Robots Fantasy

For years, the king and queen have longed for a child. Their wish is miraculously twice granted in the form of a little wooden robot and an enchanted princess, both of whom they raise lovingly. There’s just one catch: every night when the princess falls asleep, she transforms into a log. She can only be woken with the magic words “Awake, little log, awake.” The two siblings are inseparable, until the day when the sleeping princess is mistaken for an ordinary log and carted off to the frozen North.

This anthology, with an introduction by Robert Silverberg, offers a sweeping survey of robots as depicted throughout literature. Since the Iliad—in which we are shown golden statues built by Hephaestus “with minds and wisdoms”—humans have been fascinated by the idea of artificial life. From the Argonautica to the medieval Jewish legend of the Golem and Ambrose Bierce’s tale of a chess-playing robot, the idea of what robots are—and who creates them—can be drastically different.

If you love dystopian stories, you came to the right place. This is an anthology of the short story series, Dystopian Health Collection - stories about human health in dystopian societies. In each story, we explore a new topic around health and how modern developments can turn into a dystopian society. Four dark stories around health with a bonus story available only in the audiobook version.

Egil and Nix have retired, as they always said they would. No, really - they have! No more sword - and hammer - play for them! But when two recent acquaintances come calling for help, our hapless heroes find themselves up against the might of the entire Thieves Guild. And when kidnapping the leader of the most powerful guild in the land seems like the best course of action, you know you’re in over your head....

Is BER-66 a human or a machine? As he navigates the corridors and locked rooms of a strange bunker, he must solve the mysteries of murderous doppelgangers, a slow-motion city on the verge of destruction and, ultimately, the all-powerful Mechanism itself.

Born into the aristocracy in the 1700s, the young Elijah Summerton had felt different ever since he was a child, ... out of place, He’d always felt as if some vital part of himself was forever missing, like a clock without numbers. Perhaps that is why when the village clock-smith would come to attend to caring for the many clocks in the castle he would follow him around fascinated and ask many questions. He found the sound of the clocks ticking moments soothed him, and peeking at the inner workings mesmerized him. Eventually the clockmaker offered to have him as an apprentice. Which was ...

Sam, a stranger to the world of the Fae, finds an unexpected offer from one of the Elemental Court’s most enigmatic Lords turns out to be far more than he bargained for. Meanwhile, Max, an Arbiter of the Split Worlds Treaty, is getting closer to uncovering who is behind the murder of the Bath Chapter. Can he stay true to his sworn duty without being destroyed by his own master, whose insanity threatens to unravel them all?

What do you get when you combine a park patrol ship captain who's developed a fear of flying, a new pilot who's hiding from his family, an aging engineer who's a year away from mandatory retirement and an AI ship's computer who are hiding messages from the captain, a security officer who'd rather spend time working on armored tactical robots and punching things in the gym than with the rest of the crew, and a collection of other eccentric crewmembers? The best ship and crew in the Galactic Park Patrol, that's what! Okay, they're not really the best crew. Yet. But they're working on it.

So Much Can Change in Seven Short Years… President Trump and Vice President Facebook scramble in 2023 to hang onto power. Both the man and the corporation have different ideas on how to cling onto control. Meanwhile, in Chinese Detroit, Buckeye Jones, one of the last remaining human journalists, learns the deal President Trump made with China is not a good one. As the world reels from the chaos caused by seven years of lunacy, the survival of humankind depends on an unlikely cast of characters and corporations.

'You are no more than a dragon, created by me.' The Master swept an arm at the many things of power that filled the cavern. 'It is impossible for you to feel anything. Dragons can't feel. Dragons can only rust.' In a fantastic and frightening future world, a dragon of any kind would naturally feel more than a little out of place. Unsure if his existence is a blessing or a curse, Gonard flees the safety of the only home he's known to go on a search for a soul he isn't really sure he has. He is accompanied on his quest by an android-like medtech--with a hidden and perhaps deadly agenda--and ...

Frank Einstein loves figuring out how the world works by creating household contraptions that are part science, part imagination, and definitely unusual. After an uneventful experiment in his garage-lab, a lightning storm and flash of electricity bring Frank's inventions - the robots Klink and Klank - to life! Not exactly the ideal lab partners, the wisecracking Klink and the overly expressive Klank nonetheless help Frank attempt to perfect his Antimatter Motor...until Frank's archnemesis, T. Edison, steals Klink and Klank.

The new season is starting and the Master of Ceremonies is missing. Max, an Arbiter of the Split Worlds Treaty, is assigned with the task of finding him - with no one to help but a dislocated soul and a mad sorcerer. There is a witness, but his memories have been bound by magical chains only the enemy can break. A rebellious woman trying to escape her family may prove to be the ally Max needs. But can she be trusted? And why does she want to give up eternal youth and the life of privilege she’s been born into?

When George finds a way to escape the spacecraft Artemis, where he has been trapped, he is overjoyed. Surely now he can return to Earth. But when George touches down, he knows immediately that something is wrong. There’s a barren wasteland where his home town used to be, intelligent robots roam the streets, and no one will talk to George about the Earth that he used to know. With the help of an unexpected new friend, can George find out what - or who - is behind this terrible new world, before it’s too late?

There is a secret war growing beneath the streets of London. The immense Sixty-One Nails follows Niall Petersen, from a suspected heart attack on the London Underground, into the hidden world of the Feyre, an uncanny place of legend that lurks just beyond the surface of everyday life. The ancient peoples are at war - but is Niall really the one who can wield the dark magic of the Untainted, and save them all?

When Alfie goes to Airport Lost Property, he finds more than he bargained for. A lot more. Because there's a giant robot called Eric hidden away on the shelves. Eric has lost one leg and half his memory. He's super strong but super clumsy. He's convinced that he's the latest technology, when he's actually nearly 100 years old and ready for the scrap heap.

Zach and his favorite toy, Clinks the robot, play together every day, but at night the mechanical plaything has a life of its own.

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.

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.

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.

Clunk, a clapped-out robot, is convinced he's about to be junked. Instead, his penny-pinching boss is sending him off to be refurbished. Being old and wise, Clunk knows there's a catch, but at first it doesn't seem too bad. He just has to help a freelancer pick up some cargo. Unfortunately, Hal Spacejock - the freelancer - is obstinate, over-confident, and woefully under-skilled, and he's never going to let a lowly robot fly his precious ship.