A case of consciousness: The Soul of the Robot (1974) by Barrington J. Bayley [Review]

A classic robot novel with a philosophical bent, set in a far-future world.

In a rural backwater, a master robot-maker and his wife construct a robot of their own. “We made you”, they say to him when he awakens, “you are our son.” The robot, Jasperodus, laughs at them dismissively and immediately walks out of their lives. He embarks on a series of adventures, all of them affected by his particular quirk - uniquely among machines, he has full consciousness: a soul. 

Originally published by Doubleday in 1974, The Soul of the Robot is the sixth novel by Barrington J. Bayley. Today, it is the best-known novel by this under-recognised author. It hews to Bayley’s frequent approach in that it fuses a fast-moving, pulpy story with deeper speculations. Jasperodus imposes himself excitingly on a far-future world of fractured empires and decayed technology; but also explores the riddle of consciousness, where it comes from and what it means to be alive.

A robot picaresque

When Jasperodus first ventures out into the world, leaving his saddened creators behind, he soon forms a basic understanding of the situation. The world was once united under a formidable empire, but this has long since crumbled into a patchwork of smaller fiefdoms. Society is run along basically feudal lines, with a haphazard mix of technologies. Robots are the main legacy of a vanished high-tech past - they are common, but relatively primitive and routinely exploited. 

Perhaps ominously, Jasperodus’ first encounter in the outside world is with a group of bandits violently hijacking a train. This sets much of his later journeying on a high-action course. Gifted - or burdened - with consciousness, Jasperodus can act as he chooses. He goes as far as to stage a coup in an out-of-the-way kingdom, and declares himself king of what little he surveys. The threat of retaliation, however, drives him outward and onward with a loyal human in tow.

Driven by a desire to be at the centre of things, and to better explore his own robot nature, Jasperodus ventures to the city of Tansiann. This is the core of a nascent new empire, which aims to recreate the successes of the old one. Despite suspicion cast on him by his backstabbing of King Zhorm, the robot becomes a general, spearheading an effort to consolidate control of Earth and perhaps later, the wayward old colonies on Mars.

At all times, Jasperodus is troubled by his unique nature. He has himself modified at great cost so that he can appreciate sex with the willing women of the court; he has an unsatisfying discussion with Aristos Lyos, the preeminent “robotician” in the world; and he tries to collaborate with his comrades in an abortive robot revolution. His practical and philosophical struggles both seem to lead him to the same thing - a return to where he came from and a final search for answers.

The robot context

The Soul of the Robot satisfies both as an SF adventure and something deeper. Jasperodus is an engaging presence, a unique robot character who takes on the roles of servitor, monarch, soldier, general, and revolutionary. It is Jasperodus’ freedom of action which separates him from earlier robot tales, particularly those of Isaac Asimov. Bayley’s protagonist is not bound by the famous Three Laws of Robotics. He is at times indifferent to the suffering of humans and machines alike. Notably, in an early chapter he ignores a rape happening in his vicinity - an incident which dates the novel clearly to the 1970s.

Bayley’s novel has been compared - sometimes unfavourably - with the works of John Sladek, a US writer who lived for 20 years in the UK. Jasperodus occupies something of a middle ground between Sladek’s two robot protagonists. He is not the naive innocent of Roderick (1980), but nor is he similar to the murderous titular machine in Tik-Tok (1983), whose “Asimov circuits” have apparently malfunctioned. What Bayley shares with Sladek is a sense that robots would essentially become a new form of hyper-exploited slave.

For all the violence and chaos in The Soul of the Robot, it also has something of an uplifting quality. Over time, Jasperodus gradually comes to realise that humans are as confused about their own consciousness as the robot is about his. What Jasperodus finds so difficult to pin down about his own “soul”, is similarly difficult to define for humans. It is here that Bayley has something to say - it is the pursuit of meaning that makes life worthwhile. Jasperodus comes to this conclusion, which opens the way for Bayley’s only sequel, published 11 years later: The Rod of Light (1985).

The “rehabilitation of the robot”

Very often in SF history, robots had been drawn as unknowable machines with few if any human qualities. They were frequently given to going rogue, and were kept in check by strict rules - if at all. Robot uprisings have long been a mainstay of the genre. The Soul of the Robot approaches the robot trope differently because while flawed, Jasperodus is basically good and possesses humanlike qualities. The Science Fiction Encyclopedia describes the novel as a “study in robot existentialism”, which completed “the rehabilitation of the robot”. 

That Bayley did this within the framework of a pulp adventure is another example of his unique and compelling approach.

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• Alastair Reynolds has recalled his recalled his “huge enjoyment” of this novel, and credits Jasperodus with being an influence on the character Hesperus in his novel House of Suns (2008).
  
• Other Bayley novels The Fall of Chronopolis (1974) and The Garments of Caean (1976) have also been covered here.