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"It's hard to tell stories about critters that are not human. John W. Campbell tried it, in "Twilight," and everybody says it's a wonderful story, and nobody ever reads it twice."
- Jerry Pournelle
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| Android Son | ||
| An android son for a childless couple. |
Here are three vignettes from this short story to illustrate David, a child-sized android with an eight year-old's sensibility.
| Slowly, he shook his head. "If she loved me, then why can't I talk to her?"
"You're being silly, David. Mummy's lonely. That's why she had you." "She's got Daddy. I've got nobody 'cept you, and I'm lonely." Teddy gave him a friendly cuff over the head. "If you feel so bad, you'd better go to the psychiatrist again." "I hate that old psychiatrist - he makes me feel I'm not real." He started to run across the lawn. The bear toppled out of the window and followed as fast as its stubby legs would allow.
Artificial sunlight was growing long and golden across the lawn - and David and Teddy were staring through the window at them.
As the two adults disappeared from the room, boy and bear sat down beneath the standard roses.
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| Technovelgy from Super-Toys Last All Summer Long,
by Brian Aldiss. Published by Harper's Bazaar in 1969 Additional resources -
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Compare to the robot baby from Life Everlasting (1934) by David H. Keller, the robotic infiltrator from Second Variety (1953) by Philip K. Dick, the robot brother from Brother Robot (1958) by Henry Slesar, the Purza the Pukha from The Rowan (1990) by Anne McCaffrey, and the artificial friend from Klara and the Sun (2021) by Kazuo Ishiguro.
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'...war-balloons, or, as it would be more correct to call them, navigable aerostats.'
'This robot is a creature... It is a manlike being. Therefore, like any other talking, thinking man, he is entitled to a court trial!'
'...small electric motors at the principal joints worked the prosthetic framework by means of steel cables...'
