Jerry Sohl 27 min read

A silver needle settles silently to Earth near a wood, and from it slides a man of bright blue metal, a robot who tunes in the thoughts of a bird, and turns his glowing eyes toward the world of men.

Jerry Sohl's 1952 story is a sharp AI-and-first-contact tale. Clever, gripping golden-age SF. Read it for a story where a superbly advanced robot arrives on Earth with unknown purpose, and humanity must reckon with a machine that may be beyond its power to stop, the seventh of its terrible order.

In its time

Published in 1952, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Ed Emshwiller