S. M. Tenneshaw 7 min read

They quarreled at breakfast, as they often did, but on the way to the office he realizes she is the only one left, this rich, friendless man who drove everyone away, and now has only Dolores.

S. M. Tenneshaw's 1956 story is a sharp AI-and-social-SF tale of loneliness. Clever, pointed golden-age SF. Read it for a story where a wealthy, insufferable man who has alienated every human being clings to his last remaining companion, and the obedient servant of the title proves an unsettling comfort.

In its time

Published in 1956, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

W. E. Terry