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Jackaroo #1.3 - The Man
More Human than Human: Stories of Androids, Robots, and Manufactured Humanity
Clarkesworld publisher Neil Clarke collects a reprint anthology of artificial human-themed short fiction.
The idea of creating an artificial human is an old one. One of the earliest science-fictional novels, Frankenstein , concerned itself primarily with the hubris of creation, and one’s relationship to one’s creator. Later versions of this “artificial human” story (and indeed later adaptations of Frankenstein ) changed the focus to more modernist questions… What is the nature of humanity? What does it mean to be human?
These stories continued through the golden age of science fiction with Isaac Asimov’s I Robot story cycle, and then through post-modern iterations from new wave writers like Philip K. Dick. Today, this compelling science fiction trope persists in mass media narratives like Westworld and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner , as well as twenty-first century science fiction novels like Charles Stross’s Saturn's Children and Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl .
The short stories in More Human than Human demonstrate the depth and breadth of artificial humanity in contemporary science fiction. Issues of passing . . . of what it is to be human . . . of autonomy and slavery and oppression, and yes, the hubris of creation; these ideas have fascinated us for at least two hundred years, and this selection of stories demonstrates why it is such an alluring and recurring conceit.
The idea of creating an artificial human is an old one. One of the earliest science-fictional novels, Frankenstein , concerned itself primarily with the hubris of creation, and one’s relationship to one’s creator. Later versions of this “artificial human” story (and indeed later adaptations of Frankenstein ) changed the focus to more modernist questions… What is the nature of humanity? What does it mean to be human?
These stories continued through the golden age of science fiction with Isaac Asimov’s I Robot story cycle, and then through post-modern iterations from new wave writers like Philip K. Dick. Today, this compelling science fiction trope persists in mass media narratives like Westworld and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner , as well as twenty-first century science fiction novels like Charles Stross’s Saturn's Children and Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl .
The short stories in More Human than Human demonstrate the depth and breadth of artificial humanity in contemporary science fiction. Issues of passing . . . of what it is to be human . . . of autonomy and slavery and oppression, and yes, the hubris of creation; these ideas have fascinated us for at least two hundred years, and this selection of stories demonstrates why it is such an alluring and recurring conceit.
672 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2017
102 people are currently reading
301 people want to read
About the author
Neil Clarke
392 books391 followersNeil Clarke is best known as the editor and publisher of the Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning
Clarkesworld Magazine.
Launched in October 2006, the online magazine has been a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine four times (winning three times), the World Fantasy Award four times (winning once), and the British Fantasy Award once (winning once). Neil is also a ten-time finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Editor Short Form (winning once in 2022), three-time winner of the Chesley Award for Best Art Director, and a recipient of the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award. In the fifteen years since Clarkesworld Magazine launched, numerous stories that he has published have been nominated for or won the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Sturgeon, Locus, BSFA, Shirley Jackson, WSFA Small Press, and Stoker Awards.
Additionally, Neil edits Forever —a digital-only, reprint science fiction magazine he launched in 2015. His anthologies include: Upgraded, Galactic Empires, Touchable Unreality, More Human than Human, The Final Frontier, Not One of Us, The Eagle has Landed, , and the Best Science Fiction of the Year series. His next anthology, The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Seven will published in early 2023.
He currently lives in New Jersey with his wife and two sons.
Additionally, Neil edits Forever —a digital-only, reprint science fiction magazine he launched in 2015. His anthologies include: Upgraded, Galactic Empires, Touchable Unreality, More Human than Human, The Final Frontier, Not One of Us, The Eagle has Landed, , and the Best Science Fiction of the Year series. His next anthology, The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Seven will published in early 2023.
He currently lives in New Jersey with his wife and two sons.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
April 17, 2022
Final review of this massive collection of recent short fiction about just what it says, as picked by ace editor Neil Clarke. Here's the TOC and story details from ISFDB: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?6...
And here's Alan Scott's first-rate detailed review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... -- just the sort I like to write when I have the time and energy. I'll be adding story links as I find them, and commenting where I find something to add value. As always, not every story was to my taste, and I think the anthology could have been stronger with some judicious pruning. Except that some of you may prefer some of the stories I didn't care for! As you will see, a majority of the stories have online copies. Which reminds me, I need to renew my Patreon pledge to Clarkesword magazine....
• "Dolly" • (2011) • short story by Elizabeth Bear. The second prominent sexbot-as-murderer story in recent years. As Alan remarks, good but way too short. Re-read; first read in the Dozois annual #29.
Here's a better take on this theme, I thought: “Mika Model” by Paolo Bacigalupi (2016)
http://www.slate.com/articles/technol...
• "A Good Home" • (2016) • short story by Karin Lowachee. Strong 4 stars; see Alan's. Online at https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fi... First read in the Clarke Year's Best #2.
• "The Djinn's Wife" • (2006) • novelette by Ian McDonald, part of his "India 2047" series. Won the 2007 Hugo award. First-rate story with a literally-accurate title, 4+ stars. See Alan's quote. First read in the Dozois #24. Podcast online: http://www.starshipsofa.com/blog/2017...
• "The Birds and the Bees and the Gasoline Trees" • (2010) • novelette by John Barnes. Reread and it's GREAT. Old-school sense-of-wonder hard SF. Nicole the sexy humaniform! This one reads like an outline for a novel that I'd really, REALLY like to read. Sadly, here in 2022, we're unlikely to get it. Online copy:
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fi...
An easy five-stars. What are you waiting for?
• "Grand Jeté (The Great Leap)" • (2014) • novella by Rachel Swirsky. Online at https://subterraneanpress.com/magazin... Nominated for best the Nebula and World Fantasy wards, 2015. First read in the Dozois #32. Not re-read here, and not a favorite. But do try it, OK?
• "The Caretaker" • (2011) • short story by Ken Liu. A genuinely surprising story of a new elder-care device, which I certainly won't be spoiling for you. 4.5 stars. Online copy: https://escapepod.org/2012/07/20/ep35... Don't miss!
• "Seven Sexy Cowboy Robots" • (2010) • short story by Sandra McDonald. Online at http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/se... "This is not the story of a woman gifted with mechanical companionship who eventually realizes true love only comes in the shape of a flesh and blood man. Screw that. ... Every one of my emotional, intellectual, and sexual needs have been satisfied by my cowboys." 5300 words of inspired silliness! One never knows about humor, but it sure worked for me, and I've marked it for a more careful reread. And it's irresistible for quotes: ".... the UN Commission on Warming the Planet Back Up, at their headquarters atop Sicily. The Sicilian women adored him and the frozen Mediterranean was excellent for skating." Try it, see what you think.
• We, Robots • (2007) • novella by Sue Lange. For me, this one went on too long, and I started losing interest. But some good moments. Weak 3 stars.
• "The Education of Junior Number 12" • (2011) • novelette by Madeline Ashby. First read in "Twenty-First Century Science Fiction," I think, and I wasn't too impressed. But decide for yourself: https://angryrobotbooks.com/vnshort/
• "A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight" • (2012) • short story by Xia Jia. Online copy: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/xia_... A Chinese-themed fantasy. Not quite to my taste -- but perhaps to yours?
• "The Robot's Girl "• (2010) • novelette by Brenda Cooper. The neighbor girl has a very strange home-life. Fierce robot guardians are involved. “You’re overstepping your bounds. I have no legal right to kill you, but I can take any unleashed dog.” Solid story, 3.5 stars, recommended reading. Online copy: https://www.baen.com/Chapters/9781625...
• ".identity" • (2016) • short story by E. Catherine Tobler. Eh, didn't work for me. See Alan's opinion.
Online copy: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/tobl...
• "American Cheetah" • (2008) • novelette by Robert Reed. An oddball steampunk alternate-history Western, skimmed and abandoned. Not to my taste, and not online.
• "Small Medicine" • (2014) • short story by Genevieve Valentine. Online copy: https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fi... Another one that didn't "click" for me.
• "Silently and Very Fast" • (2011) • novella by Catherynne M. Valente. First published at
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/vale... Won the 2012 Locus award for best novella. Alan describes it as "Long and dreamlike, feverish and baroque". I first saw this in the Dozois #29, bogged down there & never finished it. I'm intending to try it again, but Valente has been a hit-or-miss author for me.
• "I, Robot" • (2005) • novelette by Cory Doctorow. First published at http://www.infinitematrix.net/stories... Won a 2006 Locus award, plus other awards and nominations. Alan says "This might be the most entertaining story from him I've ever read," and I agree. 4.5 stars, not to be missed. I've read it at least twice already. If you've somehow missed it, you are in for a treat!
• "Bit Rot" [Saturn's Children] • (2010) • novelette by Charles Stross. First read in "Engineering Infinity." Backstory and story links: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-... As always, Stross has done his homework. Hard SF played with the net up! I rated it at 4 stars on first reading. It remains, sfaik, the only hard-SF Zombie Apocalypse story in our genre!
• "Angels of Ashes" • (1999) • novelette by Alastair Reynolds. The Machinehood priests rule Mars, but they are about to be challenged by the Clanfolk scavengers. A new-t0-me Technicolor adventure, that owes quite a lot to a certain movie. Only the second reprint of this 4+star story, and new to me here.
• "The Old Dispensation" • (2017) • short story by Lavie Tidhar. A very colorful space-opera and swordplay epic on New Jerusalem. Never a dull moment! "Shemesh fires, again and again. His gun is a silver Birobidzhan, an item of forbidden technology, with Av-9 destructive capabilities otherwise confined to warships." . . . .
“So you’re the prophet,” I said.
“. . . call me Ishmael.”
First published at https://www.tor.com/2017/02/08/the-ol...
• "Today I Am Paul" • (2015) • short story by Martin L. Shoemaker. Online copy: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/shoe... First read in the Dozois #33. Skimmed this time. Another robot elder-care story.
And here's Alan Scott's first-rate detailed review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... -- just the sort I like to write when I have the time and energy. I'll be adding story links as I find them, and commenting where I find something to add value. As always, not every story was to my taste, and I think the anthology could have been stronger with some judicious pruning. Except that some of you may prefer some of the stories I didn't care for! As you will see, a majority of the stories have online copies. Which reminds me, I need to renew my Patreon pledge to Clarkesword magazine....
• "Dolly" • (2011) • short story by Elizabeth Bear. The second prominent sexbot-as-murderer story in recent years. As Alan remarks, good but way too short. Re-read; first read in the Dozois annual #29.
Here's a better take on this theme, I thought: “Mika Model” by Paolo Bacigalupi (2016)
http://www.slate.com/articles/technol...
• "A Good Home" • (2016) • short story by Karin Lowachee. Strong 4 stars; see Alan's. Online at https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fi... First read in the Clarke Year's Best #2.
• "The Djinn's Wife" • (2006) • novelette by Ian McDonald, part of his "India 2047" series. Won the 2007 Hugo award. First-rate story with a literally-accurate title, 4+ stars. See Alan's quote. First read in the Dozois #24. Podcast online: http://www.starshipsofa.com/blog/2017...
• "The Birds and the Bees and the Gasoline Trees" • (2010) • novelette by John Barnes. Reread and it's GREAT. Old-school sense-of-wonder hard SF. Nicole the sexy humaniform! This one reads like an outline for a novel that I'd really, REALLY like to read. Sadly, here in 2022, we're unlikely to get it. Online copy:
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fi...
An easy five-stars. What are you waiting for?
• "Grand Jeté (The Great Leap)" • (2014) • novella by Rachel Swirsky. Online at https://subterraneanpress.com/magazin... Nominated for best the Nebula and World Fantasy wards, 2015. First read in the Dozois #32. Not re-read here, and not a favorite. But do try it, OK?
• "The Caretaker" • (2011) • short story by Ken Liu. A genuinely surprising story of a new elder-care device, which I certainly won't be spoiling for you. 4.5 stars. Online copy: https://escapepod.org/2012/07/20/ep35... Don't miss!
• "Seven Sexy Cowboy Robots" • (2010) • short story by Sandra McDonald. Online at http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/se... "This is not the story of a woman gifted with mechanical companionship who eventually realizes true love only comes in the shape of a flesh and blood man. Screw that. ... Every one of my emotional, intellectual, and sexual needs have been satisfied by my cowboys." 5300 words of inspired silliness! One never knows about humor, but it sure worked for me, and I've marked it for a more careful reread. And it's irresistible for quotes: ".... the UN Commission on Warming the Planet Back Up, at their headquarters atop Sicily. The Sicilian women adored him and the frozen Mediterranean was excellent for skating." Try it, see what you think.
• We, Robots • (2007) • novella by Sue Lange. For me, this one went on too long, and I started losing interest. But some good moments. Weak 3 stars.
• "The Education of Junior Number 12" • (2011) • novelette by Madeline Ashby. First read in "Twenty-First Century Science Fiction," I think, and I wasn't too impressed. But decide for yourself: https://angryrobotbooks.com/vnshort/
• "A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight" • (2012) • short story by Xia Jia. Online copy: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/xia_... A Chinese-themed fantasy. Not quite to my taste -- but perhaps to yours?
• "The Robot's Girl "• (2010) • novelette by Brenda Cooper. The neighbor girl has a very strange home-life. Fierce robot guardians are involved. “You’re overstepping your bounds. I have no legal right to kill you, but I can take any unleashed dog.” Solid story, 3.5 stars, recommended reading. Online copy: https://www.baen.com/Chapters/9781625...
• ".identity" • (2016) • short story by E. Catherine Tobler. Eh, didn't work for me. See Alan's opinion.
Online copy: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/tobl...
• "American Cheetah" • (2008) • novelette by Robert Reed. An oddball steampunk alternate-history Western, skimmed and abandoned. Not to my taste, and not online.
• "Small Medicine" • (2014) • short story by Genevieve Valentine. Online copy: https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fi... Another one that didn't "click" for me.
• "Silently and Very Fast" • (2011) • novella by Catherynne M. Valente. First published at
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/vale... Won the 2012 Locus award for best novella. Alan describes it as "Long and dreamlike, feverish and baroque". I first saw this in the Dozois #29, bogged down there & never finished it. I'm intending to try it again, but Valente has been a hit-or-miss author for me.
• "I, Robot" • (2005) • novelette by Cory Doctorow. First published at http://www.infinitematrix.net/stories... Won a 2006 Locus award, plus other awards and nominations. Alan says "This might be the most entertaining story from him I've ever read," and I agree. 4.5 stars, not to be missed. I've read it at least twice already. If you've somehow missed it, you are in for a treat!
• "Bit Rot" [Saturn's Children] • (2010) • novelette by Charles Stross. First read in "Engineering Infinity." Backstory and story links: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-... As always, Stross has done his homework. Hard SF played with the net up! I rated it at 4 stars on first reading. It remains, sfaik, the only hard-SF Zombie Apocalypse story in our genre!
• "Angels of Ashes" • (1999) • novelette by Alastair Reynolds. The Machinehood priests rule Mars, but they are about to be challenged by the Clanfolk scavengers. A new-t0-me Technicolor adventure, that owes quite a lot to a certain movie. Only the second reprint of this 4+star story, and new to me here.
• "The Old Dispensation" • (2017) • short story by Lavie Tidhar. A very colorful space-opera and swordplay epic on New Jerusalem. Never a dull moment! "Shemesh fires, again and again. His gun is a silver Birobidzhan, an item of forbidden technology, with Av-9 destructive capabilities otherwise confined to warships." . . . .
“So you’re the prophet,” I said.
“. . . call me Ishmael.”
First published at https://www.tor.com/2017/02/08/the-ol...
• "Today I Am Paul" • (2015) • short story by Martin L. Shoemaker. Online copy: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/shoe... First read in the Dozois #33. Skimmed this time. Another robot elder-care story.
June 4, 2021
Why would our creations ever thank us for the burden of consciousness?
That's the kind of question which emerges while reading Neil Clarke's 2017 anthology More Human Than Human (and yes, Clarke is well aware of the provenance of his title—the Introduction acknowledges both Philip K. Dick and the Tyrell Corporation, right up front).
Clarke says explicitly that this is not a comprehensive collection—it's more of an overview of recent work. The oldest story in the book is only barely old enough to vote, in fact. But More Human Than Human turned out to be a really good overview, full of fresh takes and surprises despite its rather time-worn theme:
"Dolly," by Elizabeth Bear
Personhood as legal tactic. This one's short—too short, actually, more of a setup than a full-fledged story.
"A Good Home," by Karin Lowachee
I've often said we won't have created true artificial intelligence until it starts objecting to our orders.
"The Djinn’s Wife," by Ian McDonald
McDonald's fascination with India continues.
"And The Ends of The Earth For Thy Possession," by Robert B. Finegold, M.D.
I've rarely seen "M.D." after an SF author's name—although of course physicians can write science fiction (see, for one classic example, Alan E. Nourse). Dr. Finegold's is an age-old story, an alternative past much like our own, carried into a future that is not nearly different enough from our present.
"Patterns of a Murmuration, in Billions of Data Points," by JY Yang
"The Birds and the Bees and the Gasoline Trees," by John Barnes
One weird trick... this one seemed very Larry Niven-esque to me.
"Fixing Hanover," by Jeff VanderMeer
Once there was an Empire, that did as Empires do. And once there was an Engineer, who... didn't.
"Grand Jeté (The Great Leap)," by Rachel Swirsky
"Brisk Money," by Adam Christopher
I recognized Ray and Ada from Made to Kill, which I quite liked back in 2016. This job seemed a little different, though.
"Act of Faith," by Fadzlishah Johanabas
If a device can think, and feel, then it must also be able to believe.
"The Caretaker," by Ken Liu
"Seven Sexy Cowboy Robots," by Sandra McDonald
"Global icing" is the least of the liberties McDonald takes in this one. Pays off in the end, though.
"We, Robots," by Sue Lange
This one was just fun. Not the Singularity but the Regularity takes hold... during which
"The Education of Junior Number 12," by Madeline Ashby
Maybe I just haven't been paying enough attention, but this is the first story in Neil Clarke's anthology that I remember having read before. It was a pleasure to read again, though, that's for sure, with lines like:
"A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight," by Xia Jia
Theme. Park.
There's also a collection to which this story gives its title... I might have to pick it up.
"The Man," by Paul McAuley
Part of McAuley's well-regarded Jackaroo series, but this one focuses on a single isolated woman and her strange visitor.
"The Robot’s Girl," by Brenda Cooper
What the new neighbors saw when the little girl moved in—and what she saw in them after awhile.
".identity," by E. Catherine Tobler
A generation ship en route between planets is in a way the ultimate locked room—in this case, the scene of a mystery for the AI who knows everything and everyone aboard her.
"American Cheetah," by Robert Reed
Steampunk dreams... and no one's worried about a machine that laughs? There are worse things to worry about, I guess, in this alternative past.
"Artifice," by Naomi Kritzer
Neil Clarke did gather together a very high percentage of stories that were new to me, but "Artifice" was a reread too—when I read it in Kritzer's own Cat Pictures Please back in 2018, I observed,
"Small Medicine," by Genevieve Valentine
Recalibrating...
"Silently and Very Fast," by Catherynne M. Valente
"I, Robot," by Cory Doctorow
Funny—but serious, too, with a dash of familiar dystopia and a whole lot of Doctorow's trademarked techno-optimism. This might be the most entertaining story from him I've ever read.
"Bit Rot," by Charles Stross
A zombie apocalypse, robot-style. Set in the Freyaverse (like Stross' Saturn's Children), this one's an isolated example—literally, since it's another locked room, set on a slower-than-light spaceship.
"Angels of Ashes," by Alastair Reynolds
The Machinehood to which Sergio belongs rules the world—Mars, anyway—but maybe not as well as the Lord would want. The oldest story in More Human Than Human—this one was published in 1999.
"The Old Dispensation," by Lavie Tidhar
In the name of all that is Holy comes the sun. If you are at all familiar with Yiddish or Hebrew, even as an outsider, you will get a lot more out of this far-future parable of the Chosen.
"Today I am Paul," by Martin L. Shoemaker
Fake it 'til you make it, baby—because sometimes that actually works! One more reread for me, but a fine, fine ending for More Human Than Human even so.
*
I was able to adapt the Table of Contents this time directly from Clarke's own website at http://neil-clarke.com/more-human-tha....
That's the kind of question which emerges while reading Neil Clarke's 2017 anthology More Human Than Human (and yes, Clarke is well aware of the provenance of his title—the Introduction acknowledges both Philip K. Dick and the Tyrell Corporation, right up front).
Clarke says explicitly that this is not a comprehensive collection—it's more of an overview of recent work. The oldest story in the book is only barely old enough to vote, in fact. But More Human Than Human turned out to be a really good overview, full of fresh takes and surprises despite its rather time-worn theme:
"Dolly," by Elizabeth Bear
Personhood as legal tactic. This one's short—too short, actually, more of a setup than a full-fledged story.
"A Good Home," by Karin Lowachee
I've often said we won't have created true artificial intelligence until it starts objecting to our orders.
"The Djinn’s Wife," by Ian McDonald
McDonald's fascination with India continues.
If it does not have the happy-ever-after ending of Western fairytales and Bollywood musicals, it has a happy-enough ending.
—p.74
"And The Ends of The Earth For Thy Possession," by Robert B. Finegold, M.D.
I've rarely seen "M.D." after an SF author's name—although of course physicians can write science fiction (see, for one classic example, Alan E. Nourse). Dr. Finegold's is an age-old story, an alternative past much like our own, carried into a future that is not nearly different enough from our present.
"Are they blaming us yet again?" he asked, his voice weary, the question posed rhetorically.Talk of souls and demons... at this point in the book, between one story and the next, I found myself recalling Barrington J. Bayley's decadent classic, The Soul of the Robot.
Danel answered, "Yes."
—p.91
"Patterns of a Murmuration, in Billions of Data Points," by JY Yang
The pattern of birdflock can be replicated without the birds.Left vs. Right—and corvids have long memories for faces.
—p.115
"The Birds and the Bees and the Gasoline Trees," by John Barnes
One weird trick... this one seemed very Larry Niven-esque to me.
"Fixing Hanover," by Jeff VanderMeer
Once there was an Empire, that did as Empires do. And once there was an Engineer, who... didn't.
"Grand Jeté (The Great Leap)," by Rachel Swirsky
I will keep you and hold you. I will protect you. I will always have your hand in mine.
—p.200
"Brisk Money," by Adam Christopher
I recognized Ray and Ada from Made to Kill, which I quite liked back in 2016. This job seemed a little different, though.
"Act of Faith," by Fadzlishah Johanabas
If a device can think, and feel, then it must also be able to believe.
"The Caretaker," by Ken Liu
Great, the highlight of my day is yelling at a glorified wheelchair.Liu's short blends science and politics in a very good, high-impact story.
—p.251
"Seven Sexy Cowboy Robots," by Sandra McDonald
"Global icing" is the least of the liberties McDonald takes in this one. Pays off in the end, though.
"We, Robots," by Sue Lange
This one was just fun. Not the Singularity but the Regularity takes hold... during which
I learn that angels are whiny, loud, rude, selfish, and prone to diarrhea if fed too much puréed fruit.
—p.281
"The Education of Junior Number 12," by Madeline Ashby
Maybe I just haven't been paying enough attention, but this is the first story in Neil Clarke's anthology that I remember having read before. It was a pleasure to read again, though, that's for sure, with lines like:
"Some very sick people thought the world was going to end," Javier said. "We were supposed to help the humans left behind."and
—p.341
Thank Christ for other robots; they knew how to take a cue.
—p.360
"A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight," by Xia Jia
Theme. Park.
There's also a collection to which this story gives its title... I might have to pick it up.
"The Man," by Paul McAuley
Part of McAuley's well-regarded Jackaroo series, but this one focuses on a single isolated woman and her strange visitor.
"The Robot’s Girl," by Brenda Cooper
What the new neighbors saw when the little girl moved in—and what she saw in them after awhile.
".identity," by E. Catherine Tobler
A generation ship en route between planets is in a way the ultimate locked room—in this case, the scene of a mystery for the AI who knows everything and everyone aboard her.
"American Cheetah," by Robert Reed
Steampunk dreams... and no one's worried about a machine that laughs? There are worse things to worry about, I guess, in this alternative past.
"Artifice," by Naomi Kritzer
Neil Clarke did gather together a very high percentage of stories that were new to me, but "Artifice" was a reread too—when I read it in Kritzer's own Cat Pictures Please back in 2018, I observed,
Men are "Too much goddamn work," says Mandy, which is why she's made sure her new boyfriend is more easily... configurable.
"Small Medicine," by Genevieve Valentine
Recalibrating...
"Silently and Very Fast," by Catherynne M. Valente
I can cry too. I can choose that subroutine and perform sadness.Long and dreamlike, feverish and baroque, this is a poignant story of a crime against nature. So to speak.
—p.488
"I, Robot," by Cory Doctorow
Funny—but serious, too, with a dash of familiar dystopia and a whole lot of Doctorow's trademarked techno-optimism. This might be the most entertaining story from him I've ever read.
"Bit Rot," by Charles Stross
A zombie apocalypse, robot-style. Set in the Freyaverse (like Stross' Saturn's Children), this one's an isolated example—literally, since it's another locked room, set on a slower-than-light spaceship.
"Angels of Ashes," by Alastair Reynolds
The Machinehood to which Sergio belongs rules the world—Mars, anyway—but maybe not as well as the Lord would want. The oldest story in More Human Than Human—this one was published in 1999.
"The Old Dispensation," by Lavie Tidhar
In the name of all that is Holy comes the sun. If you are at all familiar with Yiddish or Hebrew, even as an outsider, you will get a lot more out of this far-future parable of the Chosen.
"Today I am Paul," by Martin L. Shoemaker
Fake it 'til you make it, baby—because sometimes that actually works! One more reread for me, but a fine, fine ending for More Human Than Human even so.
*
I was able to adapt the Table of Contents this time directly from Clarke's own website at http://neil-clarke.com/more-human-tha....
August 30, 2021
Almost every single one worth reading, or rereading as the case may be.
I skipped a reread of the novella Silently and Very Fast. I skimmed the tech babble in Stross's piece. I quickly dnf'd the one that started ooff with a torture scene, and also the onewith a policeman trying to do his job and also . I enjoyed a reread of We, Robots by Sue Lange.
Whether I'll actually seek more work by any of these authors, well, probably not. Maybe Martin L. Shoemaker, Brenda Cooper, Karin Lowachee. But still, between the fact that Clarke's taste is somewhat similar to mine, and the fact that I am keen on the theme, this turned out to be the best anthology, overall, that I've read in years.
I skipped a reread of the novella Silently and Very Fast. I skimmed the tech babble in Stross's piece. I quickly dnf'd the one that started ooff with a torture scene, and also the onewith a policeman trying to do his job and also . I enjoyed a reread of We, Robots by Sue Lange.
Whether I'll actually seek more work by any of these authors, well, probably not. Maybe Martin L. Shoemaker, Brenda Cooper, Karin Lowachee. But still, between the fact that Clarke's taste is somewhat similar to mine, and the fact that I am keen on the theme, this turned out to be the best anthology, overall, that I've read in years.
April 22, 2018
A great variety of stories with an enormous spread of interpretations of what is an "artificial human." Bollywood dancer falls in love with an AI, a relationship the djinn disapprove of. Jews expelled to distant planet by Holy Roman Emperorr; the French Space Marines who are conveying them are saved from aliens by a Jewish doctor and his android sidekick Danel, which name I choose to see as an homage to R. Daneel. I didn't like every single story because some writing styles just aren't to my taste, but there's something for everyone.
August 26, 2018
Middling collection, with a few standouts (and a few that I could have done without). The Kindle version needed further editing, as there were often line or word breaks in random, inappropriate places (presumably due to just copy-pasting a file in without checking formatting). Anything I put at 4+ stars I strongly recommend (10 total). 3-3.5 stars I got some enjoyment out of (13 total).
Dolly by Elizabeth Bear (4 stars) - Lovely murder mystery with a robot at its core.
A Good Home by Karin Lowachee (3.5 stars) - Odd piece, with two vets (one a genetic construct) finding solace in one another.
The Djinn’s Wife by Ian McDonald (1.75 stars) - Long, long, long, long, long, and not very worthwhile for its length. I actually almost gave up on it and started flipping through pages, then interesting stuff caught my eyes with, oh, 10 pages left, so I read on from there. Should have been cut down by at least half. Pity, as the setting and concept were interesting. AI (aeai, for some reason, here) becomes obsessed with actress, marries her (against law and precedent), and it turns sour.
And The Ends of The Earth For Thy Possession by Robert B. Finegold (4 stars) - Enjoyable exploration of AI and souls, via a not-quite-mythical soul-eater. Odd setting, where a Jew ended WWII by nuking Berlin, and Jews are now being sent into exile on a planet forty light-years away.
Patterns of a Murmuration, in Billions of Data Points by JY Yang (3 stars) - AI wants revenge after "mother" is killed by political faction. Possible attempt at a political message, but ... a bit unfocused, if that was the intent.
The Birds and the Bees and the Gasoline Trees by John Barnes (3 stars) - Interesting premise, marred by juvenile male fantasy elements. Making the androids attractive, fine. Making them all female and tending to disdain wearing clothes? Really? Having the human female character also fall for the android feels more like male-gaze-fantasy than actual characterization. So this kind of took away from the whole panspermia idea, which was ... actually interesting and well-done.
Fixing Hanover by Jeff VanderMeer (3.5 stars) - Bleak, but well-crafted.
Grand Jeté (The Great Leap) by Rachel Swirsky (5 stars) - Beautiful, yet tragic. I'd read this one before, and was touched just as much by it the second time around. Oddly, I'd forgotten about the dog.
Brisk Money by Adam Christopher (2.5 stars) - I was enjoying the premise and the writing, right up until the ending, which suddenly made the illogic of the whole thing obvious.
Act of Faith by Fadzlishah Johanabas (3 stars) - Odd little pastiche about a robot who becomes Muslim, and perhaps gains sentience.
The Caretaker by Ken Liu (3 stars) - While I agree with the sentiment, I'm not a big fan of overtly political pieces.
Seven Sexy Cowboy Robots by Sandra McDonald (2 stars) - About as bad as the title might lead you to expect. Escapes being a 'sex romp' only because details are fairly minimal. It's trying for humor. I do get that. But it's not my style of humor. Woman gets "cowboy robots" as part of divorce settlement; world freezes.
We, Robots by Sue Lange (3 stars) - Interesting take on the Singularity, marred by random shifts between humor and seriousness, and random scatological references that were presumably intended as humorous. About twice as long as it needed to be. ETA: There is a real condition where people cannot feel pain. It is debilitating. I find its use as plot device here very ... problematic.
The Education of Junior Number 12 by Madeline Ashby (3.5 stars) - Self-replicating robots made for disaster that didn't occur try to find their way in society. Not sure why this needs to involve trading sex for sustenance.
A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight by Xia Jia (4 stars) - Reminiscent of The Graveyard Book, but focused on Asian (or Asian style?) legends. Unclear why it's in this collection, though the ghosts have barcodes, so maybe they're supposed to be androids?
The Man by Paul McAuley (4 stars) - On a planet with a submerged "factory", a man shows up. Signs point to him coming from said factory. Nicely written.
The Robot’s Girl by Brenda Cooper (3 stars) - Well written, but ultimately unsatisfying. It feels like an opening to a longer work, rather than one intended to stand on its own. Also, there are multiple robots, so it should be "The Robots' Girl" (this mistake occurs in-text as well).
.identity by E. Catherine Tobler (3.5 stars) - Interesting and well-written space opera. I would have preferred either a different "solution" or more exploration of why there was no other solution. Either would have lengthened the piece, but in this case, I think it would have improved it immensely. Still enjoyable.
American Cheetah by Robert Reed (2.5 stars) - I usually like Weird West, but this did not do much for me. "Babbage" engines are used to make robot replicas of individuals. POV character is such a replica of Lincoln, and now sheriff of a small town, being invaded by robot replicas of Jesse James et al. Yeah. Um. I may have skimmed a lot. Once the action got going, it was enjoyable enough, but the beginning was clunky (and skimmable). I also usually enjoy philosophical wrangling, but... the combination just wasn't working for me this time. YMMV. ETA: I think I have a better idea why it didn't work for me. The opening felt like the opening to a novel that would focus on all the Lincoln-bots for a significant length of time, rather than suddenly forgetting about the rest and looking at only this one sheriff-Lincoln-bot. There's no particular reason this bot needed to be a copy of Lincoln. Dropping that opening and making the bot a copy of, say, the town's last sheriff would actually have worked better for this length of story.
Artifice by Naomi Kritzer (4 stars) - Robot "boyfriend" joins gaming group, is better company than human who brought him.
Small Medicine by Genevieve Valentine (3.5 stars) - Uneven look at preserving dead loves ones as robots, and nano-medicine. Parts of it really resonated with me, but it didn't cohere well. Probably semi-inspired by Bradbury's Electric Grandmother story.
Silently and Very Fast by Catherynne M. Valente (3 stars) - Uneven. Has some parts that I enjoy, and other parts that seem unnecessary to me. It's one I'd read before, and I think I liked it slightly better on a second reading, but it's still not a favorite. House AI becomes more.
I, Robot by Cory Doctorow (4 stars) - 1984-ish society, where the robots from Eurasia (not _quite_ East Asia, but there's also Oceania, and a reference to people forgetting that they'd ever been at war with one rather than the other) are much more advanced than the "local" ones.
Bit Rot by Charles Stross (4 stars) - A tale of robot zombies, in space. Very nicely written.
Angels of Ashes by Alastair Reynolds (3 stars) - Interesting core idea marred by middling "adventure" plot surrounding it. Either needed to be longer to fill out both pieces more, or shorter, eliminating most of the adventure-plot-sideline. A religion's core premise turns out to have been a lie, with cyborgs. Also, one particular detail is annoyingly heteronormative.
The Old Dispensation by Lavie Tidhar (4 stars) - Similar core idea to Angels of Ashes, but done sooooo much better. I would have liked a tad more detail about , but as it was going for a Lovecraftian vibe, the lack of detail still works for the story. Central question: can non-humans be chosen of God?
Today I am Paul by Martin L. Shoemaker (4 stars) - Sad but sweet story, of a robot caretaker who can "emulate" people for whom it has sufficient data.
Dolly by Elizabeth Bear (4 stars) - Lovely murder mystery with a robot at its core.
A Good Home by Karin Lowachee (3.5 stars) - Odd piece, with two vets (one a genetic construct) finding solace in one another.
The Djinn’s Wife by Ian McDonald (1.75 stars) - Long, long, long, long, long, and not very worthwhile for its length. I actually almost gave up on it and started flipping through pages, then interesting stuff caught my eyes with, oh, 10 pages left, so I read on from there. Should have been cut down by at least half. Pity, as the setting and concept were interesting. AI (aeai, for some reason, here) becomes obsessed with actress, marries her (against law and precedent), and it turns sour.
And The Ends of The Earth For Thy Possession by Robert B. Finegold (4 stars) - Enjoyable exploration of AI and souls, via a not-quite-mythical soul-eater. Odd setting, where a Jew ended WWII by nuking Berlin, and Jews are now being sent into exile on a planet forty light-years away.
Patterns of a Murmuration, in Billions of Data Points by JY Yang (3 stars) - AI wants revenge after "mother" is killed by political faction. Possible attempt at a political message, but ... a bit unfocused, if that was the intent.
The Birds and the Bees and the Gasoline Trees by John Barnes (3 stars) - Interesting premise, marred by juvenile male fantasy elements. Making the androids attractive, fine. Making them all female and tending to disdain wearing clothes? Really? Having the human female character also fall for the android feels more like male-gaze-fantasy than actual characterization. So this kind of took away from the whole panspermia idea, which was ... actually interesting and well-done.
Fixing Hanover by Jeff VanderMeer (3.5 stars) - Bleak, but well-crafted.
Grand Jeté (The Great Leap) by Rachel Swirsky (5 stars) - Beautiful, yet tragic. I'd read this one before, and was touched just as much by it the second time around. Oddly, I'd forgotten about the dog.
Brisk Money by Adam Christopher (2.5 stars) - I was enjoying the premise and the writing, right up until the ending, which suddenly made the illogic of the whole thing obvious.
Act of Faith by Fadzlishah Johanabas (3 stars) - Odd little pastiche about a robot who becomes Muslim, and perhaps gains sentience.
The Caretaker by Ken Liu (3 stars) - While I agree with the sentiment, I'm not a big fan of overtly political pieces.
Seven Sexy Cowboy Robots by Sandra McDonald (2 stars) - About as bad as the title might lead you to expect. Escapes being a 'sex romp' only because details are fairly minimal. It's trying for humor. I do get that. But it's not my style of humor. Woman gets "cowboy robots" as part of divorce settlement; world freezes.
We, Robots by Sue Lange (3 stars) - Interesting take on the Singularity, marred by random shifts between humor and seriousness, and random scatological references that were presumably intended as humorous. About twice as long as it needed to be. ETA: There is a real condition where people cannot feel pain. It is debilitating. I find its use as plot device here very ... problematic.
The Education of Junior Number 12 by Madeline Ashby (3.5 stars) - Self-replicating robots made for disaster that didn't occur try to find their way in society. Not sure why this needs to involve trading sex for sustenance.
A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight by Xia Jia (4 stars) - Reminiscent of The Graveyard Book, but focused on Asian (or Asian style?) legends. Unclear why it's in this collection, though the ghosts have barcodes, so maybe they're supposed to be androids?
The Man by Paul McAuley (4 stars) - On a planet with a submerged "factory", a man shows up. Signs point to him coming from said factory. Nicely written.
The Robot’s Girl by Brenda Cooper (3 stars) - Well written, but ultimately unsatisfying. It feels like an opening to a longer work, rather than one intended to stand on its own. Also, there are multiple robots, so it should be "The Robots' Girl" (this mistake occurs in-text as well).
.identity by E. Catherine Tobler (3.5 stars) - Interesting and well-written space opera. I would have preferred either a different "solution" or more exploration of why there was no other solution. Either would have lengthened the piece, but in this case, I think it would have improved it immensely. Still enjoyable.
American Cheetah by Robert Reed (2.5 stars) - I usually like Weird West, but this did not do much for me. "Babbage" engines are used to make robot replicas of individuals. POV character is such a replica of Lincoln, and now sheriff of a small town, being invaded by robot replicas of Jesse James et al. Yeah. Um. I may have skimmed a lot. Once the action got going, it was enjoyable enough, but the beginning was clunky (and skimmable). I also usually enjoy philosophical wrangling, but... the combination just wasn't working for me this time. YMMV. ETA: I think I have a better idea why it didn't work for me. The opening felt like the opening to a novel that would focus on all the Lincoln-bots for a significant length of time, rather than suddenly forgetting about the rest and looking at only this one sheriff-Lincoln-bot. There's no particular reason this bot needed to be a copy of Lincoln. Dropping that opening and making the bot a copy of, say, the town's last sheriff would actually have worked better for this length of story.
Artifice by Naomi Kritzer (4 stars) - Robot "boyfriend" joins gaming group, is better company than human who brought him.
Small Medicine by Genevieve Valentine (3.5 stars) - Uneven look at preserving dead loves ones as robots, and nano-medicine. Parts of it really resonated with me, but it didn't cohere well. Probably semi-inspired by Bradbury's Electric Grandmother story.
Silently and Very Fast by Catherynne M. Valente (3 stars) - Uneven. Has some parts that I enjoy, and other parts that seem unnecessary to me. It's one I'd read before, and I think I liked it slightly better on a second reading, but it's still not a favorite. House AI becomes more.
I, Robot by Cory Doctorow (4 stars) - 1984-ish society, where the robots from Eurasia (not _quite_ East Asia, but there's also Oceania, and a reference to people forgetting that they'd ever been at war with one rather than the other) are much more advanced than the "local" ones.
Bit Rot by Charles Stross (4 stars) - A tale of robot zombies, in space. Very nicely written.
Angels of Ashes by Alastair Reynolds (3 stars) - Interesting core idea marred by middling "adventure" plot surrounding it. Either needed to be longer to fill out both pieces more, or shorter, eliminating most of the adventure-plot-sideline. A religion's core premise turns out to have been a lie, with cyborgs. Also, one particular detail is annoyingly heteronormative.
The Old Dispensation by Lavie Tidhar (4 stars) - Similar core idea to Angels of Ashes, but done sooooo much better. I would have liked a tad more detail about , but as it was going for a Lovecraftian vibe, the lack of detail still works for the story. Central question: can non-humans be chosen of God?
Today I am Paul by Martin L. Shoemaker (4 stars) - Sad but sweet story, of a robot caretaker who can "emulate" people for whom it has sufficient data.
June 27, 2021
A very good collection. Some of the stories included therein are quite impressive. Recommended.
May 31, 2018
Like many others, I'm fascinated by the concept of sentient machines. We know they're coming, and it's SF's job to show us how they might look or think. Neil Clarke has pulled together some amazing stories, some interesting concepts, but a couple too many political/social justice diatribes for my taste. The general quality of stories is solid, but I'm scratching my head at how a few made it into the collection.
June 15, 2024
This massive tome contains a really large number of stories that depict artificial creations with sentience, of almost every possible type.
Like any anthology, there were many name-heavy works that turned out to be either weak or really inferior. But there were some truly top-notch stuff as well.
My favourites were~
1. Elizabeth Bear's (sharp) "Dolly";
2. JY Yang's "Patterns of a Murmuration, in Billions of Data Points";
3. Fadzlishah Johanabas's (heartwarming) "Act of Faith";
4. Ken Liu's "The Caretaker";
5. Sandra McDonald's (brilliant) "Seven Sexy Cowboy Robots";
6. Xia Jia's (unforgettable) "A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight";
7. Paul McAuley's "The Man";
8. Brenda Cooper's "The Robot's Girl";
9. Naomi Kritzer's "Artifice";
10. Alastair Reynolds's (awesome) "Angels of Ashes";
11. Lavie Tidhar's "The Old Dispensation";
12. Martin L. Shoemaker's (tearjerker) "Today I am Paul".
With so many good stories, I am almost being compelled to certify the book as very good.
Recommended.
Like any anthology, there were many name-heavy works that turned out to be either weak or really inferior. But there were some truly top-notch stuff as well.
My favourites were~
1. Elizabeth Bear's (sharp) "Dolly";
2. JY Yang's "Patterns of a Murmuration, in Billions of Data Points";
3. Fadzlishah Johanabas's (heartwarming) "Act of Faith";
4. Ken Liu's "The Caretaker";
5. Sandra McDonald's (brilliant) "Seven Sexy Cowboy Robots";
6. Xia Jia's (unforgettable) "A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight";
7. Paul McAuley's "The Man";
8. Brenda Cooper's "The Robot's Girl";
9. Naomi Kritzer's "Artifice";
10. Alastair Reynolds's (awesome) "Angels of Ashes";
11. Lavie Tidhar's "The Old Dispensation";
12. Martin L. Shoemaker's (tearjerker) "Today I am Paul".
With so many good stories, I am almost being compelled to certify the book as very good.
Recommended.
May 13, 2018
This is a good collection, but uneven. I'd read about half the stories before, and some of those were the best ones. I re-read the Cory Doctorow story, just because, but skipped re-reading most of the others. For whatever reason, I found reading the book to be a chore rather than fun.
August 1, 2019
An Uneven collection is highlighted by a handful of gems, especially Ian MacDonald's 'The Djinn's Wife' and Catherynne M. Valente's 'Silently and Very Fast'.
June 30, 2018
As a fan of movies like Blade Runner, I was super excited to read this compilation of short stories from various authors dealing with the subject of Androids.
And my excitement was satiated by each and every story. Each one was unique, well written and enjoyable. For other fans of androids this is a must read.
And my excitement was satiated by each and every story. Each one was unique, well written and enjoyable. For other fans of androids this is a must read.
December 25, 2024
A collection of short fiction, mostly centered around the theme of humanlike androids (although sometimes the definition of 'humanlike' stretches quite a bit and a few might be more generic robots or AIs).
I always go into short story collections with the same expectations. I'll like some, won't like others, some will be too long and drag out and others too short and just whet my appetitite for an idea they never fully deliver on. If I read other reviews we'll almost certainly disagree on which stories were good or bad, but you can usually rely on finding at least something worth reading. When it's an anthology all clustered around one theme, there's an additional worry about whether i'll get tired of the theme before I get done reading. In this case, I thought my odds were pretty good. Not only has the editor, Neil Clarke, generally chosen more stories I vibed with in previous anthologies than the average, but I've always had a particular affection for stories about robots or androids or AI finding their way in the world, with or without humans.
Unfortunately that affection has proven to be my downfall in this case, but only slightly and in a fun way, because when I read this book, which I'm reasonably sure I have not read before, I found a lot of stories to be familiar. The thing is, even though the collection is (again, I'm reasonably sure) new to me, I individually found many of the stories independently, in other books, or out in the wild alone, because, hey, I have an affection for stories about machine intelligence and so I'm more likely to check out a story I hear about with that theme than some random other story.
Now, I'm generally a type who rereads books, and indeed, sometimes I specifically pick up a short story collection to reread because they're breezier and if I need to I can easily put it on hold to pick up a novel I want to get to move up the queue and read right away. So, having a lot of familiar stories wasn't a huge detriment to me here, it was just a slight disappointment that I wasn't getting as many chances to discover new cool stuff I hadn't already read. In fact, although the stories I didn't remember were generally decent, I don't think they were the best (hence, my dangling concern that maybe I did read the book as a whole at some point and just completely forgot those other stories). My favorites were pretty much all rereads. "Grand Jeté (The Great Leap)" by Rachel Swirsky and "The Education of Junior Number 12" by Madeline Ashby were probably my favorite of the batch. Plenty of others were good but, on reread, lost a bit of their punch, which sapped a little of the enjoyment out of them (as most of them were from the last fifteen years, I've also likely read them somewhat more recently than, say, a Year's Best collection from the 90s, and some of them multiple times - I assume the editor has chosen some of them in other collections I may have read as well as this one).
Three stars is my standard score for short story collections, moving up or down from there based on whether, in my own idiosyncratic tastes, they've got a better than average assortment or worse. Neil Clarke-edited collections have sometimes risen up to four stars, but this one I feel, just because of the familiarity, lands as a straight three, with a caveat that if it's your first time experiencing most of these, you might get a lot more out of it. For me, though, when I read the collection as a whole for (probably) the first time, rates three stars.
I always go into short story collections with the same expectations. I'll like some, won't like others, some will be too long and drag out and others too short and just whet my appetitite for an idea they never fully deliver on. If I read other reviews we'll almost certainly disagree on which stories were good or bad, but you can usually rely on finding at least something worth reading. When it's an anthology all clustered around one theme, there's an additional worry about whether i'll get tired of the theme before I get done reading. In this case, I thought my odds were pretty good. Not only has the editor, Neil Clarke, generally chosen more stories I vibed with in previous anthologies than the average, but I've always had a particular affection for stories about robots or androids or AI finding their way in the world, with or without humans.
Unfortunately that affection has proven to be my downfall in this case, but only slightly and in a fun way, because when I read this book, which I'm reasonably sure I have not read before, I found a lot of stories to be familiar. The thing is, even though the collection is (again, I'm reasonably sure) new to me, I individually found many of the stories independently, in other books, or out in the wild alone, because, hey, I have an affection for stories about machine intelligence and so I'm more likely to check out a story I hear about with that theme than some random other story.
Now, I'm generally a type who rereads books, and indeed, sometimes I specifically pick up a short story collection to reread because they're breezier and if I need to I can easily put it on hold to pick up a novel I want to get to move up the queue and read right away. So, having a lot of familiar stories wasn't a huge detriment to me here, it was just a slight disappointment that I wasn't getting as many chances to discover new cool stuff I hadn't already read. In fact, although the stories I didn't remember were generally decent, I don't think they were the best (hence, my dangling concern that maybe I did read the book as a whole at some point and just completely forgot those other stories). My favorites were pretty much all rereads. "Grand Jeté (The Great Leap)" by Rachel Swirsky and "The Education of Junior Number 12" by Madeline Ashby were probably my favorite of the batch. Plenty of others were good but, on reread, lost a bit of their punch, which sapped a little of the enjoyment out of them (as most of them were from the last fifteen years, I've also likely read them somewhat more recently than, say, a Year's Best collection from the 90s, and some of them multiple times - I assume the editor has chosen some of them in other collections I may have read as well as this one).
Three stars is my standard score for short story collections, moving up or down from there based on whether, in my own idiosyncratic tastes, they've got a better than average assortment or worse. Neil Clarke-edited collections have sometimes risen up to four stars, but this one I feel, just because of the familiarity, lands as a straight three, with a caveat that if it's your first time experiencing most of these, you might get a lot more out of it. For me, though, when I read the collection as a whole for (probably) the first time, rates three stars.
September 23, 2023
Overall, this anthology was not really to my taste, which is a shame, as I adore science fiction and the theme is certainly one of the most interesting and relevant the field have to offer. To be fair, almost all of the stories did touch on the question of :what does it mean to be human?" and so the problem is not with the anthology, it is with me and my dislike for Judaism (which was central to at least two of the stories), erotic fiction (at least one story) and Islam (another story). At least one of the stories "The Caretaker" by Ken Liu, was not even about androids or touched on the main question of the anthology, I will not say anything further in order to give spoilers for those who do want to read it (It was an excellent story by its own right, it just didn't belong in this particular anthology).
June 27, 2022
As with any story anthology, I liked some stories more than others -- some very much. Stories I liked (and I may be missing one or more, and might chose others on another day) include the following. * indicates a favorite.
--Dolly
--A Good Home*
--Patterns Of A Murmuration, In Billions Of Data Points*
--The Birds And The Bees And The Gasoline Trees
--Grand Jete*
(--Brisk Money is well-written and upsetting.)
--Act of Faith
--The Caretaker*
--Seven Sexy Cowboy Robots
--We Robots*
--A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight
--The Robot's Girl
--American Cheetah
--Artifice
--Small Medicine
--I, Robot (not by Asimov, though it involves the Three Laws)
(--Bit Rot, borderline)
--Angels of Ashes
--Today I Am Paul*
Well, it seems I liked most of the stories in this anthology.
--Dolly
--A Good Home*
--Patterns Of A Murmuration, In Billions Of Data Points*
--The Birds And The Bees And The Gasoline Trees
--Grand Jete*
(--Brisk Money is well-written and upsetting.)
--Act of Faith
--The Caretaker*
--Seven Sexy Cowboy Robots
--We Robots*
--A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight
--The Robot's Girl
--American Cheetah
--Artifice
--Small Medicine
--I, Robot (not by Asimov, though it involves the Three Laws)
(--Bit Rot, borderline)
--Angels of Ashes
--Today I Am Paul*
Well, it seems I liked most of the stories in this anthology.
March 27, 2019
O! The typos! It never ceases to amaze me how a book can make it all the way to publication with more than a couple of typos. One is bad enough but half a dozen is unacceptable.
I think I would have given this book 3.5 stars except for the typos. Why not 4? Because while there were some pretty good stories here some were incomprehensible. I’m no dummy, but really, a few were just awful. Others were disappointing because they seemed more like the first chapter of a novel rather than a short story.
There are a couple of really good stories here though.
I think I would have given this book 3.5 stars except for the typos. Why not 4? Because while there were some pretty good stories here some were incomprehensible. I’m no dummy, but really, a few were just awful. Others were disappointing because they seemed more like the first chapter of a novel rather than a short story.
There are a couple of really good stories here though.
January 28, 2018
I have been fascinated by stories about robots, androids and their like since I first read Asimov’s robot stories. My imagination was further piqued when seeing Gort and Robby portrayed on the silver screen in my childhood.
This book had some great examples of a variety of the stories I love. Surprisingly it had a large amount of pieces having to do with religious themes. Since these themes often lend themselves to reflecting our human nature, it covers many philosophical areas.
This book had some great examples of a variety of the stories I love. Surprisingly it had a large amount of pieces having to do with religious themes. Since these themes often lend themselves to reflecting our human nature, it covers many philosophical areas.
June 27, 2018
There was a good mix of different themes and settings, as well as story length. With that said, however, there were a few stories that seemed to be quite long.
As with most anthologies, I didn't read every story, but I tried to give every story a chance. There were a lot of stories that I loved, but I particularly thought opening up the anthology with "Dolly" by Elizabeth Bear was a great decision.
As with most anthologies, I didn't read every story, but I tried to give every story a chance. There were a lot of stories that I loved, but I particularly thought opening up the anthology with "Dolly" by Elizabeth Bear was a great decision.
July 6, 2018
I enjoyed some of these stories a lot, several felt very plodding and uninspiring, and one I skipped entirely due to lack of interest. I would not recommend this anthology unless someone was really into mechanical people. I also found that there were more stories that had a fantasy/steampunk vibe to them than I was expecting. Several of them were excellent though, and were either well told allegories or revealed a lot about what it means to be human through the foil of the androids.
July 14, 2018
Like any short story anthology, this tome included some stories that were brilliant and others that were disappointing. I skipped three of the stories as they failed to hold my interest. Having said that, more than a few were riveting and two of them made me cry (in good way). Fans of Science fiction will find a lot to like about this collection. Some of the themes were, unsurprisingly repeated across several stories and a few of the stories were rather predictable.
February 9, 2019
Favorite stories:
Act of Faith by Fadzlishah Johanabas
Brisk Money by Adam Christopher
We, Robots by Sue Lange
American Cheetah by Robert Reed
Today I am Paul by Martin L. Shoemaker
Bit Rot by Charles Stross
The Caretaker by Ken Liu
I, Robot by Cory Doctorow
The Birds and The Bees and the Gasoline Trees by John Barnes
Artifice by Naomi Kritzer
Grand Jeté by Rachel Swirsky
The Robot's Girl by Brenda Cooper
Act of Faith by Fadzlishah Johanabas
Brisk Money by Adam Christopher
We, Robots by Sue Lange
American Cheetah by Robert Reed
Today I am Paul by Martin L. Shoemaker
Bit Rot by Charles Stross
The Caretaker by Ken Liu
I, Robot by Cory Doctorow
The Birds and The Bees and the Gasoline Trees by John Barnes
Artifice by Naomi Kritzer
Grand Jeté by Rachel Swirsky
The Robot's Girl by Brenda Cooper
September 16, 2018
Awesome collection!
Incredible assortment of stories... Moving, thought-provoking, amusing, hypnotic... Well worth reading! I had a hard time putting it down. Philip K. Dick would have approved, methinks.
Incredible assortment of stories... Moving, thought-provoking, amusing, hypnotic... Well worth reading! I had a hard time putting it down. Philip K. Dick would have approved, methinks.
December 1, 2018
This may be the finest anthology I've ever had the pleasure to read, and ranks right up there with the finest efforts by Datlow, Greenberg, and Dozois. The variety and quality of the tales are superb. Highly recommended even if you aren't "into" robots or androids.
July 5, 2022
Wow, what a solid collection. I didn't necessarily like every story, but each and every one of them felt like it had a unique and interesting point of view. Too many anthologies have obvious weak spots, but there wasn't a single story in this bunch that didn't at least hold my attention.
January 18, 2025
Some great stories, a few were not my favorites. Interesting compilation and surprising how many writers are expected another ice age instead of global warming to spin out of control. Perhaps they are all trying to be surprising in a similar way?
July 19, 2018
There were a few stories that I just couldn't get into, but I liked most of them and some were amazing.
December 6, 2018
Excellent variety. Good, fast moving tales
Enjoyed all but one. Would recommend to any sci fi buff. More types of robots and styles of writing than I'd imagined.
Enjoyed all but one. Would recommend to any sci fi buff. More types of robots and styles of writing than I'd imagined.
March 4, 2019
*****: 1
****: 4
***: 6
**: 8
*: 8
Total stories: 27
****: 4
***: 6
**: 8
*: 8
Total stories: 27
September 12, 2019
Some good stories, but not enough.
July 23, 2021
Short stories. Better than average.
January 3, 2022
A mixed bag, but generally high quality. Favourites were Grand Jeté by Rachel Swirsky and Silently and Very Fast by Kathrynne Valente.
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