not-so-distant future where man and machine struggle to redefine life, love, and consciousness itself. For the scientists who invented the earliest robots weren't content that their creations should remain programmed helpers, companions, and semisentient workermachines. And soon the robots themselves, aware of their own intelligence, power, and humanity, aren't satisfied either. Now human men and women find themselves confronting telepathic robots, robot politicians, robots gone mad, and vast robotic intelligences that may already secretly control the world in the next great evolutionary struggle for survival. And both man and robot are asking the same questions: what is human? And is humanity obsolete?

My expectations: were high. And they were met. :)

This book is based on the fact robots run on the Three Laws of Robotics, as said above. They are:


1. A robot must not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

   Digest that. All of the chapters/stories are based on those laws, and it can result in many strange scenarios you really wouldn't think possible. This book gets abstract at times--when explanations come in about figuring out the equilibrium between the first, second, and third laws, outsmarting the smartest objects on Earth and beyond, and arguing with a robot about spirituality of all things, sometimes I had to more slowly than I usually do through a book. But it was really, really interesting, and the cast of characters was varied, which I liked.

   There's Dr. Susan Calvin, robopsychologist. She's a little cold, a little strange, very smart, and I like her no-nonsense attitude. I got a little irked when she started acting funny around Milton Ashe, but that smoothed itself out.

   Byerly was one of my favorites. He/it is smart, calm, and reasonable. I thought the cripple was a mystery (I like mysteries) which never really got explained, but I don't particularly mind that being left a loose end. I'm not sure--no one's sure, really--whether the summary on the book gives something away, but it might. Or it might not.

   Mike Donovan and Gregory Powell . . . well, I can't help but find their predicaments funny. They get stuck with the worst of luck. They get stuck on a ship, they get stuck being in charge of robots who march like soldiers, Powell is forced to risk his life, they are continually put into precarious situations.

   All in all, this is a well-written piece of science fiction with diverse settings, a really good plot, interesting ideas, and I like the dialogue. (I love good conversations.) It's actually given me some inspiration for my own book, and I love it when my reading gives me ideas. :)

Other: no bad language in this book. I think they might have used the d-word once or twice, but I can't remember anything specific . . . They do use phrases describing the character's speech like "colorful" and "derogatory" but that's it. Nothing terrible.

I read a take on this story called I, Rowboat, (short story) who I can't remember the author of. But now I can understand just what they were talking about more clearly.

Do I recommend this book? Absolutely! I'd say I'd send Speedy after you if you don't, but that would violate the First Law, wouldn't it? ;)

-----The Golden Eagle