Robot Warriors (Green Hand Book)
At the Green Hand, I picked out two books, but the one I’m posting about is an anthology of short stories called Robot Warriors, edited by Martin Greenburg and Charles Waugh.
I actually really enjoyed several of the stories in the anthology with my favorite being “Kings Who Die” by Poul Anderson. This story focused on a Cold War-esque conflict carried out entirely in outer space to protect the Earth from weapons of mass destruction. The story focuses on an American soldier who barely survives a space battle and is rescued by a new type of enemy ship. Onboard, he meets with an enigmatic Russian General who has a plan to end the war but requires the soldier’s cooperation. Without spoiling the story, I’d recommend it to anyone interested in the themes of the sub conscience, human-computer integration, the cost of war, and questions of free will.
That said, they weren’t all highlights. One story in particular that frustrated me was “Second Variety” by Philip K. Dick. It wasn’t that the story had uninteresting ideas, but I figured out the twist about halfway through the story and spent the entire last half being annoyed with the protagonists’ stupidity.
Despite a few duds, it was a very enjoyable collection of stories that present interesting variations of many classical tropes of robotics. A few other stories from the collection I enjoyed were “A Relic of War” by Keith Laumer and “There Is No Defense” by Theodore Sturgeon (of Sturgeons’ law fame!).
–Isabella Angel
EDIT:
Wow, I can’t believe I completely forgot to actually include some of the most important information! Thanks so much for reminding me Professor Saiber!
For any who are curious, the reason I chose this was because I really love short stories, I also really love robots, and it was within my price range so I could get another book as well!
And the citation format for the book:
Dickson, Gordon R, Charles G. Waugh, Martin H. Greenberg, and Joe Adams. Robot Warriors. New York: Ace Books, 1991. Print.
These sound neat!! Who wrote “A Relic of War” and “There is No Defense”? What made you choose this book– was it the “robots” or the “warriors” part? Arrgh about the PKD story, but compliments for figuring out the twist so quickly!