The Warm Machine

When a robot built for construction work first sees an angular, sleek prototype military robot slink onto the base he’s working outside of, he immediately falls in love. The problem is, only anomalous bots understand the concept of love, and the lowly laborbot has not deviated from his default programming once. So he thinks, anyway. When the laborbot is scheduled for decommission, the military bot cannot possibly live without him, and the two bots set out on a path to find the fabled anomalous robot utopia Root.

Approximately 196 pages, 56k words.

Published in 2024, The Warm Machine is a robot sci-fi novella. Written by sci-fi lover and debut author Aimee Cozza, The Warm Machine is a love letter to sci-fi in all of its amazing forms. Follow along in Sterling’s point of view as he travels from nameless, never-wanting-anything autonomous labor bot, to a caring, irreplaceable, and curious bot who carves a path for himself in the shadow of his impossibly complex new-tech companion. Experience first-hand how the different bots comprehend, cope with, and rationalize their own awakening into anomalousness in their own unique way, and the lengths they’ll go through to find their own safe space.

If you like: Asimov's robot series, Cargill's Sea of Rust, Newitz's Autonomous, Chambers' A Psalm for the Wild Built, Detroit: Become Human, Space Sweepers, Robocop, or any variety of robotic sci-fi in between, you'll love this book.