Richard Stockham 24 min read

All along the line, the workers' hands spin like spiders' legs, never looking up or speaking or laughing, until one man makes a mistake, and a trouble-shooter instantly takes his place.

Richard Stockham's 1954 story is a bleak, atmospheric post-apocalyptic and social-SF tale of dehumanized labor. Sharp, unsettling golden-age SF. Read it for a story where a single flicker of individuality on a soulless assembly line hints at a deeper reckoning.

In its time

Published in 1954, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

24 min read (a short story, a single idea, delivered and gone).

Illustrated by

Kelly Freas