A review by gengelcox
Robbie by Isaac Asimov

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

It’s an SF story from the 40s and one by Asimov, so it’s no surprise that elements of it are incredibly dated. And I don’t mean the idea that we’d have human-like robots as child caregivers in 1998, but the depiction of stereotypical gender roles. The story itself is an early one in Asimov’s robot stories where his major character Susan Calvin is depicted in one scene as a teenager. It’s also an early robot story for its lack of subtlety with regard to his famous Laws of Robotics. Normally, in one of those stories, a loophole (or supposed one) in the law accounts for the thought experiment which the story is wrapped around. The plotting here is a lot less involved. We get a picture of how well the robot acts with the child, how neighborhood peer pressure and traditional concepts lead the mother to want to remove the robot from the relationship, to the finale where the father engineers a way for the child and robot to be together once again. Mother is a shrew and vain but Father knows best. Interesting from a historical view of SFF, especially considering how stories about robots have been updated to be stories about AI.