Review of Robotic Ambitions
I reviewed one of the stories from Robotic Ambitions, edited by Lesley Conner and Jason Sizemore (Apex Book Company, 2023), prior to the Kickstarter for the project. Now I’m back with a review of the whole 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! It released yesterday, so you can purchase your own copy today!
The publisher provided me with an advanced copy of this anthology for review consideration.
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