Thank You, Death Robot

by Mark R. Brand (Editor), Gayla Chaney, Roger Haller

If you run, it will catch you. If you hide, it will find you. If you resist, it will destroy you. A jaded ex-wife prepares a deadly surprise for her husband's new bride, a robotic executioner discovers there's more to lethal injection than just needles, an army of war machines not interested in polite conversation has humanity in its gun-sights, an aging actor treads the line between man and machine, and from beyond come the towering steel shadows of monsters that blot out the starlight. It is estimated that within our generation's lifetime a computer will be built that can exceed the raw computational power of the human mind. Shortly thereafter, a computer will be built that can "think" faster than the human race... From the earliest stories of Golems and clockwork men in the 19th century to Hollywood films full of steel-skinned mechanical killing machines, authors and filmmakers for the last two hundred years have given birth to an emerging archetype: a manifestation of industrial malevolence, a cautionary tale of technological hubris, and a call to reassert the tenuous hold modern man has over the machines that do his bidding. An enduring icon much beloved of science fiction fans everywhere, the Death Robot comes to life in this collection of stories by some of the brightest upcoming stars in speculative fiction.

272 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2009

Reviews

[Jason Pettus · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

It's true that I don't much care for story collections, although I do have a softer spot in my heart for the related story compilation format; and I just had a chance to read two better-than-average ones, actually, Mark Brand's Thank You, Death Robot and S.T. Joshi's Black Wings: New Tales of Lovecraftian Horror. Both are similar in set-up, a couple of respected genre authors being asked to assemble a collection of stories by other respected genre authors, all on a similar theme, with Brand's (a Chicagoan who I recently had the pleasure of meeting) being all about evil robots, and Joshi's (from our pals at PS Publishing) consisting entirely of tales inspired by either the style or mythos of HP Lovecraft; and that's why in general I tend to like compilations like these more than just random story collections by a single author, because at least these stick to one unified idea, and often try to reach an equilibrium of quality as well. Of course, that doesn't stop the trait from being there that I dislike so much in story collections, that the pieces found within tend to veer all over the place in both tone and length -- some are classical homages to their main subject, some ironic modern twists, some not much more than a short bad joke, others little novellas unto themselves. They're both excellent for what they are, and come highly recommended to existing fans of the subjects, but also deftly illustrate why I tend to do only short, non-committal reviews of such collections, in that I find it hard to say much more about them and have it remain true for the entire book.

Out of 10: 8.4

[Roger Haller · Rating 5 out of 5]

A set of spine tingling stories from world class authors from around the world.
Imagine what happens in reality when the prime directive goes off script as robots gain sentient thought and maybe even emotions.
These thought provoking stories lay down a warning as humans seek to make robots ever smarter and useful to human kind.