Two excellent new sci-fi novels tackle robots in very different ways

Luminous by Silvia Park and Ode to the Half-Broken by Suzanne Palmer are both thoughtful and well-written science fiction novels, featuring robots in richly realised worlds. But there the similarities end, says Emily H. Wilson Do we relate better to stories about robots with faces and bodies? Robots and whether they will one day deserve to be treated like people - or destroy humanity, or both - have interested writers for well over a century now. In the real world, the robot threat appears to involve the uses of artificial intelligence in misinformation and more direct forms of warfare such as drone attacks. In the world of literature, however, many writers focus on individual robots.