Mockingbird

Nebula Award nominee 1980, Ditmar Award nominee 1981.

In a dying world where humans are drugged and lulled by electronic bliss, where there is no art, no literature, and there are no children, where some would rather burn themselves alive than endure, Spofforth is the most perfect machine ever created.

But his only desire is the impossible - to cease to be. Yet there is hope in this bleak, depressing time, hope in the passion and joy that a man and a woman discover in love and in books, hope for the future, hope even for Spofforth.