h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Glad you've been improving this entry, Fragilis! May I make a few observations?

A couple of points about Susan Calvin. You might want to say a bit about her personality - how she is the stereotypically severe and unattractive career woman (IIRC Asimov said somewhere that this reflected his lack of knowledge about women at the time when he was writing these stories). Also, she likes robots better than human beings. In the story "Evidence" in which an electoral candidate is accused of being a robot, she says that there's no way to distinguish between a robot and a very good human being - if he follows the Three Laws, he could be either.

I don't think robots were generally suspected of committing the murders in the robot novels. Baley accused Daneel of it a couple of times in The Caves of Steel (first saying that he was actually human, then that he wasn't equipped with the First Law), and in The Naked Sun he discussed how robots could be used to commit murder, but I think that was all.

It would be nice to mention The Bicentennial Man somewhere earlier in the entry, perhaps in the section on Asimov's Robots. It is one of Asimov's most famous robot stories, and it seems a bit odd to talk about the film at the end without having said anything about the story it's based on.

You make a good point about Susan Calvin's personality and how this reflected on Asimov. I'm sure from his point of view she was a tremendous step up from the screaming victims in early pulp novels.

And you're right about the robots not being accused, as I remember it. I notice I sometimes condense things in my mind to the point of making them altogether fishy, and this is one clear instance.

And yes, I should mention The Bicentennial Man. Actually, I don't have anything on his short stories - some of which are as famous as his best books. I may need to rectify that, though it will be hard to decide exactly what should be included and what shouldn't.

Thanks for your comments, Ekaterin. It will probably be a week or two before the entry is changed to reflect them. They're very much appreciated.