Supertoys last all summer long

The title story, Supertoys Last All Summer Long, soon to be a major film directed
by Steven Spielberg, tells of a young boy who, whatever he does, cannot please his
mother. He is puzzled by this, not realising that he is an android, a cunning construct
of artificial intelligence - as is his one ally, his teddy bear. It was a story
that hugely affected Stanley Kubrick (director of 2001) and Steven Spielberg (who
perhaps saw in his forthcoming movie AI (Artificial Intelligence) a complement to
his ET!). The other stories in the collection, whether SF, utopian fantasy or dark
fable show a master writer at the peak of his considerable powers.