W. T. Haggert 31 min read

A man who loves his work is the happiest of all, but what happens when the work loves him back? Jobless and nearly broke, Peter Manners faces an employer who has rejected every applicant sent to him.

W. T. Haggert's 1959 story spins a sharp AI-and-social-SF tale from a factory whose nature is not what it seems. Clever, unsettling golden-age SF. Read it for a story where a desperate job interview opens onto a disquieting question about machines that can care.

In its time

Published in 1959, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Wallace Wood