Pulse en una miniatura para ir a Google Books.
Cargando... UNTOUCHED BY HUMAN HANDS (edición 1960)por Robert Sheckley
Información de la obraUntouched by Human Hands por Robert Sheckley
Books Read in 2023 (3,974) Cargando...
Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. Some of the best speculative fiction I have ever read. This is what it should be about. Philosophically grounded in real-world issues, doesn't take itself too seriously or try to be a boring sage of the future, alternative POVs in a fun and engaging manner. Ultimately this is a humanist book, such a relief from neo-fascist drek that makes up so much of this genre particularly from this period. Sheckley himself said that he was in effect writing "a commentary on science fiction", in other words anti-science fiction and that's what makes it so great, sets it above. Sheckley deals with issue of post-colonialism quite well, turning the tables on the colonizer and colonized. Also the condition of modernity, "Cost of Living" it's even more relevant today in this age of eternal debt. The last story, "Beside Still Waters", is beautiful. sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
Pertenece a las series editorialesListas de sobresalientes
People hunt and kill one another as public entertainment and to win prizes in "Seventh Victim," the short version of Sheckley's novel The 10th Victim, which was made into a movie. The twelve other stories in this collection are "The Monsters," "Cost of Living," "The Altar," "Shape," "The Impacted Man," "Untouched by Human Hands," "The King's Wishes," "Warm," "The Demons," "Specialist," "Ritual," and "Beside Still Waters." From the very beginning of his career, Robert Sheckley was recognized by fans, reviewers, and fellow authors as a master storyteller and the wittiest satirist working in the science fiction field. Open Road is proud to republish his acclaimed body of work, with nearly thirty volumes of full-length fiction and short story collections. Rediscover, or discover for the first time, a master of science fiction who, according to the New York Times, was "a precursor to Douglas Adams." No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
Debates activosNingunoCubiertas populares
Google Books — Cargando... GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999Clasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio:
¿Eres tú?Conviértete en un Autor de LibraryThing. |
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. ( )