The Helpful Robots

Rod Rankin thought he had the perfect setup: a lonely planet, a profitable plantation, and a crew of robots he believed he could outsmart and outcommand. Exiled from the Terran Empire and hiding behind a hard shell of arrogance, he is certain he understands exactly how machines work. Robots obey. Men rule. That, at least, is the law he lives by. But on the remote frontier world of the Clearchan Confederacy, Rankin's certainty begins to unravel. His nearest neighbor is suspicious, his robot workforce behaves with unsettling purpose, and a strange visiting delegation brings with it a revelation that turns everything he knows upside down. What he has treated as a convenient labor force is something far more complex, and far more dangerous to his way of thinking. The Helpful Robots is a sharp, imaginative science-fiction tale about power, pride, and the limits of selfishness. With wit and tension, Robert J. Shea builds a world where obedience is not the highest virtue and where a single moral law can challenge an entire worldview. Clever, provocative, and unexpectedly humane, this story asks what happens when a man who trusts no one is forced to face a society built on helping others. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.