"A wonderful, fascinating, memorable novel." - Michael Moorcock

He was unique. Alone in a world that did not understand him, he tested the super-powers of his mind and body. More than a machine, but less than a man, he searched restlessly for the truth. Before his quest was done, he had died and been reborn, had fought his way from a grim dungeon to a royal throne. But still it was not enough..

THE SOUL OF THE ROBOT is a rare blend of exciting adventure and thought-provoking ideas. Its fast-paced action makes it compelling reading. Its challenging religious and philosophical implications linger on long after the story ends.

"..study in robot existentialism ... makes complex play with a number of philosophical paradoxes, though BJB's touch here is uncharacteristically light." - John Clute

"Bayley has taken Asimov's robotics stories one step further...He brings the picaresque tradition to science-fiction traditions." - James Gunn

"Bayley has the disconcerting ability, like the robotician in this novel, of removing an inspection plate from the back of your skull and making adjustments therein..."
- Andrew Darlington, Arena 10

"This novel began as an adventure story. Philosophical-type material was added as the story developed, but for dramatic effect, not as personal opinion. In reality I expect there to be conscious machines, and perhaps not too far in the distant future.

After the novel was finished I realized it reproduced the tale of the Little Gingerbread Man, who ran away ready for adventure as soon as the oven door was opened, but in four bites by the fox, was gone. Every child I have seen hear that story for the first time has been appalled by it. The prime expectation set up any storyteller is transgressed: the central character is evaporated almost straight away.

The rowdy world of the novel has been contrasted with Asimov's orderly 'three laws of robotics'. Any influence on me is not Asimov, but more likely a transitory scene in a pulp magazine novel I read as a teenager. Magazine, author, and title I cannot remember, or anything of the novel except for a transitory scene near the start. The protagonist sits in a cafe in a wild frontier town on Mercury. Past the open door walks a robot, leading a naked despondent young woman on the end of a rope, hands bound behind her back. A robot owning a human female, planning to sell her as a sexual commodity, illustrates perfectly a wide open, disorderly future." - Barrington Bayley