Robert SheckleyBesprekingen

Possibly the funniest of Sheckley's books, but also (at the time) incredibly original. I reread it after 30 years and found it as entertaining as when I read it for the first time.

I can see why [b:Dimension of Miracles|668634|Dimension of Miracles (Dimension of Miracles #1)|Robert Sheckley|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1331708621l/668634._SY75_.jpg|189844], first published in 1968, is referred to as a precursor of [b:The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy|161493|The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide, #1)|Douglas Adams|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1454513259l/161493._SY75_.jpg|3078186]. Both feature Some Guy from Earth going on a picaresque and dangerous adventure across outer space, where he meets planetary terraformers, bureaucrats, and chatty AIs. Sheckley's version is weaker on the characterisation than that of Douglas Adams, instead featuring more existential musings. Both are very funny, despite [b:Dimension of Miracles|668634|Dimension of Miracles (Dimension of Miracles #1)|Robert Sheckley|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1331708621l/668634._SY75_.jpg|189844] featuring a genuinely chilling predator hunting the protagonist Carmody. The creepiest moment was when it disguised itself as a subway station. The dialogue is great:

"I never thought of it that way," Carmody said politely enough. But he was beginning to grow annoyed at the glib civil servants of Galactic Centre. They had an answer for everything; but the fact was, they simply didn't do their jobs very well, and they blamed their failures on cosmic conditions.
"Well, yes, that's also true," the Clerk said. "Your point (I took the liberty of reading your mind) is well made."

I also appreciated this creation myth:

A tall bearded old man with piercing eyes had come to me and ordered a planet. (That was how your planet began, Carmody.) Well, I did the job quickly, in six days I believe, and thought that would be the end of it. It was another of those budget planets, and I had cut a few corners here and there. But to hear the owner complain, you'd have thought I'd stolen the eyes out of his head.
"Why are there so many tornadoes?" he asked. "It's part of the atmospheric circulation system," I told him. (Actually, I had been a little rushed at that time; I had forgotten to put in an air-circulation overload valve.)
"Three-quarters of the place is water!" he told me. "And I clearly specified a four-to-one land-to-water ratio!"
"Well, we couldn't do it that way!" I told him. (I had lost his ridiculous specifications; I never can keep track of these absurd little one-planet projects.)
"And you've filled what little land you gave me with deserts and swamps and jungles and mountains."
"It's scenic," I pointed out.

I found [b:Dimension of Miracles|668634|Dimension of Miracles (Dimension of Miracles #1)|Robert Sheckley|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1331708621l/668634._SY75_.jpg|189844] a quick, fun read with a philosophical bent. The characters aren't as memorable as [b:The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy|161493|The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide, #1)|Douglas Adams|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1454513259l/161493._SY75_.jpg|3078186]'s, but the situations are equally madcap. I'm not convinced about the ending, though.

One will find the stories quite discontinuous in quality and tone, but the good ones are true masterpieces of the genre.
One of them is, possibly, the most uplifting sci-fi story ever. Imagine that Gene Roddenberry and [a:Adrian Tchaikovsky|1445909|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1282303363p2/1445909.jpg] of [b:Children of Time|25499718|Children of Time (Children of Time, #1)|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1431014197l/25499718._SY75_.jpg|45276208] fame have a literary child, and you will get an idea of it. Imagine an eco-system galaxy where every species is interconnected to the other. Imagine keeping your identity without any need to be ever isolated or misunderstood or scared anymore. One cannot but put down the story and start day-dreaming.
Writing the review few months after finishing the listen, few other stories come to mind. The title one, classic comedic sci-fi, presents quite the lame ending; however, the description of the various life-forms in the storage building is mind bending enough to lure one back again and again to the story. Sheckley had indeniably a wild imagination.
The best title, however, is the first one. It would be difficult to find modern, "woke" sci-fi able to describe in the same, poignant way the point of view of the irreducible other.
Worth listening to, although the thick accent of Master Sheckley himself reading one of the stories made it next to impossible to understand the plot for this poor, ignorant, tone deaf foreigner; in general, the readers did a decent job.

Written in 1971, this is a clever wish/curse story with an interesting premise and punchline ending.

A collection of science fiction short stories, written from the early fifties through the late sixties. Very enjoyable stories and recommended for fans of the genre. It's interesting to note the stylistic changes in the writing over the years.

One will find the stories quite discontinuous in quality and tone, but the good ones are true masterpieces of the genre.
One of them is, possibly, the most uplifting sci-fi story ever. Imagine that Gene Roddenberry and [a:Adrian Tchaikovsky|1445909|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1282303363p2/1445909.jpg] of [b:Children of Time|25499718|Children of Time (Children of Time, #1)|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1431014197l/25499718._SY75_.jpg|45276208] fame have a literary child, and you will get an idea of it. Imagine an eco-system galaxy where every species is interconnected to the other. Imagine keeping your identity without any need to be ever isolated or misunderstood or scared anymore. One cannot but put down the story and start day-dreaming.
Writing the review few months after finishing the listen, few other stories come to mind. The title one, classic comedic sci-fi, presents quite the lame ending; however, the description of the various life-forms in the storage building is mind bending enough to lure one back again and again to the story. Sheckley had indeniably a wild imagination.
The best title, however, is the first one. It would be difficult to find modern, "woke" sci-fi able to describe in the same, poignant way the point of view of the irreducible other.
Worth listening to, although the thick accent of Master Sheckley himself reading one of the stories made it next to impossible to understand the plot for this poor, ignorant, tone deaf foreigner; in general, the readers did a decent job.

I am generally not a lover of short stories. I find that they tend to either be half baked ideas or stories that try to do too much in too littler space. Sheckley has found a good balance, however, that keeps each of his stories interesting without dragging. Though these are not masterfully written, the ideas they present are interesting and well worth discussing. I have and will continue to recommend this book to friends, but only those with a penchant for science fiction and a love of the dry humor that made Douglas Adams famous.

F/SF

F/SF

A worthless adventure parody. Not much else to say really. The prose is sufficient, but the story has absolutely no value. Trust me.

A vintage paperback, collecting ten stories (in the UK edition) from the early to mid-1950s. Indeed, reading a slender A-format paperback (only 125 pages) was a pleasure in itself when compared with the somewhat inflated B-format books now so commonplace. I read through this in three sittings in the course of one day.

Sheckley was a master of the short form; I visualised some of these stories as Twilight Zone episodes, and indeed The Altar almost played itself out for me in black-and-white! Cost of Living has a timely warning on consumer debt.

A couple of the stories betray their age in their attitudes to women, but even then Sheckley undermines even a modern reader's expectations by giving female characters agency in sometimes surprising ways.

The title story is a classic where two spaceship pilots running short of supplies find themselves stranded in an alien warehouse full of food they cannot eat, with labels like "VIGROOM - FILLS ALL YOUR STOMACHS AND FILLS THEM RIGHT!" and "VORMITASH - AS GOOD AS IT SOUNDS!".

Perhaps the stand-out story for me was Watchbird, where robot birds are deployed to predict murderous intent and prevent the crimes happening (a theme familiar from the "Precrime" in Philip Dick's 1956 novella - and [much] later film - Minority Report). But the robot birds have "learning circuits" and begin to learn human behaviour too well. This story could be almost contemporary - change some of the vocabulary to include the words "AI", "algorithm" and "drone", and a modern reader wouldn't turn a hair.

The collection ends with another classic, The Seventh Victim.

Many of the best of these stories have been reprinted since in other collections. but this is worth acquiring if you see a copy. And frankly, any Robert Sheckley is worth acquiring.½

A collection of the short fiction of Robert Sheckley, all of which appeared in the science fiction magazines of the 1950s. None are particularly memorable; all have some kind of twist, sometimes quite predictable, and a tone of wry humour.

The eponymous story is probably the weakest. It uses the idea, novel at the time, of a race where the prize is an acre of land in an overpopulated Earth. The goal is to reach the land registry office in New York which is supposedly a densely packed criminal underworld - as per the 1970s 'Escape to New York' starring Kurt Russell - but in the event is more like a pantomine landscape complete with heart-of-gold bandit chief's daughters. The final twist is probably the best part of the story.

One of the better stories, 'Restricted Area', tips over into fantasy but is quite amusing. There are three connected tales concerning the misadventures of two old friends who have set up a planetary decontamination business: two stories are about what happens when one of them buys an odd alien gadget, and the last is how they set out to decontaminate a planet which has a reputation for ghosts. Overall, a 2-star rating as nothing held my interest very well.

Libro assurdo e noioso. Non ho mai letto niente di Sheckley ma dopo questa prima lettura credo che non andrò oltre

Another free story from Gutenberg - this one dating from 1953. I'm not big on the premise, but the aliens sure are alien - big props to the authour for both them and the aliens being interesting.

4.5

Not typically the sort of writing I go out for but I can't think of another occasion where I have found an extensive collection such as this to be so consistently entertaining. Bar one or two stories, nearly every entry hit the spot in combining compelling ideas, tight writing, and witty social satire. Sheckley writes well and this is a highly readable and entertaining collection with commentary that still feels relevant; generally, I think I softened to his style more and more as I went along. I will likely check out one of his novels to see how he fares with the longer format.

Un hombre despierta sin ningún recuerdo sobre su pasado en un planeta prisión acusado de asesinato. La esperanza de vida en el planeta son tres años y la única manera de ascender de clase social es el crimen y el delito. Un planeta donde se adora al Demonio en la Iglesia y donde el consumo de drogas es obligatorio por ley.
Esta es una novela que nos muestra una sociedad totalmente contraria a la que conocemos, hecha por y para delincuentes y donde lo que se premia es ir contra las normas.

Sheckley se ha destacado siempre, sobre la masa de los autores de ciencia-ficción por su brillante, y a veces incluso alocada, imaginación, por sus personajes y por su estilo literario, que realmente superior a la media. Y se necesita un valor como el que él tiene para proyectarse más allá de las lejanas y solitarias fronteras de
lo conocido por el hombre. Por fortuna para nosotros, siempre regresa indemne de tales exploraciones, trayéndonos un rico cargamento de datos e informaciones para nuestro placer, asombro e ilustración.
Y, en caso de que alguna de las predicciones contenidas en esta antología de relatos le haga dudar e incluso echarse atrás ante lo inédito de la idea, piense en una cosa: el futuro no se le va a presentar de repente….llegará reptando, y estará alrededor de usted antes de que se haya dado cuenta.

Esta novela describe un futuro cercano en el cual la manera más barata de viajar por el universo consiste en intercambiar el cuerpo con un ser de otro planeta: el trueque permite pasar unas vacaciones en otro mundo, viviendo en el cuerpo de un nativo. Pero no todos los participantes en el trueque juegan limpio y a veces la recuperación del propio cuerpo y el regreso al propio mundo se convierten en una verdadera odisea.

paperback

Dos hombres se encuentran solos en un velero inmovilizado por la bonanza en el Mar de los Sargazos, a medio camino entre St. Thomas, de donde ha partido, y las Bermudas. Uno es un viejo lobo de mar, duro y astuto, el otro un joven sin carácter, débil y pusilánime que sólo aspira a demostrar que no es una nulidad.
Su problema consiste en cómo demostrarlo. Y para ello, su mente enfermiza sólo concibe un camino: el del crimen. Sin embargo, para cometer un asesinato hace falta algo más que el deseo do ejecutarlo. Sobre todo cuando la realidad es irreal, alucinante y fantástica y cuando la fantasía puede convertirse en realidad. ¿O es acaso una realidad ofuscada por la fantasía?
Con el mar como testigo, la calma enloquecedora, un sol de justicia y la negrura da la noche, los hechos se descomponen en un mosaico cuyos elementos se trastocan y superponen en una ausencia total de lógica y continuidad.

El hombre, en su afán de solucionar conflictos, es capaz de inventar máquinas con las más audaces finalidades.

1.5
Immortality Inc.
2 ⭐
An early work by sheckley. I believe his works get more sophisticated as time goes on. For this one, the premise and characterization is just not that believable.

Mindswap
2 ⭐
I used to like this type of sci-fi, but my tastes have changed. I didn't appreciate the homophobia in chapter 13. I feel like if the author couldn't solve a plot problem, he just made things up, instead of trying to make it believable. I know sheckley meant this to be humorous; I found it unfunny.

Journey Beyond Tomorrow
1 ⭐
DNF
This is just a supreme waste of the reader's time, IMO. And I resent that.

Dimension of Miracles
Not Read.

Minotaur Maze
The reason I got this book out of the library.
1 ⭐
Meh. DNF

An early work by Sheckler. I believe his works get more sophisticated as time goes on. For this one, the premise and characterization is just not that believable.

I used to like this type of sci-fi, but my tastes have changed. I didn't appreciate the homophobia in chapter 13. I feel like if the author couldn't solve a plot problem, he just made things up, instead of trying to make it believable. I know sheckley meant it to be humorous; I found it unfunny.