When a Robot Decides to Die and Other Stories

A manufactured and pre-programmed serial killer; a suicidal robot; a romantic necrophiliac; and an archaeologist who feeds the perverse desires of aficionados of the apocalypse-Francisco Garcia Gonzalez’s stories map out literary and metafictional approaches to the sci-fi universe in ways that echo the humor and violence of Miguel de Cervantes, Maria de Zayas, Jorge Luis Borges, Rosa Montero, and Roberto BolaNo.

With a scholarly introduction by translator Bradley J. Nelson that introduces Garcia Gonzalez’s oeuvre to contemporary readers and scholars of Spanish-language literature, this science fiction collection introduces Anglophones to this unique author.

Garcia Gonzalez turns a black mirror on contemporary society and its relation both to history and to the future. His insightfulness and relevance draw comparisons with Margaret Atwood, Neal Stephenson, and China Mieville, though his verbal economy and elegance are more akin to Cormac McCarthy, producing both disturbingly uncanny violence and unexpected comedy.