Guardian Angels and Other Monsters
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
From the New York Times bestselling author of Robopocalypse comes a fascinating and fantastic collection that explores complex emotional and intellectual landscapes at the intersection of artificial intelligence and human life. A VINTAGE BOOKS ORIGINAL.
In "All Kinds of Proof," a down-and-out drunk makes the unlikeliest of friends when he is hired to train a mail-carrying robot; in "Blood Memory," a mother confronts the dangerous reality that her daughter will never assimilate in this world after she was the first child born through a teleportation device; in "The Blue Afternoon That Lasted Forever," a physicist rushes home to be with his daughter after he hears reports of an atmospheric anomaly which he knows to be a sign of the end of the earth; in "Miss Gloria," a robot comes back to life in many different forms in a quest to save a young girl. Guardian Angels and Other Monsters displays the depth and breadth of Daniel H. Wilson's vision and examines how artificial intelligence both saves and destroys humanity.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Fantastical and fatalistic marvels await in this collection of warped science-fiction tales. In "Miss Gloria," a robot bodyguard tasked with protecting a child proves infinitely adaptable. The rosy reality of "The Nostalgist" gives way to a waking nightmare when a grandfather’s unusually calibrated glasses and hearing aids fail. And elsewhere, young lovers feel the world go dark around them after the stars cease to shine. Daniel H. Wilson’s dark fables made us question the world we live in now and the realties that may await us tomorrow.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wilson's spectacular first collection brings together 14 original stories that explore artificial intelligence in its many incarnations, sprinkled with horror elements and wielding a decidedly humanistic edge. In "The Nostalgist," an elderly man holds onto the memory of childhood in the best way he knows how. "God Mode" is a poignant tale of memory and longing surrounding an artificial world. In the heart-wrenching "The Blue Afternoon That Lasted Forever," a single father and physicist must brace himself and his little girl for a cataclysmic event. In the tragic, disturbing "Special Automatic," a bullied and abused teen boy uses the implant that controls his seizures to link his mind to a robot he built, giving himself more power than he ever could have dreamed. Also included are stories from the worlds of Robopocalypse and The Clockwork Dynasty. Wilson displays an aching humanity and literary sensibility that will satisfy his fans and win him plenty of new ones. This thoughtful, affecting collection will linger in the thoughts of readers long after the last page is turned.
