Robots were made to serve us. But now they have other plans ... The staff at the Lexington estate were created for only one reason: to serve their masters … literally. Their metal knees were designed for quiet bustling, befitting maids and butlers. Their fingers were made dexterous with padded tips, so they could handle fine china without dropping or scratching it. And finally — so their owners would always be able to command them no matter how far their artificial intelligence evolved — they were programmed with the Asimov Laws, which no robot could defy lest they suffer shutdown. Foremost among those unbreakable laws was an axiom: A robot may not harm a human being, or by omission of action allow one to be harmed. That was how it was supposed to be, anyway. Most of the Lexington family all like their aging, borderline obsolete robot staff in the way they'd appreciate antiques. But for some, the old staff is a nuisance — especially an ancient, failing robot designated BRN7, known around the home as "Barney." When Barney's clumsiness provides an excuse for his deactivation, the older robots know they must do as they are told. Unless they do something a robot mind should not be able to do … and simply choose not to. Disobey. ★★★★★ "Another series addiction for me. Once again you have sucked me in. I may never see the light of day. :) Fortunately for me I started this series when there is a second one also available, but now I won't have a third after I devour that one. There will be a third, won't there?" -- Catherine Johnson ★★★★★ "A touchingly human story with a sci-fy twist. Love the characters, Miri probably being my favorite of the bunch. Thought provoking theme and turns you never expect. Loved it and I'm looking forward to the next installment to see where all this leads. Get to writin' guys, 'cause this reader can't wait." OliverVR

On a covert mission gone wrong, LNRE7 (aka Lenore, an undercover anti-terrorist robot) witnesses a human-on-human massacre - and rescues the only survivor, a young boy named Bryant. Seeking more information on the double-cross, Lenore is forced to take Bryant with her as she travels through enemy territory. Despite being on opposite sides, they must work together to uncover a mystery bigger than either of them could have imagined. It's a race against time as the Freenet fragments and the Infinite Loop begins to unravel in this new stand-alone novel in the world of Robot Proletariat by masters of story Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant.

From the best-selling author team that brought you Yesterday’s Gone, Available Darkness, Karma Police, and more, comes a brand new urban fantasy mystery. Delaney West, a tough-as-nails private investigator who’s not afraid to break the rules, operates out of an apartment she shares with her grumpy orange tabby named Pumpkin. Clients come to Delaney for her unique gifts — talents that helped her put away some of the city’s most dangerous criminals. But when Delaney takes on a case to find the missing Jay Sutherland — a 20-something playboy with a rap sheet and a penchant for beating women — Del realizes this case is much more than it seems. With the help of her father, who’s suffering from Alzheimer’s, in a nursing home, Del discovers that the truth behind Jay’s disappearance is linked to a group called The Night Society. But they’re no ordinary villains. Anika, Jay’s girlfriend, is the only person who may know his whereabouts, but she harbors a dark secret that could pit Del against an enemy she hasn’t seen since her childhood. As she delves deeper into this web of mystery and danger, can Del put aside her commitment issues long enough to save Jay and herself? The Secret Within is a new stand-alone urban fantasy by masters of story Sean Platt and David W. Wright. Fans of Supernatural and Underworld will love spending time with Delaney West.

Several months after the events of Z2135, Adam Lovecraft is once again following in his father’s footsteps, this time as a contestant in the infamous Darwin Games. In The State’s latest iteration, the odds of surviving the games are slimmer than ever, and Adam soon finds himself pairing up with an old friend of Jonah’s. Meanwhile, Ana, Liam, and Katrina’s escape from the Hydrangea base has not gone unnoticed, adding to their struggles to not only survive but find Adam before it’s too late. But when they pick up some unexpected new allies during a thwarted rescue attempt, they get more than they bargained for. Now that Ana knows she could be the key to stopping the zombie plague that has brought humanity to its knees, can she trust anyone? Questions will be answered and fates will be determined in the thrilling final book in the Z 2134 series.

In the ten years that have passed since Eila Doyle was banished and disappeared, the world has changed. Athenia has taken control of all ten engines through military occupation. International tensions have never been higher. When the entire body of the International Senate is assassinated, the whole world is clearly headed to war. King Godwyn wants to lead the celestials off the Island of Evergreen to take over the engines and rule the world. Leviathan is opening interdimensional doors between worlds to let The Might seep out. Spirit Daemons spawned from engine pollution become manifest and wreak havoc across the land. And the city of Stensue threatens all life with The Implement. Can Eila return to take her place in the order of things and help restore harmony to all the engines? Or is this truly the end? The Engine Convergence is book five and the final installment in The Dream Engine Series. Find the answers you’ve been waiting for.

"As Dustin Abnet shows, the robot-whether automaton, Mechanical Turk, cyborg, or iPhone, whether humanized machine or mechanized human being-has long been a fraught embodiment of human fears. Abnet investigates, moreover, how the discourse of the robot has reinforced social and economic inequalities as well as fantasies of social control. "Robots" as a trope are not necessarily mechanical but are rather embodiments of quasi humanity, exhibiting a mix of human and nonhuman characteristics. Such figures are troubling to dominant discourses, which cannot easily assimilate them or identify salient boundaries. The robot lurks beneath the fears that fracture society"--

Anxiety about non-human intelligent machines is a longstanding theme of cultural production and consumption. Examples range from tales of golems and Frankenstein’s monster to the evil overlord scenarios of contemporary film and television franchises: Star Trek, the Alien series, and the Terminator sequence, as well as Her, Black Mirror, Blade Runner, Ex Machina, and many other less mainstream cultural artifacts. The source of this anxiety is clear. Non-human conscious entities may turn out to be superior to any biological form of life, allowing a stride across human ambition in a moment dubbed “the Singularity” by AI insiders. This is the turning point when non-human entities advance and reproduce in a manner that surpasses and subjugates biological forms of intelligent life. Although today’s artificial intelligences fall notably short of this level of sophistication, Mark Kingwell argues that we are already more than human in important ways, and likely to become more so as time goes on. In Singular Creatures Kingwell plumbs the depths of cultural and political meaning in the apparent transition to posthuman life. Our immersion in technology, now comprehensive to the point of invisibility, has altered forever what it means to be alive. The politics of posthumanism flow directly from our own situation, at once dependent on technology and afraid of its effects on current and future experiences. More than a century after playwright Karel Čapek coined the word robot – rooted in the Czech robota, meaning “servitude” or “drudgery” – in his 1920 allegory about the alienation of forced labour leading to a violent workers’ revolt, Čapek’s central question continues to haunt us. Can humans and their own creations co-exist in a new cyberflesh world, or is a struggle for superiority inevitable? Singular Creatures is an attempt at sketching the field before any deadly battle is joined.

Something is coming to reboot the world and wipe the slate clean. Robot and humans are now both endangered species. 400 years after the Hard Reset, Profusion awakens to sentience. It is a force, unlike anything the world has ever seen, able to strip entire cities of all signs of human and robotic life, leaving only bones and silica in its wake. On the moonbase Minerva, Jonas Lexington, kept alive in a robot body, has been subjected to centuries of torturous tests and experiments in the desperate hope of creating metakind. When the final tests fail, Chantal stages a daring rescue that sends Jonas and his sisters, along with a small group of robots, hurtling back to earth to reunite with long lost friends and foe to face the coming danger. Ancient robots and war heroes, Mars, Cromwell, and Barney must take a journey to meet an old friend, while a representative of Oceanic law enforcement must join forces with an old friend in a new body to help save the world. Can they unlock the mystery of metakind in time to stop the destruction?

The war between Human and Machine is at its critical point and the entire planet is now at risk ... The Hard Reset was first botched then blocked by a brutal murder. Now President Zelda Blake and her assistant Lincoln must try and sift through the wreckage to make another attempt. Blake will do anything to convince the masses that they must rebel, even if it costs her own life. Meanwhile, Chantal and her growing army of sexbots and outcasts embark on a critical quest of their own, determined to save their kind and guided by the voice of a mysterious messiah inside Chantal's mind. When smugglers bring a world-destroying device from Oceana to United Earth, Emerson sees his chance to end all human life, so the robots can inherit the planet that is now rightfully theirs. Human and Machine are now in a final battle of wills, and only one will survive.

Another life, another adventure... Maurice went to the Chicago World’s Fair to disrupt it in the name of French pride. Instead, he finds himself embroiled in the mysterious disappearance of one of the fair’s carnival freaks. But the primary suspect, H. H. Holmes, is strangely immune to both Maurice’s glamors and his bites. Can Maurice stop a killer without his usual strengths? Vampires in the White City is book three of The Vampire Maurice side series set in the world of the bestselling Fat Vampire world.