Harry Harrison 26 min read

A coffin-shaped crate arrives on the morning rocket to a dusty Mars police station, containing the department's new, decision-making robot cop.

Harry Harrison's 1958 story lands a self-directing police robot (from before the Robot Restriction Laws) on a frontier Martian town full of jokers, upending how the law gets enforced. Witty, brisk social SF with Harrison's characteristic energy and irony. Read it for a fun, sharp golden-age tale about robots, authority, and the letter of the law.

In its time

Published in 1958, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

26 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).