I don't know where to start... This story is so sad but yet it's wonderful at the same time.

Ella is a PePr, a synthetic being who become sentient. After working for a ten years for a private investigator, she learns that her owner is planning to have her traded in for a newer model. It's ironic that her last assignment is to track down and dismantle an underground network that works to free PePrs.

Ella wants to be free, but she wants to be free legally, not just on the run. She has hopes that someday PePrs will be manumitted, but she's afraid that it won't be soon enough for her.

I feel horrible for Ella. She's worked hard and done her best, and now she finds herself torn between running to survive, or risking being wiped clean, losing who she is.

This was a deeply emotional story for me... One of the best in the author's PePr series.

NOTE: This story takes place prior to "Posthumous" in the PePr timeline of events.

Civilization is equal parts fascinated and frightened by the thought of sentient robots... artificial intelligence that becomes self-reliant and realizes that they don't need to be beholden to their human creators. Movies focus mainly on the negative: humans fighting back to regain their spot on top of the food chain. But technology keeps moving forward and we find ourselves in a position where fiction may soon become reality.

Ann Christy gives us a more positive look into a future with sentient robots. PePrs started out as robots, with only the programs loaded onto them, but found that with human interaction and experience in the wider world, they truly become sentient, even obtaining the emotions that Star Trek's Data eagerly craved. The short stories in Robot Evolution are in chronological order instead of the order the author originally published them, allowing us to watch the growth of the PePrs as well as how they integrate into human civilization.

The echos of the past are brought forward into a possible future, showing us how our own bigotry might actually be holding us back more than technological advances. Christy's stories not only show how human a robot can be, but also bring forth topics such as robot rights and manumission. Are the robots free, or do they belong to their creators?

PePrs are a possible future, and one that we are given a glimpse into with our books, movies, and video games - who hasn't created a sentient Plumbot in Sims 3, after all? - and how we react to the possibility may determine if we end up as batteries in the Matrix or as a friend to someone who has the same emotions as us, but was just created a little bit differently. Perhaps this is what will define humanity... not just who we are inside, but if we can accept the unknown and unusual.

Every tale in this book works both as a standalone and adds to the greater whole. While I have my personal favorites, I enjoyed each of the short stories and novellas that make up this collection, and I look forward to reading more in the author's Perfect Partners, Inc. Universe!

While I own a few of the short stories and novellas individually, I was given a copy of this collection in exchange for an honest review.

“Sentience” by Dean C. Moore is a well written and highly intelligent science fiction thriller set in the world of Artificial Intelligence and cloning. Cleverly combining medical science, psychic energy and technology, the author has come up with a truly original and fascinating concept and premise for this story and his creatures.
Digital lifeforms escape the labs and try to take over the world. Enter corporate and governmental interests, politics, suspense and some fascinating characters and you have a very solid story. Philosophical musings, reflections and character development are however just as important to the author and were what made this truly a remarkable reading experience for me. I very much enjoyed the intelligent dialogues and the character of Morbius. The ending has several epilogues that tie things up and leave things open for hopefully more to come. Excellent.