
Part 1
Part 2
In a glittering 23rd‑century New York, operatic android Isolde steps off the production line with flawless voice tapes of Kirsten Flagstad and a perfect Wagnerian build. After a triumphant debut at the Metropolitanette, she is quietly deactivated and stored alongside the other characters from the great opera, awaiting a future that seems set in stone.
Beneath the sleek façade of the city, a shadowy black market thrives, where a smooth‑talking hustler named Hans Becker and a night watchman plot to steal the prized android. They arrange for a covert “conversion,” stripping Isolde of her stage costume and repurposing her for domestic chores—yet leaving her priceless voice untouched. As the illicit scheme unfolds, listeners are drawn into a neon‑lit world where art, technology, and greed collide, and an elegant machine begins an unexpected journey far from the opera house.
Language
en
Duration
~34 minutes (33K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Original publisher
United States: Great American Publications, Inc., 1960.
Credits
Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
Mar 6, 2023
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1915–1986
Best known for warm, imaginative science fiction, this American writer built a loyal following with stories that mixed wonder, romance, and gentle irony. His work appeared widely in the great era of pulp and digest magazines, and several of his stories were later gathered into novels and collections.
View all books
by Robert F. Young

by Robert F. Young

by Robert F. Young

by Robert F. Young

by Robert F. Young

by Robert F. Young

by Robert F. Young

by Robert F. Young