Asimov's Robots - Delightfully Charming

 Isaac Asimov’s robot stories are a joy. I usually don’t have much patience with Asimov. While his ideas are great, I tend to be primarily a character-driven reader and a plot-driven reader second, and in my experience, Asimov’s not great at either. And don’t get me started on his women characters and stance on feminism. But his robot stories, especially those in I, Robot, are delightfully charming. His character writing skills are at just about the right level for robot personalities (and his robots do have personalities), and as for Susan Calvin, surely one of the most robotic human characters in fiction, her personality is just right for who she is and what she does. Unlike with many other “unfeminine” woman characters (in literature in general of the time, not just in Asimov’s writings), I don’t feel that Susan Calvin’s personality is written to account for her scientific career or lack of partner, or to punish her for something, or anything else. It’s such an asset for her, her company, and society in general that it just comes off as who she is, and that’s OK. Asimov obviously has a great affection for his robots, and I wonder how much Susan Calvin’s robot-likeness slips her in under that umbrella. She’s certainly one of his best-written women, in the admittedly small sample size of his writings I’ve read.