Lesley Conner – författare

Whether striving to protect the family they've chosen, searching for meaning amid the chaos of the world, or questioning what it is that makes one alive, robotic ambition can mean many different things. Robotic Ambitions: Tales of Mechanical Sentience explores the nuance of sentience manufactured and evolved within mechanical beings. It peels back the metal exterior and takes a hard look at what is inside. Within these pages you will discover stories of robots defying their coding for a chance at love, resisting societal norms so that they may experience art and pleasure, and searching for their place in a world that was not made for them, but rather was made to use them. These are stories about striking out on your own, building something new amid destruction, and doing whatever it takes to make sure you survive. Robots and AI are more than tools for humanity. They have their own goals, dreams, and aspirations. This anthology includes stories by Lavie Tidhar, Premee Mohamed, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Jason Sanford, and many more.  Includes an introduction by Martha Wells. TABLE OF CONTENTSIt-Who-Dreams-Under-Grey-Clouds in The-Town-Within-The-City by Marie CrokeShe Builds Quick Machines by Lyndsie ManusosOut There With Them by N.V. HaskellProspecting by Lavie TidharThe Caregivers by Marie VibbertThe Town Full of Broken Tin Men by Danny Cherry Jr.Ark by Liam HoganA Still Life by Elliott WinkThe City in the Forest by Premee MohamedAn Incomplete Record of Database Deletions, in Alphabetical Order by Mar VincentBuilt to Cheat by Derrick BodenThe Big Book of Grandmamas by Sheree Renee ThomasEverything else is advertising by J WallaceAlice & Lucy by Edward DaschleFearfully and Wonderfully Made by Izzy WassersteinA Lifeline of Silk by Renan BernardoLittle Fathers of Darkness by Jason SanfordSolor Sonata for Four Hands by Jennifer R. DonohueTenets of Asendance by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki and Somto IhezueIntersecting Datafields by Myna ChangeA Fragility, a Shadow by Leah NingInsatiable Life by Kathleen SchaeferRibbit by Mona WestHow to Get to Be a Three-Thousand-Year-Old Mining Ai by Nick HartlandAn Android in the Desert by Rachel Gutin

A travel guide to hauntings and the haunted, to lands with their own power, and to the communities that spring from these strange realms.What you hold in your hands is a travel guide to the strange and surreal. From arcades along a boardwalk and jetties at the edges of tourist towns, to a rural village in Pakistan and hollows hidden deep within a forest in Pennsylvania, strange things can happen no matter where you are. You can become lost in a city crowded with people, haunted within your own home, and slip from one reality into another in the space of a step.  With twenty-two stories by authors such as Brian Keene, Maurice Broaddus, Ai Jiang, Samit Basu, and KS Walker, editors Sheree Renée Thomas and Lesley Conner take readers on a tour of places where weird things happen. Places where ghosts are real, old gods are hungry, and towns are not as idyllic as they appear to be.  Welcome to The Map of Lost Places. Enter at your own risk. Includes original fiction from:Ai JiangBrian KeeneBeth DawkinsDanian Darrell JerryDimitra NikolaidouFatima TaqviFerdison CayetanoGabrielle PanicciaJenny RoweJoshua LimK.S. WalkerLavie Tidhar & Nir YanivMaurice BroaddusMuhammed Awal AhmedOctavia CadeOliver FerrieR.L. MezaRebecca E. TreasureRich LarsonSamit BasuVH NcubeVivian ChouWith an introduction from Linda D. Addisona

With stories by Alix E. Harrow, Sam J. Miller, Sheree Renée Thomas, Cassandra Khaw, and many more, Apex Magazine 2021 is a collection of darkly beautiful tales appearing originally in Apex Magazine January-December 2021. From a spaceship in the far-flung reaches of space to a cozy living room where a detective interviews a killer, this anthology explores the good and the ugly. It dissects what makes us human versus what makes us monsters. Within these pages, you will meet a golem that doesn't know how to save its family, a group of robots debating whether they are alive, and a woman striving for that social media-perfect life. From parasitic twins to a hospital dreamscape, to a town full of people wearing masks, this anthology will take you on journeys you never could have expected. Come with us and discover the 48 surreal, strange, shocking, and beautiful stories in Apex Magazine 2021.