Robot Dreams is another of the robot short story books from Asimov. It is a bit deceptive though and frankly quite annoying because only one of the stories in the book is a robot story, and its not very long.I am of course ignoring the robot stories that already appear in I, Robot and The Complete Robot. The rest are unrelated short stories by Asimov that aren’t about robots, and aren’t even consistent with the universe that the Foundation books exist in. That’s what makes it so annoying for Asimov to recommend that you read the book as part of the extended Foundation series. Grumble.
Don’t get me wrong, the other stories are fine, its just that they’re not the robot stories that I was led to believe they would be. Wikipedia is a little more clear on the situation than I was:
Robot Dreams (1986) is a collection of Isaac Asimov’s short stories, intended largely to show a series of Asimov robot-inspired drawings by Ralph McQuarrie. All the stories except the title one, written specifically for the volume, can be found in various other Asimov collections. The companion book, which also showcases McQuarrie’s drawings (and includes Asimov essays in addition to short stories), is entitled Robot Visions.
This would explain why my reply to James Taylor’s comment was so confused.
I’ll update my summary of Asimov’s robot short stories accordingly.
[isbn: 0441731546;0575042540]
[award: nominee nebula_short_story 1965 (Eyes Do More Than See); nominee nebula_short_story 1986 (Robot Dreams)]