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The Year's Top Robot and AI Stories: Second Annual Collection

edited by Allan Kaster
 

          Paperback price: $17.99                        e-book price: $5.99

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Listen to "Rover" by A. T. Sayre, read by Tom Dheere

An unabridged collection spotlighting the best robot and AI stories published in 2020 by current and emerging masters of the science fiction genre, edited by Allan Kaster.

 

     
  • "Callme and Mink" by Brenda Cooper—A robot that trains dogs tries to find good homes for them in a post-collapse world.

  • "Go. Now. Fix." by Timons Esaias—A "Panda Pillow," programmed to comfort children, finds itself in the middle of an airplane disaster.

  • "Your Boyfriend Experience" by James Patrick Kelly—A sexbot designer wants his boyfriend to test out his latest android.

  • "Metal Like Blood in the Dark" by T. Kingfisher—Two space-faring robot siblings, living off sunlight and metal, are captured by an evil drone.

  • "The Beast Adjoins" by Ted Kosmatka—A woman stranded on a comet schemes to keep her son alive and beat the AIs who have nearly wiped out humanity.

  • "50 Things Every AI Working with Humans Should Know" by Ken Liu—The obituary for an AI provides a list of advice for other advanced AIs.

  • "The Ambient Intelligence" by Todd McAulty—A man in power armor confronts a sixty-ton killer robot hiding out in a shipwreck in Lake Michigan.

  • "Nic and Viv's Compulsory Courtship" by Will McIntosh—An AI that controls a city sets up an unwilling couple to become "ideal partners."

  • "Father" by Ray Nayler—In an alternate 1950s, the VA sends a robot to be a surrogate father to the son of a dead soldier.

  • "A Guide for Working Breeds" by Vina Jie-Min Prasad—A grumpy robot mentors a perky robot who is having problems with its role in society.

  • "Rover" by A. T. Sayre—A Martian rover, unable to communicate with Earth, detects a repeating radio signal from a spaceship.

  • "Come the Revolution" by Ian Tregillis—In an alternate 18th Century Holland, a robot is determined to escape her makers' constraints.

  • "Sparklybits" by Nick Wolven—The sole stay-at-home mother of a multi-mom family must come to a gut-wrenching decision about their virus-infected smart home.
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