Robot Visions

NAL launches its new SF imprint, ROC, with a collection of 18 of Asimov's ( Foundation ) robot stories. The earliest tales here, written from 1940 to 1960, remain among the most-loved in the field, the best being ``Little Lost Robot,'' about a robot who obeys an order to ``get lost.'' ``The Bicentennial Man'' (1976) about one robot's desires and efforts to be first free, then equal, is the quintessential robot-as-man's-mirror story. The book concludes with brief essays offering companionable commentary on the history of robots in fiction, the Frankenstein complex, the origin of Asimov's famous Three Laws and the author's own surprise at the emergence of robots during his lifetime. (Apr.)