Ace, July 1987
(ISBN 0-441-73122-8)

First edition cover art by Paul Rivoche

RC was the creation of book packager Byron Preiss, who developed the outline with Asimov during a series of New York lunches, made the deal with Berkley, and hired the writers (who were then supervised by Byron Preiss Visual Productions staffer David Harris). I was offered the opportunity to write all six books in the original RC series, but I had other prospects (later that year, I signed a two-book contract with Ace that would produce Alternities and The Quiet Pools) and opted only to write the first volume.

It proved a difficult and frustrating project. The outline was very sketchy, and the transcripts of the Preiss-Asimov lunches were not terribly helpful. My main character had amnesia, and was not to learn anything significant about himself before he left my care. The outline also called for the introduction of intelligent aliens into the "Robot Universe"--this when Asimov had taken pains in more than one robot novel to explain the lack of intelligent aliens. When I questioned BPVP about this, I was told, in effect, 'Don't worry--we'll make the aliens go away at the end.'

The work-for-hire-plus contract with BPVP was dated November 13, 1985, and the 63,000-word first draft was delivered May 4, 1986 (a mere three days late). The first edition was published July, 1987, with a first printing of 107,000 copies and my name almost invisible on the front cover (and absent from the spine). There were at least four printings (though I've never seen a copy from the second). By the third printing, the cover had been changed slightly, with my name larger and highlighted in a bright yellow box. I heard rumors that this was in response to Ace receiving complaints about deceptive packaging, but no one at Berkley or BPVP ever confirmed that that was the reason for the change. Because it was BPVP, and not me, who had the contract with Berkley, hard information was even more difficult than usual to come by. I don't know to this day how many total copies were printed, or how many were sold. - K-Mac

Revised cover
(3rd printing)

• Caedmon [audio], 1988
• Bastei Verlag (West Germany), 1988
• Orbit (U.K.), 1988
• J'ai Lu (France), 1989
• Kadokawa Shoten (Japan), 1989
• Editorial Molino (Spain), 1989
• Interno Giallo (Italy), 1991 - tr. by Laura Pignatti
• J.M. Meulenhoff (Netherlands), 1994
• Donauland (Austria), unknown
  Copy needed! See Scavenger Hunt page.
• Byron Preiss Multimedia/WEA Visual Entertainment [PC computer game], 1995

The late Byron Preiss's ibooks imprint from Simon & Schuster reissued the Isaac Asimov's Robot City series in electronic format (Microsoft Reader) and in two different print-on-demand paperback editions.

At upper left is the cover of the first volume
of the 1999 trade paperback reissue, containing
Book 1, Odyssey by Michael Kube-McDowell,
and Book 2, Suspicion, by the late Mike McQuay.
ISBN: 0-671-03893-1 / $14.00

At lower left is the cover of the first volume
of the 2004 paperback reissue, containing
Book 1, Odyssey by Michael Kube-McDowell
ISBN: 0-743-47924-6 / $5.99

(not seen)

Hungary
Robotváros I.
"Odisszeia"
Valhalla Páholy, 1993
ISBN 963-7632-46-8
tr. by Greguss Ferenc