Sample Poem from The Robot Scientist’s Daughter and the pre-order page is up for signed copies!
A sneak peek poem from my upcoming book, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter. This one has references to tropes of scientist’s daughters in sci-fi films, including Bladerunner and Killer Shrews. Hope you enjoy!
The Robot Scientist’s Daughter (in Films)Is always beautiful in films, in a neat blonde updo
and fifties-style dress. She helps the hero escape,
she leads him off the island or planet, she gives him the code
to shut down all the robots before they take over the world.
The robot scientist’s daughter carefully holds on to secrets
about her father at the dinner table. She’s demure but knows
her way around a gun rack or a test tube. She sneaks out
to rescue prisoners after her father has a drink. The robot
scientist’s daughter must be there to humanize
the robot scientist; he is both a protagonist we identify with
and a villain we know must fall. If he had no daughter,
the camera would have no way to enter his laboratory
with a sympathetic eye. Sometimes the robot scientist’s daughter
pretends to be a robot herself, handing out food efficiently
without smudging her makeup. Sometimes she turns out to be a robot
all along implanted with heartwarming but false memories.
Sometimes she has a telepathic link to genetically-engineered dinosaurs. When she was a child, she had only robots to play
games with, mostly hide-and-seek and chess. This helped
and hurt her socialization. The robot scientist might be named Morbius, while his daughter is named Susan. She will be
the downfall, the island crumbling, scientist buried beneath rubble, killer shrews loosed on the world.
And now, for the first time ever, you can pre-order your signed copy of The Robot Scientist’s Daughter! If you do, you may get it before the release date AND get the added bonus of special swag!
