Isaac Asimov 26 min read

A century of uneasy peace has held so long that no one would know how to react if war finally came, and the Chief of Robotics can scarcely believe the news the young Security man brings.

Isaac Asimov's 1957 story is a taut Cold War tale of robots, infiltration, and a Us-versus-Them standoff. Sharp, clever golden-age SF from a master. Read it for a gripping story about a hidden threat, ingenious machines, and a chilling proposal to break a hundred-year deadlock.

In its time

Published in 1957, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Robert Engle