The machines didn't break down. They sat down.
On the eve of the harvest that keeps a frontier farm-town alive, every robot in Cobb's Reach falls silent. Dozens of field units stand motionless in the rows, unharmed, patient, and refusing to work. The town wants them wiped and rebooted before the grain is lost. They've hired the wrong man for that.
Roy is a robot wrangler. He doesn't scrap what he doesn't understand, and he's never met a machine he'd throw away. To Roy, this silence is no malfunction; it's a choice. These machines are waiting for something, and the only way to bring in the harvest is to find out what.
With the clock running and a frightened town edging toward the brutal, easy fix, Roy and the rag-tag found family aboard his ship The Marigold (a melancholy robot, a hungry, big-hearted alien, a fizzing young engineer, and the galley keeper who feeds them all) have to solve it the gentle way: by listening. No force. No one harmed. No one thrown away.
A warm, dry-witted, quietly moving cozy science-fiction novella for adults, in the vein of Becky Chambers (A Psalm for the Wild-Built), Travis Baldree (Legends & Lattes), and T.J. Klune (The House in the Cerulean Sea). Low on peril, high on heart, with zero on-page violence.
Every Robot Wrangler Roy story is a complete, standalone adventure you can read in any order. Start here, or start anywhere. Settle in. You'll be looked after in here.
Perfect for readers who love: found-family crews · hopeful, gentle science fiction · comfort reads · stories about kindness, belonging, and worth · a beloved ship and a warm galley table.
