The Mechanoid Cries Within

The Mechanoid Cries Within is a 2019 science fiction novelette by Brock T.I. Penner. The cover art was done by Pete Linforth. It was independently published by the author on September 4, 2019. The Mechanoid Cries Within is available for free by signing up for the author’s newsletter. The plot synopsis is as follows:

"RJ-A4A, a sentient and once free mechanoid finds himself kidnapped and sold into slavery to a wrathful owner, Davis. Surrounded by a wasteland of razorsand and rednecks who would torture him with glad, he spends his days toiling on Davis’s farm. RJ develops a bond with Davis’s lonely son, Lucien and his human-appearing mechanoid caretaker, AN. Out of desperation, he concocts a plan to escape the farm, the planet and slavery itself. All it would take is to manipulate AN and the boy into doing what he wants."

I found the premise of the story very interesting when it was first brought to my attention. Robots, androids and cyborgs in science fiction are nothing new, but very rarely do we see sci-fi stories being told from the robot’s perspective. Usually, the perspective comes from either humans, or an alien race substituting for humans, and robots are either side characters, happy to serve humanity, or villains trying to end humanity. Very few stories show the robot’s perspective or depict a nuanced view of humanity from said robot. RJ doesn’t hate humanity, he doesn’t want to wipe humanity out or enslave them, he just wants to be free. He wants his freedom and for his intelligence to be acknowledged as more than just lines of computer code.

The Mechanoid Cries Within is a story with a lot of potential. The premise is interesting, the three core characters, RJ, AN and Lucien, are compelling. I also enjoyed the smaller-scale story being told. The setting is contained solely to Davis’s farm, the stakes are, by all accounts, very low but the conflict makes it feel bigger. While there’s a lot of potential, the execution is fairly average. I found it difficult to follow in some places, needing to go back and reread to understand what was going on. I think this issue comes from there not being a clear separation between past and present. The story is mostly framed as RJ being forced to retell the story of something that happened, which makes the transition back and forth a little jarring. I feel like there are elements that would work better if the story was a little bit longer and more fleshed out. The word count is roughly 9,500 words, which is a very low word count for a completed story.

The Mechanoid Cries Within is a story I’d recommend it to a science fiction fan, looking for something quick to read.

Rating: 3.4 stars