War With The Robots

Author: Harry Harrison

Harrison's novels were described by his friend, Irish author Michael Carroll, as rip roaring adventures with a lot of heart, comparing them to Raiders of the Lost Ark and Pirates of the Caribbean. Personally, I'd say War with the Robots is more of a Temple of Doom, but I'm not one to split hairs about these sorts of things. War with Robots was published in 1962 as a collection of science fiction stories (my third Lance Armstrong effort on this list, given it's not a novel), following a theme of robots who are superior to humans. The stories in this collection are: Simulated Trainer, The Velvet Glove, Arm of the Law, The Robot Who Wanted to Know, I See You, The Repairman, Survival Planet, and War with the Robots. The fascinating thing about this collection is seeing where some of the modern concepts in science fiction have come from. An example of this is Simulated Trainer that deals with "simulation", what we have now come to call virtual reality. Astronauts in a training simulation on Mars are told that if they fail in the simulation and die, they will die in reality. Sound like the Matrix got its inspiration from somewhere? The Velvet Glove features a very human robot and evokes real empathy from the reader towards the treatment of robots as second class citizens. I See You portrays a dystopian future where robotic eyes survey everything. It deals with an issue close to our hearts in this modern era, loss of privacy and liberty at the expense of our safety. Wondering where the idea for Robocop came from? No doubt from Harrison's Arm of the Law. The balance of the stories make up this robot collection similarly call to mind contemporary popular culture examples, showing just how influential Harrison has been in the science fiction field. Aside from his influential writing, Harrison was also awarded with the honor of Grand Master in 2009.