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The situation bore an alarming resemblance to the classic Gothic situation. But since it was taking place on the planet Esmeralda in the Barnum system, there wee differences.

There was a disputed inheritance--an interplanetary robot-making business. There was the uncle who had taken charge, a cyborg now, fifty per cent human, fifty per cent machine, and on hundred per cent smiling deceit. There was the innocnet young heir, the boy, Tad, in the clutches of this uncle and his sinister household. Even the weather was foggy and gloomy, and Tad could find no friend to help him from what seemed certain doom.

That is until he stumbled across the wreckage of the family's greatest engineering triumph, the super-robot Electro. With nothing better to do, he secretly repatied it. And then, once Electro was on his feet and ticking electonically away, wicked cybord uncle--watch out!

This short story originally appeared in Lightspeed, December 2016.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

In a small Midwestern town, two Asian American boys bond over their outcast status and a mutual love of comic books. Meanwhile, in an alternative or perhaps future universe, a team of superheroes ponder modern society during their time off. Between black-ops missions and rescuing hostages, they swap stories of artistic malaise and muse on the seemingly inescapable grip of market economics.

Gleefully toying with the conventions of the novel, Dear Cyborgs weaves together the story of a friendship's dissolution with a provocative and timely meditation on protest. Through a series of linked monologues, a lively cast of characters explores narratives of resistance--protest art, eco-terrorists, Occupy squatters, pyromaniacal militants--and the extent to which any of these can truly withstand and influence the cold demands of contemporary capitalism. All the while, a mysterious cybernetic book of clairvoyance beckons, and trusted allies start to disappear.

Entwining comic-book villains with cultural critiques, Eugene Lim's Dear Cyborgs is a fleet-footed literary exploration of power, friendship, and creativity. Ambitious and knowing, it combines detective pulps, subversive philosophy, and Hollywood chase scenes, unfolding like the composites and revelations of a dream.

He was a wonder of scientific perfection-- but it was lonely as hell at the top. All the resources of NASA, the Pentagon, and Government Money put the pieces of Lt. Col. Steve Austin's shattered body back together again. He came out of it more perfect than human. Better than new. A deadly, unstoppable weapon. Now all he needed was to find some human emotion in the tangle of plastic, wire and atomic metal that was fused to the remains of his flesh. Basis for The Six Million Dollar Man.

When Steve Austin, astronaut, crashed from the skies, he woke to find himself a fragment of a man -- no legs, one arm, one eye. But Science rebuilt his body, giving him physica powers no other man possessed.

Now, the world is threatened by a syndicate that sells nuclear destruction to the highest bidder. And Steve Austin who, from the moon, saw the Earth as fragile and precious, is the one man who can save that world from the ultimate blackmail of our times.

BEYOND AURORA AWAITS A BRAVE NEW WORLD... OF ROBOTS

A man without memory, trapped in a city of robots gone wild. At his side, a mysterious woman who claims to know who he is, but who refuses to tell him. Together, they must find an insane cyborg stalking the streets of Robot City, a time bomb indistinguishable from ordinary robots.

The young man's name is Derec. The indentity of his female companion and the location of the cyborg are just tow of the mysteries he must solve within the fantastic confines of a most unlikely metropolis.

Jefferson Kopal, the privileged son of a wealthy family, knows he is a coward and a failure. He dreads appearing for and then barely passes the Space Navy test to qualify for service as an officer--something that has been an integral part of his family's tradition.

He is assigned to the remote Border Command by the Navy and eventually to a ship commanded by Captain Dufferin, who hates everything that the Kopal family stands for.

But when he is abandoned by his Captain and the rest of the crew, left for dead and possibly framed as a traitor, he must find his inner courage and resolve, not only to save himself, but to save his world as well.

MAN-SHIP!

Never before has there been a bionic man like Steve Austin-his human capabilities enhanced by the superb electronic reconstruction of his body. Never before could there be such an aeronautic experiment plugging the perceptions of a man into the controls of a space ship. When the ship rolls, it is Steve Austin rolling in space. When cosmic rays hit the plane's shell, Steve feels them as though they were pelting his own skin. Dangerous! Terrifying! But Steve must accept the challenge to outmaneuver an enemy in the race for space supremacy.

The Star Hawks, those intrepid guardians of interplanetary low, have a problem. In the name of peace, their chief scientist invented Braintrust, the most powerful computer in the galaxy. But now Braintrust is in the greedy metallic hands of Jigsaw, a cyborg with delusions of grandeur.

Jigsaw wants to rule the world--and two puny humans and a robot dog will nto stop him. Unfortunately, Rex, Chavez and Sniffer are ordered to stop him. They face being out-smarted, beatne up and generally dismembered.

But out adventurous heroes ought to be able to overcome such minor annoyances....

The cyborg code-named "Slant" was sent out as an Independent Reconnaissance Unit during an interstellar war between Earth and its colonies. The fighting ended three hundred years ago, but Slant's computer does not admit this -- he is compelled to carry on as if the war were still raging.

Then he comes across a planet where his sensors register "gravitational anomalies." The computer interprets these as enemy weapons research.

The local inhabitants call the anomalies ''magic.''