I’ve read some of the other novels by Robert Sheckley (1928-2005) and if, after reading here, like the idea of his stories, try ‘Mind Swop’. This one, ‘Shards Of Space’, is an anthology of eleven stories from the late 1950s-1960. As such, they are all influenced by the science known at the time. Sheckley also added some wit to his stories, spotting the absurd and making fun.
The opening story, ‘Prospector’s Special’, has Tom Morrison using his $20,000 savings to look for wealth in a Venusian desert. This was written before we knew about how dangerous and uninhabitable the planet truly is. Although he is readily in contact with people elsewhere, by law, none of them can supply him with anything on credit. When his transport loses two back wheels in a crash, Morrison continues on foot. If he finds the gold, then he will be able to afford everything. Of course, the red tape muddles when even when he finds the motherlode, it isn’t seen as currency.
‘The Girls And Nugget Miller’ is after a war and Miller thinks himself the last man on Earth. That is until on a look for supplies he encounters teacher Miss Denis and her five post-teen lady students. One problem, Denis is a misandrist, that’s a hatred of men, and will even resort to the labs for breeding.
The next two stories had a similar theme of group minds. ‘Meeting Of The Minds’ and ‘Potential’. I checked the indicia and ‘Potential’ came out originally in1953, while ‘Meeting Of The Minds’ in 1960 which was far better and longer. An alien sentient bug called the Quedak hitches a ride back to Earth from Mars and later starts taking over some treasure hunters and nearby animals. We see this from both perspectives. As you read these stories, you’ll realise just how good a storyteller Sheckley was. Even if you changed the names of the planets, they still becoming gripping yarns. He pays attention to detail and you care for the characters.
‘Fool’s Mate’ is a space battle in space based on chess statistics as to who would win until presidential representative Margraves arrives and breaks the stalemate in a drastic way. In case you think that’s a ‘Star Trek’ plot, this one came first.
Two of the stories, ‘The Slow Season’ and ‘Alone And Last’ are borderline horror stories. For the first, a tailor asked to make clothes to a certain specification and then meets these particular people. The second has a man wanting to live alone on an asteroid, well, apart from his robot, who has similar problems.
Again, two stories have the same theme, this time with a longevity drug. ‘Forever’ came out in 1953 and ‘The Sweeper Of Loray’ in 1959. At least they were in the right order this time. The former is the better one where Charles Dennison is being pursued for his new drug and has no choice but to take it himself. He later finds he is not the first to discover it and all of them are imprisoned until they either join the team that caught them or go mad. The ending feels a bit rushed but captures a lot of ideas.
When you think all these stories came out mostly in the 1950s and yet still read refreshingly shows the strength of Sheckley’s writing. He wrote a lot of short stories and novels in his lifetime so there’s a lot to choose from.
GF Willmetts
September 2026
(pub: Corgi/Transworld Publications, 1962. 152 page paperback. Price: varies. ISBN: GS7503)
Join the conversation (0)