John Victor Peterson 40 min read

A tiny chubby robot, its rubberoid face twisted with loneliness, stands stiff in a dark old mansion, while across the Martian city, an ominous song of discontent rises against the ancient walls.

John Victor Peterson's 1941 story is an atmospheric AI-and-space-opera tale of unrest on Mars. Vivid, moody golden-age pulp. Read it for a colorful pulp yarn where a lonely little robot and a brewing Martian uprising set the stage for danger and intrigue around the Earth Embassy.

In its time

Published in 1941, during the 1940s, the golden age begins.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

John R. Forte