The Robot Chronicles

All of the stories in this collection were believably written and all were enjoyable. Each story had a unique angle and point of presentation for the reader to consider. I have to admit, short stories are my favorite reads. Do yourself a favor and read these stories.

While not normally my kettle of fish, I actually enjoyed this range of light sci -fi. Hugh Howey needs no introduction of course and the other writers he has gathered around him are certainly talented as well.

Fun reading the takes of several great sci-fi writers on robot stories. It's a subject that we'll likely be facing a lot sooner than many people think, and I thoroughly enjoyed each of the stories in this collection.

The stories are well written and interesting, even exciting. Unfortunately most were vignettes, with no definite endings, intended to entice you to buy the author's books. I felt cheated out of closure.

I think the main strength of this collection is the ideas. You have a lot of interesting ideas about robots and their place in society and in interpersonal relationships, and even some well done robot characters. The weakness of the collection is the narrative. A lot of the authors seemed to have trouble fitting a full story into the shorter format. You'd get the heart of the story, and then the conclusion would zip by in a paragraph or two. Or you'd get a good sense of the characters, but not a good sense of the story.

Personally, I found the stories to be hit-and-miss. Some I liked, some were weak. I'm not a big fan of short stories that don't wrap up logically - just because they're short doesn't mean you can't tell the whole story. I thought there were too many that ended on cliff-hangers simply for the lack of effort on the part of the author to complete a cohesive story.

There are many different types of robots chronicled in this story, musically inclined robots, caretaker robots, artificial intelligences, living as companions to humans, looking like humans with organic components, robots evolving beyond their programming or showing us the darker side of humanity. All this and more are showcased here. Robots are a symbol and a reflection of humanity and all that we can ever hope to achieve or be. Is it the height of egotism to make them in our own image or enlightened optimism to design them to be better than us? Either way, robots and their ability to think like human beings are the next evolutionary step. This anthology demonstrates thirteen different and creative ways that this is possible:

Hugh Howey's "Glitch" - When Max the robot, who's designed to fight other robots in ferocious, cutthroat competition, demonstrates aberrations in its programming, its engineers wonder what is going on. But is it an aberration or is it just evolutionary? Intelligently written that makes you feel for Max, fully fleshed out characters with their financial futures at stake and an impactful, momentous finale where the truly unexpected happens.

A.K. Meek's "The Invariable Man" - In the far future, Micah works in a technology junkyard re-purposing what's there. His gift with machines brings him to try to help out mankind when it looks like it might once again be under threat from a malicious artificial intelligence that terrorized the world. Once he realizes that something deeper is going on, the mystery slowly unfurls and to our horror, we see what's been hidden all along. When we discover what becomes unleashed, it gives you the chills as it fully plays out on the page. Well-written, suspenseful and mysterious, it was a pleasure to read from beginning to end, with a shocker of an ending.

Edward R. Robertson's "Baby Your Body's My Bass" - A story of how Alex, a young child receives a robot as a gift and how it grows up with him to form a duo that rocks the music charts. But people and robots can change, growing apart as they do so, threatening their once stable relationship. Sad and heartbreaking to read as a once great partnership degrades over time and their perceptions of each other change and even evolve. Just like human relationships do.

Nina Croft's "Ethical Override" - Senior Homicide Detective Harper gets a late night call to investigate an extremely high profile case but gets told by a mysterious informant that she needs to rule it a suicide, offering a supremely tempting bribe if she does. As she continues to investigate, it becomes deliciously clear as all the facts are unspooled, it makes a statement about how society needs to conform to a higher ethical standard of behavior. Not just for the sake of mankind though, but also with the assistance of robots who can help encourage this behavior. A true mystery yarn where nothing is at seems and you'll never guess how or why it's all happening.

Patrice Fitzgerald's "I Dream of PIA" - A man lives in a "smart" home where an artificial intelligence runs the place and keeps an ever-present watch over her owner, keeping him safe and happy. When the AI gets a little too attached to its owner, it plays out in ribald and raucous ways, putting its owner in a compromising position when the story reaches it's climax. Completely laugh out loud funny in its outrageousness, it provides a nice contrast to some of the darker tales in this anthology while also providing a gentle commentary on humanity and its more unusual and lascivious behaviors.

WJ Davies's "Empathy For Andrew" - Dr. Hawthorne is trying to develop the worlds' most sophisticated artificial intelligence but it also needs to be the safest, as it will eventually be used to help fight wars. Andrew, the latest iteration of their AI, is a gentle robot who enters a dream program, simply exploring what it's like to be more human and wanting to revel in its joys. But darkness encroaches as Dr. Hawthorne's true agenda slowly becomes clear. As the brutal testing methods become increasingly sickening & horrific, I felt more and more compassion for this kind spirit who did nothing to deserve what was happening to him except exist for mankind's purposes. The irony of this situation is that the robot is more human than its creator and the author skillfully explores this dichotomy while probing deep into what makes mankind truly inhuman in how it achieves its goals.

David Adam's "Imperfect" - Taking a microcosmic look at the creation of robots on a distant world and its ideas of perfection, one anomaly occurs in this increasingly refined process but makes it past quality testing to the final stages of evaluation. Will this anomaly be able to achieve it's freedom at the behest of its masters or will its newly-found individuality propel it on a new and unplanned destiny? I found the high level of detail in describing the robot-building process to be exciting and clinically scientific in its approach, much like the Toralii aliens who created them. And the fascinating story about this construct was even more interesting as sheer luck turned that one defect into an asset.

Ann Christy's "PePr, Inc." - Starting out as a story of three women complaining about their mates and the connections they have with them, Hazel has major issues with hers in that he seems a little too needy. These companions are custom-made, highly-programmable human simulacra and overall, are supposed to be the ultimate mate, the yin to your yang. At least, that how PePr, Inc. created and designed them to be. As the story continues, there is a subtle but sly shift that becomes seismic in its significance when you make the realization of how it affects the entirety of the story and the way you read it. A truly excellent twist with a perfect solution that effectively solves Hazel's relationship problems. A highly entertaining narrative that made me appreciate the smart and dexterous way it was written.

Jason Gurley's "The Caretaker" - Alice is a woman alone aboard a space station when she finds out she is possibly the last surviving member of the human race, observing humanity's annihilation from high above. Diving deep into her feelings as she witnesses this, you feel the sadness and despair she goes through as she figures out what, if anything, she should do next. A heartbreaking examination of one woman's powerful journey as she endures this horror and leading to an ending that I never expected but nonetheless brought the story to an effective and even hopeful close.

Samuel Peralta's "Humanity" - When a family gets into a major car crash on the side of a freeway due to cold, inclement weather, Mathison, a truck driver, attempts to help them escape the crash. He discovers that he can save some of them but realizes that the child is a lifelike robot who is in all actuality, the family's child. What happens next is an emotionally strong story of how society's prejudices affected Mathison's decision-making process on who to save and why. The author does a great job getting us into his head as you watch the gears turn, making justifications for his decisions before he comes to an epiphany on what to do. A profoundly moving tale of what makes us human and how we define what humanity is.

Endi Webb's "Adopted" - As the newly-developed robots become indistinguishable from humans, they slowly migrate eastward with malevolent motivations, insinuating themselves into society with the goal of slowly enslaving it. While attempting to escape from those very robots that imprisoned them, a twelve-year-old boy and his father become a focal point for capture. Why that is and the boy's identity play a large role in their insidious plan. As each secret is revealed, our apprehension only increases. Long-held heart-rending secrets are exposed and their impact is severely felt, adroitly coming to a head in an electrifying finale.

Matthew Mather's "Shimmer" - Dr. Granger has become famous for creating synthetic intelligence, discovering how to make an artificial intelligence with true human responses and the learning capacity to go with it. A true breakthrough in which his synthetic being, Shimmer, can recognize all the different shades of human emotions, both simple and complex. We learn about how Granger created his masterpiece and how Shimmer is as emotionally intelligent as any human. All of this history is a build up of Granger's ego, believing his own hype until he asks Shimmer one crucial question. The response is priceless, awe-inspiring and jaw-dropping all at the same time, providing a big payoff to the entire story. A deeply resonant exploration on the intricacies of human emotion, making you question whether or not robots created by man can ever truly surpass their creators or not.

Deidre Gould's "System Failure" - There's a seed vault in the Arctic where mankind has all the building blocks of nature preserved, safe until after the apocalypse has passed and the earth can be reborn. Its human curators are dead and one robot, Bezel, has been brought online, fifty years after the tragedy occurred, to take care of the last vestiges of humanity. As Bezel awakens the remaining human survivor Karen from stasis, we take his sorrowful journey with him as he explores what happened and why. You can feel the cold isolation and despair from this story in your bones, as Bezel's power runs down with no chance of recharging and Karen ponders life and death with no future. A chilling, well-executed tale, seemingly without a ray of hope.

The anthology as a whole is quite striking in its vision and that of each of its authors. There is not one tale that is similar to each other and all tell outstanding stories. I didn't realize how quickly I went through it until I read the last tale and discovered that I'd completed the book already! Each story was completely entrancing and immersed me in the world that was created. Thirteen provocative tales where robots play a significant role in humanity's future and how they develop is simply not long enough. Thankfully more anthologies of this kind are being planned for the future by many of these same creators. I look forward to reading those as well when they are ready. :)

Please note that I was given an Advanced Readers Copy in exchange for an honest review.

My biggest complaint is the unnecessary use of the F word in various stories. Of course, I don't believe it's ever necessary. Actually, I don't remember if this book or Alien Chronicles had that problem. It's not needed to add realism or anything else.

We are creators.
Regardless of our professions, each of us is inherently a creator. We start early, creating unconquerable cities with building blocks and spinning entire lives centered around dolls and teddy bears. Creation is at the heart of humanity. Even when we think of our meals, we are mentally creating appetizing combinations of cuisines.
The art of creating has advanced by leaps and bounds as technology has advanced us as a species. Part of the problem with humanity creating is the fear that we might be too good at it. That we might create something we can’t control. That our creation takes on a life of its own.
We’ve seen this in literature for hundreds of years with Frankenstein as the long-lasting example. More recently we can point to 2001, Terminator, Blade Runner, The Matrix and dozens of other books and movies that have shown us what humanity has dared to create has ultimately come back to bite us in the end.
And so, we get the latest David Gatewood anthology of short stories, The Robot Chronicles. Gatewood has again assembled a ridiculous amount of literary talent for 13 outstanding stories all involving robots in one form or another. Headlining the collection is Hugh Howey (WOOL) and Matthew Mather (Cyber Storm) and neither one disappoint. Howey’s story, Glitch, was published not long ago on its own and reminded me a lot of the movie Real Steel with fighting robots. What one person perceives as a glitch may be more than that, especially to the robot.
I’m not going to go through each of the stories, but each was fantastic and memorable in their own unique ways. I was a huge fan of Isaac Asimov as an adolescent and found each of his Robot stories to be their own moral tales in many ways. These stories are no different, offering viewpoints on what life actually means and how we treat it. Just because we are the creators, does that mean it lessens the life we hold in our hands?
A perfect story to go along with this idea is W.J. Davies’ Empathy for Andrew, where we see a situation similar to what Asimov’s Dr. Susan Calvin might have been involved in. Testing new and breakthrough robotics techniques, scientists push the limits of where the line between robots and humans lie. Andrew is the titular robot who is put through a battery of tests to test his empathy chip and Davies does a remarkable job in telling this story.
Another story I remember from Asimov’s Robot collection was that of Satisfaction Guaranteed, another Susan Calvin story where she was noticeably absent until the end of the tale. In this story, a woman has a human-like robot live with her and eventually she comes to think of him as more than a robot. You see this theme played out in two separate stories – Ann Christy’s PePr, Inc. and Patrice Fitzgerald’s I Dream of PIA. Both handle this theme in remarkable different (and in Fitzgerald’s case, bawdy and funny) ways.
There are also hints at Asimov’s child/buddy stories like A Boy’s Best Friend or Robbie where a child has a robot for a companion and friend. Edward W. Robertson takes the story further. His protagonist, Alex, received Bill as a companion when he is young, but over the years they become more than that – business partners and musicians. Just like a number of famous musicians, things happen and the band doesn’t always survive, but in Baby Your Body’s My Bass, Robertson ends the story on a positive note, in a very Golden-age way.
But the stories that really resonate and stick with me tend to be those that have a larger scope in mind – like A.K. Meek’s The Invariable Man where the fate of the world may be at stake or Deirdre Gould’s post-apocalyptic story System Failure.
One of the best things about this collection of stories is that it got me to get out my collection of Asimov robot stories and re-read and re-discover them in the light of this remarkable modern anthology. Each of the stories in TRC is fantastic, even if I didn’t specifically name the story and author. I’ll carry these stories with me for a long time.
I really enjoyed The Robot Chronicles, just like I did with Synchronic and The Indie Side. David Gatewood is becoming someone to know in the science fiction short story game and his anthologies are now “can’t miss” books for me.

I received an advanced copy of this book. Honestly, I am not a huge fan of short stories, and the last short story anthology I tried to get through left me pretty bored. The Robot Chronicles though, is a great collection of stories, and I've really enjoyed reading through it. I'm going to try to review how I felt about the stories without giving away any of the story, and if you just want a one-liner, as the title says: Buy it, it's definitely worth reading.

Glitch by Hugh Howey
Hugh has a special talent for drawing you into the characters. It's pretty amazing how fast he's able to do it, and you feel like you know the characters right off the bat, and it really makes the story work. Where many short stories leave you feeling like you've just dipped your toes in, Hugh takes you on a quick dive.

Humanity by Samuel Peralta
This was one of my favorite stories in this anthology. [Full disclosure: Samuel gave me the book to read, but I wouldn't say anything that wasn't true for me] He uses emotions that we're familiar with to make the whole situation very relate-able, and it is a commentary to what is going on today as well.

Shimmer by Matthew Mather
As a fan of Mather's Atopia series, I loved this small addition to that world. Though mind you, you don't have to have read Atopia to enjoy this story, it does definitely help if you've read it.

Caretaker by Jason Gurley
This one started a little slow for me, but it finished strong. And it's a short story, so when I say that it started off slow, it's a couple pages until you really get into it, so don't get discouraged as you read it. To be honest, I read a book by Gurley about half a year ago, and I really disliked it, so I haven't read anything else from him, but this story actually makes me want to go give his work another shot.

PePr Inc by Ann Christy
I did enjoy reading this story, but I felt a little cheated after reading it. The way the twist in this story was set up was a bit deceiving, which is fine, but when a plot twist is set up, it should use elements that get the reader thinking that it's one way without blatantly putting in false information.

For those interested in a variety of perspectives about artificial intelligence - and where our current technological advances might lead - I highly recommend The Robot Chronicles.

The collection contains thirteen thought-provoking short stories, many set in a future when AIs have achieved consciousness. When our machines do became self-aware, what will we learn about ourselves and our humanity? Will robots see themselves as superior, ultimately disregarding the sentiments of their human creators, or might we program them to be unwavering in their sense of morality so that they become incorruptible, more humane than humans? These two possibilities exist not as dichotomy, but as two ends on a spectrum, and the stories in this collection examine many points along that spectrum.

While I enjoyed every story in The Robot Chronicles, those that resonated with me the most, and remained in my memory after I finished the book, were the ones that examined that sense of humanity through the development of their non-human characters. Ann Christy's PePr, Inc.; A.K. Meek's The Invariable Man; and W.J. Davies' Empathy for Andrew are among these highlights.

13 authors and 13 stories about robots and/or artificial intelligence. Most of the 13 were good, a few were great, and a couple were just OK.

My favorites were Ann Christy's PePr, Inc. and Jason Gurley's The Caretaker. I might have to give just the slightest edge to The Caretaker just because of the "that could be me" scenario created. Then again, PePr Inc. might have the edge due to its amazing plot twist. My third favorite was Hugh Howey's Glitch. I won't list my least favorite, because it was well written and others have commented how great it was.

By all means, this is well worth picking up for anybody who likes Sci-Fi with robots and AI. And to get 13 different points of view for robotics and AI. I also plan on asking my wife, who is not a Sci-Fi fan, to read the stories and let me know what she thinks.

Disclaimer - I was fortunate enough to receive an advance reading copy in return for promising to write an honest review.