Books

First edition, first printing, signed by the author on the front free endpaper; signed copies are scarce. Asimov's landmark story collection includes "Liar!", which coined the term "robotics", and "Runaround", in which he first proposed the Three Laws of Robotics. The work's remarkable influence has extended from science fiction to cybernetics, posing increasingly prescient questions on what distinguishes man from machine. "Upon realizing he had coined a new and lasting word, Asimov recognized the uniquely profitable position he had created for himself, and along with the successful prediction of space travel, self-driving cars, and war-computers among others, would go on to position himself as a sort of friendly-but-rough-around-the-edges technological herald, someone entertaining, trustworthy, and often right" (Jung). These nine stories were printed in the magazines Super Science Stories and Astounding Science Fiction between 1940 and 1950 prior to their first appearance here in book form. Octavo. Original red cloth, spine lettered in black, robot design to front cover in black. With dust jacket. Bump to ends and corners, browning to rear endpapers; jacket unclipped, spine faded as usual, otherwise bright, moderate rubbing with one or two nicks, in lovely condition: a fine copy in near-fine jacket. Anatomy of Wonder 3.20; Currey, p. 17; Locke I, p. 24. Gia Jung, "Our AI Overlord: The Cultural Persistence of Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics in Understanding Artificial Intelligence", Emergence, 5 June 2018.

I, Robot is a collection of nine science fiction short stories by Isaac Asimov, first published in 1950. It was Asimov's first book of robot stories, containing tales of positronic robots that are often conflicting with the famous Three Laws of Robotics.