Robot Fiction

He sought to flee his tragic past, but when Thomas Usher hears a clockwork voice on the phone, and sees ever-more disturbing visions in a derelict warehouse, Usher realises that he has to return home - for the sake of his own sanity. Meanwhile, a deadly figure from Usher's past threatens to undermine the very fabric of reality. Gary McMahon’s short fiction has appeared in numerous acclaimed magazines and anthologies in the UK and US and has been reprinted in yearly “Best of” collections.

It is 2050. The USA has just been sold to the highest bidders. Detective Pete Shah is a Memory Association Specialist with the NYPD - he reads the last thoughts of murder victims. When he himself is arrested for murder, though, the secrets he brings to light threaten to bring the city to its knees. No one here gets out alive.

The two magicians came to take Vegas. Now it’s taking them back. When two college freshmen decide to use Spring Break making magic on the gambling tables of Las Vegas, little do they imagine that Vegas harbours a dark magical secret of its own…the whole place is run by magic, and an undead Harry Houdini is in charge. Matt Forbeck has worked full-time on fiction and games since 1989. His work has been published in at least a dozen different languages.

Marvo is a stage magician. His magic is real. Marvo grows up without knowing his parents, without knowing his heritage, without knowing much about life. The magicians have always been with us, since the beginning of civilisation. They fill our heads with the mist, keeping us from witnessing the stark reality of existence. But are things so bad that Marvo will bring it down on all of us, forever? Marvo begins to understand those around him, and his place in the world; he discovers that his remarkable powers can be put to good, or to evil.

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.

The planet had fallen off the map. Lost on an unknown and forgotten planet, scientist Karl Allman discovers himself hunted by an ancient race. The descendants of earlier colonists have reverted to a savage tribal culture of sacrifice, pillage and violence. When Karl falls in love with an outcast girl, he has only one goal: Escape. But escape is a distant dream on this nightmare planet.

Botanica is an island, but almost all of the island is taken up by the Tree. Lillah has come of age and is now ready to leave her community and walk the tree for five years, learning all Botanica has to teach her. Can Lillah keep the huge secret she has been entrusted with, or will she have to resort to breaking the oldest taboo on Botanica?

A serial killer stalks Chicago. A gorgeous cop is on his trail. And someone else is watching, someone who will decide who lives...and who dies. The Angel of Death for Chicago makes sure all his souls meet a fitting end. But when a gruesome serial killer strikes, the Angel must make a startling choice. He falls in love with the cop on the killer's trail, and has to choose between divinity and humanity. But to do that he must face the biggest terror of all - who he really is.

It will take more than angels and demons to stop him. Reporter Spencer Finch is embroiled in the hunt for a missing book, encountering along the way cat burglars and mobsters, hackers and mysterious monks. At the same time, he's trying to make sense of the legacy left to him by his late grandfather, a chest of what appear to be pulp magazines from the golden age of fantasy fiction.

Eliot Lazar lavora per una compagnia che produce e vende spinner, gli androidi, simulacri di esseri umani creati a servizio degli heartbeat, gli uomini. La sua fortuna - o sfortuna - è quella di innamorarsi di una spinner modello C-900, Iris Matsuo: nella Los Angeles di fine XXI secolo le relazioni tra heartbeat e spinner, lasciate spesso impunite dalla legge, rappresentano un'offesa sociale, un crimine morale da perseguire. Eliot e Iris decidono allora di trasferirsi nell'isola artificiale di Avernus, una sorta di Stato pirata dove tali pregiudizi non esistono.

Hier kommt Dotty! Superschlau, superlustig, supermenschlich. Dotty ist Teil eines supergeheimen Geheimprojekts. Ein Jahr lang soll das Robotermädchen eine normale Schule besuchen. Natürlich darf niemand merken, dass sie gar kein echter Mensch ist. Doch die charmante Androide stolpert von einem Fettnäpfchen zum nächsten. Aber woher soll man als Roboter auch wissen, dass man Lehrer besser nicht ständig verbessert? Oder wozu es Regeln gibt, die nur dazu da sind, gebrochen zu werden? Da brennen einem ja glatt die Schaltkreise durch!

Fifth grader Ellicott Skullworth has always felt out of place at public school and now he's tested into the Archimedes Program at Latimer University. While in Latimer City, he'll be living with his world famous and insanely brilliant cousin, Banneker Bones, the 11-year-old inventor of robots. The only problem: Banneker doesn't want to share his room. He's got an army of robots to make Ellicott miserable until he goes home.

Tyrus Murphy is a bumbling EMT from Nebraska with big dreams. When he gets a call from an unknown number informing him he’s just inherited his uncle’s island of killer robots, he has one thought: world domination. International conquest ends up being more challenging than it seems, as the young ruler faces hard partying politicians, mysterious old aristocrats, and even his own unexpected aversion to violence. Powered by optimism and greed, Tyrus falls face-first through a globe-trotting adventure that rarely goes according to plan.

In the year 1960, private eye John Nyquist arrives in Delirium, a city of a million borders, to pursue his strangest case yet: tracking down Oberon, the stolen, sentient image of faded film star Vince Craven. As Nyquist tracks Oberon through a series of ever-stranger and more surreal borders, he hears tantalising stories of the Yeald, a First Wall hidden at Delirium's heart. But to get the help he needs to find it, he'll have to journey into the fractured minds of the city's residents, and even into his own.

The Emperor of Aria has been murdered, the Empire is in crisis, and Dead Men walk the streets...But Myla, Fings, and Seth couldn't care less. They're too busy just trying to survive in the Sulk-struck city of Varr, committing petty violence and pettier crimes to earn their keep in the Unrulys, a motley gang led by Blackhand. When the Unrulys are commissioned to steal a mysterious item to order, by an equally mysterious patron, the trio are thrust right into the bitter heart of a struggle for the Crown, where every faction is after what they have.

In an isolated mountain community, sometimes a child is born with two hearts. This child is called a striga and is considered a demon who must be abandoned on the edge of the forest. The child s mother must then decide to leave with her infant, or stay and try to forget. Nineteen year-old striga, Salka, and her mother, Miriat, made the choice to leave and live a life of deprivation and squalor in an isolated village. The striga tribe share the human belief that to follow the impulses of their other hearts is dangerous, inviting unspoken horrors and bringing ruin onto them all.

Robots are forbidden! But Jerry is not a robot. Robots were outlawed before Joel was even born, but he has been obsessed with them his whole life. That was before he saw Jerry, the giant metal man in Levi's barn. So if Jerry is not a robot, what is he? Is Jerry a robot? Get the novelette now and decide for yourself.

The Steampunk Pirates are lured back to England by the promise of gold. But the appearance of their inventor, Mr. Richmond Swift, signals big trouble. He has a new army of robots, and it's not long before sparks begin to fly. Have the pirates finally met their match?

The unending war with the anarchist rebellion has spread to the planet of Thrada III. A planet the Union cannot let fall into the hands of the enemy. Takashi Hiraku is part of conscripted civilian militia tasked with reinforcing the besieged city of Harmine. But when they arrive, they find the enemy is already in control and waiting for them. It is a deadly trap, and one that will change Takashi’s life forever. It will take all his wits and fighting ability if he is to survive the terrifying battle.

Twelve-year-old Ethan Blackwood has always known exactly what he wants - to win the state soccer championship, get into the best high school, and become an astronaut. Then he meets Madison and Felix, who tell him something... insane. They claim that fifty years ago, aliens took over the Earth, and everyone past the age of puberty is under their mind control. Ethan doesn’t believe it. But then he sees for himself the aliens’ monster bug robots and the incredible way Madison and Felix have learned to fight them. So Ethan Blackwood has a choice....