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The Status Civilization is a science fiction novel by Robert Sheckley, first published in 1960. The story is set in a future society where crime and punishment are quite different from our contemporary understanding. The novel follows the journey of Will Barrent, a man who wakes up with no memory and is informed that he is a criminal who has been convicted of a terrible crime. As Barrent tries to understand his predicament and piece together his past,...
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The Journey of Joenes, also published as Journey Beyond Tomorrow, tells the tale of a picaresque journey through an imagined future taken by a naive and innocent man unprepared for the wonders and oddities he encounters. Sheckley examines the present through the distorting lens of a future wonderfully skewed from, and yet darkly, hilariously similar to, our own world. From the very beginning of his career, Robert Sheckley was recognized by fans, reviewers,...
11) Soma Blues
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Series
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Hob Draconian, American born but a two-decade resident of Ibiza and a tie-dyed-in-the-wool hippie philosopher, divides his time between Paris and Ibiza-and when Soma, a new drug, turns up in Paris in the hands of a murdered Ibizan drug dealer, it's time for the Alternative Detective Agency to spring into action and defeat the crime syndicate that has infiltrated his beloved expatriate community. From the very beginning of his career, Robert Sheckley...
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The backward planet of Loray is being studied by a famous anthropologist to complete his major opus. But much to his surprise these primitive people are found to have a universal panacea that heals all wounds and diseases. First shock, then disbelief and finally greed for this wonderful berry juice cause problems for the natives and his safe return.
13) Watchbird
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Description
This is a classic science fiction short story by Robert Sheckley, a Hugo and Nebula Award nominated author. The story deals with the subject of artificial intelligence and the questions that arise from allowing them to have the power to decide right from wrong. This work is part of our Vintage Sci-Fi Classics Series, a series in which we are republishing some of the best stories in the genre by some of its most acclaimed authors, such as Isaac Asimov,...
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The Robert Sheckley Megapack presents 14 short stories and 1 novel by the author Neil Gaiman. Here are tales of adventure in strange futures, full of the wry wit and piercing characterizations that made Sheckley one of the great writers working in science fiction!
Included in this volume are:
• WATCHBIRD.
• THE STATUS CIVILIZATION.
• ASK A FOOLISH QUESTION.
• COST OF LIVING.
• BAD MEDICINE.
• DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY.
• WARRIOR RACE.
•...
Author
Description
It's well established now that the way you put a question often determines not only the answer you'll get, but the type of answer possible. So ... a mechanical answerer, geared to produce the ultimate revelations in reference to anything you want to know, might have unsuspected limitations.
17) Skulking Permit
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Series
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Like William Tenn's TIME IN ADVANCE, Sheckley's SKULKING PERMIT (December 1954) is a meditation on penology and the entirety of the criminal justice system, framed as lighthearted satirical science fiction. The furthest human colony of the far-flung Terran Empire is subject--as are all the colonies--to periodic inspection by Headquarters, and Sheckley's settlers are prepared to show that they, no less than their Terran ancestors and overlords, have...
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Description
In "Pilgrimage to Earth," on a long-desired trip to the home planet, a young man finds a perfectly developed society and, finally, deep, true love-which, sadly, only lasts for a very limited time before the reset button removes all trace of it. The fourteen other stories in this collection are "All the Things You Are," "Trap," "The Body," "Early Model," "Disposal Service," "Human Man's Burden," "Fear in the Night," "Bad Medicine," "Protection," "Earth,...
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Description
If you saw the stars in the sky vanishing by the millions, and knew you had but five days to prepare for your judgment-what would you do? Robert Sheckley's off beat imagination takes us to, well, the Final Judgment. Or at least the 5 days before it, when every person in it, is told personally that the ""Judgment of the inhabitants of the planet Earth will be held in five days. Please prepare yourselves for final examination and departure. This announcement...
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In "The Prize of Peril," everyone lives on . . . because when someone is about to die, the emergency squad is always there to bring that person back-whether he or she wants it or not. The seven other stories in this collection are "The Humours," "Triplication," "The Minimum Man," "If the Red Slayer," "The Store of the Worlds," "The Gun Without a Bang," and "The Deaths of Ben Baxter." From the very beginning of his career, Robert Sheckley was recognized...
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