Robot Fiction

Thomas Usher has a terrible gift. Following a car crash in which his wife and daughter are killed, he can see the recently departed, and it's not usually a pretty sight. When he is called to investigate the violent death of the daughter of a prominent local gangster, Usher's world is torn apart once more. For the barriers between this world and the next are not as immutable as once he believed.

The planet had fallen off the map. Lost on an unknown and forgotten planet, scientist Karl Allman discovers himself hunted by an ancient race. The descendants of earlier colonists have reverted to a savage tribal culture of sacrifice, pillage and violence. When Karl falls in love with an outcast girl, he has only one goal: Escape. But escape is a distant dream on this nightmare planet.

Botanica is an island, but almost all of the island is taken up by the Tree. Lillah has come of age and is now ready to leave her community and walk the tree for five years, learning all Botanica has to teach her. Can Lillah keep the huge secret she has been entrusted with, or will she have to resort to breaking the oldest taboo on Botanica?

It will take more than angels and demons to stop him. Reporter Spencer Finch is embroiled in the hunt for a missing book, encountering along the way cat burglars and mobsters, hackers and mysterious monks. At the same time, he's trying to make sense of the legacy left to him by his late grandfather, a chest of what appear to be pulp magazines from the golden age of fantasy fiction.

Eliot Lazar lavora per una compagnia che produce e vende spinner, gli androidi, simulacri di esseri umani creati a servizio degli heartbeat, gli uomini. La sua fortuna - o sfortuna - è quella di innamorarsi di una spinner modello C-900, Iris Matsuo: nella Los Angeles di fine XXI secolo le relazioni tra heartbeat e spinner, lasciate spesso impunite dalla legge, rappresentano un'offesa sociale, un crimine morale da perseguire. Eliot e Iris decidono allora di trasferirsi nell'isola artificiale di Avernus, una sorta di Stato pirata dove tali pregiudizi non esistono.

Hier kommt Dotty! Superschlau, superlustig, supermenschlich. Dotty ist Teil eines supergeheimen Geheimprojekts. Ein Jahr lang soll das Robotermädchen eine normale Schule besuchen. Natürlich darf niemand merken, dass sie gar kein echter Mensch ist. Doch die charmante Androide stolpert von einem Fettnäpfchen zum nächsten. Aber woher soll man als Roboter auch wissen, dass man Lehrer besser nicht ständig verbessert? Oder wozu es Regeln gibt, die nur dazu da sind, gebrochen zu werden? Da brennen einem ja glatt die Schaltkreise durch!

Fifth grader Ellicott Skullworth has always felt out of place at public school and now he's tested into the Archimedes Program at Latimer University. While in Latimer City, he'll be living with his world famous and insanely brilliant cousin, Banneker Bones, the 11-year-old inventor of robots. The only problem: Banneker doesn't want to share his room. He's got an army of robots to make Ellicott miserable until he goes home.

The Steampunk Pirates jump at the chance to earn a handsome reward in return for doing some snooping. But when they find themselves sandwiched between the Dread Captain Inky beard and a spider on the attack, it's time to beat a retreat. Can they escape without a scrape, or have the robotic rebels ticked their last?

The colonists get a cold welcome upon arrival in Mariner Valley and soon discover that the many organizations that planned their mission hadn't communicated well on specifics. Worse, the ground crew waiting for them are a collection of angry, tired survivors of ill planning, and their new home is a dirty cave.

Alex has been saved from the fate that awaited her in Bedlam, but in freeing her, Niall has released others of their kind into the population. Now, as Warder, he must find them and persuade them to swap their new-found liberty for security in the courts - but is the price of sanctuary to swap one cage for another?

Tyrus Murphy is a bumbling EMT from Nebraska with big dreams. When he gets a call from an unknown number informing him he’s just inherited his uncle’s island of killer robots, he has one thought: world domination. International conquest ends up being more challenging than it seems, as the young ruler faces hard partying politicians, mysterious old aristocrats, and even his own unexpected aversion to violence. Powered by optimism and greed, Tyrus falls face-first through a globe-trotting adventure that rarely goes according to plan.

Robots are forbidden! But Jerry is not a robot. Robots were outlawed before Joel was even born, but he has been obsessed with them his whole life. That was before he saw Jerry, the giant metal man in Levi's barn. So if Jerry is not a robot, what is he? Is Jerry a robot? Get the novelette now and decide for yourself.

Even as he trains to be a pilot for the Resisters, 12-year-old Ethan Blackwood is still reeling from the news that aliens called the Ch’zar have taken over the world and put all the adults under their mind control. Now the Ch’zar’s mechanical bug armies are growing. The Resisters need more pilots like Ethan, kids who aren’t afraid to think for themselves. Ethan knows just where the Ch’zar send troublemakers like him - to Sterling Reform School. Can Ethan find a way to break into Sterling and recruit new fighters before the enemy discovers the Resisters’ underground base?

Twelve-year-old Ethan Blackwood has always known exactly what he wants - to win the state soccer championship, get into the best high school, and become an astronaut. Then he meets Madison and Felix, who tell him something... insane. They claim that fifty years ago, aliens took over the Earth, and everyone past the age of puberty is under their mind control. Ethan doesn’t believe it. But then he sees for himself the aliens’ monster bug robots and the incredible way Madison and Felix have learned to fight them. So Ethan Blackwood has a choice....

Amelia's lost in space. Trapped on the other side of a quantum gate she can't access. When she wakes up on an alien starship, her first order of business is going home. But that isn't as easy as it sounds. Between pirates and giant metal robots, Amelia has her work cut out for her.

Abbey Mei Otis's short stories are contemporary fiction at its strongest: taking apart the supposed equality that is clearly just not there, putting humans under an alien microscope, putting humans under government control, and more. Otis has long been fascinated in using strange situations to explore dynamics of power, oppression, and grief, and the 12 stories collected here are at once a striking indictment of the present and a powerful warning about the future.

It started as an ordinary school field trip. The bus pulled up; the kids got off. Their teacher told them where to explore and what to look out for. But when Code Lightfall spots what appears to be a tiny metallic bee, his world will never be the same again... literally. This “bee” leads Code from his world into Mekhos—the land of robots.

It was supposed to be an easy job: find the Dark Star Revolution Starships, destroy them, and go home. But a booby-trapped vessel decimates the Meridian Alliance fleet, leaving Serengeti - a Valkyrie class warship with a sentient AI brain - on her own, wrecked and abandoned in an empty expanse of space. On the edge of total failure, Serengeti thinks only of her crew. She herds the survivors into a lifeboat, intending to sling them into space. But the escape pod sticks in her belly, locking the cryogenically frozen crew inside.

Meet Matt Richter. Pi. Zombie. Another case proves dangerous for zombie PI Matt Richter, in the underworld realm of Nekropolis. From his arrival at Nekropolis, Matt has found himself embroiled in disputes with the city's vampire lords, shapeshifters, golems, and other monstrosities. Nothing has prepared him for the Dark War. Tim Waggoner is a novelist and college professor.

Who Collects the Collectors? Sam Thornton has had many run-ins with his celestial masters, but he’s always been sure of his own actions. However, when he’s tasked with dispatching the mythical Brethren – a group of former Collectors who have cast off their ties to Hell – is he still working on the side of right?