RUR & War with the Newts: Karel Capek (S.F. MASTERWORKS)

This is a fantastic edition. It not only includes two of Capek's most famous works, but also has a fantastic introduction which outlines that Capek was the one who introduced the word 'robot' to the English language and also talks about some of the historical, social and literary contexts behind his works. In spite of his contribution to the English language, R.U.R has not really received much academic attention, and while everyone has at least heard of 'Brave New World' by Huxley, very few people know about R.U.R. Perhaps this is because it is a play rather than a novel? It really is worth reading. The word 'robot' comes from a Slavic word 'robota' which roughly translates as drudgery in the medieval sense when a peasant would be forced to work for a feudal lord for little or no monetary payment. Taking this into account, the robots in R.U.R are dehumanised workers and everyone knows what happens when you treat intelligent people and/or being slaves: Revolt. If you're a fan of science fiction then you really should give this one a read.

I've only read RUR so far and have absolutely loved it. Really gets the reader thinking about the relationship between man and machine and your musings, once pitted against a contemporary context, seem startlingly real. If you're a fan of Asimov, give this set a read.

Bought this for the RUR play, which is excellent (as is the novel). But it is not straight translation of Capek's 1920, rather it is a translation into English by Paul Selver and adapted for the English stage by Nigel Playfair in 1923. Selver's translation abridged the play and eliminated a character, a robot named "Damon". I would have very much liked to have read a translation of the original text.

Quirky, funny, interesting - not really sci-fi, more like a inter-war Kurt Vonnegut. Try it, I found it very enjoyable and new.

The title story/play RUR or Rossum's Universal Robots has few surprises in it but as it is the ur -robot tale one should probably expect that. Everything else from "I Robot" to "Battlestar Galactica" has its origin in this tale and it was surely a much more startling tale when it was first published.However its sister story "War With The Newts" also by Karel Èapek holds all its original power, poignancy and humour. Somehow it manages, in a relatively compact space, to tell a five star page turner of a story with (unusually for science fiction) at least a couple of rounded interesting characters. It also packs in a great deal of political and societal allegory, and a fair degree of humour - all of which holds up extremely well after almost 75 years.This particular edition does suffer from poor paper quality (very thin and already smelling a little musty despite being a new book), but the entertaining romp that is "War With The Newts" even makes up for that.

This is a personal opinion, but I had to put it down. If you don’t mind a very old writing style then maybe this is not an issue. However, I stopped reading because of the writing style and the dialogue / script structure.

A fantastic book but this particular edition could be presented better for its price.

I must admit, this was a wonderful random find in a Waterstones, but I'm glad I did find it! The origin of the word "robot" and a clever satire which devastating foresight considering when it was written. The first third is a play about humans creating "robots" to fulfil our duties, which with Karels sense of humour is a fantastic tale. This is then followed by the War of the Newts, which again has subtext which is fascinating to uncover the more you read into it. Again, the black humour here is wonderful. Absolutely would recommend to any sci fi fan.

Lustige und doch zum Nachdenken anregende Geschichten. Besonders bemerkenswert ist, dass RUR im Jahr 1920 geschrieben wurde. Capek war ein Visionär.

The book was in great condition, better than it was described by seller, delivery was on time. Good deal

I had never heard of this author or title but I'm pleased to say was curious enough to buy it after reading the synopsis. The S.F. Masterworks edition includes a short playlet, R.U.R., which deals with the rise of the robots - perhaps clones would describe them better as they are not machines but similar to the "Replicants" of Blade Runner - except these robots live longer. Reading it now, with so many books/films produced in the intervening 100 years to compare it with, it is in some ways quaint. That said, the outcome is anything but.War with the newts deals with similar issues to those explored in R.U.R. I don't want to provide any spoilers, so I'll just say this book will please anyone who likes early examples of S.F. The author often displays a wickedly sardonic sense of humour. As in R.U.R. some might find it quaint, but as the story unravels we come toa finale that is stark and unforgiving.I'm giving it 4 stars and recommending it highly.

After having read so many formula books recently - thrillers usually - the typical page turners. - it was refreshing to read books which follow no conventional pattern at all. War with the Newts in particular is at times like a scientific paper full of footnotes, and then completely changes format to a conventional novel - but it all works.What I did not think about in buying these two books (one is actually a play) is that Čapek wrote the originals in Czech and of course they had to be translated into English. Yet not all translations are equal. Looking up the works on Wikipedia later I found that the particular translation I had purchased of “Newts” (by Weatherall) was described as “competent but uninspired” and at least according to Wikipedia there were better translations to be had. Certainly something to think about for the future. But I found the “uninspired” version readable enough.