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Robotic Ambitions: Tales of Mechanical Sentience
Whether striving to protect the family they’ve chosen, searching for meaning amid the chaos of the world, or questioning what it is that makes one alive, robotic ambition can mean many different things. Robotic Ambitions: Tales of Mechanical Sentience explores the nuance of sentience manufactured and evolved within mechanical beings. It peels back the metal exterior and takes a hard look at what is inside.
Within these pages you will discover stories of robots defying their coding for a chance at love, resisting societal norms so that they may experience art and pleasure, and searching for their place in a world that was not made for them, but rather was made to use them. These are stories about striking out on your own, building something new amid destruction, and doing whatever it takes to make sure you survive. Robots and AI are more than tools for humanity. They have their own goals, dreams, and aspirations.
This anthology includes stories by Lavie Tidhar, Premee Mohamed, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Jason Sanford, and many more.
Within these pages you will discover stories of robots defying their coding for a chance at love, resisting societal norms so that they may experience art and pleasure, and searching for their place in a world that was not made for them, but rather was made to use them. These are stories about striking out on your own, building something new amid destruction, and doing whatever it takes to make sure you survive. Robots and AI are more than tools for humanity. They have their own goals, dreams, and aspirations.
This anthology includes stories by Lavie Tidhar, Premee Mohamed, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Jason Sanford, and many more.
388 pages, Paperback
First published October 10, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 9, 2024
The 25 stories in Robotic Ambitions: Tales of Mechanical Sentience, edited by Jason Sizemore and Lesley Conner, focus on the inner lives of robots who are well aware of the expectations of their human “masters”, the feelings and struggles of the biological and mechanical beings around them, their own mortality — and the conflicts that can arise between these.
Like the array of robots, AIs, and cyborgs presented by the contributors, I experienced a range of feelings throughout this book.
Some stories left me feeling hopeful, while others are bleaker in tone; some are highly introspective and moving, others more funny and thrilling; some feature particularly endearing main characters, and others focus on big, distinctive personalities (it’s no accident that the collection is introduced by Murderbot creator Martha Wells).
What they do have in common is the quality of imagination, world-building, thought, and inventiveness on show. As ever, I had my particular favourites, but as a collection, Robotic Ambitions is strong more or less across the board.
Of the stories that explore robots’ awareness of their impending obsolesence, one of my standouts was the sad and haunting It-Who-Dreams-Under-Grey-Clouds in The-Town-Within-the-City (Marie Croke), where a population of abandoned bots exhibit dementia-like symptoms.
Another was Out There With Them (N. V. Haskell), which explores a nanny droid’s divided loyalties between her small charges and her cleaning counterpart, who’s coming to end-of-life and has a dire warning for her.
My favourite stories of interaction between robots were very different to one another. Intersecting Datafields (Myna Chang) is a short and incredibly sweet story of two robots who fall in love and run away together.
In the fun How to Get to be a Three-Thousand-Year-Old Mining AI (Nick Hartland), meanwhile, wily AI Terry gets one over on his older, less developed but more sentimentally-valued colleague, Frank. Other stories also raise the interesting question of relationships between different generations of technology.
There were a couple of other stories of big-personality AIs that especially stuck with me. In the exciting Little Fathers of Darkness (Jason Sanford), a woman with a wise-cracking AI living in her blood has to see off an army of dangerously misinformed visitors. I’m now looking forward to reading more about the characters and their world in the author’s novel, Plague Birds.
In the entertaining Insatiable Life (Kathleen Schaefer) a robot chef, suspended from duty after accidentally murdering their human supervisor, will do anything to get back in the kitchen — it’s what they were made for, after all.
On the flipside, there were stories of endearing bots helping humans in need that equally captured my attention.
I adored The Caregivers (Marie Vibbert), where a network of friendly carer AIs help their clients club together to get the prescriptions they need, and Built to Cheat (Derrick Boden), where a robot croupier/umpire/analyst compulsively assists those disadvantaged by the capitalist system.
Prospecting (Lavie Tidhar), The City in the Forest (Premee Mohamed), Everything Else is Advertising (J Wallace) and Solar Sonata for Four Hands (Jennifer R. Donohue) also have optimistic vibes, offering hope for veteran robots, playful curiosity, journalistic integrity, and music, respectively.
On the other hand, The Town Full of Broken Tin Men (Danny Cherry Jr.) paints a very bleak picture, but is engaging, imaginative, and one of my standouts from this collection nonetheless.
Robotic Ambitions is an enjoyable and moving anthology that contains multitudes.
Like the array of robots, AIs, and cyborgs presented by the contributors, I experienced a range of feelings throughout this book.
Some stories left me feeling hopeful, while others are bleaker in tone; some are highly introspective and moving, others more funny and thrilling; some feature particularly endearing main characters, and others focus on big, distinctive personalities (it’s no accident that the collection is introduced by Murderbot creator Martha Wells).
What they do have in common is the quality of imagination, world-building, thought, and inventiveness on show. As ever, I had my particular favourites, but as a collection, Robotic Ambitions is strong more or less across the board.
Of the stories that explore robots’ awareness of their impending obsolesence, one of my standouts was the sad and haunting It-Who-Dreams-Under-Grey-Clouds in The-Town-Within-the-City (Marie Croke), where a population of abandoned bots exhibit dementia-like symptoms.
Another was Out There With Them (N. V. Haskell), which explores a nanny droid’s divided loyalties between her small charges and her cleaning counterpart, who’s coming to end-of-life and has a dire warning for her.
My favourite stories of interaction between robots were very different to one another. Intersecting Datafields (Myna Chang) is a short and incredibly sweet story of two robots who fall in love and run away together.
In the fun How to Get to be a Three-Thousand-Year-Old Mining AI (Nick Hartland), meanwhile, wily AI Terry gets one over on his older, less developed but more sentimentally-valued colleague, Frank. Other stories also raise the interesting question of relationships between different generations of technology.
There were a couple of other stories of big-personality AIs that especially stuck with me. In the exciting Little Fathers of Darkness (Jason Sanford), a woman with a wise-cracking AI living in her blood has to see off an army of dangerously misinformed visitors. I’m now looking forward to reading more about the characters and their world in the author’s novel, Plague Birds.
In the entertaining Insatiable Life (Kathleen Schaefer) a robot chef, suspended from duty after accidentally murdering their human supervisor, will do anything to get back in the kitchen — it’s what they were made for, after all.
On the flipside, there were stories of endearing bots helping humans in need that equally captured my attention.
I adored The Caregivers (Marie Vibbert), where a network of friendly carer AIs help their clients club together to get the prescriptions they need, and Built to Cheat (Derrick Boden), where a robot croupier/umpire/analyst compulsively assists those disadvantaged by the capitalist system.
Prospecting (Lavie Tidhar), The City in the Forest (Premee Mohamed), Everything Else is Advertising (J Wallace) and Solar Sonata for Four Hands (Jennifer R. Donohue) also have optimistic vibes, offering hope for veteran robots, playful curiosity, journalistic integrity, and music, respectively.
On the other hand, The Town Full of Broken Tin Men (Danny Cherry Jr.) paints a very bleak picture, but is engaging, imaginative, and one of my standouts from this collection nonetheless.
Robotic Ambitions is an enjoyable and moving anthology that contains multitudes.
April 26, 2025
Very solid collection of robotic sentience! I picked this up because I noticed that a couple of my favourite SF stories were about sentimental robots/AI, and I hoped this would follow that, and it largely did. A few that were less my vibe, but a good collection overall.
My favourites:
- "The Town Full of Broken Tin Men" by Danny Cherry Jr: like Black Mirror's San Junipero meets post-combat PTSD (good title too)
- "A Still Life" by Elliott Wink: a quietly post-apocalyptic piece about a hotel AI
- "Built to Cheat" by Derrick Boden: cheating rules on behalf of humanity feels very human
- "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made" by Izzy Wasserstein: sex workers (both human and android) working together on the streets. Some Blade Runner vibes, with found family
- "Ribbit" by Mona West: the most sentimental of all for me; an AI that looks like a little dog doing palliative care for a little boy (I cried)
My favourites:
- "The Town Full of Broken Tin Men" by Danny Cherry Jr: like Black Mirror's San Junipero meets post-combat PTSD (good title too)
- "A Still Life" by Elliott Wink: a quietly post-apocalyptic piece about a hotel AI
- "Built to Cheat" by Derrick Boden: cheating rules on behalf of humanity feels very human
- "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made" by Izzy Wasserstein: sex workers (both human and android) working together on the streets. Some Blade Runner vibes, with found family
- "Ribbit" by Mona West: the most sentimental of all for me; an AI that looks like a little dog doing palliative care for a little boy (I cried)
March 29, 2024
Robotic Ambitions, edited by Lesley Conner and Jason Sizemore, is an anthology filled with stories of mechanical sentience.
In addition to Elliot Wink’s “A Still Life,” this anthology collected many wonderful stories. It’s hard to pick out only a few favorites in an anthology like this. I really loved Lyndsie Manusos’ “She Builds Quick Machines,” in which the main character is asked to build a machine for a fugitive and then one to defeat that previous machine … but not for the reasons you think. N. V. Haskell’s “Out There with Them” was a heartbreaking story of nanny bots and their fates when their programming goes astray. “Ark” by Liam Hogan, told from the perspective of a robot waiting for a perfect human to come along, blends humor with the darkness of this tale. Edward Daschle’s “Alice and Lucy” had an almost choose-your-own-adventure vibe to it as it told the story of twins when one of them is in a robotic body. Finally, “Intersecting Datafields” by Myna Chang had a delightful noir-esque cyberpunk setting and characters that I loved reading.
Anthologies are great for finding new authors you really like, as well as reading multiple takes on a common theme. Robotic Ambitions fits this bill on both counts!
The publisher provided me with an advanced copy of this anthology for review consideration.
In addition to Elliot Wink’s “A Still Life,” this anthology collected many wonderful stories. It’s hard to pick out only a few favorites in an anthology like this. I really loved Lyndsie Manusos’ “She Builds Quick Machines,” in which the main character is asked to build a machine for a fugitive and then one to defeat that previous machine … but not for the reasons you think. N. V. Haskell’s “Out There with Them” was a heartbreaking story of nanny bots and their fates when their programming goes astray. “Ark” by Liam Hogan, told from the perspective of a robot waiting for a perfect human to come along, blends humor with the darkness of this tale. Edward Daschle’s “Alice and Lucy” had an almost choose-your-own-adventure vibe to it as it told the story of twins when one of them is in a robotic body. Finally, “Intersecting Datafields” by Myna Chang had a delightful noir-esque cyberpunk setting and characters that I loved reading.
Anthologies are great for finding new authors you really like, as well as reading multiple takes on a common theme. Robotic Ambitions fits this bill on both counts!
The publisher provided me with an advanced copy of this anthology for review consideration.
January 12, 2024
A solid collection with a variety of stories, ideas, approaches on the topic of robot sentience. It includes some very talented authors and excellent stories. Recommended.
I really appreciate the copy from the publisher for review!!
I really appreciate the copy from the publisher for review!!
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May 4, 2024She Builds Quick Machines - LeVar Burton Reads
June 5, 2024
The Apex anthologies are always SO GOOD! It was a bit of a trip reading this while also dealing with "AI" bs in the real world, but I loved every moment of it.
December 31, 2024
Overall, this is a really good collection. There was a good mix of stories, all with AI/robots as an important element. One note is that roughly half the stories were chosen from open submissions based on merit, and those were generally excellent. The other half were solicited from authors with Names, and those stories were, generally, less than excellent.
One story "Little Fathers of Darkness" by Jason Sanford, I could not finish. It is the sequel to a novel that I did not read (and it 100% felt like that), and thus it would be a strange exclusion, except his book is published by the same publisher, Apex. I suppose it is a good marketing ploy.
One story "Little Fathers of Darkness" by Jason Sanford, I could not finish. It is the sequel to a novel that I did not read (and it 100% felt like that), and thus it would be a strange exclusion, except his book is published by the same publisher, Apex. I suppose it is a good marketing ploy.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews