BEN BOVA • HARLAN ELLISON • ROBERT SHECKLEY • RON GOULART • LARRY NIVEN • ISAAC ASIMOV • HARRY HARRISON • STEPHEN R. DONALDSON

From the rough streets of present-day New York City all the way to the outer reaches of time, space and imagination, here are detective stories of crime, men and robots. But will robots serve as soul-lacking sidekicks to human detectives—or turn the table on their “master” when a human badge of authority is placed on the metal chest of a machine…?

This anthology of stories about robot detectives is actually not half bad. Asimov, as the originator of the genre, is here with “Mirror Image.” There are a number of other stories which are worth reading here, but there’s no doubt but that my two favorites as Ron Goulart’s funny “Into the Shop” and Larry Niven’s “Cloak of Anarchy.” Unfortunately, the book also includes Edward Wellen’s “Voiceover” which I already don’t like for its presence in Sherlock Holmes through Time and Space and which I would rather do without here. Still, on the whole, this is is a tolerably good anthology.

Contents

“Mirror Image”