Novel - The Positronic Man (published in 1992) - Written by Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov is one of the most famous authors of science fiction, but he is not just a writer of science fiction. He wrote on a number of subjects, and was the author of a large number of science books, not only fiction. Asimov had an interesting life, born in the late 1919, or early 1920 in Russia and then his parents moved to the United States when he was only 3 years old. His moved to the Brooklyn area of New York, and that is where he grew up. He started writing for science fiction magazines at an early age, and was soon making a good going out of these. He also grew up in a age where there was worries about science and inventions, with the Frankenstein complex riding high on the minds of people, especially about the concept of robots (which were not a reality at that point of time). He enunciated over a period of time, the concept of the 3 Laws of robotics, which was a theory about the construction of robots such that they would always be subservient to humans, and would not act in a way that would be out of control. And then he went ahead and wrote stories where there were robots who were unusual, and in some cases, the robots had some tweak where they could be a danger.
The novels and short stories by Asimov were not only science fiction in the classical sense, but they actually talked about societies in the future, whether these be societies living in a cave scenario, people who have never seen the sun and would be frightened to go outside; or there were stories about a society which lives under 3 suns, and has never seen night, so what happens when there is a specific time when all of the suns go down and suddenly the society is faced with night that it has not seen in thousands of years (this was the premise of the book, Nightfall). Asimov also wrote a series of books set way in the future, which formed the Foundation series, another of the series of books for which Asimov is famous.




In one of his short stories "The Bicentennial Man", Asimov wrote about a robot who was different from the other robots of that time. A small modification in the robot had causes this robot to almost have an individuality, and the family that owns that robot was fairly rich and liberal, and encouraged him, almost as a member of the family. Because the robot, Andrew, had some unique artistic skills, he was able to make money out of these skills, and starts to display some properties related to emotion, something that robots were deemed incapable of, properties that seemed to differentiate humans from robots. However, this was not easy; there were many challenges from society, even members of the family could only accept part of his desires. Even the corporation that made him, U.S. Robotics, is puzzled over what gave him this creativity, but they are not comfortable with his quest for getting rights, and even change the structure of their robots to prevent his kind of occurrence.
By now, Andrew has rights, but wants the ultimate right, the right to be recognized like a human being; and for that right, in the end, he makes the ultimate sacrifice; he takes the right to die like humans do. Towards this end, over a period of time, he has replaced many of his body parts with organic parts to gain even more acceptance.

Novel - The Hammer of God - Written by Arthur C Clarke (published in 1992)

Arthur C Clarke was one of the most eminent writers in the field of science fiction. I have been a fan of both Clarke and Asimov for a long time and have read many of their books, admiring many of them for their futuristic view of society, and of trying to draw visions of what the society of the future will look like, not only on the earth, but in other environments as well. For example, the Rama series takes the culture that gets established in a large alien cylindrical spaceship (and such an environment is not easy to think about). Arthur C Clarke was most famous for his work along with Stanley Kubrick on the incredible 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was written as a novel, and was also made into a fascinating movie.
Arthur C Clarke grew up as a boy in England, and then served through the Second World War in the Royal Air Force in the radar area, and left the service after the war to join King's College in London. He also was the Chairman of the British interplanetary service for 2 terms till 1953, but it was even before this time period, in the period just after the war had ended that he postulated the idea of the stationary geosynchronous orbit being ideal for placing of telecommunications satellites and in his honor, this orbit is named after him. He also wrote more about space flight and the rockets that would be used. He is now most famous for the 2001 inspired series, and for the Rama series, both of which won a lot of awards. In 1956, Clarke moved to Sri Lanka, inspired by his interest in scuba diving.




The Hammer of God is a novel set in the future,  where a large asteroid is heading for earth, destined to become a killer of humanity. The asteroid is called Kali, and is detected by a program called Spaceguard, meant to protect the earth by deflecting an asteroid, not through the huge explosives that you see in movies called Deep Impact or Armageddon, but instead by placing a huge amount of fuel on the asteriod along with a rocket that would change the course of the asteroid by a small amount on a regular basis, but this course correction over the many weeks would change the trajectory of the asteroid enough to cause it miss the earth (this is one of the measures that are being investigated to prevent the earth from being hit by large asteroids). Of course, this would also be because the novel projects an earth which has rid itself of nuclear weapons.
The spacecraft which is spearheading this mission is called Goliath, meant to be in space along with a sister ship called Titan (located on opposite sides of the earth) - and the creation of this program was also created only after a tragedy happened to one of the advocated of the program. However, this simple program was meant to fail, since, there was a new religion on earth, conveniently called Chrislam (a combination of Christmas and Islam), which believed that God's purpose was not be opposed, and if a asteroid was meant to destroy the earth, so bet it. This would not mean the end of humanity, since there were settlements on the moon and on mars, but it would be an awful calamity; hence, they caused the destruction of the fuel tanks that would have caused the asteroid to change its course. What happens next ? Can the Goliath prevent the asteroid from hitting the earth and destroying all life ?

Novel - Prelude to Foundation (published in 1988) - Written by Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov was one of the most prominent writers of science fiction; but he was not just a writer of science fiction, but wrote a lot about science and other subjects, writing a large number of books overall. He was born in the Soviet Union in late 1919 (or early 1920) and moved to the United States with his family when he was just 3 years old and settled in the Brooklyn area of New York. In the United States, at an early age he became fascinated with science fiction and was selling his stories to magazines when he was as young as 19. He continued writing books and articles for the rest of his life, finally dying at the age of 72 in 1992.
He is now mostly known for the books dealing with Robotics (primarily his enunciation of The 3 laws of robotics; which were meant to provide a rulebook for robots so that they would remain under human control) and for his Foundation Trilogy. The Foundation Trilogy was a series of 3 books that described a future galaxy under the control of a Galactic Empire which is decaying, but only one man believes that he knows this. This man is Hari Seldon, who finally created the science of psychohistory, which would enable the foretelling of the future of large groups of people. The idea of Hari Seldon was to prevent the 30,000 years of turmoil and conflict that would emerge at the end of the Galactic Empire and through the creation of 2 Foundations, change this 30,000 year period to a 1,000 year period at which a Second Galactic Empire will create peace in the galaxy.

Prelude to Foundation was a book that Asimov wrote long after he had written the original Foundation Trilogy (Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation), these 3 having been written in the early 1950's, and then Asimov wrote 2 more books called Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth in 1982 and 1986. However, Prelude to Foundation was supposed to be a prequel, providing more detail about Hari Seldon and his background, and also about his growth of the study of psychohistory, how he developed it. The books does not have any ground-breaking revelations, it just shows how Hari Seldon moved to different parts of Trantor while trying to figure out how to develop psychohistory.
The book starts with Seldon presenting a paper concerning the basics of psychohistory and how it could be used. This brings him to the attention of the emperor Cleon I, but when Hari cannot promise instant revelations, Cleon dismisses him. And then he meets the people who will be most significant to him - he meets a reporter called Chetter Hummin, who scares Hari by claiming that the all powerful first minister Eto Demerzel is trying to catch him, and he needs to escape. Chetter then introduces him to Dors Venabili (his future wife) and they start on a run through the different sections of the planet, with different societies, on the run from Eto while Hari is trying to determine a section of society that can form the base for his research. He moves through different sections of Trantor in his flight, meeting very different societies, and even ending up with a powerful sector that is forever looking to replace the emperor. Who is Eto, why is Chetter helping him ? All of these are powerful questions for which Hari Seldon gets answers at the end of the novel.

Novel - Robots and Empire - A book by Isaac Asimov (published in 1985)

Isaac Asimov was a prolific writer of books, which included both science fiction and non-fiction science related books. Over the years, he has become extremely famous for the numerous science fiction novels he wrote, and the way he wrote about societies of the future. His societies of the future have a certain tinge of familiarity with the society that we can see now, but he also showcases societies which seem extremely warped in terms of how they operate (especially when you see the societies that he has described in the Spacer worlds).
Asimov was born in Russia and moved at a very early age to the US and settled down in the Brooklyn area of New York. Although he was associated with different universities including Columbia and Boston University and even spent some time in the army (having been drafted), his heart was always in writing. He became a contributor to the famous science fiction magazines of the time, and also moved into writing science rather than science fiction. Isaac Asimov is most famous for the series of short stories and novels he wrote on Robots (and played his part in removing the Frankenstein complex about Robots through his Three Laws of Robotics - although the development of military robots seems totally contrary to these law of robots and seems more fueled towards the Terminator kind of world).
He also wrote a series of books that are collectively known as the Foundation Series (the first three of which came in the early 1950's and the remainder were written after a period of 30 years). They explore a period in which the massive Galactic Empire that has kept peace in the Galaxy is decaying and will eventually die, causing a prolonged period of anarchy and a scientist attempts to reduce this time period to a much smaller interval.

The novel is the 4th novel in the series, starting with the The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, and The Robots of Dawn. The main difference between these 3 novels and this one is the non-presence of the team of Elijab Baley and his humanoid robotic partner, R. Daneel Olivaw. The time period is set around 2 centuries after the previous novel, which means that Elijab Baley is no longer on the scene, having died as per human timelines. However, the lady he met in 2 of the previous novels, Gladia Delmarre, is still alive since she is a spacer and spacers have developed a much longer lifeline than that of humans.
But there has been a great transition in the overall balance of power in the galaxy. In the time of Elijah, the spacers were very powerful while earth was a much weaker source of power. However, the movement started by Elijah and a few others and supported by the faction of spacers led by Dr. Han Fastolfe, who wanted the settlement of the galaxy to be done by humans rather than using humanoid robots, grew wings and the humans started spreading outwards, outpacing the spacer worlds and using the huge population of earth to settle new worlds.
Even though Dr. Fastolfe had died, his enemies were still in place and could not digest what was happening, and were not able to withstand the increasing number of worlds being populated by human settlers. They want to destroy Earth in a way that is not traced back to the spacers and they believe that this will ensure that earth is not able to achieve its aims. In all this, is present a descendant of Elijah Baley, called Daneel Giskard Baley, who is part of these groups of settlers. He wants the help of Gladia for help in figuring out why her now abandoned planet of Solaria is destroying spaceships that land there, and also wants to recover the robots that are now there, apparently without any owners. Gladia decides to help, and gets Giskard and Daneel (with their super strength) as companions.
The former opponent of Dr. Fastolfe, Kelden Amadiro has got a new supporter and helper, Levular Mandamus. Till now, Giskard has been able to use his telepathic powers to stop all efforts by Amadiro to stop earth, and now he and Daneel have to proceed on their most difficult fight as yet, the effort to stop Amadiro and Mandamus from destroying earth through an increase in radioactivity (the net result of which was displayed in a mostly radioactive earth, in Pebble in the Sky). However, while trying to stay in line with the Three Laws of Robotics while trying to stop these 2 is a big challenge, and Asimov tries to get more inventive, trying to create a Zeroth law of Robotics, which places humanity above individual humans, but this effort places a huge impact on the minds of the robots and causes a breakup of the minds of Giskard. And the earth does become radioactive, but not in a few years, but over the next 150 years.
Asimov tried to use this novel to link his robotic series with his Foundation series, using Daneel in the last of the Foundation series and also introducing the worlds of the spacers as dead worlds.

Novel - The Robots of Dawn - Isaav Asimov (published in 1983)

Isaac Asimov is known as one of the masters of science fiction, but he was more than just a writer of science fiction. In addition to science fiction, he wrote a science books and with a total book collection (books that he would have written or edited) in the hundreds. His books came out in a time when there were many other authors of science fiction, but Asimov has always been counted among the top writers in his field, along with other authors such as Arthur C Clarke and Robert A Heinlein.
Some of the most famous works of Asimov includes the Foundation Series (which takes a look at society during and after a massive galactic empire came to an end), and also includes the science of psychohistory (that seems to predict the future based on large masses of people, but is not usable on small scales). In addition to this, Asimov is also very famous for his many books on robotics, some of them set on their own and others in terms of their involvement with non-earth societies at a time when they were shunned on earth.
He is also very famous for his 3 laws of robotics which seek to provide safeguards on the actions of robots and prevent them from behaving in a Frankenstein manner.
And of course Asimov was also famous for his short story Nightfall, which took a society which has always every had light in its sky, and how it reacts when it knows that all those suns that light up the sky will vanish for a period of time and there will be night (a concept that people have never had).

Robots of Dawn is the next novel in the series of the earth-based plainclothes detective Elijah Baley (with the earlier novels in this series being 'The Caves of Steel' and 'The Naked Sun'). So far, the interaction with the spacers and with robots (primarily the detective partner, the humanoid R Daneel Olivaw) has led to changes in the attitudes of Elijah. He has started believing that it is the future of humanity to move out and occupy planets rather than the spacers doing so. For this, they have to start moving out from their caves of steel and become more comfortable with open spaces and with being under the sun. So, far because Elijah has been successful in his past investigations, he has managed to gain fame and also enabled some rights for earth.
But each time, he faces investigations where there is a lot at stake. If he fails, not only will he face demotion, but earth will also lose out. And now he is getting into a murder investigation where there is a lot more at stake. There is a tussle going on on the world of Aurora, which is seen as the chief spacer world, and where there are groups which are fighting a power struggle over whether new worlds would be settled by spacers or by people from earth. The group favoring spacers wants to use humaniform robots (which look exactly like humans / spacers) but the technology for them is only available with the robotist Dr. Hans Fastolfe. And the murder is that of one of the 2 humaniform robots in existence, R. Jander Parnell.
Because of the skill needed to create a mental block in such a robot, Dr. Fastolfe is the one who is blamed for the crime, and he himself admits that only he has the abilities, but that he did not do it. However, if he is proved guilty, then his faction will lose power and the group advocating spacers doing the resettlement using robots will win. And into this mess is inserted Elijah Baley, and since the winning of Dr. Fastolfe's group is so important to earth, he is again under a lot of pressure. He is partnered with R. Daneel Olivaw again, and this time, he comes into contact with another robot, not a humaniform robot through, with the name of Giskard.
So starts the investigation, and Elijah comes across a number of people, some in favor, and some against him But because he is doing the investigation of this important case, they also have to give him an audience. He comes into contact with a person from the previous book, Gladia Delmarre, who had the robot in her staff, and who had also taken the robot as her sexual partner and treated him like her husband.
How does Elijah Baley overcome all the problems placed in his path ? Does he manage to prevent Dr. Fastolfe from being proven guilty ? How did the robot get a mental block which effectively killed the robot.