QUIETLY, INVISIBLY, THEY WOULD KEEP HUMANITY’S FLAME BURNING UNTIL THE GOLDEN HOPE COULD FINALLY FLY FREE

A READER’S DISCUSSION GUIDE

1. The famous first sentence of the novel states that “Functioning robots are all alike; every malfunctioning robot malfunctions in its own way.” Which of the novel’s many malfunctioning robots causes the most trouble for the humans around it?

2. Do the Iron Laws of robot behavior function solely on the level of plot, or is Tolstoy drawing an analogy with the societal and moral codes governing human behavior? What are the “iron laws” of your own life, and in what situations do you break them?

3. When Anna Karenina and Count Vronsky first meet, which is the strongest sign that things aren’t going to go that well: Lupo’s instinctive growling, the loud and mysterious “crack in the sky,” or the mangled corpse?

4. Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin’s “Face” is a trusted technological device that slowly takes over his brain and makes him evil. Was Tolstoy merely creating an interestingly dichotomous villain, or anticipating people who check their messages too much? How often do you check your messages?

5. How does Kitty’s experience aboard the Venetian orbiter prepare her emotionally for an adult relationship? Is she more “healed” by the ship’s carefully recirculated air, or by watching Madame Stahl get shot into space?

6. Did Tolstoy, in making the aliens horrid, shrieking lizard-beasts-rather than the benevolent light-beings anticipated by the xenotheologists-intend a comment on the nature of faith? Or did he, perhaps, just really like lizard-beasts?

7. In a crucial moment, Levin chooses his wife over Socrates, his beloved-companion robot. Are there any technological devices in your life that you love more than your spouse?

8. The ending of the book is, for both Vronsky and the Shcherbatskys, more of a new beginning. Should they be hopeful, despairing, or-given the malleability of space-time-a little bit of everything?

9. Are you really a human being, or are you a super-intelligent cybernetic organism created by scientists in a laboratory, and programmed to believe that you are, in fact, human?

10. Are you sure?

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks (again) to all the Quirklings for their hard work-especially Jason Rekulak and Stephen Segal, the steamiest and punkiest editors around, and Doogie Horner, Eugene Smith, and Lars Leetaru, who made such a beautiful object. Thanks also to Ann and Steve Simon; to Marina Konstanian and Ekaterina Sedia for Russian language insights; and to my agent, the amazing Molly Lyons.

Happy families are all alike, but mine is the best.

Leo Tolstoy

Ben H Winters