THE ANDROIDS ARE COMING: Seven Stories of Science Fiction

by Robert--Ed. Silverberg ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1979

They are late in arriving. The most recent story in this collection is ten years old; the other stretch back two or three decades. ""Some playful, some very grim"" is how Silverberg describes them in a brief introduction, and Philip K. Dick's ""The Electric Ant"" is the best of the grim, using the familiar device of the android that learns by accident that it is not human--and decides to alter the tape upon which its universe is programmed. Clifford D. Simak has a neat story relying on the same basic notion (with a grim twist for the poor android at the end), but Alfred Bester's grim contribution is a twist-less predictability. And the playfuls? Isaac Asimov with an android amusingly outsmarting its builders, J. T. McIntosh toying with human-android romance, and Avram Davidson's ""Golem""--a clever but out-of-place updating of the Jewish legend, complete with Molly Goldberg rhetoric. A maudlin tale by E. C. Tubb completes the collection, adding little to a thin, spotty collection of variations on a limited theme perhaps not worth a whole book.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Elsevier/Nelson

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1979

Categories: FICTION