The Robert Sheckley Megapack: 15 Classic Science Fiction Stories

by Robert Sheckley

The Robert Sheckley Megapack presents 14 short stories and 1 novel by the author Neil Gaiman called "probably the best short-story writer during the '50s to the mid-1960s working in any field." 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!"Robert the best short-story writer the field has produced." — Alan Dean Foster "I had no idea the competition was so terrifyingly good." — Douglas AdamsIncluded in this volume STATUS CIVILIZATIONASK A FOOLISH QUESTIONCOST OF LIVINGBAD MEDICINEDIPLOMATIC IMMUNITYWARRIOR RACETHE HOUR OF BATTLEKEEP YOUR SHAPEWARMDEATH WISHBESIDE STILL WATERSFOREVERTHE LEECHONE MAN'S POISONAnd don't forget to search this ebook store for "Wildside Megapack" to see many more entries in this series, covering science fiction, fantasy, mysteries, westerns, classics, and much, much more!

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Humor, Anthologies

321 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

One of science fiction's great humorists, Sheckley was a prolific short story writer beginning in 1952 with titles including "Specialist", "Pilgrimage to Earth", "Warm", "The Prize of Peril", and "Seventh Victim", collected in volumes from Untouched by Human Hands (1954) to Is That What People Do? (1984) and a five-volume set of Collected Stories (1991). His first novel, Immortality, Inc. (1958), was followed by The Status Civilization (1960), Journey Beyond Tomorrow (1962), Mindswap (1966), and several others. Sheckley served as fiction editor for Omni magazine from January 1980 through September 1981, and was named Author Emeritus by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2001.

Reviews

[Apatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Sheckley has long been my favorite humorous sf author, I read him long before I read Douglas Adams’s classic HHGTG. In fact, Adams said this of Sheckley:
“I had no idea the competition was so terrifyingly good.”

I wanted to buy/read/review Store of the Worlds: The Stories of Robert Sheckley, unfortunately, but the price tag of USD 11.99 is not very competitive compared to most other Kindle books that I have on my TBR. I mean I am sure it’s a great anthology but basically, I’m just too stingy. This being the case, I plumped for this “Megapack” instead, this Kindle edition costs a mere USD 0.99, leaving 11 Dollars for my dinner and such. This inelegantly named Megapack is pretty good value, the stories are mostly very good, the only snag is that all of them are available to read for free in the public domain! (See download link in the "Notes" section). The only advantage for buying the e-book is to have all the stories bundled together as one e-book. There are also fewer humorous ones than I expected, but the “serious” ones are great yarns, woven into a great anthology (see what I did there?). As usual with anthologies I will just do a quick summary of each story; I am sure there are more elegant ways to review an anthology this brute force style is easier.

1. Watchbird: Robo-birds preventing crime before they happen, similar to PKD’s concept for Minority Report, but without psychics. This is a cautionary tale about delegating human responsibilities to machines. It may have been an inspiration for the Robocop movies (first published in 1953).

2. The Status Civilization: This is actually a short novel of about 132 pages. I have reviewed in separately (and long-windedly) here .


3. Ask a Foolish Question: About a gigantic supercomputer, similar to “Deep Thought” from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, this story (from 1953) predates Adams’ classic. It is rather philosophical with some humour, a profundity and satire combo.

4. Cost of Living: A satire about people who settle for stagnant, meaningless jobs while committing to cross generations debts, living far beyond their means.

5. Bad medicine: LOL! This is my favorite story in the entire book. Classic Sheckley, the story of a man who undergoes psychiatric treatment meant for Martian patients, with hilarious results. That last line cracked me up!


6. Diplomatic Immunity: The alien ambassador has to be killed before he recommends his planet’s military to invade Earth. He is very hard to kill and does not even fight back. Clever and amusing little story.

7. Warrior Race: Hilarious suicidal alien warriors.

8. Hour of Battle: About an impending alien invasion. It is not bad but stopped just when getting really interesting. Anyway, it is very short.

9. Keep Your Shape: Transforming aliens with a taboo about keeping to a favored shape. Amusing.

10. Warm: A weird, surreal and existential story. Interesting but not really my cup of tea.

11. Death Wish: Another supercomputer story. It comes up with an interesting solution to a seemingly insoluble problem. Not great, but then it is very short.

12. Beside Still Waters: A nice (non-humorous) story about a man and his faithful robot. It is interesting that the robot is not really sentient or “alive”. This feels like a Clifford D. Simak story.

13. Forever: About an immortality club and an invention that the world may not be ready for.

14. The Leech: Wonderful alien monster story. The monster is mindless, does not go on a rampage but is a serious threat to humanity for all that.

15. One Man's Poison: This story explores that old adage “One man's meat is another man's poison”. It is OK.


This Megapack is a very good anthology, but no need to cough up your hard-earned cash for it. Read the individual stories as separate e-books. If you never read Sheckley before you really should, especially Bad medicine, Watchbird and The Leech.

Notes:
• All of these stories can be downloaded individually from
Project Gutenberg’s Robert Sheckley page (FREE).

• Most of the stories in Store of the Worlds: The Stories of Robert Sheckley are not in this Megapack, I suspect they are his upper tier stories. Looks like I will have to fork over the $11.99 one day

Quotes:
“Well, suppose we make the customary arrangement. If you will just sign over your son’s earnings for the first thirty years of his adult life, we can easily arrange credit for you.”

“I am not an alcoholic,” Caswell said, with considerable dignity. “The New York Rapid Transit Corporation does not hire alcoholics.”
“Oh,” said the clerk, glancing distrustfully at Caswell’s bloodshot eyes. “You seem a little nervous. Perhaps the portable Bendix Anxiety Reducer—”
“Anxiety’s not my ticket, either. What have you got for homicidal mania?”

“At that moment Anders was as thoroughly out of love as a man could be. Viewing one’s intended as a depersonalized, sexless piece of machinery is not especially conducive to love. But it is quite stimulating, intellectually.”

[Ralph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sehr unterhaltsamer Sammelband von Sheckley. Lesenswert.

WATCHBIRD
Überraschend aktuelle Geschichte über KIs (oder hier selbstlernende Roboter) und die Unfähigkeit der Menschen, alle Folgen der ursprünglichen Intension abzusehen.
4 Sterne

THE STATUS CIVILIZATION
der komplette Roman "Planet der Verbrecher". Sehr gut gealtert und immer noch lesenswert.
4 Sterne

ASK A FOOLISH QUESTION
Auch hier eine interessante Geschichte. Wieviel muss ich wissen, um die Antwort einer Frage zu verstehen.
4 Sterne

COST OF LIVING
Zukunft einer Menschheit, die sich immer mehr verschuldet und deshalb schon die Einkünfte der Kinder mit verplant.
3 Sterne

BAD MEDICINE
Ein Mann wird von einem mechanischen Psychotherapeuten, der für einen Marsianer entwickelt wurde, falsch behandelt.
2 Sterne

DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY
Ein Botschafter einer galaktischen Union kommt auf die Erde und fordert ihren beitritt. Er schein immun gegen jeglicher Art von Angriff zu sein.
3 Sterne

WARRIOR RACE
Hier musste ich doch schmunzeln. Gestrandete Astronauten versuchen an Treibstoff zu kommen, das in einem Heiligtum der hiesigen Bewohner gelagert ist. So weit, so wie üblich. Spannend wird's, als es zum Kampf kommt, und die Planentenbewohner einen ganz eigenen Stil des Kämpfens haben, das die Astronauten in ein Dilemma stürzt.
4 Sterne

THE HOUR OF BATTLE
Sehr kurze Kurzgeschichte über eine Invasion telepathisch veranlagter Fremdintelligenzen.
3 Sterne

KEEP YOUR SHAPE
Noch eine Invasionsgeschichte, diesmal mit Gestaltwandler, die Gefallen an den neuen Körpern finden.
4 Sterne

WARM
Diese Geschichte hat mich nicht packen können. Wahrscheinlich hab ich die Pointe nicht richtig verstanden. Ein Mann wird darin von seinem zukünftigen ich heimgesucht.
2 Sterne

DEATH WISH
Nette Story über eine Raumschiffhavarie.
3 Sterne

BESIDE STILL WATERS
Kurze Geschichte über einen Mann und seinem Roboter auf einem Asteroiden.
3 Sterne

FOREVER
Ein Mann entwickelt ein Unsterblichkeitsserum und entdeckt, das er nicht der Erste war...
3 Sterne

THE LEECH
Ein Lebewesen, das Energie jeglicher Art absorbiert und Materie umwandeln kann, strandet auf der Erde.
3 Sterne

ONE MAN'S POISON
Zwei Raumfahrer stranden auf ein Planeten ohne Nahrung. Nur in einer Station einer fremden Spezies gibt es essbares. Doch, was ist giftig, was nicht?
3 Sterne

[Kelly McCubbin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sheckley is an underappreciated master of the form. These stories get better and better as you go on. Not only is his work liberally plagiarized by Douglas Adams (and no, I don't use that word lightly), but he goes out onto limbs that are breathtakingly giddy. Bad Medicine is one of the funniest, laugh out loud, short stories I've ever read and then he is able to turn on a dime and out Bradbury Bradbury with stories like Beside Still Waters. Asimov, Heinlein, Dick and Bradbury are wonderful, but it is really time for us to step back and reevaluate Robert Sheckley, who might be the best science fiction short story author of the 50s. (And while we're at it, how about taking a look at Frederic Brown, too, Chief? Vastly underrated.)

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up because I had heard that Sheckley was a master of humourous science fiction, and also of the short story form. The stories in this volume are more satirical than comedic, but they're very well written.

All of them come from the 1950s (one was published in 1960), and over and over again they skewer the conformity, consumerism and techno-optimism of that decade. Unlike in most SF of the time, if a wonderful gadget turns up in the Sheckley story it is much more likely to be the source of the problem than it is to be the solution, though there are one or two "clever solution" stories. I generally dislike technopessimism as a philosophy, but in the 1950s it was countercultural, so I give it a pass.

In "Watchbird," devices invented to prevent murder generalise their definition a bit too widely. The big fault of this story is in the common American assumption that the USA is the whole world, but it doesn't have many other faults.

"The Status Civilization" parodies conformism and statism, and the role of elites, in a prison planet for criminals and dissidents: "Without the law, there could be no privileges for those who made the law; therefore the law was absolutely necessary".

"Ask a Foolish Question" points up the limitations of our understanding of the universe, another counter to scientific optimism and hubris.

"Cost of Living" parodies consumerism and consumer debt, and the role of big corporations in government (one corporate representative speaks of "the laws we helped formulate and pass," something that actually happens in the present-day USA).

"Bad Medicine" parodies psychology in the story of a homicidal man who gets a therapy machine programmed for Martians by mistake.

"Diplomatic Immunity" is a "clever-engineer" story in a more conventional mould, though it is certainly very clever.

"Warrior Race" confronts two Earthmen with an alien race who guilt them into giving up by committing suicide at them.

"The Hour of Battle" shows the problems of confronting an alien race who are telepathic, while giving a presumably accurate picture of what it's like for men stuck together in a small space and waiting for a battle to start. (Sheckley served in the army in Korea.)

"Keep Your Shape" is told from the viewpoint of alien invaders struggling to invade Earth because of the conflict between their nature and their culture, and the opportunities that Earth offers them.

"Warm" is an odd psychological, in fact psychedelic, story about perception and alienation.

"Death Wish" is again about men stuck together in close quarters, and how they get on each other's nerves. It reads like a parody of the many "clever-engineer" stories of the time.

"Beside Still Waters" is a robot story with an odd twist ending, of a kind that Asimov probably wouldn't have attempted for ideological reasons.

"Forever" has an odd, deprotagonising ending, but gets in its dig against elitism first.

"The Leech" is a clever-engineer story gone wrong, and gone wrong because of military idiocy.

"One Man's Poison" is a problem-solving story based around the idea that alien minds are, in fact, alien.

It's interesting to see a writer who goes counter to the genre trend of the time, and whose storytelling ability allows him to get away with it. Overall, a good collection.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Science fiction stories in the late 1960s started to ask more "Has Science Gone Too Far" sorts of questions, or tell stories of "Science Used For the Wrong Things." All well and good, there are lots of classics in that form. But most of these stories have a cynical tone, whereas Sheckley in almost all his stories goes straight for irony.

In Sheckley's visions of the future, science and technology work exactly as well as scientists and technologists want it to. But, being human and not exactly omniscient, things go wrong anyway. Sheckley also stands out among science fiction authors for portraying future technology in a state of beta-testing or commercialization, somewhat against type for the "classic" sci-fi story.

Other than this pack, which is great on its own, I *highly* recommend the adaptation of "Early Model" (a story not in this pack) by the 1950s radio series X Minus One: https://archive.org/download/OTRR_X_M...

A good story made even better by an inspired adaptation.

[Dr. T Loves Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

What it's about: This anthology is all sci-fi all the time, often with a sardonic twist.

What I thought: The novella that is included didn't do much for me - I didn't really get the point. The rest of the book is short Sheckley pieces, all of which I found enjoyable. It was scary how relevant "Cost of Living" seemed in our modern age, though on a societal, rather than familial, level. "Beside Still Waters" was surprisingly touching - I teared up when finishing it. "Forever" had a twist I didn't see coming that was so obvious in retrospect, which I found very enjoyable, followed immediately by another twist. And "The Leech" was clever, with a commentary on the hawkish mind that seemed a little too on-the-nose in today's political climate.

Why I rated it like I did: Sheckley is good at what he does! I enjoyed this from top to tail.

[Derek Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

More "very '50s" SF, though with a unique Sheckley twist. He tends to slam through his plots, skimping on transitions to get the main elements in place quickly and solidly. Yet his endings go beyond unexpected twists – in fact, they sometimes go beyond (or beside) being endings at all. You're left scratching your head, thinking, "but ..." or "isn't there something more?" Even the one novel included, The Status Civilization just – stops. That's not a complaint, since it's a deliberate style choice by the author, but it's unusual and can be unsettling.
His basic ideas or assumptions are wonderfully off the wall, as though he's looking at our universe from the outside or under a microscope. In "Ask a Foolish Question," we meet the Answerer, a sequestered machine that Knows All and has all answers – but can only answer the never-revealed questions that its makers deemed significant. "Diplomatic Immunity" presents an alien ambassador who must be destroyed – but cannot be by any human means. There's a good deal of logical puzzling, as was common in the '50s, but beyond that, in Sheckley there's a mind, unlike the Answerer, ready and willing to look at any question from any angle.

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Robert Sheckley from the second I started Options in my teens, for me his best novel though some find it hard to read.

Years later I picked up some of his other works, and they are all brilliant. It's nice to find an author that other authors rate so highly.

You have to love the 50s sci-fi style, full of paranoia and fear that what they're talking about is really going to happen if we're not careful. No-one ever categorises these short stories as Dystopian but they are. Multiple versions of the Earth, made of bland indistinguishable houses and citizens, or companies producing robots to police or act as our doctors... these are a documented history of the social fears and warnings of the time.

And what about Megapacks? I'd never buy them usually, but on Kindle they're a wonderful way to immerse yourself in an author or genre.

[Karen Terrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought-provoking. Sheckley wrote these stories in the 1950s and 1960s - when the idea of space exploration was something people were beginning to imagine might be a part of their future. It's interesting to read these stories - written about the "future" - but actually taking place in today's present. I wonder if Sheckley would have been disappointed about how the future actually played-out: A dismantled space shuttle program, no manned space exploration, and no colonies on Mars or any other extra-terrestrial planets. I enjoyed reading Sheckley's vision of the future.

[paspatel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Science fiction has never been so funny and intelligent.

[Larry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I needed something lighthearted and fun after 1100 pages of Thomas Ligotti.

I skipped The Status Civilization and a few stories I have read recently, so this went really fast.

[Richard Kettlewood · Rating 5 out of 5]

RA

Some ingenious and amusing ideas in these vintage yarns. Some topical themes that may always be topical: piling up generations of debts for modern convenience; the perils of machine learning. Often with a prescient edge, even if books, paper and computer tape are the hardware. Sheckley always aware that comedy is a part of human experience in all weird ages and circumstances. His only moral, given how daft we are as a species, is that Might is usually wrong. Very wrong.

[Durandana · Rating 4 out of 5]

2/5 - Watchbird
3/5 - The Status Civilization
4/5 - Ask a Foolish Question
2/5 - Cost of Living
4/5 - Bad Medicine
4/5 - Diplomatic Immunity
3/5 - Warrior Race
3/5 - The Hour of Battle
3/5 - Keep Your Shape
3/5 - Warm
4/5 - Death Wish
4/5 - Beside Still Waters
2/5 - Forever
4/5 - The Leech
4/5 - One Man's Poison

[Albert_Camus_lives]

2/5 - Watchbird
3/5 - The Status Civilization
4/5 - Ask a Foolish Question
2/5 - Cost of Living
4/5 - Bad Medicine
4/5 - Diplomatic Immunity
3/5 - Warrior Race
3/5 - The Hour of Battle
3/5 - Keep Your Shape
3/5 - Warm
4/5 - Death Wish
4/5 - Beside Still Waters
2/5 - Forever
4/5 - The Leech
4/5 - One Man's Poison

[Vorik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dieser Kurzgeschichtenband enthält erstklassige, ideenreiche, intelligente wie amüsante Unterhaltung. Vom schrägen Humor bis zur Gesellschaftssatire bietet der Autor alles auf, was im Science-Fiction-Genre möglich ist und nur den wirklich Großen in der Literatur gelingt. Absolut empfehlenswerte Lektüre.

[Timothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Status Civilization (1960) (novel)

14 Stories:

Warrior Race (1952)
Cost of Living (1952)
The Leech (1952)
Watchbird (1953)
Ask a Foolish Question (1953)
Warm (1953)
Diplomatic Immunity (1953)
The Hour of Battle (1953)
Beside Still Waters (1953)
Keep Your Shape (1953)
One Man's Poison (1953)
Death Wish (1956)
Bad Medicine (1956)
Forever (1959)

[Stefan Reisner · Rating 4 out of 5]

All in all I very much enjoyed the collection, except for Warm, which didn’t click with me.
I wasn’t prepared for the length of The Status Civilization (which is actually a novella), but I stayed with it.
Keep Your Shape made me really laugh for the likable goofy characters, as much as Besides Still Waters made me cry (and play Elite Dangerous to experience that feeling of loneliness again).

[Lauren Donis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read the first story about a year ago and then binge-read the rest in a couple of days. I've only read one other short story compilation of Sheckley's but he's quickly becoming one of my favourite writers. Liked all the stories in this one and was happy to re-read a few I'd read before just because they're fun. His ideas are fun and interesting--sometimes predictable and sometimes not. He just writes the kinds of things I want to read about in just the style that I enjoy.

[J Leeder · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the greats

Robert Shockley wrote excellent classic science fiction. Usually with a humorous twist and a light touch. This is a must read for any fan of 20th century Sci Fi

[Brice Ligget · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great classic

Old school science fiction. Each story is unique. A variety of subjects. Very well written. I'm going to have to see if he wrote any longer length fiction.

[chrstphre campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was once a big fan of Sheckley...

But now, rereading these stories, they seem kind of tepid. Maybe it was his longer books that I fell in love with, or maybe this collection is made up of stories that weren't already bought up by other publishers. One story in particular about the shape shifting aliens, I seem to distinctly recall that one as having a very different ending ? ( ? )

[Karen Roby Via]

Great find

I came upon this author by accident, although I now realize he is a well-known science fiction author. It was interesting to read his takes on the future, for example, a huge supercomputer that spits out its answers on a paper tape, common in science fiction stories of the fifties. I thoroughly enjoyed this series of short stories and look forward to reading more by Robert Sheckley.

[Jc · Rating 1 out of 5]

Most of the stories start wellbut finish with a twist that leaves frustrated or confused beacause the explanation is totally abstruse. The only redeeming feature is the sense of humor of the author which quite rare in the SF genre.

[Pauline Lloyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the stories were very good. I couldn't get into "The Status Civilisation" too much waffle.

[Carly Kirk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

Excellent collection of stories. I thoroughly enjoyed them all and I'm sure I'll reread them. Highly recommend getting this collection

[Dmitry Verkhoturov]

У Шекли довольно интересная биография - он очень плодотворно писал и печатался в 50-е, в 60-е журналы были вытеснены телевидением, он перешёл на крупную форму, где никогда не достиг такого успеха, как с 4 сотнями своих рассказов. Но - в 60-е его книги начали переводиться на русский, и в 60-е - 80-е он был безумно популярен здесь, в СССР, что, много лет спустя, аукнулось в "Модели для сборки" и дало ещё однин всплеск популярности в середине девяностых - начале нулевых.

Его рассказы интересны как часть истории НФ, однако моё мнение - прочтя 10 рассказов Шекли, ты знаешь концовку 11-го. Я первый десяток прочёл\услышал давно, поэтому новыми наслаждаться полноценно не могу - повествование весьма плоское с точки зрения прорисовки характеров (черта, которую я также замечал в романтизме, например, у Ремарка), а у меня перед мысленным взором стоит Филипп Дик, у которого научная фантастика - это не летающий автомобиль, а мир в голове человека, который в нём сидит.

Как парафраз "Обмену Разумов" Шекли я рекомендовал бы прочесть "Сдвиг времени по-марсиански" (или "Небесное око") Филиппа Дика - книги похоже по задумке, и на контрасте исполнения можно будет увидеть, кто из них тебе больше по душе.

[Cecily]

Stories Apatt especially recommends: Bad medicine, Watchbird and The Leech:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...