As per previous post, I'm trying to start reading fiction again by going back to the first sci-fi book I can remember ever picking up. It's a children's book, so I tried to keep my expectations low, but there was no need. Its fairly substantial and moving. Spoilers from here.
The story has a little bit of Flowers for Algernon kind of flow, with a protagonist who's in way over his head and just on the border of being able to perceive it. Even though he's a robot, his child-like wonder and questioning makes him a great stand-in for young readers. By the end of the story, there's a little twist, which is well telegraphed, that he will go down in history as probably the first sentient robot. There's a hint that humans will eventually create a robot that will one day be their master, but this is not played up at the end; its all upbeat. It kind of reminds me of the end of the Neuromancer series, where you thought this whole long story was about one thing, but its also the beginning of something else.
Other than the sentiment, which is more than enough reason to read this, there's not much else to take away here. Most characters are paper thin, and the dialogue is just OK. The background and tech are pure vintage from the atomic age, or space age, or whatever you want to call that long stretch between World War 2 and Star Wars. A good example is the video phone booth that requires an operator to patch you through. Completely unnecessary are the aliens from every planet in the solar system. This little universe strangely reminds me of the Firefly universe, with a busy bright center, and rough and tumble outer edges.
I don't know if I will ever read this again, but for historical reasons alone it is first on my restored bookshelf.
