Time Was: Isaac Asimov's I-BOTS - Hardcover

Perry, Steve

3.91

44 ratings by Goodreads

9780061052958: Time Was: Isaac Asimov's I-BOTS

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061052957 ISBN 13: 9780061052958

Publisher: Harper Voyager, 1998

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Annabelle Donohoe, the CEO of World Tech, is mad as hell.

Her dreams of world domination died the day Zac Robillard discovered her evil plans and fled World Tech, taking his greatest creation, his beloved I-Bots, and all his research, with him. (Read about their origins in Isaac Asimov's History of I-Bots!) More than super-machines, more than robots, the I-Bots are eerily human in appearance, but not in abilities. Their genetic components--based on human DNA--and mechanical infrastructures give them pshyical strength and powers humans can only imagine, and a measure of free will impossible in robots.

Annabelle wants them back and will stop at nothing to get her way, including hiring the world's deadliest assassin to find Zac, and his I-Bots--the beautiful Radiant and Killaine, clever Itazura, Psy-4, and Stonewall--and bring them in...or kill them. For if Annabelle cannot have the I-Bots she vows that no one else can either. But Janus, the ruthless killer, is not the only hunter they must elude...

Surrounded by enemies, Zac and the I-Bots can find no safe place, not even the streets. In the year 2013, the Silver Metal Stompers, a neo-Nazi gang, roam the nation's cities wreaking havoc on robots, especially Scrappers, outmoded homeless robots who huddle in hobo camps, rusting away unless they are repaired by a mysterious humanitarian and robotarian called DocScrap. In an unlucky twist of fate, the Stompers discover DocScrap is none other than Zac Robillard and that the I-Bots aren't exactly human...and vow to crush Zac and the I-Bots into wreckage.

Based on an original concept by Isaac Asimov, Time Was is a nonstop action adventure combining all the excitement of Golden Age SF with the technological wonders of modern cybernetics and quantum science.

This remarkable collaboration between the greatest science fiction genius of all time and a team of brilliant young writers is a major publishing event. Only the Grand Master himself could have foreseen the awesome wonders depicted in Isaac Asimov's I-Bots. And only today's finest storytellers could have brought them so vividly to life.

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Review:

Time Was begins in the near future with the I-Bots executing a corporate break in, hired to expose flaws in the company's security system. "Dressed in black, with dark wool caps pulled down to just above their eyes, they were more than just invisible in the night--they were the night, and all its attendant shadows. Sometimes--not often, but sometimes--Psy-4 found this ninja-like approach a little melodramatic.... Psy-4 stopped, crouched, then signalled the other two I-Bots to move forward ... liquid smooth and soundless. The way Psy-4 liked it."

Predatory forces--some corporate, some criminal--circle the I-Bots like sharks, the young machines and their creator, Zac Robillard, barely managing to stay one step ahead. In this novelization, authors Steve Perry and Gary Braunbeck faithfully adhere to the background story of the comic book while adding emotional and psychological depth to the characters. Time Was is based on a concept of Isaac Asimov's, who first created and popularized our modern concept of robots as sentient, emotive machines, and captivated the imagination with a future of possibilities. --Jhana Bach

About the Author:

Steve Perry lives in Oregon with his family and spends most of his time writing, doing martial arts, and walking his dogs. Gary Braunbeck lives in Ohio with his wife and two cats. His short fiction has appeared in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Dead of Night, and many other publications.

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