Second Variety

Across a landscape of ash and ruined buildings, small machines patrol the ground while soldiers shelter in bunkers. Philip K. Dick's 1953 science fiction story begins when a Russian messenger approaches a UN position with a request for urgent talks. Major Hendricks sets out for the opposing lines, relying on a wrist device that keeps the mechanical weapons called claws from attacking him. The men who depend on these inventions are already uneasy about what they have made.

The danger changes when machines can imitate people. In cramped quarters, Hendricks encounters Klaus, Rudi and Tasso, whose attempts to identify the different robot varieties turn ordinary conversation into accusation. Suspicion becomes another threat to people trying to survive the fighting. Second Variety combines a devastated battlefield with the uncertainty of judging another person's identity. Its tightly confined scenes give readers a way to consider automated weapons, misplaced confidence in technology and the damage fear does to trust.