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 Sheckley: the best short-story writer the field has produced." — Alan Dean Foster"I had no idea the compet...

Edited by the mysterious Rey Bertran, the Science Fiction Archive #1 features some of the greatest science fiction writing of all time. Featuring: The Sentimentalists, by Murray Leinster The Girls from Earth, by Frank Robinson The Death Traps of FX-31, by Sewell Wright Song in a minor key, by C.L. Moore Sentry of the Sky, by Evelyn E. Smith Meeting of the Minds, by Robert Sheckley Junior, by Robert Abernathy Death Wish, by Ned Lang Dead World, by Jack Douglas Cost of Living, by Robert Shec...

Collected here are five fantastic stories by Algis Budrys, Frank Herbert, Robert Sheckley, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., and Jamie Wild. 1) The Stoker and the Stars: When you've had your ears pinned back in a bowknot, it's sometimes hard to remember that an intelligent people has no respect for a whipped enemy ... but does for a fairly beaten enemy. 2) Missing Link: The Romantics used to say that the eyes were the windows of the Soul. A good Alien Xenologist might not put it quite so poetically ... ...

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—twenty-six from the author's ten other Open Road collections, plus thirteen additional pieces unique to this volume—include these vintage Sheckley stories: "The Eye of Reality," "The Language of Love," "The Accountant," "A Wind Is Rising," "The Robot Who Looked Like Me," "The Mnemone," "Warm," "The Native Problem," "Fishing...

Will Barrent had no memory of his crime... but he found himself shipped across space to a brutal prison-planet. On Omega, his only chance to advance himself - and stay alive - is to commit an endless series of violent crimes. The average inmate's life expectancy from time of arrival is three years. Can Barrett survive, escape, and return to Earth to clear his name?

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'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.From the very beginning of his career, Robert Sheckley was recognized by fans, reviewers, and fellow authors as a master storyte...

In Live Gold, Robert Sheckley plunges his hardboiled hero Stephen Dain into a glittering, treacherous world where greed, deceit, and glamour collide. When Dain is hired to recover a cache of stolen gold, he quickly discovers that every lead comes with a double-cross — and that the real treasure isn't what's buried, but who's willing to kill for it. Set against a backdrop of sun-drenched coastlines, smoky bars, and luxury gone rotten, Sheckley's noir pulses with cy...

A man wakes up after a fatal car accident—in someone else's body—in this ahead-of-its-time Hugo Award–nominated classic.Thomas Blaine remembered the car accident that killed him—and then he woke up in the hospital. A nurse told him where he was. "You'd call it being in the future." 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 ...

"If the Marx Brothers had been literary fantasists, they would have been Robert Sheckley." —Harlan EllisonIn "The Robot Who Looked Like Me," a busy man and a busy woman find a way to carve out time to romance each other—by having look-alike robots made to do the job—who then run away together.The twelve other stories in this collection are "Slaves of Time," "Voices," "A Supplicant in Space," "Sneak Previews," "Zirn Left Unguarded, the Jenghik Palace in Flame...

The classic sci-fi story collection features eleven tales of outer space adventure from one of the genre's greatest talents—"a precursor to Douglas Adams" ( The New York Times).In "Fool's Mate," 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 "Forever." And in "Prospector's Special," a lone explorer searches the deserts of Venus in search of unfathomable treas...

The Journey of Joenes, also published as Journey Beyond Tomorrow, 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.From the very beginning of his career, Robert Sheckley was recognized by fans, reviewers, and fello...

A hapless Earthling must find his way home through a universe of absurdities in this science fiction romp from a Hugo and Nebula Award–nominated master.New York civil servant Thomas Carmody has never been particularly lucky. Imagine his surprise when he discovers he's won the grand prize in an Intergalactic Lottery he had no idea he'd entered.Whisked far away to Galactic Central to claim his award, he has two immediate, equally troubling revelations. Not onl...