from science fiction by
Robert Sheckley
(1928 – 2005)

This page:
The Prize of Peril
The Humours
Triplication
The Minimum Man
The Gun Without a Bang

Category:

science fiction

index pages:
authors
titles
categories
topics
translators

The Prize of Peril

Copyright © 1958 by Mercury Press, Inc.
Copyright assigned 1959 to Robert Sheckley

Hadn’t they said he was their representative? Hadn’t they sworn to protect their own? But no, they loathed him. Why hadn’t he seen it? Their hero was the cold, blank-eyed gunman, Thompson, Capone, Billy the Kid, Young Lochinvar, El Cid, Cuchulain, the man without human hopes or fears. They worshipped him, that dead, implacable robot gunman, and lusted to feel his foot in their face.

Topic:

Heroes

Note (Hal’s):
This story anticipated the current trends of “reality TV” by about 35 years.

— end note

text checked (see note) Jan 2007

top of page
The Humours

originally appeared in Galaxy under the title “Join Now”

Copyright © 1968 by Galaxy Publishing Corp.

“Everything today is biased toward the poor, as though there were some special virtue in improvidence. Yet the rich have their needs and necessities, too! These needs are unlike the needs of the poor, but no less urgent. The poor require food, shelter, medical attention. The governments provide these admirably. But what about the needs of the rich? People laugh at the idea of a rich man having problems; but does mere possession of credit exclude him from having problems? It does not! Quite the contrary, wealth increases need and sharpens necessity, often leaving a rich man in a more truly necessitous condition than his poor brother.”

“In that case, why doesn’t he give up his wealth?” Crompton asked.

“Why doesn’t a poor man give up his poverty?” Loomis asked in return. “No, it can’t be done, we must accept the conditions that life has imposed upon us.”

Topic:

Wealth

“It would be unethical. The young lady is married.”

“Marriage,” Loomis said patiently, “is a man-made institution. But before marriage there were men and women, and certain modes between them. Natural laws always take precedence over human legislation.”

“It’s immoral,” Crompton said, without much vigor.

“Not at all,” Loomis assured him. “You are unmarried, so no possible blame can attach to you for your actions. The young lady is married. That’s her responsibility. But remember, she is a human being capable of making her own decisions, not some mere chattel of her husband. Her decision has been made, and we must respect her integrity in the matter; to do otherwise would be insulting. Finally, there is the husband. He will know nothing of this, and therefore will not be injured by it. In fact, he will gain. For his wife, in recompense, will be unusually pleasant to him. He will assume that this is because of his forceful personality, and his ego will be bolstered thereby. So you see, Crompton, everyone will gain, and no one will lose.”

Topic:

Rationalizing

text checked (see note) Jan 2007

top of page
Triplication

Copyright 1959 by HMH Publishing Co., Inc.
Copyright assigned 1959 to Robert Sheckley

Low’s Law states that the defendant’s lawyer shall serve concurrently whatever sentence is imposed upon his client.

Many consider this unfair. But the incidence of lawyers on Oaxe II has diminished remarkably.

Topic:

Lawyers

text checked (see note) Jan 2007

top of page
The Minimum Man

Copyright 1958 by Galaxy Publishing Corp.

Everybody has his song, thought Anton Perceveral. A pretty girl is like a melody, and a brave spaceman like a flurry of trumpets. Wise old men on the Interplanetary Council make one think of richly blended woodwinds. There are geniuses whose lives are an intricate counterpoint endlessly embellished, and scum of the planets whose existence seems nothing more than the wail of an oboe against the inexorable pounding of a brass drum.

Topic:

Music

The elevator reached the great marble lobby with its uniformed riot policemen and its crowds waiting admittance to the midtown streets. Perceveral waited on line, idly watching the Population Density Meter fluctuate below the panic line, until his turn came. Outside, he joined a compact body of people moving westward in the direction of his housing project.

text checked (see note) Jan 2007

top of page
The Gun Without a Bang

Copyright 1958 by Galaxy Publishing Corp.

Dixon was a great believer in personal armament. To his way of thinking, the winning of the American West was simply a contest between bow and arrow and Colt .44. Africa? The spear against the rifle. Mars? The Colt three-point against the spinknife. H-bombs smeared cities, but individual men with small arms took the territory. Why look for fuzzy economic, philosophical or political reasons when everything was so simple?

Topic:

Weaponry

text checked (see note) Jan 2007

top of page