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began to register: leaves rustling, insect noises, the swish of passing cars and the thump of waves on a
beach. Five minutes took him to the edge of the sea.
There was nothing strange about the sand or the sky or the waves, except that he had never expected
to see such things again. But the group of people lying on the beach was alien. It was a subtle alienness
which, Ross now realized, he had been prepared for by the reproductions in his palace  an underlying
greenish tinge to their otherwise normal skin coloring. And even at this distance he could see that the
people sprawling on their brightly colored bath towels might all have been close relatives of Alice&
The implications were too vast for him to grasp all at once. He swallowed a couple of times, then said
simply, "Thank you, Sister."
A silent, invisible globe of force which hovered protectively above his head bobbed once in
acknowledgment. Sister had evaluated the situation and had long ago decided that allowing the Master to
think that all the robots had died would be the kindest thing to do.
Ross walked slowly toward the bathers, knowing somehow that he had nothing to fear. There might
be language difficulties at first, misunderstandings, even unpleasantness, but they did not look like the sort
of people who would hurt anyone simply for being a stranger. They didn't seem& warlike.
They were different, of course, but not much. You wouldn't mind if your sister married one of them.
Come to think of it, he thought, you wouldn't mind marrying one yourself.
About this book:
The last man in a universe of robots.
"Five miles below the surface, Ross was awakened from the deep sleep of suspended animation to
find himself in an empty world. There was no noise, or people, and no motion save for the steady activity
of the hospital robots" (blurb). Ross, the sole survivor of World War Last, must meet up with some other
human beings  even if he's got to create them himself. And, with the hibernation technique and
omnicompetent robots at his command, he eventually does just that. After a fashion. White's most
beautifully fitted piece of work, with this fitting Dedication: "TO PEGGY, who isn't the last girl on Earth,
just the only one."
Synopsis by Graham Andrews.
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