The words shook him from his reverie. ‘Affirmative,’ he replied, banking his craft once more. The silver ship moved smoothly alongside him, and Cha-Lo-Ell-Curriah picked out more details on it. White flashes marked with strange red symbols. Tiny little pits in the metal skin. And there, at the front, a transparent section: the cockpit.
Who was flying this ship?
Cha-Lo-Ell-Curriah opened the throttle to its fullest extent, his craft slid slowly forward along the great silver length, his enhanced eyes peering across at the cockpit.
He saw a figure in there, looking back at him. The figure appeared to be waving to him. He turned his eyes up to their fullest extent, and felt his gyros lurch.
The figure in the ship. It wasn’t a robot.
It was organic.
It was an animal.
Praise for Twisted Metal
‘Written in a deceptively simple style, Twisted Metal is not only highly readable, but surprisingly thoughtful. Ballantyne’s creation of a world of robots allows him to focus on the beliefs that we humans have about ourselves from an entertainingly different perspective’
The Times
‘Ballantyne’s fourth novel is an original work with a distinctive voice. It works not only as a thrilling action adventure, but as a thought experiment exploring free will, independence and totalitarianism’
Guardian
‘An oddly fashioned yet brilliantly written fable that’s also a genuinely harrowing read . . . A weird and truly unsettling allegory of genetic inheritance, nationalism, religion and sheer barbaric cruelty of war . . . An affecting, powerful and deeply relevant work of science fiction’
SFX
‘Full blooded fantasy . . . An engaging adventure’
DeathRay
‘Edgy, kinetic, and creative’
SciFiNow
‘In SF there are plenty of books that contain AI and the singularity, but I’ve not come across any that read like Twisted Metal – a book that focuses on robots as a culture, exploring their story. Tony Ballantyne has very successfully created a complete society of robot kind that can very easily be compared to a human society. It’s a very effective take on the idea that works exceptionally well’
‘Walker of Worlds’ blog
‘Twisted Metal is every bit as twisted as its predecessors, and is in fact very much a part of Ballantyne’s master plan to upend our understanding of so-called “cyberpunk”. Like Recursion, Twisted Metal takes simple building blocks and puts them together in a very unexpected manner. Ballantyne’s a super-smart writer, providing reading satisfaction at a visceral, blow-em-up level and at an intellectual, sense-of-wonder level’
Rick Kleffel’s ‘The Agony Column’ blog
‘Ballantyne’s slow and steady doling out of facts and scenery builds up a world and ideologies that are worth the read and give you plenty to think about. When you add a hefty dose of action to the mix (which Ballantyne certainly does!) then you have a story that rockets along to a heady finish. Ballantyne has a great time sending opposing robots up against each other and he does this with great panache, leaving no diode un-wrenched in scenes of full on robot warfare’
‘Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review’ blog
TWISTED METAL
Tony Ballantyne lives in Oldham with his wife and two children. He is the author of the Recursion trilogy, as well as many acclaimed short stories that have been published in magazines and anthologies around the world. With this, his fourth novel, he begins an exciting new series.
You can find out more about the author at his website: www.tonyballantyne.com
Also by Tony Ballantyne
RECURSION TRILOGY
Recursion
Capacity
Divergence
For
Laura, Sophie, Laura
Ben and James
From The Song of Hiawatha
Ye whose hearts are fresh and simple,
Who have faith in God and Nature,
Who believe, that in all ages
Every human heart is human,
That in even savage bosoms
There are longings, yearnings, strivings
For the good they comprehend not,
That the feeble hands and helpless
Groping blindly in the darkness
Touch God’s right hand in that darkness,
And are lifted up and strengthened,
Listen to this simple story . . .
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
First published 2009 by Tor
This edition published 2010 by Tor
This electronic edition published 2010 by Tor
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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ISBN 978-0-330-52826-9 PDF
ISBN 978-0-330-52825-2 EPUB
Copyright © Tony Ballantyne
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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