Speaking of robots, Tim Major’s short-story collection Great Robots Of History (Black Shuck Books, £11.99 ... the mythical bronze giant built by the god Hephaestus; and Ask and Embla who ...

When you start reading a new book by Frank Cottrell-Boyce ... He comes across a discarded giant robot called Eric, stuffed onto one of the shelves. Science fiction writer Emma Newman, of the ...