Official Review: Robots and Mad Scientists
Posted: 07 Apr 2020, 22:49
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Robots and Mad Scientists" by James Smith⁰.]
Robots and Mad Scientists by James Smith is a collection of Science Fiction short stories. Broken into two parts, the first half deals with main characters who are robots, the other half deals with main characters who are mad scientists. Most of the robots seem almost human or are made to look like them, and not all the mad scientists are completely mad, or certainly not bad people.
In the robot half we see robots who make decisions for humans, ones who fight wars for us, ones who clean up our time travel messes, AIs that help humans, a robot president, a robot secret agent, and more. The mad scientist half gives us many scientists who use technology to travel into the past. Some relive old memories and would rather stay there, some wish to experience history, but end up becoming part of it, some are from a bland future and wish to live in a more active past, while some are host to alien microbes and do their bidding.
What I like most about this collection of stories is the human nature of both halves. I didn’t expect that from the robot half and was pleasantly surprised. I really liked the way the author wove history (even naming a few famous people) into the narrative, making time travelers (some robot, some people) out to be well known people from history. A few of the stories really struck a chord with me. Like artificially intelligent slot machines that used cheat codes to try to give some of their favorite customers wins, even though they risked getting shut down. And a man who invents memory technology, then realizes how much better his past was when compared to his gambling, mafia problem present. Or a family who just wants to spend time together, risks everything to find a time period where they can just ‘be’. I also like the positive way some of the robots and humans interact, like they’re real friends.
If there’s anything that can been done better, it’s the depth. I know short stories can only do so much, but at least a few of them would’ve read better with more tension and a stronger writing style. There were also several errors (more than ten), though they were small and didn’t take away much from the read. My main problem is a technical issue and may just be because I’m reading the Kindle version on my phone. The novel has a lot of spacing issues and the page numbers are way off. The pages are 2-9269. I will say that many, if not most of these short stories involved time travel. While it didn’t get old, a tad more variety in this area may have made the novel more interesting.
I give this novel 3 out of 4 stars. What it lacks in really strong writing, it makes up for in life lessons and glimpses of would-be futures that really make you think. There are a few mentions of religion and politics, but nothing that would put most (if any) readers off. There’s nothing graphic, nor bad language, so anyone who likes Science Fiction and time travel should dive right in.
******
Robots and Mad Scientists
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Robots and Mad Scientists by James Smith is a collection of Science Fiction short stories. Broken into two parts, the first half deals with main characters who are robots, the other half deals with main characters who are mad scientists. Most of the robots seem almost human or are made to look like them, and not all the mad scientists are completely mad, or certainly not bad people.
In the robot half we see robots who make decisions for humans, ones who fight wars for us, ones who clean up our time travel messes, AIs that help humans, a robot president, a robot secret agent, and more. The mad scientist half gives us many scientists who use technology to travel into the past. Some relive old memories and would rather stay there, some wish to experience history, but end up becoming part of it, some are from a bland future and wish to live in a more active past, while some are host to alien microbes and do their bidding.
What I like most about this collection of stories is the human nature of both halves. I didn’t expect that from the robot half and was pleasantly surprised. I really liked the way the author wove history (even naming a few famous people) into the narrative, making time travelers (some robot, some people) out to be well known people from history. A few of the stories really struck a chord with me. Like artificially intelligent slot machines that used cheat codes to try to give some of their favorite customers wins, even though they risked getting shut down. And a man who invents memory technology, then realizes how much better his past was when compared to his gambling, mafia problem present. Or a family who just wants to spend time together, risks everything to find a time period where they can just ‘be’. I also like the positive way some of the robots and humans interact, like they’re real friends.
If there’s anything that can been done better, it’s the depth. I know short stories can only do so much, but at least a few of them would’ve read better with more tension and a stronger writing style. There were also several errors (more than ten), though they were small and didn’t take away much from the read. My main problem is a technical issue and may just be because I’m reading the Kindle version on my phone. The novel has a lot of spacing issues and the page numbers are way off. The pages are 2-9269. I will say that many, if not most of these short stories involved time travel. While it didn’t get old, a tad more variety in this area may have made the novel more interesting.
I give this novel 3 out of 4 stars. What it lacks in really strong writing, it makes up for in life lessons and glimpses of would-be futures that really make you think. There are a few mentions of religion and politics, but nothing that would put most (if any) readers off. There’s nothing graphic, nor bad language, so anyone who likes Science Fiction and time travel should dive right in.
******
Robots and Mad Scientists
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
