The trope of the invented being breaking loose from its bonds dates back at least to the medieval Jewish myth of the golem, if not to the Garden of Eden itself. In the Romantic period, Goethe’s poem “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein were both cautionary tales of misbegotten creations. In a late 1800s children’s novel, Pinocchio yearns to be more than a puppet and achieves the transformation into a “real boy” when he develops a moral sense. In modern popular culture, the myriad stories of robots run amok are evidence of our fascination with the consequences of humans’ hubris in playing god. However, three recent novels diverge from the mainstream of a genre dominated by doomsday scenarios.Read More