I came here to praise Robert Sheckley.<\/p>\n
He was a prolific short story writer. In the fifties and sixties his work was featured in many of the science fiction magazines of the day (and there were more of them then.) Sheckly was witty. He could write a hell of a story about an alien who burned down orphanages on many planets.<\/p>\n
I have all of his old short story collections. Some of them are tattered. One of my favorites,\u00a0Shards of Space,<\/em>\u00a0is the most tattered. It is almost split in two. It came that way. The lady at the used bookstore, years ago, said, “I’m only going to charge you a quarter for this, but I won’t buy it back.” As if I would trade back a Sheckley collection.<\/p>\n While a master of the short story he did write a small number of novels. They tend to be episodic in nature, novels that are really groups of short stories with the same characters. Novels such as Journey Beyond Tomorrow<\/em>\u00a0aka\u00a0The Journey of Joenes.<\/em> This is a great novel presented as the biblical text of a religion in the future which follows the life of Joenes, who travels the world before and after WWIII. Intermixed is ancient myth. There is also political commentary about McCarthyism<\/span>, the book was written in the late 50s.<\/p>\n For a time he lived not 50 miles from me and I regret that I did not go see him. My friend Richard F. Yates <\/a>was also a fan and Sheckley was mostly forgotten as an author by then in the US. He was considered a master of the golden age abroad and died while in Russia speaking about his work in 2005.<\/p>\n A number of his stories that appeared in Galaxy<\/em> magazine were adapted for radio and appeared as episodes of X Minus One<\/a>.<\/em>\u00a0Here is the episode The Native Problem<\/em>.<\/a>\u00a0(By the way, the ebook of The Status Civilization<\/em> is free.)<\/p>\n [amazon template=iframe image&asin=B00J90F318][amazon template=iframe image&asin=B005FG0ZEK][amazon template=iframe image&asin=B0091GTZGE][amazon template=iframe image&asin=B00J90F4BM][amazon template=iframe image&asin=B004TR9IA8][amazon template=iframe image&asin=B00J90F26Y][amazon template=iframe image&asin=B000XA9RGU][amazon template=iframe image&asin=0553130315][amazon template=iframe image&asin=B000HVW4G0][amazon template=iframe image&asin=0441658741][amazon template=iframe image&asin=B00J90F4AI][amazon template=iframe image&asin=B00J90F6R4][amazon template=iframe image&asin=B00J90F43U][amazon template=iframe image&asin=B00J90EWRO][amazon template=iframe image&asin=0330239880][amazon template=iframe image&asin=B000XJSDS4]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I came here to praise Robert Sheckley. He was a prolific short story writer. In the fifties and sixties his work was featured in many of the science fiction magazines of the day (and there were more of them then.) Sheckly was witty. He could write a hell of a story about an alien who burned down orphanages on many planets. I have all of his old short story collections. Some of them are tattered. One of my favorites,\u00a0Shards of Space,\u00a0is the most tattered. It is almost split in two. It came that way. The lady at the used bookstore,...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"weblog: I came here to praise Robert Sheckley.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,14,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-info","category-review"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3u13S-aV","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2203,"url":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/robert-sheckley-the-aaa-ace-stories\/","url_meta":{"origin":677,"position":0},"title":"Robert Sheckley: The AAA Ace Stories","author":"David Raffin","date":"March 8, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"pushed the list aside, found a pack of tattered cards, and laid out a hopeless solitaire of his own devising. Minutes later, Arnold stepped jauntily \u2026Robert Sheckley: The AAA Ace Stories","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/category\/info\/links\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2214,"url":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/a-bone-to-pick-with-the-donner-party\/","url_meta":{"origin":677,"position":1},"title":"A bone to pick with the Donner party","author":"David Raffin","date":"March 14, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"A man came into the Mercantile searching for a map. He was looking to light out into the wilderness.The Shopkeep, a woman short on words, stood on a ladder doing inventory. Last thing she needed was a customer to bring her down.She looked at the man. \"Get lost!\" was what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/category\/books\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/pexels-photo-983817.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/pexels-photo-983817.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/pexels-photo-983817.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/pexels-photo-983817.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1000,"url":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/flowers-for-algernon\/","url_meta":{"origin":677,"position":2},"title":"Flowers for Algernon","author":"David Raffin","date":"May 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Author Daniel Keyes died last year. He wrote the masterpiece Flowers for Algernon which was first published as a short story in 1959 and later expanded into a novel. Flowers for Algernon was part of the new wave of psychological science fiction, its story slightly set in the future and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"flowers-for-algernon-book","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/flowers-for-algernon-book-197x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":938,"url":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/tom-paine-for-mayday\/","url_meta":{"origin":677,"position":3},"title":"Tom Paine for Mayday","author":"David Raffin","date":"May 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The most Revolutionary of the US\u00a0Founding Fathers, Thomas Paine, a key figure in the US\u00a0and French Revolution and author of\u00a0Common Sense (1776),\u00a0\u00a0Rights of Man (1791), and\u00a0The Age of Reason (1807), among others. He advocated Universal Suffrage, A Guaranteed Minimum Income, and the Abolishment of Slavery. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4-2Tx95epq8 WikiPedia: Only six mourners\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Info"","block_context":{"text":"Info","link":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/category\/info\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/4-2Tx95epq8\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":212,"url":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/portlands-communist-bench\/","url_meta":{"origin":677,"position":4},"title":"Portland’s communist bench","author":"David Raffin","date":"July 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Disclaimer: This article is about a communist plot. Recently in Portland, OR I waited in line to sit on the communist bench. The bench is so popular, at least it was that day, \u00a0I waited an hour and the \u00a0man on it never left. He sat there, reading a newspaper,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"John Reed Bench, Portland, OR","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/IMG_0285-1024x576.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":455,"url":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/rubber\/","url_meta":{"origin":677,"position":5},"title":"Rubber","author":"David Raffin","date":"October 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I cannot recommend to you highly enough the film Rubber. The world does not have enough metafictional absurdist films about tyres. \u00a0Not nearly enough. Rubber is a film about a tyre named Robert who rolls around making things explode while an audience watches. I need tell you no more of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Movies"","block_context":{"text":"Movies","link":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/category\/review\/movies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":854,"href":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions\/854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidraffin.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}