Robert Sheckley

Robot Tales Robert Sheckley

This is a collection of eleven short stories about robots that are compiled from various sources. The stories are: (1) Arm of the Law (How could a robot-a machine, after all-be involved in something like law application and violence?), (2) The Velvet Glove (New York was a bad town for robots this year. In fact, all over the country it was bad for robots....), (3) Survival Tactics (The robots were built to serve Man; to do his work, see to his comforts, make smooth his way. Then the robots figured out an additional service-putting Man out of his misery), (4) Beside Still Waters, (5) A Spaceship Named McGuire (The basic trouble with McGuire was that, though "he" was a robot spaceship, nevertheless "he" had a definite weakness that a man might understand....), (6) Service with a Smile (Herbert was truly a gentleman robot. The ladies' slightest wish was his command....), (7) The Helpful Robots (This is the story of Rankin, who prided himself on knowing how to handle robots, but did not realize that the robots of the Clearchan Confederacy were subject to a higher law than implicit obedience to man), (8) Robots of the World! Arise! (What would you do if your best robots-children of your own brain-walked up and said "We want union scale"?), (9) The Love of Frank Nineteen (What will happen to love in that far off Day after Tomorrow? The result is a unique love story from that same Tomorrow), (10) Benefactor (We can anticipate that robots will be fiercely resented, at first, in a society that will see them as the latest-and an indestructible-widespread threat to the workers whom they will replace. The men who will seek to alter the status quo will be called "robot lovers" and stoned. But what happens next?), and (11) The Stutterer (A man can be killed by a toy gun-he can die of fright, for heart attacks can kill. What, then, is the deadly thing that must be sealed away, forever locked in buried concrete-a thing or an idea? ). It is a pleasure to publish this new, high quality, and affordable edition of these timeless stories.