Daniel F. Galouye 1 hr 41 min read

'It will be our most important trouble-shooting mission to date,' the Bureau director understates, sending his team after a fleet of exploration robots that have somehow gone rogue.

Daniel F. Galouye's 1963 story is a clever AI-and-space-opera tale of remote-controlled probes turned unruly. Sharp, inventive golden-age SF. Read it for a rousing story where humanity's robotic explorers, the 'telepuppets,' slip their leashes and must be brought back to heel.

In its time

Published in 1963, during the 1960s, new wave revolutionizes the genre.

Reading it

1 hr 41 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).

Illustrated by

Lloyd Birmingham