Fascinating Books About AI and Robots | Penguin Random House (2024)

William

by Mason Coile

Henry is a brilliant engineer who, after untold hours spent in his home lab, has achieved the breakthrough of his career — he’s created an artificially intelligent consciousness. He calls the half-formed robot William. No one knows about William. Henry’s agoraphobia keeps him inside the house, and his fixation on his project keeps him up in the attic, away from everyone, including his pregnant wife, Lily. When Lily’s coworkers show up, wanting to meet Henry and see the new house finally, Henry decides to introduce them to William, and things go from strange to much worse. Soon Henry and Lily discover the security upgrades intended to keep danger out of the house are even better at locking it in.

Hardcover

$27.00

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Klara and the Sun

by Kazuo Ishiguro

Here is the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, who, from her place in the store, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her. Klara and the Sun is a thrilling book that offers a look at our changing world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator, and explores the fundamental question: what does it mean to love?

Paperback

$18.00

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The Verifiers

by Jane Pek

Introducing Claudia Lin: a sharp-witted amateur sleuth for the 21st century. This debut novel follows Claudia as she verifies people’s online lives, and lies, for a dating detective agency in New York City. Until a client with an unusual request goes missing.

Paperback

$17.00

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The Glitch

by Elisabeth Cohen

A fast, funny, deeply hilarious debut — The Glitch is the story of a high-profile, TED Talk-ing, power-posing Silicon Valley CEO and mother of two who has it all under control, until a woman claiming to be a younger version of herself appears, causing a major glitch in her overscheduled, overstaffed, overworked life.

Paperback

$16.00

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Neuromancer

by William Gibson

Before the Internet was commonplace, William Gibson showed us the Matrix — a world within a world, the representation of every byte of data in cyberspace. Henry Dorsett Case was the sharpest data thief in the Matrix until an ex-employer crippled his nervous system. Now a new employer has recruited him for a last-chance run against an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence. This is the pioneering cyberpunk novel that predicted our obsession with the Internet, with a series introduction by Neil Gaiman.

Hardcover

$28.00

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Machines Like Me

by Ian McEwan

From the Booker Prize winner and bestselling author of Atonement — “a sharply intelligent novel of ideas” (The New York Times) that asks whether a machine can understand the human heart, or whether we are the ones who lack understanding.

Paperback

$18.00

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Daemon

by Daniel Suarez

Daniel Suarez’s New York Times bestselling debut high-tech thriller is “so frightening even the government has taken note” (Entertainment Weekly). Daemons: computer programs that silently run in the background, waiting for a specific event or time to execute. They power almost every service. They make our networked world possible. But they also make it vulnerable …

Paperback

$17.00

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The Mother Code

by Carole Stivers

What it means to be human — and a mother — is put to the test in Carole Stivers’s debut novel set in a future that could be our own. The Mother Code explores the tenuous nature of the boundaries between us and the machines we create.

Paperback

$17.00

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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

by Philip K. Dick

A masterpiece ahead of its time, a prescient rendering of a dark future, and the inspiration for the blockbuster film Blade Runner. Driven into hiding, unauthorized androids live among human beings, undetected. Rick Deckard, an officially sanctioned bounty hunter, is commissioned to find rogue androids and “retire” them. But when cornered, androids fight back — with lethal force.

Paperback

$18.00

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Hyperion

by Dan Simmons

On the world called Hyperion, beyond the reach of galactic law, waits a creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. A stunning tour de force filled with transcendent awe and wonder, Hyperion is a masterwork of science fiction that resonates with excitement and invention, the first volume in a remarkable epic by the multiple-award-winning author of The Hollow Man.

Paperback

$18.99

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The Diamond Age

by Neal Stephenson

Decades into our future, a stone’s throw from the ancient city of Shanghai, a brilliant nanotechnologist has just broken the rigorous moral code of his tribe, the powerful neo-Victorians. He’s made an illicit copy of a state-of-the-art interactive device called A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer, whose purpose is to educate and raise a girl capable of thinking for herself. Unfortunately, his smuggled copy has fallen into the wrong hands …

Paperback

$20.00

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Illuminae

by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents — including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more — Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.

Paperback

$14.99

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I, Robot

by Isaac Asimov

I, Robot, the first and most widely read book in Asimov’s Robot series, forever changed the world’s perception of artificial intelligence. Here are stories of robots gone mad, mind-reading robots, robots with a sense of humor, robot politicians, and robots who secretly run the world — all told with the dramatic blend of science fact and science fiction that has become Asimov’s trademark.

Paperback

$18.00

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