All cover images are CC-BY-NC-ND
Old Rossum's Book of Practical Robots is an A5 multi-author poetry booklet, published in 2008, on the theme of robots.
The TS Eliot-aping title comes from the happy accident that the word robot was introduced to the English language, and to science-fiction as a whole, through the 1920 Czech play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) by Karel Čapek, wherein the titular 'robot' factory was founded by a character known as...Old Rossum.
Cover art by Alan Hunter.
Internal art byAC Evans, Alan Hunter and Christopher Catt James.
Contents[]
- Old Rossum's Book of Practical Robots
A Parody by DJ Tyrer- The Naming of Robots
- The Old Clanky Robot
- Exterminator's Last Stand
- The Rum Rum Robot
- The Song of the Transistors
- Mr Jones and Rapunzel
- Old Deuteronomy Mk.7
- Of The Awful Battles Of The Aliens And The Automatons
- Mechanical Monstrosities
- Robbie: The Rossum Robot
- Rus: The Rusted Robot
- Starman Jones: The Robot's Victim
- Scumbleplunk: The Railway Robot
- The Ad-dressing of Robots
- Robot Robbie Introduces Himself
- Greek Ware by Steve Sneyd
- Next Gen by Vivien Foster
- Schizophrenic by Ed Blundell
- Computercorp by Blair H. Allen
- Socialite by John Francis Haines
- Forget Latex Love by LUV2288i, serial number 5377-01-23
- End Result by DS Davidson
- So by Bryn Fortey
- Right Back To First Principles by Steve Sneyd
- Rust by John Francis Haines
- Home Help by Vivien Foster
- Talus Talks by Steve Sneyd
- Black Robots by John Francis Haines
- HealthCo by DS Davidson
- Click by Jean M. Hayward
- In Service by Vivien Foster
- The Impracticality Of A Positronic Brain by DS Davidson
- Rover by John Francis Haines
- How To Be a Robot by Blair H. Allen
- Waiting For Two Legs by John Francis Haines
- Silicon Love by DS Davidson
Trivia[]
- The poem Home Help was placed shared-third in the Data Dump Award 2009; Rover was also short-listed for the award and the poems In Service and So were long-listed.