<div><B>&ldquo;If the Marx Brothers had been literary fantasists, they would have been Robert Sheckley.&rdquo; &mdash;Harlan Ellison</B><BR />  <BR /> In &ldquo;The Robot Who Looked Like Me,&rdquo; a busy man and a busy woman find a way to carve out time to romance each other&mdash;by having look-alike robots made to do the job&mdash;who then run away together.<BR /><BR /> The twelve other stories in this collection are &ldquo;Slaves of Time,&rdquo; &ldquo;Voices,&rdquo; &ldquo;A Supplicant in Space,&rdquo; &ldquo;Sneak Previews,&rdquo; &ldquo;Zirn Left Unguarded, the Jenghik Palace in Flames, John Westerly Dead,&rdquo; &ldquo;Welcome to the Standard Nightmare,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Never-Ending Western Movie,&rdquo; &ldquo;What Is Life?&rdquo;, &ldquo;I See a Man Sitting on a Chair, and the Chair Is Biting His Leg,&rdquo; &ldquo;Is That What People Do?&rdquo;, &ldquo;Silversmith Wishes,&rdquo; and &ldquo;End City.&rdquo;<BR /><BR /> 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 <I>New York Times</I>, was &ldquo;a precursor to Douglas Adams.&rdquo;</div>

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The Robot Who Looked Like Me

<div><B>The classic sci-fi story collection features eleven tales of outer space adventure from one of the genre&rsquo;s greatest talents&mdash;&ldquo;a precursor to Douglas Adams&rdquo; (<I>The New York Times).</I></B><BR />  <BR /> In &ldquo;Fool&rsquo;s Mate,&rdquo; a stalemate in deep space is broken by a crazy man and a set of fake orders. A new longevity drug may lead to an untimely end for its inventor in &ldquo;Forever.&rdquo; And in &ldquo;Prospector&rsquo;s Special,&rdquo; a lone explorer searches the deserts of Venus in search of unfathomable treasure.<BR />  <BR /> In these and eight other stories, Robert Sheckley reaffirms his reputation as a master storyteller and the wittiest satirist working in science fiction. Shards of Space also includes &ldquo;The Girls and Nugent Miller,&rdquo; &ldquo;Meeting of the Minds,&rdquo; &ldquo;Potential,&rdquo; &ldquo;Subsistence Level,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Slow Season,&rdquo; &ldquo;Alone at Last,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Sweeper of Loray,&rdquo; and &ldquo;The Special Exhibit.&rdquo; </div>

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Shards of Space

<div><B>Science fiction tales from &ldquo;one of the genre&#39;s leading humorists&rdquo; (<I>The</I><I> New York Times Book Review</I>).</B><BR /><BR /> In &ldquo;Pilgrimage to Earth,&rdquo; on a long-desired trip to the home planet, a young man finds a perfectly developed society and, finally, deep, true love&mdash;which, sadly, only lasts for a very limited time before the reset button removes all trace of it.<BR /><BR /> The fourteen other stories in this collection are &ldquo;All the Things You Are,&rdquo; &ldquo;Trap,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Body,&rdquo; &ldquo;Early Model,&rdquo; &ldquo;Disposal Service,&rdquo; &ldquo;Human Man&rsquo;s Burden,&rdquo; &ldquo;Fear in the Night,&rdquo; &ldquo;Bad Medicine,&rdquo; &ldquo;Protection,&rdquo; &ldquo;Earth, Air, Fire, and Water,&rdquo; &ldquo;Deadhead,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Academy,&rdquo; &ldquo;Milk Run,&rdquo; and &ldquo;The Lifeboat Mutiny.&rdquo;<BR /><BR /> 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 <I>New York Times</I>, was &ldquo;a precursor to Douglas Adams.&rdquo;</div>

Pilgrimage to Earth

<div>In &ldquo;Gray Flannel Armor,&rdquo; a man named Hanley finds perfection in a rigidly regular structure of social interaction&mdash;including for romance&mdash;and devises a system that the whole of humanity adopts.<BR /><BR /> The eleven other stories in this collection are &ldquo;Gray Flannel Armor,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Leech,&rdquo; &ldquo;Watchbird,&rdquo; &ldquo;A Wind Is Rising,&rdquo; &ldquo;Morning After,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Native Problem,&rdquo; &ldquo;Feeding Time,&rdquo; &ldquo;Paradise II,&rdquo; &ldquo;Double Indemnity,&rdquo; &ldquo;Holdout,&rdquo; &ldquo;Dawn Invader,&rdquo; and &ldquo;The Language of Love.&rdquo;<BR /><BR /> 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 <I>New York Times</I>, was &ldquo;a precursor to Douglas Adams.&rdquo;</div>

Notions: Unlimited

<div>This volume contains eleven stories not previously collected together and not included in any of the other classic Sheckley compendiums published by Open Road.<BR /><BR />In &ldquo;Sarkanger,&rdquo; Gregor and Arnold of the AAA Ace Interplanetary Decontamination Corporation take on an extermination job on Sarkan. Things get surprisingly complicated when the target vermin start arguing about who should be wiped out. <BR /><BR />The ten other stories in this collection are &ldquo;At the Conference of the Birds,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Destruction of Atlantis,&rdquo; &ldquo;Dial-a-Death,&rdquo; &ldquo;Divine Intervention,&rdquo; &ldquo;Love Song from the Stars,&rdquo; &ldquo;Message from Hell,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Necessary Thing,&rdquo; &ldquo;Robotvendor Rex,&rdquo; &ldquo;There Will Be No War after This One,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Wormworld.&rdquo;<BR /><BR />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 <I>New York Times</I>, was &ldquo;a precursor to Douglas Adams.&rdquo;</div>

Divine Intervention

<div><B>A treasury of fiction from &ldquo;</B><B>one of SF&rsquo;s all-time masters of the humorous or satirical short story&rdquo; (<I>Booklist</I>).</B><BR />  <BR /> In &ldquo;The Cruel Equations,&rdquo; a planetary explorer finds out how lethal it can be when a robot guard has been designed to do too perfect a job.<BR /><BR /> The fifteen other stories in this collection are &ldquo;Can You Feel Anything When I Do This?&rdquo;, &ldquo;Cordle to Onion to Carrot,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Petrified World,&rdquo; &ldquo;Game: First Schematic,&rdquo; &ldquo;Doctor Zombie and His Little Furry Friends,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Same to You Doubled,&rdquo; &ldquo;Starting From Scratch,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Mnemone,&rdquo; &ldquo;Tripout,&rdquo; &ldquo;Notes on the Perception of Imaginary Differences,&rdquo; &ldquo;Down the Digestive Tract and Into the Cosmos With Mantra, Tantra, and Specklebang,&rdquo; &ldquo;Pas de Trois of the Chef and the Waiter,&rdquo; &ldquo;Aspects of Langranak,&rdquo; &ldquo;Plague Circuit,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Tailpipe to Disaster.&rdquo;<BR /><BR /> 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 <I>New York Times</I>, was &ldquo;a precursor to Douglas Adams.&rdquo;</div>

Can You Feel Anything When I Do This?

<div><B>The acclaimed author demonstrates his incredible versatility in this career-spanning story collection that ranges from sci-fi to supernatural horror.</B><BR />  <BR /> Known for science fiction that combined brilliant speculation with sharp satirical wit, Robert Scheckley was also capable of conjuring chills and inventing fantastical new worlds. <I>Uncanny Tales</I> presents sixteen of the beloved author&rsquo;s best stories spanning a range of genres from across his long career. Unforgettable early works are paired with some of his final pieces of fiction, each with a brief introduction by the author.<BR />  <BR /> The sixteen stories included are &ldquo;A Trick Worth Two of That,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Mind-Slaves of Manitori,&rdquo; &ldquo;Pandora&rsquo;s Box&mdash;Open with Care,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Dream of Misunderstanding,&rdquo; &ldquo;Magic, Maples, and Maryanne,&rdquo; &ldquo;The New Horla,&rdquo; &ldquo;The City of the Dead,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Quijote Robot,&rdquo; &ldquo;Emissary from a Green and Yellow World,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Universal Karmic Clearing House,&rdquo; &ldquo;Deep Blue Sleep,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Day the Aliens Came,&rdquo; &ldquo;Dukakis and the Aliens,&rdquo; &ldquo;Mirror Games,&rdquo; &ldquo;Sightseeing, 2179,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Agamemnon&rsquo;s Run.&rdquo;<BR />   </div>

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Uncanny Tales

<div><B>A collection of witty science fiction including a Nebula Award&ndash;nominated story.</B><BR /><BR /> In &ldquo;Diplomatic Immunity,&rdquo; what happens when an alien ambassador arrives, telling the residents of Earth that they will be joining a galactic union whether they like it or not&mdash;and the ambassador is unkillable?<BR /><BR /> The thirteen other stories in this collection are &ldquo;The People Trap,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Victim from Space,&rdquo; &ldquo;Shall We Have a Little Talk?&rdquo;, &ldquo;Restricted Area,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Odor of Thought,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Necessary Thing,&rdquo; &ldquo;Redfern&rsquo;s Labyrinth,&rdquo; &ldquo;Proof of the Pudding,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Laxian Key,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Last Weapon,&rdquo; &ldquo;Fishing Season,&rdquo; &ldquo;Dreamworld,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Ghost V.&rdquo;<BR /><BR /> 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 <I>New York Times</I>, was &ldquo;a precursor to Douglas Adams.&rdquo;</div>

The People Trap

<div>More than three dozen of the best and most popular stories by the acknowledged master of the short science fiction story. The thirty-nine works contained in this volume&mdash;twenty-six from the author&rsquo;s ten other Open Road collections, plus thirteen additional pieces unique to this volume&mdash;include these vintage Sheckley stories: &ldquo;The Eye of Reality,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Language of Love,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Accountant,&rdquo; &ldquo;A Wind Is Rising,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Robot Who Looked Like Me,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Mnemone,&rdquo; &ldquo;Warm,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Native Problem,&rdquo; &ldquo;Fishing Season,&rdquo; &ldquo;Shape,&rdquo; &ldquo;Beside Still Waters,&rdquo; &ldquo;Silversmith Wishes,&rdquo; &ldquo;Meanwhile, Back at the Bromide,&rdquo; &ldquo;Fool&rsquo;s Mate,&rdquo; &ldquo;Pilgrimage to Earth,&rdquo; &ldquo;All the Things You Are,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Store of the Worlds,&rdquo; &ldquo;Seventh Victim,&rdquo; &ldquo;Cordle to Onion to Carrot,&rdquo; &ldquo;Is That What People Do?&rdquo;, &ldquo;The Prize of Peril,&rdquo; &ldquo;Fear in the Night,&rdquo; &ldquo;Can You Feel Anything When I Do This?&rdquo;, &ldquo;The Battle,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Monsters,&rdquo; and &ldquo;The Petrified World.&rdquo;<BR /><BR />This volume also includes the following uncollected Sheckley tales: &ldquo;Five Minutes Early,&rdquo; &ldquo;Miss Mouse and the Fourth Dimension,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Skag Castle,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Helping Hand,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Last Days of (Parallel?) Earth,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Future Lost,&rdquo; &ldquo;Wild Talents, Inc.,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Swamp,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Future of Sex: Speculative Journalism,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Life of Anybody,&rdquo; &ldquo;Goodbye Forever to Mr. Pain,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Shaggy Average American Man Story,&rdquo; &ldquo;Shootout in the Toy Shop,&rdquo; and &ldquo;How Pro Writers Really Write&mdash;or Try To.&rdquo;<BR /><BR />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 <I>New York Times</I>, was &ldquo;a precursor to Douglas Adams.&rdquo;</div>

Is That What People Do?

<div>Marvin Goodman thinks he has discovered an unknown paradise and buys &ldquo;A Ticket to Tranai.&rdquo; What starts as Utopia ends up becoming a death trap.<BR /><BR /> The eleven other stories included in this collection are &ldquo;The Mountain Without a Name,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Accountant,&rdquo; &ldquo;Hunting Problem,&rdquo; &ldquo;A Thief in Time,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Luckiest Man in the World,&rdquo; &ldquo;Hands Off,&rdquo; &ldquo;Something for Nothing,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Battle,&rdquo; &ldquo;Skulking Permit,&rdquo; &ldquo;Citizen in Space,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Ask a Foolish Question.&rdquo;<BR /><BR /> 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 <I>New York Times</I>, was &ldquo;a precursor to Douglas Adams.&rdquo;</div>

Citizen in Space

<div>In &ldquo;The Prize of Peril,&rdquo; everyone lives on . . . because when someone is about to die, the emergency squad is always there to bring that person back&mdash;whether he or she wants it or not.<BR /><BR /> The seven other stories in this collection are &ldquo;The Humours,&rdquo; &ldquo;Triplication,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Minimum Man,&rdquo; &ldquo;If the Red Slayer,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Store of the Worlds,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Gun Without a Bang,&rdquo; and &ldquo;The Deaths of Ben Baxter.&rdquo;<BR /><BR /> 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 <I>New York Times</I>, was &ldquo;a precursor to Douglas Adams.&rdquo;</div>

Store of Infinity

<div>People hunt and kill one another as public entertainment and to win prizes in &ldquo;Seventh Victim,&rdquo; the short version of Sheckley&rsquo;s novel <I>The 10th Victim</I>, which was made into a movie.<BR /><BR />The twelve other stories in this collection are &ldquo;The Monsters,&rdquo; &ldquo;Cost of Living,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Altar,&rdquo; &ldquo;Shape,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Impacted Man,&rdquo; &ldquo;Untouched by Human Hands,&rdquo; &ldquo;The King&rsquo;s Wishes,&rdquo; &ldquo;Warm,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Demons,&rdquo; &ldquo;Specialist,&rdquo; &ldquo;Ritual,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Beside Still Waters.&rdquo;<BR /><BR />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 <I>New York Times</I>, was &ldquo;a precursor to Douglas Adams.&rdquo;</div>

Untouched by Human Hands

<div><I>Minotaur Maze</I> is Robert Sheckley&rsquo;s modern take on the myth of the Minotaur. It is a tour de force of imagination, fantasy, and creative confusion. Through brief chapters running from &ldquo;How Theseus Got His First Mintoauring Job&rdquo; to &ldquo;I Hate to Blame Daedalus for Everything,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Attack of the Self Pity Plant,&rdquo; &ldquo;Daedalus Dispenses with Causality,&rdquo; and finally, &ldquo;Falling Through the Story,&rdquo; we travel a maze as lethally complicated as the Minotaur&rsquo;s and arrive at the end breathless with wonder, surprise, and laughter. Sheckley, a master of science fiction, has been called &ldquo;a precursor to Douglas Adams&rdquo; by the<I> New York Times</I>.<BR />  </div>

Minotaur Maze

<div><B>A hapless Earthling must find his way home through a universe of absurdities in this science fiction romp from a Hugo and Nebula Award&ndash;nominated master.</B><BR /><BR /> New York civil servant Thomas Carmody has never been particularly lucky. Imagine his surprise when he discovers he&rsquo;s won the grand prize in an Intergalactic Lottery he had no idea he&rsquo;d entered.<BR />  <BR /> Whisked far away to Galactic Central to claim his award, he has two immediate, equally troubling revelations. Not only does his Prize&mdash;a talkative device that changes shape&mdash;serve no practical purpose whatsoever, but now he&rsquo;s expected to find his own way back to Earth.<BR />  <BR /> Of course, Carmody has no idea where, when, or even which universe he&rsquo;s been stranded in. Ignoring the worthless advice and opinions of his increasingly annoying Prize, he embarks on a bizarre odyssey that takes him from alternate Earth to alternate Earth, bringing him into close contact with all manner of strangeness&mdash;and even with a bored God Almighty Himself.<BR />  <BR /> But Carmody&rsquo;s sweepstakes &ldquo;windfall&rdquo; comes with yet another unexpected drawback. Suddenly, an unrelenting predator is on his tail, determined to eliminate the &ldquo;glitch&rdquo; wandering lost through numerous dimensions where he does not belong.<BR />  <BR /> A full decade before Douglas Adams devised <I>The</I><I>Hitchhiker&rsquo;s Guide to the Galaxy</I>, Robert Sheckley created his <I>Dimension of Miracles</I>, launching one luckless protagonist on a hilarious journey across an alien universe of intelligent dinosaurs and mothering sentient towns. Fans of Kurt Vonnegut, Roger Zelazny, Terry Pratchett&rsquo;s Discworld, and Harry Harrison&rsquo;s <I>Bill the Galactic Hero </I>will delight in Sheckley&rsquo;s biting and brilliant <I>Alice in Wonderland</I>&ndash;like outer space adventure.<BR />  </div>

Dimension of Miracles

<div>All secret agents need to look out for William Nye, now known as Agent X. His recruitment was simple and his legend is brilliant but unearned. Somehow, he thinks he&rsquo;s the best there is, and we all know how pride goeth before a fall. The master of SF hilarity and biting social satire creates a spy world that has gathered praise from the greats of the genre.<BR />  <BR /> 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 <I>New York Times</I>, was &ldquo;a precursor to Douglas Adams.&rdquo;<BR />  </div>

The Game of X

<div>One of the best futurist writers ever imagines an international detective&mdash;a professional risk taker working outside government, law, and order&mdash;and takes him on an adventure to what may as well be an alien planet as he goes on a mission into deepest Iran in search of the black opium of Baluchistan. <BR />  <BR /> 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 <I>New York Times</I>, was &ldquo;a precursor to Douglas Adams.&rdquo;</div>

White Death

<div>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&mdash;and when Soma, a new drug, turns up in Paris in the hands of a murdered Ibizan drug dealer, it&rsquo;s time for the Alternative Detective Agency to spring into action and defeat the crime syndicate that has infiltrated his beloved expatriate community.<BR />  <BR /> 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 <I>New York Times</I>, was &ldquo;a precursor to Douglas Adams.&rdquo;</div>

Soma Blues

<div>It&rsquo;s the twenty-first century and the ugliness of war no longer exists, except on a very personal level. Nowadays, people like Marcello Polletti, seller of Roman sunsets, and Caroline Meredith, lithe, beautiful, blond, and backed by corporate sponsors and the Roy Bell Dancers, hunt, chase, and kill one another for sport and for the entertainment of the masses&mdash;until something oddly like personal human feelings pops up to confuse the players and up the stakes as each of them seeks to kill a tenth victim and rise in the ranks of the hunters.<BR />  <BR /> 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 <I>New York Times</I>, was &ldquo;a precursor to Douglas Adams.&rdquo;</div>

The 10th Victim

<div>It&rsquo;s the twenty-first century and the ugliness of war no longer exists, except on a very personal level. Nowadays, people like Marcello Polletti, seller of Roman sunsets, and Caroline Meredith, lithe, beautiful, blond, and backed by corporate sponsors and the Roy Bell Dancers, hunt, chase, and kill one another for sport and for the entertainment of the masses&mdash;until something oddly like personal human feelings pops up to confuse the players and up the stakes as each of them seeks to kill a tenth victim and rise in the ranks of the hunters.<BR />  <BR /> 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 <I>New York Times</I>, was &ldquo;a precursor to Douglas Adams.&rdquo;<BR />  </div>

The Alternative Detective

<div>Tom Mishkin is piloting another routine supply flight when he hears an unusual noise and gets the distressing news: He&rsquo;s about to be stranded on a backward planet and forced to hike across unknown and probably hostile terrain to find a cache of spare parts and get going again. Mishkin&rsquo;s journey introduces him to strange aliens like a five-headed man-eating snake with Mob connections as his trek slowly warps into a metaphysical search for his soul and the meaning of human existence . . .<BR />  <BR /> 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 <I>New York Times</I>, was &ldquo;a precursor to Douglas Adams.&rdquo;</div>

Options

<div>Take a look at a dark, deadly future where the game is hunting and the result is killing, human to human, with status, money, power, and sex as the prizes. The operation runs underground and Frank Blackwell is a new recruit who is destined to change the game and turn it into legitimate popular entertainment for the masses.<BR /><BR /> 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 <I>New York Times</I>, was &ldquo;a precursor to Douglas Adams.&rdquo;<BR /><BR /> &ldquo;The key words with Sheckley are clever, deadly, cool . . . I don&rsquo;t know anyone else in SF who has written quite so many classic stories.&rdquo; &mdash;Spider Robinson<BR />  </div>

Hunter/Victim

<div><I>Crompton Divided</I> was also published in the United Kingdom under the title <I>The Alchemical</I><I>Marriage of</I><I>Alistair Crompton</I>.<BR /><BR /> Alistair Crompton, skilled nosologist at Psychosmell, Inc., sniffs out something he&rsquo;s been missing his whole life: his other selves. His disturbed psyche was divided into three parts and the other two were implanted in other bodies on other planets. His obsession to reunite himself leads to disturbing discoveries about the underpinnings of the society he lives in, personal conflicts, a vastly destructive war, and a shocking ultimate revelation.<BR /><BR /> The master of SF madness operates at the top of his form.<BR />  <BR /> 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 <I>New York Times</I>, was &ldquo;a precursor to Douglas Adams.&rdquo;<BR /><BR /> &ldquo;In case anyone has managed to miss this singular author&rsquo;s seminal influence on the world of imaginative literature, my best advice is to throw oneself in the way of <I>Crompton Divided</I> and give oneself up to wonderful madness.&rdquo; &mdash;Harlan Ellison </div>

Crompton Divided

<div><I>The Journey of Joenes</I>, also published as <I>Journey Beyond Tomorrow</I>, 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.<BR /><BR /> 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 <I>New York Times</I>, was &ldquo;a precursor to Douglas Adams.&rdquo;<BR /><BR /> &ldquo;I have always loved Robert Sheckley. . . . I don&rsquo;t know of anyone else in SF who has written quite so many classic stories . . . wittier than Pohl . . . blacker than Lenny Bruce, subtler and more bent that the Firesigns and Monty Python put together . . . The key words with Sheckley are clever, deadly cool and crazy as a bedbug.&rdquo; &mdash;Spider Robinson </div>

The Journey of Joenes

<div><B>A man wakes up after a fatal car accident&mdash;in someone else&rsquo;s body&mdash;in this ahead-of-its-time Hugo Award&ndash;nominated classic.</B><BR /><BR /> Thomas Blaine remembered the car accident that killed him&mdash;and then he woke up in the hospital. A nurse told him where he was. &ldquo;You&rsquo;d call it being in the future.&rdquo; A future where bodies are sold to the highest bidder as new homes for the minds of the rich, who are greedy for more life when their own bodies wear out or are damaged. Suddenly, keeping body and soul together has taken on a new, and very sinister, meaning. <BR />  <BR /> 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 <I>New York Times</I>, was &ldquo;a precursor to Douglas Adams.&rdquo;</div>

Immortality Inc.

<div><B>The acclaimed author of <I>The Alternative Detective</I> returns with another twisting tale that &ldquo;combines ironic wit with suspense to remarkable effect&rdquo; (John le Carr&eacute;).</B><BR />  <BR /> Though he was born in America, Hob Draconian feels much more at home on the sunny sands of Ibiza. But the easygoing life of this twenty-first century hippie is turned upside down when he learns that rented island refuge is about to be sold for redevelopment. In need of some quick cash to save his home, Hob returns to the Alternative Detective Agency&mdash;and boy do they have a job for him.<BR />  <BR /> Escorting an aspiring model from New York to Paris sounds like a delightfully easy way to make ten grand. If only he thought to ask why the gig pays so well. In short order, Hob finds himself embroiled in a criminal plot full of double crosses, <BR />  <BR /> 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 <I>New York Times</I>, was &ldquo;a precursor to Douglas Adams.&rdquo;<BR />   </div>

Draconian New York

<div>In 2092 the world&rsquo;s ecology is in ruins, drought and famine are widespread, and survival is a never-ending challenge. Harold Erdman leaves his dying community with one goal: to make his way to Esmeralda, an island paradise run by the Huntworld Corporation, which has turned public murder among willing competitors into a thriving and lucrative business. Can he survive the journey and the many rounds of deadly competition on his way to the Big Payoff? His neighbors&rsquo; lives, as well as his own, hang in the balance. Hilarious, savagely funny, and imaginative, this is Sheckley at his best! <BR />  <BR /> 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 <I>New York Times</I>, was &ldquo;a precursor to Douglas Adams.&rdquo;<BR />  </div>

Victim Prime

<div><B>An ordinary king finds himself on an extraordinary quest in this intergalactic soap opera by the acclaimed sci-fi author and &ldquo;precursor to Douglas Adams&rdquo; (<I>The New York Times</I>).</B><BR />  <BR /> Dramocles, an ordinary king on an ordinary planet, finds himself thrust into an adventure that combines soap opera, Greek tragedy, and Shakespearean drama as he unwillingly&mdash;and disastrously&mdash;seeks to fulfill his destiny. Unfortunately, that destiny is only revealed to him piece by piece. In the meantime, Dramocles manages to foment an interplanetary war, precipitate the disintegration of his family, lose all his friends, and uncover betrayal among his closest advisers as barbarian invaders besiege his realm. </div>

Dramocles

<div><B>On a savage prison planet, a reluctant killer searches for his memory</B><BR /><BR /> He awakes in the cell, his mind blank save for a faint memory of standing over a dead man with a gun. Guilty of murder, his brain has been wiped, and he has been transported to Omega, the prison planet, where evil is worshipped as a god. His jailers inform him of his name, Will Barrent, his crime, and the average life expectancy in his new home: three years. Every day will be a battle for survival, and one day, he will lose.<BR />  <BR /> Although run by criminals, Omega is hardly lawless. The population has been divided into an intricate caste system, and Barrent is on the bottom. The only way to advance in rank is to kill. While Barrent knows in his bones that he is no murderer, he sees no alternative but to give in to the crime that sent him here. He will kill if he must, but he will never lose himself again.<BR /></div>

Robert Sheckley
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Books By Robert Sheckley (28 Books)