A review by kasss
Made to Order: Robots and Revolution by John Chu, Daryl Gregory
5.0
I have to admit, I rarely enjoy an anthology in its entirety. Most of the time the stories are just too hit or miss. This anthology however, was great. High quality stories about my exact favourite flavour of robots in most cases (that certainly helps), from a set of interesting authors. Even the stories I didn't care much about were still enjoyable enough.
Some highlights:
A Guide for Working Breeds by Vina Jie-Min Prasad: Favourite story in the anthology. Funny. Precious. Flawless. 12/10. You can read it online on tor.com ( https://www.tor.com/2020/03/17/a-guide-for-working-breeds-vina-jie-min-prasad/ ) and I really think you should go do that right now.
Test 4 Echo by Peter Watts: Excellent. A tiny bit predictable if you know the tropes but no less interesting for it. Great world building for a short story and I loved the descriptions of the Medusa.
The Endless by Saad Z. Hossain: This one was great. Interesting world building and characters (especially the snarky AI main character), and a cool ending. Hossain really made the most of the short story format.
Dancing with Death by John Chu: This was my third John Chu story. Somehow his stories seem to have all the ingredients to be exactly up my alley and somehow I've ended up disappointed so far. Not with this one though. It's a short and small story, but managed to evoke just the right feelings. I really liked it.
Polished Performance by Alastair Reynolds: This one was delightful. I laughed, and wouldn't mind a longer version to hear more about these robots' antics. Loved the ending, too.
The Translator by Annalee Newitz: I could genuinely read entire books about this concept. This was the shortest story in the anthology and I love what Newitz did with the limited space. The 'final solution' was A+.
Sin Eater by Ian R. MacLeod: I wasn't sure what to think about this one when I just finished it, but considering I then couldn't stop thinking about it for some reason... huh. Yes.
The other stories were good too, but these in particular hit just right. There were a few stories about the dark side of technology, like Brother Echo, The Hurt Pattern and Idols that were pretty cool. My least favourite stories were Bigger Fish (bland and predictable), An Elephant Never Forgets (nothing here leaves me in the least bit curious, story feels like it exists just to be edgy) and Fairy Tales for Robots (didn't like the storytelling - it has some interesting ideas, but it was too on the nose with the author who keeps telling us what she's trying to do).
Some highlights:
A Guide for Working Breeds by Vina Jie-Min Prasad: Favourite story in the anthology. Funny. Precious. Flawless. 12/10. You can read it online on tor.com ( https://www.tor.com/2020/03/17/a-guide-for-working-breeds-vina-jie-min-prasad/ ) and I really think you should go do that right now.
Test 4 Echo by Peter Watts: Excellent. A tiny bit predictable if you know the tropes but no less interesting for it. Great world building for a short story and I loved the descriptions of the Medusa.
The Endless by Saad Z. Hossain: This one was great. Interesting world building and characters (especially the snarky AI main character), and a cool ending. Hossain really made the most of the short story format.
Dancing with Death by John Chu: This was my third John Chu story. Somehow his stories seem to have all the ingredients to be exactly up my alley and somehow I've ended up disappointed so far. Not with this one though. It's a short and small story, but managed to evoke just the right feelings. I really liked it.
Polished Performance by Alastair Reynolds: This one was delightful. I laughed, and wouldn't mind a longer version to hear more about these robots' antics. Loved the ending, too.
The Translator by Annalee Newitz: I could genuinely read entire books about this concept. This was the shortest story in the anthology and I love what Newitz did with the limited space. The 'final solution' was A+.
Sin Eater by Ian R. MacLeod: I wasn't sure what to think about this one when I just finished it, but considering I then couldn't stop thinking about it for some reason... huh. Yes.
The other stories were good too, but these in particular hit just right. There were a few stories about the dark side of technology, like Brother Echo, The Hurt Pattern and Idols that were pretty cool. My least favourite stories were Bigger Fish (bland and predictable), An Elephant Never Forgets (nothing here leaves me in the least bit curious, story feels like it exists just to be edgy) and Fairy Tales for Robots (didn't like the storytelling - it has some interesting ideas, but it was too on the nose with the author who keeps telling us what she's trying to do).