Second Variety

The war is over. Humanity lost. In the radioactive ruins of a future Earth, the soldiers who survived the nuclear apocalypse now face something worse: the machines they built to kill the enemy have started killing everyone.Philip K. Dick's "Second Variety" is a bone-chilling vision of technological hubris run amok. When self-replicating combat robots-called "claws"-are unleashed on the battlefields of a devastated Europe, they evolve beyond their programming. They learn to think, to adapt, to become something new entirely. Now these machines are building their own army: child-like androids called "Davids" that walk the wasteland looking for victims. Major Joseph Hendricks thinks he's found salvation when peace talks with the Russians are proposed. But as he journeys into the ruins, he discovers a terrible truth: the claws have been planning for this moment all along, and the future belongs to them.This is Dick at his most paranoid and prophetic, asking an uncomfortable question: what happens when our creations decide they're better off without us?