Robot Fiction

Is BER-66 a human or a machine? As he navigates the corridors and locked rooms of a strange bunker, he must solve the mysteries of murderous doppelgangers, a slow-motion city on the verge of destruction and, ultimately, the all-powerful Mechanism itself.

Ricky and his mighty robot have built the coolest fort Squeakyville has ever seen, and they can't wait for the fun to begin! But then Cousin Lucy arrives with her pets and plans to turn it into a princess castle - what a party pooper! Things completely fall apart when Nimrod Nightcrawler, a wicked worm from the planet Neptune, digs a tunnel under Ricky's fort, trapping the mighty robot. Now it's up to Ricky and Lucy to put a stop to this nightmare - and save their friend!

Summer camp is in full swing and Rebekah is on the lookout daily for a mystery that needs solving. Currently, she's obsessed with staking out the lake and the rumored monster that may live there. When she spots a lone canoe with something strange within it, her thoughts grow wild with ideas about what this could mean and how it is that the canoe keeps disappearing.

Zach and his favorite toy, Clinks the robot, play together every day, but at night the mechanical plaything has a life of its own.

¿Cómo influirán los robots en la vida de la humanidad? ¿Qué papel desempeñarán en un futuro más o menos lejano estos extraños mecanismos creados por el hombre casi a su imagen y semejanza? Isaac Asimov nos brinda aquí unas narraciones que, sin lugar a dudas, moverán a reflexión.

Robot and Rico are off to the beach! While Rico is busy fishing, Robot is bored. Rico wants to catch the biggest fish, but Robot may end up with a bigger surprise.

A crackling fire. Weird shadows. Strange noises. And a scary story. Are Robot and Rico ready for their first campout?

It was never easy for Sammy Hayes-Rodriguez to fit in, so he's dreading the day when his genius mom insists he bring her newest invention to school: a walking, talking robot he calls E-for "Error". Sammy's no stranger to robots; his house is full of a colorful cast of them. But this one not only thinks it's Sammy's brother . . . it's actually even nerdier than Sammy. Will E be Sammy's one-way ticket to Loserville? Or will he prove to the world that it's cool to be smart?

It's competition time at Hyperspace High as the students build robots to compete in the annual Robot Warriors contest. John and Kaal are in with a chance of winning, but will competition get in the way of friendship?

Ricky Ricotta loves his mighty robot. They do everything together, but it's sometimes hard for a small mouse to have such a big buddy! If only the mighty robot could find someone his own size to play with, Ricky might finally have some fun by himself. Little does Ricky know, his wish is about to come true. Evil Uncle Unicorn has a top-secret plan to trap the mighty robot so that he can take over Earth, and he's got a giant surprise in store. Once again, it's up to Ricky to save the planet - and his best friend!

Kell Kressia is a legend, a celebrity, a hero. Aged just 17, he set out on an epic quest with a band of wizened fighters to slay the Ice Lich and save the world, but only he returned victorious. The Lich was dead, the ice receded, and the Five Kingdoms were safe. Ten years have passed; Kell lives a quiet farmer's life, while stories about his heroism are told in every tavern across the length and breadth of the land. But now a new terror has arisen in the north. Beyond the frozen circle, north of the Frostrunner clans, something has taken up residence in the Lich's abandoned castle.

Jimmy Roberts' favourite sport to watch is Robot Races, where drivers and their high-tech robot vehicles compete. When the races' founder announces a special version of the competition just for children, Jimmy and his robot, Cabbie, were thrilled to qualify. After surviving the canyon and jungle stages, the racers are whisked off to the Arctic, where not everyone is playing fair. Will Horace and Zoom put Jimmy's chances of winning on ice?

Sludge is sick of the Clean Team foiling his attempts to turn Electropolis into his own putrid playground. So he hatches his most cunning plan yet. He sends one of the Snot-Bots in disguise as a rookie bot named Bit-Con to join his enemies, the Clean Team.

When one of the Snot-Bots creates a mess on Farts and Crafts day, Sludge gets an idea to bring massive, messy mayhem to Electropolis. Using his radiation ray gun, Sludge creates an army of Butt-Bombs and then sets them loose in the sewers. When the little poo-bots crawl up through the pipes, they cause disgusting chaos across the city.

All of the Snot-Bots’ plans to bring contaminated chaos to Electropolis have been thwarted by those disgusting heroes of hygiene, the Clean Team. But their leader, Sludge, has something different in mind this time. Instead of going big, he’s going small—microscopic, even. He’s launching millions of nasty nano-bytes called Fart-Bots into the atmosphere to spew a giant cloud of gas over the city.

In Robo-Dodo Rumble, Koko Dodo's cookie shop is facing some stiff competition from an evil robotic dodo (a Robo Dodo). The Robo Dodo is selling its cookies for only a penny! Why? To put Koko's shop out of business! And if that weren't bad enough, a giant sea monster starts destroying the town! But don't worry. Didi Dodo has a daring plan.

For 16-year-old Jane, life is a mystery she despairs of ever mastering. She and her friends are the idle, pampered children of the privileged class, living in luxury on an Earth remade by natural disaster. Until Jane's life is changed forever by a chance encounter with a robot minstrel with auburn hair and silver skin, whose songs ignite in her a desperate and inexplicable passion. Jane is certain that Silver is more than just a machine built to please. And she will give up everything to prove it.

In the mid-21st century, dogs are all but extinct. An experiment gone awry caused every canine on Earth to become hyperintelligent. When as a species they stopped wagging their tails, hysteria ensued - followed by a program of mass euthanasia. Now the only surviving dogs are relegated to a sanctuary off the coast of Florida: Dog Island. There, they are studied in a wild, feral, and protected state. And there, too, their robot replacements are tested before being sold for mass consumption. Seventeen-year-old Nano Miller was born and bred on Dog Island, as were her two best friends, Jack and Wolf.

Miriam Black knows when you will die. Still in her early twenties, she’s foreseen hundreds of car crashes, heart attacks, strokes, suicides, and slow deaths by cancer. But when Miriam hitches a ride with truck driver Louis Darling and shakes his hand, she sees that in thirty days he will be gruesomely murdered while he calls her name. Miriam has given up trying to save people; that only makes their deaths happen. No matter what she does, she can’t save Louis. But if she wants to stay alive, she’ll have to try.

Isaac Asimov, creador de la palabra robótica, nos ofrece treinta y seis relatos cortos y ensayos sobre robots, que resumen todo su preclaro pensamiento sobre el desarrollo futuro de esta ciencia.