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A beautifully logical tale of a robot who simply couldn't tell the truth!

This short story is in the Susan Calvin series a Sub-series of: The Positronic Robot Stories

The story is included in the collections:

• The Complete Robot (1982)
• I, Robot (1950)
• The Great Science Fiction Stories Volume 3, (1941)

It first appeared in the May, 1941 Issue of Astounding Science Fiction, available on Internet Archives.

Hugo, Nebula and Locus Award winning novelette. It originally appeared in the anthology Stellar #2 (1976) edited by Judy-Lynn del Rey. It has been reprinted many times and can be found in the anthologies:

• The 1977 Annual World's Best SF, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Arthur W. Saha
• The Best Science Fiction of the Year #6 (1977), edited by Terry Carr
• Nebula Winners Twelve (1978), edited by Gordon R. Dickson
• The Arbor House Treasury of Modern Science Fiction (1980), edited by Robert Silverberg and Martin H. Greenberg
• Machines That Think: The Best Science Fiction Stories About Robots and Computers (1984) edited by Isaac Asimov, Patricia S. Warrick and Martin H. Greenberg
• Philosophy and Science Fiction (1984) edited by Michael Philips
• The Hugo Winners, Volume 4: (1976-79) (1985), edited by Isaac Asimov

The story is included in the collections:

• The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories (1976)
• Opus 200 (1979)
• The Complete Robot (1982)
• The Asimov Chronicles: Fifty Years of Isaac Asimov (1989)
• Robot Visions (1990)
• The Complete Stories, Volume 2 (1992)

The story was later expanded into the novel The Positronic Man (1992), written in collaboration with Robert Silverberg. It has been turned into a movie starring Robin Williams.

The complete collection of Isaac Asimov's classic Robot stories.In these stories, Asimov creates the Three Laws of Robotics and ushers in the Robot Age - when Earth is ruled by master-machines and when robots are more human than mankind.The Complete Robot is the ultimate collection of timeless, amazing and amusing robot stories from the greatest science fiction writer of all time, offering golden insights into robot thought processes. Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics were programmed into real computers thirty years ago at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - with suprising results. Readers of today still have many surprises in store...

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (The Complete Robot) - (1982) - essay
• Some Non-Human Robots - (1982) - essay
• A Boy's Best Friend - (1975) - short story
• Sally - (1953) - short story
• Someday - (1956) - short story
• Some Immobile Robots - (1982) - essay
• Point of View - (1975) - short story
• Think! - (1977) - short story
• True Love - (1977) - short story
• Some Metallic Robots - (1982) - essay
• Robot AL-76 Goes Astray - (1942) - short story
• Victory Unintentional - (1942) - short story
• Stranger in Paradise - (1974) - novelette
• Light Verse - (1973) - short story
• Segregationist - (1967) - short story
• Robbie - (1940) - short story
• Some Humanoid Robots - (1982) - essay
• Let's Get Together - (1957) - short story
• Mirror Image - (1972) - short story
• The Tercentenary Incident - (1976) - short story
• Powell and Donovan - (1982) - essay
• First Law - (1956) - short story
• Runaround - (1942) - novelette
• Reason - (1941) - short story
• Catch That Rabbit - (1944) - short story
• Susan Calvin - (1982) - essay
• Liar! - (1941) - short story
• Satisfaction Guaranteed - (1951) - short story
• Lenny - (1958) - short story
• Galley Slave - (1957) - novelette
• Little Lost Robot - (1947) - novelette
• Risk - (1955) - novelette
• Escape! - (1945) - short story
• Evidence - (1946) - novelette
• The Evitable Conflict - (1950) - novelette
• Feminine Intuition - (1969) - novelette
• Two Climaxes - (1982) - essay
• --That Thou Art Mindful of Him! - (1974) - novelette
• The Bicentennial Man - (1976) - novelette
• A Last Word - (1982) - essay

The three laws of Robotics:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm
2. A robot must obey orders givein to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

With these three, simple directives, Isaac Asimov changed our perception of robots forever when he formulated the laws governing their behavior. In I, Robot, Asimov chronicles the development of the robot through a series of interlinked stories: from its primitive origins in the present to its ultimate perfection in the not-so-distant future--a future in which humanity itself may be rendered obsolete.

Here are stories of robots gone mad, of mind-read robots, and robots with a sense of humor. Of robot politicians, and robots who secretly run the world--all told with the dramatic blend of science fact and science fiction that has become Asmiov's trademark.

Table of Contents: sub-series in [ ] all sub-series are part of the The Positronic Robot Stories series

• Introduction (I, Robot) - short story
• Robbie (1940) - short story (variant of Strange Playfellow)
• Runaround - [Mike Donovan] (1942) - novelette
• Reason - [Mike Donovan] (1941) - short story
• Catch That Rabbit - [Mike Donovan] (1944) - short story
• Liar! - [Susan Calvin] (1941) - short story
• Little Lost Robot - [Susan Calvin] (1947) - novelette
• Escape! - [Susan Calvin] (1945) - short story
• Evidence - [Susan Calvin] - (1946) - novelette
• The Evitable Conflict - [Susan Calvin] - (1950) - novelette

Contains:

• Robot AL-76 Goes Astray
• Victory Unintentional
• Let's Get Together
• First Law
• Satisfaction Guaranteed
• Lenny
• Galley Slave
• Risk

In a twenty-first century Earth where the development of the positronic brain has revolutionized the way of life, beloved household robot "Andrew" struggles with his unusual capacity for emotion and dreams of becoming human.

From the writer whose name is synonymous with the science of robotics comes five decades of robot visions-36 landmark stories and essays, plus three rare tales-gathered together in one volume .

A human has been murdered on Kopernik and the clues point toward a robot as the killer. But how can that be, when robots are programmed to never bring harm to humans? Before long, roboticist Derec Avery is on his way to Kopernik to investigate. Former Auroran ambassador Ariel Burgess, meanwhile, has a mystery of her own to unravel: Citizens of the Nova Levis colony have been disappearing in greater numbers, while the cyborg population has suddenly started growing at a dramatic rate. With the help of old friends - and potentially new enemies - Derec searches for the identity of a killer, unaware that Ariel is walking directly into the centre of the web of intrigue.

Senator Clar Eliton of Earth and Ambassador Galiel Humadros of Aurora hope to alter the strained and explosive relationships between Earth and the Spacer and Settler Worlds. But as the Spacers arrive on Earth to begin the conference that will reconcile decades of mistrust, assassins strike down Eliton and Humadros and their staffs.

In the chaotic aftermath, Derec Avery - and Ariel Burgess - join forces, to penetrate an insidious conspiracy that sprawls across Earth, Spacer, and Settler worlds and threatens to bring them all to the brink of war.

Coren Lanra is the head of security for DyNan Manual Industries. A former Special Service agent, he's never cared for bureaucracy, piracy, or deception. And he hates mysteries.

Lanra's troubles begin with the death of Nyom Looms, daughter of DyNan president Rega Looms, during an ill-fated mission to smuggle illegal immigrants from Earth to the colony Nova Levis - all were apparently murdered, but why?

The only clue might be contained within the positronic brain of a robot that had accompanied the victims, but it has been deactivated, and Lanra is denied access to its memories. With the help of roboticist Derec Avery and Auroran ambassador Ariel Burgess, Lanra searches for the identity of a killer, before more lives are lost.

The Third Law of Robotics states that a robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws...

In Mirage and Chimera, Mark W. Tiedemann explored the fear and hatred toward robots - and their offworld owners - held by the people of Earth, and the animosity toward Terrans expressed by all Spacers. Now, all the plot threads of Tiedemann's epic story come together in this exciting conclusion to the Isaac Asimov's Robot Mysteries cycle.

After the diplomatic failures of the Spacer mission on Earth - which began with the assassinations of key diplomats and politicians, and culminated with the uncovering of a vast plot to create cyborgs from terminally-handicapped human infants - Ambassador Ariel Burgess and roboticist Derec Avery are recalled to their home planet, Aurora. Unfortunately, their situation only worsens when they arrive, as they become suspects in yet another murder - one that, based on the evidence, could only have been committed by a non-human.

On a world with a 20-to-1 robot-to-human population, is it possible a robot could have violated the Three Laws governing its behavior - and if so, why? Or is something far more sinister at work?