Sad Robot Stories

Robot is one of millions of androids on an Earth that recently saw the extinction of human life. While Robot's mechanical brothers and sisters seem happy, Robot finds himself lost and missing the only friend he had, a human named Mike whose family accepted Robot as a piece of their personal puzzle. Without both the mistakes and the capacity for miracles that define human civilization, is civilization even worth having? Explore this question in the hilarious yet heartbreaking full-length debut of popular Chicago performer Mason Johnson. A Kurt Vonnegut for the 21st century, his answers are simultaneously droll, surprising and touching, and will make you rethink the limits of what a storyteller can accomplish within science fiction."Take an early interest in Dr. Seuss, mix with critically bad sci-fi movies such as 'Enemy Mine' and 'Tron,' blend in a heavy dose of 'Star Wars' literature, stir in 'mecha' TV shows like 'Robotech,' boil with Dashiell Hammett detective fiction and top this concoction off with a studied understanding of Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner and Dorothy Allison. That gives you 'Sad Robot Stories.'" --Chicago Tribune"If we were to prescribe the image of a human as the synecdoche for literature, and your basic C-3PO as Science Fiction, then 'Sad Robot Stories' is a costume of a robot worn by what you assume is a human, but is really just C-3PO playing around." --HTMLGIANT"[A] brilliant retelling of the classic post-apocalyptic tale...not one drop of ink goes to waste. The story excels in style, invention, and pacing. Johnson deserves praise for sheer originality and also for how far he goes in examining humanity through the eyes of our would-be successors. It is as authentic an examination of the human condition as any literary classic." --SF Signal