- Hardcover: 240 pages
- Publisher: Tor Books (Jan 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0312868049
- ISBN-13: 978-0312868048
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 14.2 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 5,387,981 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I've been a Sheckley fan for years - but sometimes despair of his tendency to get completely lost after starting a really interesting theme. I bought this book anyway - and was pleasantly surprised. He still wanders - but some of the surreal conversational dialogue is great. Take the conversation between the Hero, a rebellious help file and a black hole singularity for example - Brilliant! I laughed out loud with shear delight. Getting close to the brilliance of "Dimension of Miracles".
Sheckley has never been at his best with novels - much more at home with short stories. However, if you consider this book for what it is - a series of sketches with a sort of theme loosely running through it - you'll appreciate it the more.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
My immediate thought after finishing this book was that Robert Sheckley should apologize for wasting so many words. While well-written, this book was a disappointment to say the least, and irritating to say the most. It jumps from Neat Concept to Neat Concept without bothering to do more than touch upon them briefly. We're dragged from one scene to the next in a careless, offhanded fashion. Characters appear onstage, have a few lines, and are gone, without any sort of depth to them. It's like channel-surfing on a ten-second interval, which is about how long some of the chapters take to read. The book moves with increasing speed, tossing plot to the wind in an increasingly frustrating way, with little rhyme or reason, culminating in a mindbogglingly confusing ending which leaves a lot to be desired. I will admit, however, that it's a well-written book. It just left me unsatisfied and frustrated. As a parody, or a comment on the way the universe works, it's a good read. As a serious work of fiction, it's not. Robert Sheckley tosses away more good concepts, any of which could hold a book up on their own, than some authors use in an entire trilogy. Ultimately, I must admit that I don't regret reading this book. I merely regret spending the money to buy it in hardback. Casual readers, be thus advised.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book had some interesting ideas and situations in it, but the author never bothered to bring closure to any of it. The focus shifts bewilderingly from character to character without much in the way of a unifying plot to it. The final pages are a stopping point rather than an ending or resolution. It was extremely frustrating to have spent the time reading this book, only to seemingly watch the whole thing come apart by the finish and result in nothing.
I won't be reading this author in the future. And I'd suggest the publisher hire better editors.
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