Robot Fiction

Three hundred years ago, a liaison-robot-turned-warrior sided with humans in the Great A.I. War. He's one of few hi-level sentients allowed to live. But all this doesn't matter now because he's on the run. Armed with emotion-chip-fueled determination and his beloved weapons, the general flees to a nearby planet where he must unravel a tangled conspiracy to prove his innocence. But that's easier said than done.

He sought to flee his tragic past, but when Thomas Usher hears a clockwork voice on the phone, and sees ever-more disturbing visions in a derelict warehouse, Usher realises that he has to return home - for the sake of his own sanity. Meanwhile, a deadly figure from Usher's past threatens to undermine the very fabric of reality. Gary McMahon’s short fiction has appeared in numerous acclaimed magazines and anthologies in the UK and US and has been reprinted in yearly “Best of” collections.

A short story of survival in an unknown world called "Panthea"

On May 22, 2018, every person on Earth sneezes. Simultaneously. Hours later, an alien spacecraft appears over New York City and broadcasts a dire message of impending doom. The future of the human race will depend on the whims of a solitary extraterrestrial who appears in the form of Walter Cronkite. Yes, that's right, Walter Cronkite, the deceased news anchor! Ex-FBI troubleshooter Jake Corby has faked his death and dropped out of sight, living like a hermit in a small town. But the president is convinced Corby's still alive. He wants Jake, with his unique problem-solving skills, added to ...

When feared Yankees slugger Cliff Bullard goes barnstorming around the northeast, offering $10,000 to any local pitcher who can strike him out, Professor Childermass and Johnny Dixon get a sneaky idea. There’s a local legend about a crackpot inventor who once built a robot capable of throwing a baseball 110 MPH, and the professor thinks that if they find the machine, they can win Bullard’s prize. They discover the rusted old monstrosity in an abandoned workshop and put it back together, piece by piece.

They say the darkest hour is just before dawn. Sergeant Pace Nix is all alone, in the dark. He’s not dead, but he might as well be. Unarmed, exhausted, on the verge of debilitating dehydration; when he sees a light, he isn’t sure if it is real or imagined. He’s drawn to the light, as all humans are. And what he finds there will change everything. NERO, the rogue AI system on Rastamus III is too big, too vast to stop. Yet, that is the task set before Sergeant Pace Nix and the survivors of The Philadelphia, after crashing on the forbidden planet. Is it truly a lost world, ...

Everyone wants a ticket to Futureland, where you can literally live out your wildest dreams. Want to step inside your favorite video game? Go pro in a sports arena? Perform at a real live concert? Grab your ticket and come right in.

Ricky and his mighty robot have built the coolest fort Squeakyville has ever seen, and they can't wait for the fun to begin! But then Cousin Lucy arrives with her pets and plans to turn it into a princess castle - what a party pooper! Things completely fall apart when Nimrod Nightcrawler, a wicked worm from the planet Neptune, digs a tunnel under Ricky's fort, trapping the mighty robot. Now it's up to Ricky and Lucy to put a stop to this nightmare - and save their friend!

The Earth Day Fair is days away, but Nate's classroom project - a robot named Mr. Butler - has disappeared. Nate the Great and his dog, Sludge, take on the unusual case, and they are soon searching high and low in and around the school. Will Nate find the robot in time for the fair?

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.

Mouse lives in Dogtown, a shelter for real dogs and robot dogs, where the kibble is plentiful, and the rafters hide a secret community of mice. His unlikely best friend is Buster, a big-hearted real dog who attracts trouble like a burr to fur. Determined to help Buster find his forever home, even if means losing his best pal, Mouse embarks on a bold quest with three of Dogtown’s “unadoptables”: Buster, Stewie—a huge, lovable dog whose ex-owner said he was mean, and Smokey—a robot dog hardwired with a smoke alarm he can’t control.

Admiral Falkirk McGowan has lost a lieutenant on crime-syndicate controlled Kragus. It’s up to Bosun Gus Johansson and the crew of Corvus to get her back, fast, and in secret. Someone forgot to mention the most powerful crime boss on the planet wants revenge and is willing to start a war to get it. He has an ancient assault carrier headed for Kragus; and Corvus is the only thing standing in its way. Can the crew pull off an against-all-odds rescue, stop a war, and escape destruction?

McSweeney's is a literary journal based in San Francisco. In this piece by Ryan Boudinot, a hangdog robot searches for romance.

What would you do if you woke up and found yourself in a parallel universe under an alien sky? This is the question Zax Delatree must answer every time he closes his eyes. Every time Zax Delatree falls asleep, he travels to a new reality. He has no control over his destination and never knows what he will see when he opens his eyes. Sometimes he wakes up in technological utopias, and other times in the bombed-out ruins of collapsed civilizations.

Evelyn has a constant need for perfection that’s blown some fuses among her robotics teammates, and she’s worried nobody’s taking the upcoming competition seriously. Allie is new to school, and she’s had a history of short-circuiting on teachers and other kids. So when Allie is assigned to the robotics team as a last resort, all Evelyn can see is just another wrench in the works!

Introducing our carefully curated collection designed just for you and your family. If you answered yes to any of the questions above, this collection is precisely what you've been searching for. Recognizing the pivotal role of restorative sleep in a child's overall health and happiness, we incorporate proven mindfulness meditation techniques into engaging bedtime stories. Our goal is to seamlessly blend fictional storytelling with fundamental mindfulness activities, making the bedtime routine not only enjoyable but also beneficial for your child's well-being.

After interstellar con man Rex Nihilo hijacks a cargo freighter on a whim, he decides that he, and his long-suffering robot sidekick Sasha, have found their calling as space pirates. But when the ship's cargo turns out to be a cryogenically frozen religious fanatic who holds the secret to a vast galactic conspiracy, Rex and Sasha find themselves on the run from real pirates - as well as agents of the oppressive Malarchy, crazy space cultists, and the Ursa Minor mafia. If Rex is going to get out of this jam alive, he might just have to save the galaxy - again.

A stellar graveyard hides a wondrous secret.The Sargasso: a vast, unclaimed region of galactic space that somehow traps passing starships into its mysterious veil. Only the bravest and most foolhardy of crews would dare venture into such a hazardous stellar graveyard to solve its deepest, darkest mysteries. In order to fulfill a matter of honor, the Nepenthe ventures into this dangerous sector to transport a group of religious pilgrims in search of their promised land. As they attempt to unlock the enigma of this strange and deadly area, the intrepid crew stumbles upon an amazing discovery:...

Meet Mookie Pearl. Criminal underworld? He runs in it. Supernatural underworld? He hunts in it. Nothing stops Mookie when he’s on the job. But when his daughter takes up arms and opposes him, something’s gotta give....

Cog looks like a normal 12-year-old boy. But his name is short for “cognitive development”, and he was built to learn. After an accident leaves him damaged, Cog wakes up in an unknown lab - and Gina, the scientist who created and cared for him, is nowhere to be found. Surrounded by scientists who want to study him and remove his brain, Cog recruits four robot accomplices for a mission to find her. Cog, ADA, Proto, Trashbot, and Car’s journey will likely involve much cognitive development in the form of mistakes, but Cog is willing to risk everything to find his way back to Gina.