“Dick was SF’s greatest extrapolator of modern angst.” —New York Daily News
“Dick was one of the genuine visionaries…His best novels constitute as significant a body of work as that of any writer in this country in the last thirty years.” —LA Weekly
“One of the most original practitioners writing any kind of fiction, Dick made most of the European avant-garde seem like navel-gazers in a cul-de-sac.” —Sunday Times (London)
“My literary hero.” —Fay Weldon
“For everyone lost in the endlessly mulitplicating realities of the modern world, remember: Philip K. Dick got there first.” —Terry Gilliam
“Dick [was] many authors: a poor man’s Pynchon, an oracular postmodern, a rich product of the changing counterculture.” —Village Voice
“Philip K. Dick’s best books always describe a future that is entirely recognizable and utterly unimaginable.” —New York Times Book Review
“[A] brilliant, idiosyncratic, formidably intelligent writer…Dick illuminates. He casts light. He gives off a radiance.” —Washington Post
“It’s curious how aptly today’s world reflects the concepts that tormented and fascinated the author: paranoia, shifting realities, pulp culture, and machines…The worlds of this fevered imagination have become our luridly inescapable reality.” —Kirkus Reviews
Biography
Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) published thirty-six science fiction novels and 121 short stories in which he explored the essence of what makes man human and the dangers of centralized power. Toward the end of his life, his work turned toward deeply personal, metaphysical questions concerning the nature of God. Eleven novels and short stories have been adapted to film, notably Blade Runner (based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), Total Recall, Minority Report, and A Scanner Darkly. The recipient of critical acclaim and numerous awards throughout his career, Dick was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2005, and in 2007 the Library of America published a selection of his novels in three volumes. His work has been translated into more than twenty-five languages.
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Praise for Books
“Robots through the Ages is pure science fiction gold. Classic and new stories filled with weird science, adventure, wild twists, and awesome fun! Silverberg and Schmidt have a winner here!” —Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author
“Robert Silverberg and Bryan Thomas Schmidt’s anthology is an indispensable collection of stories about Robots through the Ages. The reader receives a terrific overview of the history of robot tales from such stories as Jack Williamson’s ‘With Folded Hands,’ which grows more chilling and prophetic by the day; Robert Silverberg’s masterful Nebula-Award winning tale of robots and ‘Good News from the Vatican’; and Connie Willis’s amusing mystery that presents an intriguing ‘Dilemma’ to Isaac Asimov and a coterie of robots. At the same time, this book offers the joy of discovering never-before-published gems by writers like Seanan McGuire and Ken Scholes. This is a delightful and informative book for anyone interested in robotics, AI, or science fiction.” —Sheila Williams, Hugo-winning editor of Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine
“Robots through the Ages ponders questions that arise in the face of evolving innovation, including how technology has changed over time.” —NPR’s Detroit Today with Stephen Henderson
“You might know the reveal, but how it all comes together is fascinating.” —The RetroRockets Podcast
“Sci-fi nerds and robotics geeks will find joy in this collection. The anthology includes a wide variety of robot tales. Silverberg and Schmidt do a great job of showing trends and attitudes toward the subject through history. They have selected stories about the fear of new technology as well as incorporating robots and AI into our daily lives.” —San Francisco Book Review
Formats: Retail CD Audiobook, MP3 CD, Digital Audiobook, Hardcover, eBook, Trade Paperback
A remarkable collection, Robots through the Ages includes stories from some of the best writers of science fiction, both old and new.
This anthology, with an introduction by Robert Silverberg, offers a sweeping survey of robots as depicted throughout literature. Since the Iliad—in which we are shown golden statues built by Hephaestus “with minds and wisdoms”—humans have been fascinated by the idea of artificial life. From the Argonautica to the medieval Jewish legend of the Golem and Ambrose Bierce’s tale of a chess-playing robot, the idea of what robots are—and who creates them—can be drastically different.
This book collects a broad selection of short stories from celebrated authors such as Philip K. Dick, Seanan McGuire, Roger Zelazny, Connie Willis, and many more. Robots through the Ages not only celebrates the history of robots and the genre of science fiction, but the dauntless nature of human ingenuity.
