Robots, Please
CHOOSE YOUR FORMAT
Paperback Book
$12.00
eBook
$8.00
CHOOSE YOUR FORMAT
Paperback Book
$12.00
eBook
$8.00
Robots, Please is a collection of short stories that explores absurdity. Each story pokes fun at its world and examines a familiar societal flaw. The collection mulls over other themes like art, addiction, foolishness, friendship, parenthood, paranoia, and the duality of life and death.
Robots, Please also features robots. Through their inner circuitry, we may better understand what it means to be human. Or not. I guess we’ll see. You may gasp. You may cry. You will most certainly laugh. If not, you should have your behavioral system recalibrated.
⭐ 2026 Indies Today Award Winner!⭐
⭐ 2026 Regal Summit Book Award Winner - Short Story Collection!⭐
https://regalsummitbookaward.com/winners
“Robots, Please is an eclectic collection of loosely connected short stories by Jared M. Bentley. A newly created forestry robot unwittingly causes unrest among politicians, military strategists, and environmentalists alike, until it unexpectedly gets a promotion. After offering a ride to a hitchhiking andro sapien, a trucker bot discovers he may have to take an early retirement. On gameday, a young man runs into a couple of diehard fans of Michigan University's football team, one of them a fanatical fanbot. A disgraced former military general finds comfort in the words of a rusted barbot. On the verge of being rebooted, a sentient robot teaches a smallbot the ways of "fishing." A man grieving his recently deceased mother finds solace through a robot trying to end its life.
Author Jared M. Bentley covers a wide range of themes in these captivating narratives. Robots, Please is an engrossing collection for readers of dystopian fiction. These stories are set in a not-too-distant future where robots have become an indispensable part of civilization, entrenching themselves in every aspect of society. Bentley demonstrates how sentient androids might end up facing the same challenges and societal issues that humans have to navigate every single day of their lives. The robots felt surprisingly human to me. Their stories are bound to resonate with readers, primarily because their characters are so relatable. I also enjoyed the dry humor. To me, it was the perfect blend of absurdism and comedy. For short story lovers, this collection is a must-read.”
--5 Star Review
Readers Favorite Book Review
I don’t often get to say this about a new release of short fiction, but Jared M. Bentley’s Robots, Please! turned out to be a rare bird: a genuinely comic, topical, and insightful commentary on not only the world we live in, but the one we might just be creating for ourselves in the future. Throughout, Bentley’s collection of darkly comic and absurd short stories draws parallels between our world and his eerily similar fictive cosmos, posing tough questions about personal dignity, exploited labor, human and machine agency, and the results that come from outsourcing our creativity and hard work and putting it in the hands of a technology created by flawed humans, who end up treating machines just as badly as they treat each other. I must say that I found much of Bentley’s commentary and reflections to be spot-on. As I said, it’s rare for a book to deliver on the comedic front and still have something important to say, but Robots, Please! does just that. As Rivera Waters remarks in a moment of unbridled optimism, “What a time to be alive!”
A highly recommended and truly enjoyable read that will make you laugh while getting you to consider the more difficult questions posed to those of us alive in the 21st century.
--Paul Knobloch for Reader Views
Robots, Please is a collection of short stories that explores absurdity. Each story pokes fun at its world and examines a familiar societal flaw. The collection mulls over other themes like art, addiction, foolishness, friendship, parenthood, paranoia, and the duality of life and death.
Robots, Please also features robots. Through their inner circuitry, we may better understand what it means to be human. Or not. I guess we’ll see. You may gasp. You may cry. You will most certainly laugh. If not, you should have your behavioral system recalibrated.
⭐ 2026 Indies Today Award Winner!⭐
⭐ 2026 Regal Summit Book Award Winner - Short Story Collection!⭐
https://regalsummitbookaward.com/winners
“Robots, Please is an eclectic collection of loosely connected short stories by Jared M. Bentley. A newly created forestry robot unwittingly causes unrest among politicians, military strategists, and environmentalists alike, until it unexpectedly gets a promotion. After offering a ride to a hitchhiking andro sapien, a trucker bot discovers he may have to take an early retirement. On gameday, a young man runs into a couple of diehard fans of Michigan University's football team, one of them a fanatical fanbot. A disgraced former military general finds comfort in the words of a rusted barbot. On the verge of being rebooted, a sentient robot teaches a smallbot the ways of "fishing." A man grieving his recently deceased mother finds solace through a robot trying to end its life.
Author Jared M. Bentley covers a wide range of themes in these captivating narratives. Robots, Please is an engrossing collection for readers of dystopian fiction. These stories are set in a not-too-distant future where robots have become an indispensable part of civilization, entrenching themselves in every aspect of society. Bentley demonstrates how sentient androids might end up facing the same challenges and societal issues that humans have to navigate every single day of their lives. The robots felt surprisingly human to me. Their stories are bound to resonate with readers, primarily because their characters are so relatable. I also enjoyed the dry humor. To me, it was the perfect blend of absurdism and comedy. For short story lovers, this collection is a must-read.”
--5 Star Review
Readers Favorite Book Review
I don’t often get to say this about a new release of short fiction, but Jared M. Bentley’s Robots, Please! turned out to be a rare bird: a genuinely comic, topical, and insightful commentary on not only the world we live in, but the one we might just be creating for ourselves in the future. Throughout, Bentley’s collection of darkly comic and absurd short stories draws parallels between our world and his eerily similar fictive cosmos, posing tough questions about personal dignity, exploited labor, human and machine agency, and the results that come from outsourcing our creativity and hard work and putting it in the hands of a technology created by flawed humans, who end up treating machines just as badly as they treat each other. I must say that I found much of Bentley’s commentary and reflections to be spot-on. As I said, it’s rare for a book to deliver on the comedic front and still have something important to say, but Robots, Please! does just that. As Rivera Waters remarks in a moment of unbridled optimism, “What a time to be alive!”
A highly recommended and truly enjoyable read that will make you laugh while getting you to consider the more difficult questions posed to those of us alive in the 21st century.
--Paul Knobloch for Reader Views