Robert Sheckley (1928–2005)

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! show more 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. show less

As I enjoy Sheckley's prose style for itself, which is why I regard "Mindswap" as an almost perfect example of surrealist science fiction, this book is sadly, a let-down. The plot wanders around the concept of inadequate preparation. Our hero's spaceship breaks down, his security robot is not programmed for the planet he lands on in hope of repairs, and the author then treats us to a set of hallucinations, or bizarre behaviours on the part of the inhabitants and doesn't help us to see which show more he is describing. We then get a discussion of the difficulties of trying to create adequate narrative, how the author is endlessly trying to shape impressions and descriptions into an entertaining or usable experience. The late sixties was a period of tremendous mental freedom and I think Sheckley was experimenting here with creating in prose, the mental frontiers that others were exploring by the direct use of chemical hallucinogens. I'd read this before the "Mindswap" if you are possessed of both books, to see to what extent, the more famous book is a triumph over the intractability of the author's mental furniture. show less

Sheckley at his best was one of the funniest writers in science fiction. This book offers plenty of at times biting and frequently absurd satire, taking aim at just about every component of 1960s America (from hippies to healthcare to justice to academia to government to the military and more). All this in the context of the Cold War and imminent nuclear holocaust.

I found it a little bit slow to get going, but then it hit its stride about 30 pages in and kept me consistently laughing (or at show more least consistently grinning) through page 100 or so. The last third of the book, starting when our protagonist Joenes leaves academia to go work for the US government, was increasingly bleak, and I found it neither particularly funny nor particularly on target.

I'd like to think that the cover blurbs of the 1962 Dell edition were intended to be toungue-in-cheek, since they had nothing to do with 95% of this story, and little to do with the other 5%. show less

Robert Sheckley was a master of science fiction short stories that warned us to be careful what we wish for because disaster could follow if our dreams come true.

The collection’s title story, “Pilgrimage to Earth,” is the best of the bunch. It first appeared as “Love, Inc.” in Playboy. A young man from a farming planet comes to Earth to find true love. He finds just what he wants for sale at a good price, but it is not, of course, what he bargained for. Reading it is like watching show more a train wreck—you don’t want it to happen, but you can’t stop watching, and in this case, laughing—and feeling guilty about doing so.

The stories often take shots at conformity and consumerism. Characters frequently make deals with aliens and unscrupulous humans that backfire in creative ways. In “Protection,” for instance, a man hires an alien to warn him of dangers in his future but discovers that doing so also increases the threats he faces. It may be an allegorical critique of the 1950s arms race.

I wish Sheckley were still around to poke fun at the Internet economy. show less