I, Robot is a collection of nine science-fiction short stories in which Dr. Susan Calvin, a seventy-five-year-old chief robopsychologist, who, in 2057, is interviewed by a reporter working for Interplanetary Press. As the interview goes by, Dr. Calvin looks back on her work and how robotics and ethics of artificial intelligence evolved from the 1990s to the 2050s.

Isaac Asimov has been labelled many things for the past seventy years from "pioneer of science-fiction" to "legendary author of science-fiction". As for his works, they are considered classics of the science-fiction genre and that is why I thought I would give it a try because I always believed that classics should be read if we want to understand the evolution of genre fiction through time.

However, I was quite disappointed with my experience and I don't know if it was because I expected too much and got so little from this collection of short stories in return or simply because the whole thing was flat out boring. Out of nine short stories, only Robbie and Evidence were interesting and engaging, the others were constituted of clichéd characters devoid of personality: just a bunch of self-congratulatory men whom I have completely forgotten the names and only one woman, Dr. Susan Calvin, whose intelligence and knowledge in robopsychology are of no importance as Asimov only seems to be willing to emphasize that she is old and emotionless but also has a colorless voice and lacks beauty. But more importantly, Dr. Calvin is portrayed as hating humankind preferring the study and company of robots though, she will not hesitate to drive one robot to insanity just because said robot lied to her about someone having feelings for her. This is how cliché Asimov's characters are!

As for the robots themselves I found they had more characterization than the human characters. Robbie and Gloria's bond in the first short story was really heart-warming. I also enjoyed the mystery revolving around Stephen Byerley and whether or not this politician is a robot. 

To conclude, I, Robot was not a good reading experience for me. I thought the writing style was too dry, there was a flagrant lack of characterization and the plot was extremely slow-paced.

Asimov, I., I, Robot, London, Harper Voyager, 2018.