Амброз Бирс - We, Robots

Alexander Weinstein: "Saying Goodbye to Yang" published in Children of the New World , copyright © 2016 by Alexander Weinstein. Reproduced by permission of Text Publishing and Picador.

Tad Williams: "The Narrow Road," translated by Sam Hamill, published in Arc 2.1 Exit strategies , Reed Business Information Ltd, 2014. Reproduced by permission of Deborah Beale.

Jack Williamson: "With Folded Hands" first published in Astounding Science Fiction , July 1947, ed. John W. Campbell, Jr., Street & Smith Publications, Inc. Reproduced by permission of Spectrum Literary Agency.

Bernard Wolfe: "Self Portrait," copyright © 1951. Used by permission of Catalyst Literary Management LLC, on behalf of Miranda Wolfe and Jordan M. Wolfe. All rights reserved.

Nick Wolven: "Caspar D. Luckinbill, What Are You Going to Do?" first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction , Jan–Feb 2016, ed. C. C. Finlay, Spilogale, Inc. Reproduced with permission of the author.

E. Lily Yu: "Musée de l’Âme Seule" first published in Upgraded , ed. Neil Clarke, Wyrm Publishing, 2014, copyright © 2014 by E. Lily Yu.

Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.

SIMON INGS is the author of nine previous novels (some science-fiction, some not) and two works of non-fiction, including the Baillie Gifford longlisted Stalin and the Scientists . He edits the books and culture pages of New Scientist magazine and writes for the arts pages of several newspapers, in an attempt to heat what may be London’s coldest flat.

simonings.com @simonings

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AN AD ASTRA BOOK

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First published in 2020 by Head of Zeus Ltd

An Ad Astra Book

Copyright in the compilation and introductory material © Simon Ings, 2020

The moral right of Simon Ings to be identified as the editor of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

The moral right of the contributing authors of this anthology to be identified as such is asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

The list of individual titles and respective copyrights on page 1003 constitutes an extension of this copyright page.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This is an anthology of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in each story are either products of each author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

All excerpts have been reproduced according to the styles found in the original works. As a result, some spellings and accents used can vary throughout this anthology.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN (HB) 9781789540918

ISBN (E) 9781789540925

Introduction and part opener artwork courtesy of Shutterstock

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