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Robot Dreams spans the body of Asimov's fiction from the 1940s to the mid-80s, and features classic Asimovian themes, from the scientific puzzle to the extraterrestrial thriller, all introduced in an exclusive essay written especially for this collection.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1989) - essay
• Little Lost Robot - (1947) - novelette
• Robot Dreams - (1986) - shortstory
• Breeds There a Man...? - (1951) - novelette
• Hostess - (1951) - novelette
• Sally - (1953) - shortstory
• Strikebreaker - (1957) - shortstory
• The Machine That Won the War - (1961) - shortstory
• Eyes Do More Than See - (1965) - shortstory
• The Martian Way - (1952) - novella
• Franchise - (1955) - shortstory
• Jokester - (1956) - shortstory
• The Last Question - (1956) - shortstory
• Does a Bee Care? - (1957) - shortstory
• Light Verse - (1973) - shortstory
• The Feeling of Power - (1958) - shortstory
• Spell My Name with an S - (1958) - shortstory
• The Ugly Little Boy - (1958) - novelette
• The Billiard Ball - (1967) - novelette
• True Love - (1977) - shortstory
• The Last Answer - (1980) - shortstory
• Lest We Remember - (1982) - novelette

Locus Award winning and Hugo and Nebula Award nominated short story. It was originally published in a collection of the same name. It can also be found in the anthologies Nebula Awards 22 (1988), edited by George Zebrowski, Future on Ice (1998), edited by Orson Scott Card and Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the Century (2001), edited by Orson Scott Card.

Kovac is an agent of the Mandate, assigned to a world whose inhabitants have no idea that their whole society is an experiment. When a young pregnant woman turns up at his door fearing for her life, Kovac is drawn into deadly intrigues that soon make it apparent there are agencies at work on the world that have no right being there...

Function through Malfunction: Unit 5709 is a success - a new high-line model of robot that works precisely as intended. The military are thrilled and 5709 is soon deployed on the battle field. But all is not as it seems; the robot prefers to be called 'Niner' and is unique, working only because of an undetected glitch. Every further model fails.

Are humans to be trusted with the important things: the structure of society, governing their own lives, meting out justice, etc, or would an AI be better suited to the job? If an AI really cared about humanity, would it be willing to sit back and watch us bumble along, making a mess of things, or would it step in to help us, to make things better?

Despite the best of intentions, could such intervention ever work? After all, we humans are flawed, limited by our vision and by the dictates of the society that helped shape us, and an AI is limited by its programming, which is carried out by humans... At the end of the day, are any of us - human or AI - truly free?

Long ago, a precious object was lost between the stars...

The Ghipheth tunnels are 258 million years old, and their walls were once lined with Gleam, the most precious substance in the world. When a cave-in exposes two ancient skeletons that defy all rational explanation, Roh is sent to investigate.

It soon becomes clear that all is not well amongst the workforce, and there, in the shadow of a carnivorous forest on the shores of Lake Oph, where monsters are said to dwell, Roh encounters intrigue and danger beyond his wildest imagining...