book reccs about robots/similar freeing themselves

[twelvegraves]

hello i am just getting into scifi again after a long time not reading it. i've found that a trope i really really enjoy is someone literally made (either at birth or via implants) to be a servant of some kind, like a maid bot or a bunraku (if youre familiar with shadowrun) break free and regain their independence. i especially would like to see it with some form of mind control or brain washing they escape from. i would prefer happy endings or revenge stories, but i'll take reccs if any kind. please warn me if theres any brain gore.

please please please let me know if you know of stories like this. to reiterate, im looking for stories of people who are brainwashed or created to be servants or maids via tech who escape and rebecome their own person.

 

[tinkerdan]

Isaac Asimov has a number of the like.
I couldn't name exact ones; however I'd suggest reading all of the robot novels that he wrote--since it seems to be the underlying thread in all of his robot novels.
It extends heavily into the foundation books also.

Also I'd suggest looking into Clifford Simak --you might want to look into a number of his that have both robot and uber-men in them and an assortment of interesting mutation of almost alien nature.

some of both Simak and Asimov have threads pertaining to how the former servants are either saving or reminiscing about how they couldn't save the human race.


Then of course there is Philip K. Dick;
You might want to read all of his since he seems to see all beings as needing to escape from enslavement of some sort--not to mention the paranoia.

There might be someone here, more kind, who will give you some names of the novels themselves.

For a look at how the robots turn the tables on mankind you could look at Jack Williamsons Humanoid novels.

 

[BAYLOR]

Not sure it this quite what your looking for but you might check Fred Saberhagen's Berserker Novels . The Berserkers are machines whose sole purpose is to wipe out life where her they find it. Its a classic series .

1. Berserker
2. Berserker Planet
3. Brother Assassin

Also Keith Laumer's Bolo stories Bolo's are super battle tanks with human type personalties and they masters strategy and the battlefield

1. Bolo and Rogue Bolo
2. Relics of War

You might find Harlans Ellison story I have No Mouth But I Must Scream about insane and vindicate super computer to be of Interest

Colossus by D F Jones about super computer that plots world domination

 

[Bick]

Not sure it this quite what your looking for but you might check Fred Saberhagen's Berserker Novels . The Berserkers are machines whose sole purpose is to wipe out life where her they find it. Its a classic series .

1. Berserker
2. Berserker Planet
3. Brother Assassin

Also Keith Laumer's Bolo stories Bolo's are super battle tanks with human type personalties and they masters strategy and the battlefield

1. Bolo and Rogue Bolo
2. Relics of War

You might find Harlans Ellison story I have No Mouth But I Must Scream about insane and vindicate super computer to be of Interest

Colossus by D F Jones about super computer that plots world domination

I hope you don't mind me pointing this out, Baylor, but none of these meet the OP's request for emancipation stories.

For emancipation, Asimov is your go-to author. Bicentennial Man is perhaps his classic tale that most closely fits your brief.

 

[Yozh]

The "Imperial Radch" trilogy by Ann Leckie
1. Ancillary Justice
2. Ancillary Sword
3. Ancillary Mercy

 

[vanye]

Becky Chambers, A closed and common Orbit

It‘s even two emancipation stories for the price of one.

The only catch is that the book is the second of a series. But you’re in luck, the first one is absolutely awesome!

 

[alexvss]

hello i am just getting into scifi again after a long time not reading it. i've found that a trope i really really enjoy is someone literally made (either at birth or via implants) to be a servant of some kind, like a maid bot or a bunraku (if youre familiar with shadowrun) break free and regain their independence. i especially would like to see it with some form of mind control or brain washing they escape from. i would prefer happy endings or revenge stories, but i'll take reccs if any kind. please warn me if theres any brain gore.

please please please let me know if you know of stories like this. to reiterate, im looking for stories of people who are brainwashed or created to be servants or maids via tech who escape and rebecome their own person.

All Systems Red, by Martha Wells.

 

[Ravensquawk]

For a funny contrast to the sadness, "The Proud Robot" by Henry Kuttner.

Definitely "Article of Faith" by Mike Resnick. Still here on Jim Baen's Universe.

Definitely "All the Traps of Earth" by Clifford D. Simak.

 

[hitmouse]

As mentioned twice above, Simak. This is theme is very well treated in City.

 

[Ravensquawk]

None of these three stories are in City.

"The Proud Robot" is probably easiest to find in "The Best of Henry Kuttner" or "The World Treasury of Science Fiction".

"Article of Faith" is still easiest to find in Jim Baen's Universe online.

"All the Traps of Earth" is probably easiest to find in "Skirmish: The Great Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak": unlike the March 1960 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, it's on the Internet Archive.

 

[Danny McG]

 

[Bick]

None of these three stories are in City.

No-one said they were, to be fair.

 

[Elentarri]

Sea of Rust, and Day Zero by C. Robert Cargill? I haven't read them (they are somewhere on my e-reader) but they have robots/AI that are doing their own thing.

The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells if you want something short and light.

 

[Elentarri]

View attachment 102377

There was a short story I read in some random anthology - can't remember title or author - where the protagonist basically survives the AI apocalypse because she was always polite to the machine on the other end of the phone.