Merc Fenn Wolfmoor is a queer non-binary writer from Minnesota, where they live with their cats. Merc is the author of several short story collections and the novella, *The Wolf Among the Wild Hunt*. They have had short stories published in such fine venues as *Lightspeed, Fireside, Nightmare, Apex, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Escape Pod, Uncanny*, and more. Find them online: https://linktr.ee/mercfennwolfmoor

So You Want to be A Robot by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor

Set aside traditional norms and the gender binary in this updated collection of twenty-two stories by Nebula Award finalist Merc Fenn Wolfmoor.

Here you'll find robots and cyborgs exploring their own forms of personhood; lose yourself in wildly imaginative landscapes and dystopian worlds; follow assassins, sentient shadows, sorrowful ghosts, and all forms of monsters. Dare to feel everything—from the brightest joy to sorrow and the rainbow of emotion in between.

Yet remember: even in the darkest moments, there will always be hope.

CURATOR'S NOTE

Cyborg Lucia Del Toro used to be part of the all male ENForcers — and she's still connected to her former unit through the bioware network boy.net. Stunning cyberpunk from a brilliantly imagined trans perspective. – Catherine Lundoff

 

REVIEWS

  • "The stories are all crafted with the deft and loving touch of an author who knows firsthand what it is to live in their characters' skins. Each piece in this unmissable collection shimmers with bright explorations of love, loss, and the quest for hope."

    – Publishers Weekly | Starred Review
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Excerpt

Dear Gatekeeper,

Hi my name is Ellie and I'm six years old and my closet door is broken. My best friend Zera lives in your world and I visited her all the time, and sometimes I got older but turned six again when I came back, but that's okay. Can you please fix the door so I can play with Zera?

Love,

—Ellie

* * *

Zera packs lightly for her journey: rose-petal rope and dewdrop boots, a jacket spun from bee song and buttoned with industrial-strength cricket clicks. She secures her belt (spun from the cloud memories, of course) and picks up her satchel. It has food for her and oil for Misu.

Her best friend is missing and she must find out why.

Misu, the palm-sized mechanical microraptor, perches on her seaweed braids, its glossy raindrop-colored feathers ruffled in concern.

Misu says, But what if the door is locked?

Zera smiles. "I'll find a key."

But secretly, she's worried. What if there isn't one?

* * *

Dear Gatekeeper,

I hope you got my last couple letters. I haven't heard back from you yet, and the closet door still doesn't work. Mommy says I'm wasting paper when I use too much crayon, so I'm using markers this time. Is Zera okay? Tell her I miss playing with the sea monsters and flying to the moon on the dragons most of all.

Please open the door again.

—Ellie, age 7

* * *

Zera leaves the treehouse and climbs up the one-thousand-five-hundred-three rungs of the polka-dot ladder, each step a perfect note in a symphony. When she reaches the falcon aerie above, she bows to the Falcon Queen and asks if she may have a ride to the Land of Doors.

The Falcon Queen tilts her magnificent head. "Have you not heard?" asks the queen in a voice like spring lightning and winter calm. "All the doors have gone quiet. There is a disease rotting wood and rusting hinges, and no one can find a cure."

Misu shivers on Zera's shoulder. It is like the dreams, Misu says. When everything is silent.

Zera frowns. "Hasn't the empress sent scientists to investigate?"

The Falcon Queen nods. "They haven't returned. I dare not send my people into the cursed air until we know what is happening."

Zera squares her shoulders. She needs answers, and quickly. Time passes differently (faster) on Ellie's home planet, because their worlds are so far apart, and a lag develops in the space-time continuum.

"Then I will speak to the Forgotten Book," Zera says, hiding the tremor in her voice.

The falcons ruffle their feathers in anxiety. Not even the empress sends envoys without the Forgotten Book's approval.

"You are always brave," says the Falcon Queen. "Very well then, I will take you as far as the Island of Stars."

* * *

Hi Gatekeeper,

Are you even there? It's been almost a year for me and still nothing. Did the ice elves get you? I hope not. Zera and I trapped them in the core of the passing comet so they'd go away, but you never know.

Why can't I get through anymore? I'm not too old, I promise. That was those Narnia books that had that rule (and they were stupid, we read them in class).

Please say something,

—Ellie, age 8

[From "This Is Not A Wardrobe Door"]