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sherbertwells's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
In the play that invented the word ‘robot,’ a team of scientists and businessmen struggle to hold out against the AI apocalypse of their own making. Caught between the Russian Revolution and the Second World War, with ties to the Bible, Shelley’s Frankenstein and the changing face of industrial capitalism, Čapek’s work is more literature than early science fiction.
“DOMAIN: Perhaps we’ve been killed this hundred years and are only ghosts. Perhaps we’ve been dead a long, long time, and are only returning to repeat what we once said…before our death. It’s as if I’d been through all this before. As if I’d already had a mortal wound—here, in the throat” (75)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Infertility, and Violence
Minor: Slavery
The human characters mostly consider robots to be slaves. It's not American chattel slavery, but it's a major theme.