Guns, Gods & Robots Review (Short Story Collection)

Guns, Gods & Robots: 

Guns: A girl’s birthday wish comes true when she gets to spend an afternoon on manhunt with her lawman father.

Gods: An old man discovers his crops aren’t the only dead things on his farm.

Robots: A heartless machine built for compassion malfunctions, leading its engineer on a hunt to fix the corruption before it spreads.

In Guns, Gods & Robots, Brady Koch, mixes and remixes three themes across this collection of stories and novellas that spans the range of science fiction and horror. The stories, collected here for the first time, range from the uplifting to the horrifying. Sure to spark your imagination, the seven stories in Guns, Gods & Robots will also keep you up at night. – Goodreads

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Guns, Gods & Robots Review

Guns, Gods & Robots surprised me. Generally whenever I read a collection of short stories, there’s at least one that I hate. That was not true in this case. The stories are very different, and overall don’t feel like they belong in the same collection together. However, Koch knew what he was doing in putting the tales together. They compliment each other very well, and all provide pleasant reading experiences. I’ve listed my three favorites below. 

 Numbers 16:32

An old man realizes that there’s something a bit shifty going on in the bit of farmland he leased out. I liked this one because we didn’t see the stereotypical behavior from the mentioned creature. Instead, the creature takes a back seat for a good chunk of the story. The story really focuses on why a certain something is happening, and justifying the reasons for doing it. Koch does a couple of unexpected things in this story, and more than once he gives you something to ponder.

X-Mas for a Half Life

A group of humans, trapped underground after a nuclear disaster, are circling the drain. It’s not that they don’t have supplies and the ability to function underground. It’s that their collective will to live is dissipating . Two scientists are doing everything they can to reverse that trend, including bringing a portion of Christmas back. Unfortunately, the very first request they get for Santa is a doozy. I liked this one because you don’t often read post-apocalyptic stories where things deteriorate simply because humans have lost the will to live. It’s always that they’re low on food or something. This was an unexpected twist that kept it from feeling cliché.

Timothy

A robot built for compassion and meant to proselytize to heathens in a war-torn, disease-ridden region gets ‘corrupted’.  Now a mechanic has to race to find a cure for this corruption before it spreads . This was a good one because it examines Artificial Intelligence in a unique way. It also poses a very interesting question about religion, and what exactly faith is.

Overall, Guns, Gods & Robots was one of the few short story collections that will actually stay on my shelves. It’s a solid little book with stories that can be re-read. Most readers of science fiction and horror can find something that they like within its pages. Definitely glad I got my hands on it. You can purchase Guns, Gods & Robots now on Amazon.

Title: Guns, Gods & Robots | Author: Brady Koch (site) | Publisher: Self-published | Pub. Date: 2015-12-23 | Pages: 236 | ISBN13: 9781530054138 | Genre(s): Science Fiction & Horror | Language: English | Triggers: None | Foul Language Level: Very Low to Non-Existent | Rating: 4 out of 5 | Date Read: 2016-8-4 | Source: Received a copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.