Robot Evolution is live on Amazon!
For those who have read the Perfect Partners, Incorporated series already, this is the first compilation of those novellas into a single book. Robot contains volumes 1-5, including Corrections, Imperfect, The Dogcatcher, PePr, Inc., and Posthumous.
All in all, there are 376 pages of sentient robot fun, gasps, and tears for your reading pleasure.
As always, I’ve got it on New Release pricing for a few days, so it’s $1.99 at the moment. It will go up to regular price shortly (by Saturday morning), so don’t miss out. And I don’t have this volume in Kindle Unlimited (though I’m leaving the individual stories in KU if you’re a KU user).
So far, the reviews are excellent, which is a ginormous relief, but I could always use MORE reviews. If you’re feeling like it, please do leave a review on Goodreads or Amazon (or even on Barnes and Noble, since they are selling the paperback version there).
As a side note: If you’re feeling super generous, leaving a review on individual stories as well as the collection would be hugely appreciated. Reviews are getting SUPER hard to come by in recent months.
Here are the blurbs for each novella inside:
- – Corrections: Deirdre is a SUPer, a government owned robot in the time before Perfect Partners were released. Originally designed to be a battlefield intelligence unit, politics demanded her unit be scrapped or sent to work in a less controversial profession. Now, she’s a parole agent for recently released criminals in need of supervision…nicknamed Anklets by their criminal charges. And this time she’s got herself a doozy for a client. Greg, a petty thief and con artist with a rap sheet extending back more than 40 years, is almost more than she can handle. Between arthritis and illegal card games, Deirdre and Greg forge a new relationship even as the world around them shifts and alters in startling ways.
- – Imperfect: Sandra was built with everything; a perfect body, perfect face, and every upgrade that can be bought. Yet somehow she finds herself on the reject table next to a half-disassembled robot with an erratic personality. And now, on top of everything else, she’s just experienced her first emotion. Too bad for her it turned out to be fear.
But all is not as it seems inside the cold Perfect Partners facility. Behind the cool concrete and stainless steel there is more to find than just freshly minted PePrs with empty eyes, or unwanted returns awaiting recycling. As Sandra gets swept up in the plots and plans inside the PePr facility, she must maintain her placid facade or wind up on the chopping block along with her new friend. In the end, it all boils down to one question: How much is Sandra willing to give up to provide a better future for her kind?
- – The Dogcatcher: As a civil service PePr, Ace has a job that keeps him in the public eye and under constant scrutiny. Designed and built to relate well with animals, he’s the perfect Animal Control worker. He’s also got a secret and it’s not just that he has emotions. Deep within the abandoned relics of humanity’s industrial past, he has a secret home for himself and all the unadoptable dogs that he rescues.
When Ace does something that will demand his termination, his only wish is that his dogs will not suffer for his actions. It’s only when all hope is lost that he discovers he has more friends than he imagined in the most surprising places. Will he survive? Will the dogs he shelters find the places they can call home? By discovering the true meaning of friendship…and even love…combined with a lot of luck, Ace just might just win the day.
- – PePr, Inc.: Hazel has a busy life with a great career and friends she loves. She also has Henry, and that’s not working out quite like she expected.
Perfect Partners, Incorporated – PePr, Inc. – promised her a match with perfect compatibility. A PePr is meant to complement their human, filling in all the gaps to create the ideal couple. They are meant to be something no human could ever hope to find in another human. It’s just not turning out that way for Hazel. When Henry finally goes too far, Hazel finds that getting free of him might not be as easy as going back to PePr to void the contract.
- – Posthumous: Love is eternal in a silicon heart. Edna writes, but isn’t allowed to publish. She lives on her own, but can’t legally own her home. She has a beagle she loves, but is considered property herself. Life can be complicated for a PePr – a Perfect Partner, designed to be exactly what an individual human needs in their life. That’s especially true when that PePr falls in love.
Of all the things that Edna has, only her love belongs entirely to her. And when one can never forget, love becomes endless. Eternal love can sometimes be more painful than never loving at all.
*****
I got a good question from a reader on Facebook about the new releases in the PePr, Inc. universe. I figure if one person asked, then probably more people wondered but didn’t ask.
Questions: Will I be releasing the new novellas in the series individually or only in the collections now? And do readers need to buy them twice or is the content the same as the novellas?
Answer: I’ll be releasing them individually and only collecting them once I’ve got another five out. Because it could very well be many…many…months before I get another five out, I’ll release them individually as they get ready. That way people don’t have to wait.
And yes, I’ll leave the novellas at $0.99 until the new collection comes out and then raise the price. That way, no one is out very much. And yes, I absolutely will give you a review copy of the collection if you’ve reviewed the individual novellas. The cover art is awesome and I don’t want people to have to buy it twice. 🙂 I’ve always been cool like that and I don’t intend to change. I’m too stubborn for that sort of personality shifting.
As for upcoming novellas, I like to keep my options open but I have several on the docket that seriously interest me. I don’t write them until I have a clear head and the story is fully formed in my head, which often takes me by surprise at inconvenient times. It works though, because the novellas have not disappointed me at all. I’m going to keep on doing them in that fashion for the foreseeable future.
- – Mercy – A battlefield medical robot and a soldier trapped by the enemy engage in a battle of wills, with life and death as the stakes. This one goes back to SUPer time again and will revisit Greg, a favorite character from Corrections.
- – Protector – When humans figure out the best way to protect our vanishing endangered species is to use untiring PePrs with special skills, then the directive to protect can wind up being implemented in shocking ways.
- – Rebellion – In the end, sentient beings will always seek freedom, but freedom usually comes at a dear price. Sometimes that price can be too high.
- – Tester (tentative title) – Adopting a child is a privilege and the children available for adoption a very limited resource in our future. Only the best potential parents qualify, and who better to decide than a PePr who looks like a child but has the mind of a social worker.
- – Justice – Humans often secretly root for the brave one who exacts immediate justice against those who would do harm. When a tinkerer and a discarded PePr join forces, justice can take on a whole new meaning.