I would have guessed about 80 years, tops, but robots have had a stranglehold on our imaginations for more than a century. The word robot first appeared in Czech playwright Karel Čapek’s R.U.R., which premiered in Prague in 1921, according to the MIT Press Reader. As in other robot-themed stories told since, things didn’t go so well for the humans. Anyone who’s ever wanted to skeet shoot their Alexa has probably wondered if such devices will someday refuse to open the pod bay doors. These three recommended titles imagine all sorts of entertaining droid-plus-human scenarios—the good, the bad, and the head-for-the-hills. 

Reality TV, sex with aliens, robot uprising, and dramatic kidnapping are all part of David M. Pearce’s The Reality Rescue.  Our reviewer explains, “An artificial-intelligence/robotics uprising has occurred, originating with automata left behind on an abandoned Vellaran mining-colony moon. Now a ‘Chromium Confederation’ of machines is determined to liberate all robot-kind and make war on organic sentient life.” Pearce’s tongue-in-cheek comedy doesn’t prioritize humor over adventure and often combines the two. The robot rebels, led by Ortho Lugnutz, have somehow adopted the jargon and posturing of a bygone era. The reviewer says, “It’s a notable satirical sting that the digital villains parrot left-wing 19th- and 20th-century sloganeering about the ‘proletariat’ and such: ‘Lugnutz spewed Marxist dogma like a zealot from another time. Where the hell did an artificial intelligence pick up the lingo from a near-dead ideology?’” The result of this theatrical mashup is “above par, with some exciting quasi-naval spaceship maneuvering and skirmishing in the void.”

A soldier robot dutifully follows Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics (“1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm,” etc.) and protects a little girl while together they navigate a war-torn, fire-ravaged world in Joel R. Dennstedt’s I, Robot Soldier. One Shot, so nicknamed after he lost an arm, makes a great companion for Amy, who, during their wanderings, adopts a pet drone she calls Cat. “While this concept is well-worn, the blossoming friendship between One Shot and Amy is affecting enough to separate this tale from others in its genre,” notes our reviewer. “An exciting adventure exploring notions of friendship between humans and machines.”

In Limelight and Other Stories, author Lyndsey Croal imagines the many roles automata might play in a distant future. Our reviewer says, “When artificial intelligence, cyborgs, and robots overstep the operating parameters set by their human users, the results may be beneficial—or sinister.” In one tale, “Patchwork Girls,” an android built to be a movie star endures on-set violence and murder (she’s merely repaired after a body-damaging scene, à la Westworld), and her ability to feel no pain may be on the blink (“Maybe she’s dying for real this time. Maybe this is the end. There is some relief in that”). Our reviewer says, “Croal’s prose is smooth as touch-screen glass and does not submerge readers in abstruse science or techno-jargon; still, genre fans must be quick on the uptake to recognize virtual reality, cryogenics, and other SF concepts. This collection commendably addresses deep emotions in addition to apocalyptic shocks and awe.”

Chaya Schechner is the president of Kirkus Indie.