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Android Karenina

BY LEO TOLSTOY AND BEN H. WINTERS


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Copyright 2010 by Quirk Productions, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form

without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Number: 2010924948

ISBN: 978-1-59474-460-0

Printed in Canada

Typeset in Bembo

Designed by Doogie Horner

Cover illustration by Lars Leetaru

Cover art research courtesy the Bridgeman Art Library International Ltd.

Interior illustrations by Eugene Smith

Production management by John J. McGurk

Distributed in North America by Chronicle Books

680 Second Street

San Francisco, CA 94107

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Quirk Books

215 Church Street

Philadelphia, PA 19106

www.quirkclassics.com

www.irreference.com


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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Amidst all the skaters who hovered electromagnetically atop

the tracks, Kitty was as easy to find as a rose among nettles page 41

She shrouded the light in her eyes, but it shone against her will;

the android, walking behind, glowed a regal indigo page 74

Its time, its time, he said, with a meaningful smile; his

telescoping oculus zoomed in as he entered their bedroom page 123

The quick-moving death machines fanned out, aiming their

bomb-hurlers and echo-cannons at one another page 179

The robots swarmed around himthe Pitbots, the Glowing

Scrubblers, the Extractors; Levin counted forty-two altogether page 202

My God! Vronsky shouted, at last noticing: Anna! You

are floating! page 241

No! he shrieked, and Anna felt her body slammed into the ceiling,

pressure squeezing upon her throat page 266

A girl cannot be wed without the soothful presence of her Class III,

the prince had pleaded page 318

Anna emerged in perambulating togs, her pale and lovely hand

holding the handle of her dainty ladies-size oxygen tank page 328


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Nikolai Dmitrich issued his last gurgling scream before his head

lolled backward at a terrible angle page 361

Twitching, snarling, their massive reptilian heads bubbling with

eyeballs, the aliens poured into the opera house page 396

Vronsky chewed on the ends of his moustache as he barked orders

at his mechanical charges page 427

Knowing the direction this conversation would take, Android Karenina

opened her arms and patted her lap for Lupo page 450

I will punish him, and I will escape from this hateful machine

that I have become page 521

Quietly, invisibly, they would keep humanitys flame burning

until the Golden Hope could finally fly free page 539


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A NOTE ON NAMES

Russian names consist of three parts: the given name, the pat-ronymic (derived from the fathers first name), and the familyname. Often, individuals also go by a nickname. Hence the first character

introduced is Stepan Arkadyich OblonskyStepan is his given name,

Arkadyich the patronymic, and Oblonsky the family name. But the manis often called Stiva, his nickname.

Class I and II robots also use a three-part nomenclature: a Roman

numeral for class type, a function-designation, and an indication of model.

Hence the I/Samovar/1(8) is a Class I device, designed to steep and serve

tea, model number 1(8).

Class III robots are universally known by the nickname bestowed

by their master or mistress.


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MAJOR CHARACTERS IN

ANDROID KARENINA

Stepan Arkadyich Oblonsky (Stiva), a Moscow gentleman

and Small Stiva, Stivas Class III

Darya Alexandrovna Oblonskaya (Dolly), Oblonskys wife

and Dolichka, Dollys Class III

Anna Arkadyevna Karenina, Oblonskys sister

and Android Karenina, Annas Class III

Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin, Annas husband

Sergey Alexeich Karenin(Seryozha), the Karenins young sonKonstantin Dmitrich Levin, Oblonskys old fr iend

and Socrates, Levins Class III

Nikolai Dmitrich Levin, Levins brother

and Karnak, Nikolais Class III

Ekaterina Alexandrovna Shcherbatskaya (Kitty), Dollys sister

and Tatiana, Kittys Class III

Prince Alexander Dmitrievich Shcherbatsky,

Kitty and Dollys father

The Princess Shcherbatskaya, Kitty and Dollys mother

and La Scherbatskaya, the Princesss Class III

Count Alexei KirillovichVronsky, a war hero

and Lupo, Vronskys Class III

Countess Vronsky, Vronskys mother

and Tunisia, the Countesss Class III


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Elizaveta Fyodorovna Tverskaya (Betsy) , Vronskys cousin

and a friend of Anna

and Darling Girl, Betsys Class III

Marya Nikolaevna, Nikolai Levins companion

Madame Stahl, a society woman and prominent xenotheologist

Varenka, a poor girl attached to Madame Stahl

Yashvin, Count Vronskys friend and fellow officer

Vassenka Veslovsky, a gentleman of society


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VENGEANCE IS MINE;

I SHALL REPAY.


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PART ONE: A CRACK IN THE SKY

CHAPTER 1

FUNCTIONING ROBOTS are all alike; every malfunctioningrobot malfunctions in its own way.Everything was in confusion in the Oblonskys house. The wife had

discovered that the husband was carrying on an intrigue with the French

girl who had been a mcaniciennein their family, charged with the mainte-

nance of the households Class I and II robots. Stunned and horrified by

such a discovery, the wife had announced to her husband that she could

not go on living in the same house with him. This position of affairs had

now lasted three days, and not only the husband and wife themselves, but

all the robots in the household were terribly affected by it. The Class IIIs

were keenly aware of their respective masters discomfort, and the ClassIIs sensed in their rudimentary fashion that there was no logic in their

being agglomerated together, and that any stray decoms, junkering in a

shed at the Vladivostok R.P.F., had more in common with one another

than they, the servomechanisms in the household of the Oblonskys.

The wife did not leave her own room; the husband had not been

at home for three days. The II/Governess/D145, its instruction cir-

cuits pitifully mistuned, for three days taught the Oblonsky children in

Armenian instead of French. The usually reliable II/Footman/C(c)43

loudly announced nonexistent visitors at all hours of the day and night.

The children ran wild all over the house. A II/Coachman/47-T drove


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14 ANDROID KARENINA

a sledge directly through the heavy wood of the front doors, destroying

a I/Hourprotector/14 that had been a prized possession of Oblonskys

father.

Three days after the quarrel, Prince Stepan Arkadyich Oblonsky

Stiva, as he was called in the fashionable worldwoke at eight oclock in

the morning, not in his wifes bedroom, but within the oxygen-tempered

Class I comfort unit in his study. He woke as usual to the clangorous

thumpthumpthump of booted robot feet crushing through the snow, as a

regiment of 77s tromped in lockstep along the avenues outside.Our tireless protectors,he thought pleasantly, and uttered a blessing

over the Ministry as he turned over his stout, well-cared-for person,

as though to sink into a long sleep again. He vigorously embraced the

pillow on the other side and buried his face in it; but all at once he

jumped up, banging his rotund forehead against the glass ceiling of the

I/Comfort/6, and opened his eyes.

He suddenly remembered that he was not sleeping in his wifes

room, but in his study, and why: the smile vanished from his face, he

knitted his brows.

Small Stiva, Stepan Arkadyichs Class III companion robot, clomped

happily into the room on his short piston-actuated legs, carrying his mas-

ters boots and a telegram. Stiva, as yet unprepared to undertake the days

obligations, bid his Class III come a bit closer, and then swiftly pressedthree buttons below the rectangular screen centered in Small Stivas mid-

section. He sat back glumly in the I/Comfort/6, while every detail of his

quarrel with his wife was displayed on Small Stivas monitor, illuminating

the hopelessness of Stivas position and, worst of all, his own fault.

Yes, she wont forgive me, and she cant forgive me, Stepan

Arkadyich moaned when the Memory ended. Small Stiva made a con-

soling chirp and piped, Now, master: She might forgive you.

Stiva waved off the words of consolation. The most awful thing

about it is that its all my faultall my fault, though Im not to blame.

Thats the point of the whole situation.


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ANDROID KARENINA 15

Quite right, Small Stiva agreed.

Oh, oh, oh! Stiva moaned in despair, while Small Stiva motored

closer, angled his small, squattish frame 35 degrees forward at the midsec-

tion, and rubbed his domed head in a catlike gesture against his masters

belly. Stepan Arkadyich then re-cued the Memory on the monitor and

stared desolately at the most unpleasant part: the first minute when, on

coming, happy and good-humored, from the theater, with a huge pear in

his hand for his wife, he had found his wife in her bedroom viewing the

unlucky communiquthat revealed everything.She, his Dolly, forever fussing and worrying over household details,

supervising the mcaniciennes, limited in her ideas, had been sitting per-

fectly still while the incriminating communiquplayed on the monitor

of her Class III, Dolichka, and looking at him with an expression of hor-

ror, despair, and indignation. Dolichka, despite the rounded simplicity of

her forms, appeared equally distraught, and her perfectly circular peach-

colored eyes glowed fiercely from her ovoid silver faceplate.

Whats this? Dolly asked, gesturing wildly toward the images dis-

played upon Dolichkas midsection.

Stepan Arkadyich, as is so often the case, was not so much annoyed

at the fact itself as at the way in which he had met his wifes words. What

happened to him at that instant happens to people when they are unex-

pectedly caught in something very disgraceful. He did not succeed inadapting his face to the position in which he was placed toward his wife

by the discovery of his fault. Instead of being hurt, denying, defending

himself, begging forgiveness, instead of remaining indifferent even

anything would have been better than what he did dohis face utterly

involuntarily (reflex spinal action, reflected Stepan Arkadyich, who

from his work at the Ministry understood the simple science of motor

response)utterly involuntarily assumed its habitual, good-humored,

and therefore idiotic smile. Still worse, Small Stiva emitted a nervous,

high-pitched series of chirps, clearly indicating a guilty thought-string.

Dolly shuddered as though at physical pain, broke out with her


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16 ANDROID KARENINA

characteristic heat into a flood of cruel words, and rushed out of the

room, Dolichka springing pneumatically along behind her. Since then,

Dolly had refused to see her husband.

But whats to be done? Whats to be done? he said to Small Stiva

in despair, but the little Class III had no answer.

CHAPTER 2

STEPAN ARKADYICH was a truthful man in his relations withhimself. He wasnt the type to tell small, self-consoling lies to hisClass III, and Small Stiva was programmed to console, but not to offer

or confirm dishonest impressions. So Stiva was incapable of pretending

that he repented of his conduct, either to himself or to his Class III. He

could not at this date repent of the fact that he, a handsome, susceptible

man of thirty-four, was not in love with his wife, the mother of five

living and two dead children, and only a year younger than himself. All

he repented of was that he had not succeeded better in hiding it from his

wife. But he felt all the difficulty of his position and was sorry for his wife,

his children, and himself. Possibly he might have managed to concealhis sins better from his wife if he had anticipated that the knowledge of

them would have had such an effect on her. He had vaguely conceived

that his wife must long ago have suspected him of being unfaithful to her,

and shut her eyes to the fact. He had even supposed that she, a worn-out

woman no longer young or good-looking, and in no way remarkable

or interesting, merely a good mother, ought from a sense of fairness to

take an indulgent view. It had turned out quite the other way.

He idly activated the Galena Box, praying the gentle fluttering of

the Class I devices thinly hammered groznium panels would have their

usual salutary effect on his disposition.


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Q U I R K C L A S S I C S

Quirk Books, which released the best-sellingPride and Prejudice and Zombies, has seen the

future of the mash-up novel, and it is Leo Tolstoy

and robots.

The New York Times

Its been called the greatest novel ever written. Now, Tolstoys timeless

saga of love and betrayal is transported to an awesomerversion of 19th-

century Russia. It is a world humming with high-powered groznium engines:

where debutantes dance the 3D waltz in midair, mechanical wolves charge

into battle alongside brave young soldiers, and robotsmiraculous, beloved

robots!are the faithful companions of everyone whos anyone. Restless to

forge her own destiny in this fantastic modern life, the bold noblewoman

Anna and her enigmatic Android Karenina abandon a loveless marriage to

seize passion with the daring, handsome Count Vronsky. But when their

scandalous affair gets mixed up with dangerous futuristic villainy, the ensuing

chaos threatens to rip apart their lives, their families, andjust maybeall of

planet Earth.

LEO TOLSTOY, the author ofWar and Peace, has been called the most

brilliant master of realistic fiction in all literary history. He lived in Russia.

BEN H. WINTERS collaborated with Jane Austen on the New York Times

best sellerSense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. He lives in Brooklyn.

www irreference com

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