R. J. Rice 15 min read

One of the last hand-made robots of the Rotulian era, fabulous where the slip-shod modern machines merely prance in sport coats and feathered hats, the old robot has one peculiar trait: he hoards.

R. J. Rice's 1958 story is a wry, gentle AI-and-social-SF tale. Clever, charming golden-age SF. Read it for a genial story of a superbly made antique robot amid a gaudy, shoddy modern world, whose strange miserliness sets him apart and drives a warm and unexpected little drama.

In its time

Published in 1958, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Becker