romance, comedy, and carnage! Sheckley has rarely been funnier, and yet as time goes on his near -future world seems ever closer, and it's very unsettling to read this and wonder if deep down we may not already be there. (less than 5 years ago, a british newspaper found 52% of those surveyed would commit murder if they could get away with it...)NOT TO BE MISSED! like the best of the best sci-fi, it entertains while asking some disturbing questions about who we are and what future we'll make.

This series (Bring Me The Head of Prince Charming, A Farce to be Reckoned With, and If at Faust you Don't Succeed) are, along with A Night In the Lonesome October, the polished works of a master.

I believe that when he wrote these, Zelazny knew he was dying. The writing is sparse, the plotting tight, the works polished before pen went to paper - or that's how they read, anyway. Beautiful, beautiful work.

Put them back in print, dammit!

A Farce to Be Reckoned with is the best book that I have ever read. Even though the book starts out slow the fast chapter breaks make it a book that needs no bookmarks. I have read the complete Chronicles of Amber three times and the comedy that he displays in this book can only be compared to the duel with the sphinx. It's a book that will entertain and make you think at the same time. This is a must buy for any Zelazny fan!

I read this book in russian translation. And very disappointed that an original one is out of stock

Sheckley is one of the top humorists in science fiction, and has
been since he started writing in the 1950s. He's not only funny, he's also a little bit of screwball, at least in his writings. Reality is never as it seems to be in a Sheckley story. He looks at things just a little bit off-kilter. This particular collection of his stories is a perfect example of what I mean. Look at the title story, which is about--sort of--an affair between a woman and a machine. Yet, Scheckley is able to make you laugh, right up until the end. If you're a fan of Sheckley's, this is one of his collections you should pick up.

A fine collection of short stories from Sheckley. My personal favorites are the title piece (a musing on sentience), the amazing "Pas de Trois of the Waiter, the Chef, and the Customer" - a little story told in Rashomon-like fashion, where three characters experience the same events radically differently - and "Cordle to Onion to Carrot", which persuaded me that people can truly reinvent themselves. Although I'm a longtime fan of Sheckley, I believe that nonfans and even non-science fiction fans would love this one.

I thought this book was completely entertaining. I was amazed at the way that Sheckley was able to give my mind a good working over with mere words. Truly he is the master at science fiction. I am a huge fan of any work that he has done.

I've given this book 3 out of five stars because that means a book is good. Not great. Not fair or bad, but good. I want to point this out because I've never read it. Douglas Adams said Sheckley was good, so I figure he can't be bad. Which brings me to my point. The first reviewer said that Douglas Adams had borrowed heavily from Sheckley, which is, in fact, wildly inacurate. The reviewer has probably read Gaiman's "Don't Panic: The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Companion" where Adams mentions Sheckley. What the reviewer has misunderstood or forgotten, is that after having written all the Dr. Who episodes and the HHGttG radio episodes and several of the HHGttG novels, and both, I believe, Dirk Gently novels, someone asked him if he'd ever read Sheckley, and he said he hadn't, but on their recommendation, he did, and said he found the resemblances very remarkable, however coincidental. The reviewer did get the bit right about Adams saying Sheckley was better than him. I guess I'm soon to find out, though I don't think I'll agree. Adams was one of a kind.

Apparently when he was asked how he compared himself to Robert Sheckley, whose work he had borrowed from extensively, Douglas Adams (Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy) had the grace to say 'he's better than me'. I'd be inclined to agree with that. These stories, which are all from the period when Sheckley was in the opinion of many the very best in the business, form a superb introduction to his work.
Satire, farce and old-fashioned black humor abound. Someone else who admired Sheckley and was strongly influenced by him was Philip K. Dick and you can see in these novels, which preceded Dick's most seminal work, many of Dick's origins. The only difference is that Sheckley is a whole lot funnier. When
informed by people who don't know science fiction that the genre lacks a sense of humor - this is what I recommend them to read. And it's a whole lot easier to do now that the books are back in print. May they stay in print forever. They are as fresh and as on the ball as they were when they were first written and an absolute fundamental must for anyone's basic library of sf classics.

Sheckley is an entertaining writer whose stories stretch the imagination while making some potent points about our political landscapes and social conventions. He really is cynical about it all, without a lot of redemption for his characters. Since the situations are so preposterous you sort of don't care about the characters, but laugh at the disasters that befall them. He really makes some strong points in this compilation of stories, but you have to think about how to apply the allegories. If you could read one or two of the stories in a reading club it would be interesting discussing them.

To control violent tendencies in the future the state offers a game bases on those desires. If you chose to sign up, and possibly win a massive dollar award for abilities, you are assigned to kill, and agree to allow an unknown to try for your life as well. Should you succeed in killing your assignment, without dying first, you become a one. Continueing on, a two , a three, and so forth. If you make it to ten, you win all the prise money your little heart desires. The catch, if you accidently kill a civilian, not signed up for the game, it means your life. The main character of the book, Frelaine, is a nine. He has just spotted the person he needs to rid of in order to become a ten, but oops, he falls in love. So too does she. So do these two kill each other. They believe so until the real deal behind the game becomes known. To clean the world of the types of people that would play this game in the first place. OOT-O. My opinion.... fast paces, heart tuggin, adrenalin pumpin beats. The computer wizadry used in the future isn't too far from reality. The imaginable special effects are mind blowing. Its killing all right, but not a book of blood and guts, a book of out smarts, guarenteed to make anyone think, and then, think again. For any one like myself who finds passion in pure thoughts of the witt. If anything, one should read it simply to confirm their own talents, or not, of staying one step ahead of being on the ball.... a ball is hard to stand on, but amusing to kick. (computer nerds and art freaks find their competition. So do you brain-iacks........ I dare each of you to sign up for the game)

A really wonderful and interesting book: an essay, a novel, a screenplay, but it's enough to say "Sheckley in the best vintage". Maybe someone has seen Elio Petri's movie, with Marcello Mastroianni and Ursula Andress: well, the novel is even better. Really a classic.

I think Douglas Adams was being nice when he said he thought Sheckley was better than him. Yes, the book had its moments of comedy, but certainly nothing to guffaw about. Mere chuckles. And, characterization...I didn't care in the least what happened to Tom Carmody. In fact, his character was there to perform a function in what seemed to be a philosophical argument Sheckley was trying to work through. Dimensions of Miracles was more like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance in that way, where the characters don't really matter, it's the discussion that matters. All else is window dressing. It had a few interesting bits, though. Like when Carmody finds that the higher beings of the galaxy aren't as perfect as he'd imagined they'd be, and one of them says, "What did you expect? I'm only sentient, you know." The planet builder, Maudsley, and the God, Melichrone were intriguing characters. But, the bit about the Predator was boring and ridiculous as it only served to further fuel Sheckley's philosophy and give a contrived sense of urgency to the plot. I think tales like this should be left to masters like Pynchon, who in The Crying of Lot 49 achieves much the same levels of paranoia and existentialism but with a great deal more grip. If you're looking to compare Adams and Sheckley, like I did after having read Neil Gaiman's Don't Panic: the HHGttG Official Companion, don't waste your time. Adams hadn't read this stuff until after he'd written most of his own books, and indeed, well after the Dr. Who episodes and HHGttG radio programs. If you're looking for jokes, technological satire, as well as characters who make you care what happens to them, read Adams instead.

This is one of the wittiest, craziest, most profound books I have ever read. It's a cosmic mind-youknowwhat with a strange bittersweet ending. I have had hilarious times hearing friends discuss Sheckley's concepts in DIMENSION, in his other two brilliant books MINDSWAP and JOURNEY OF JONES, and in his lean-and-mean short stories. Rudy Rucker (before he wrote his weirdly mean-spirited Saucer book), told me Mindswap was one of the books that inspired him to write sf. Dimension was the one that inspired me. If you like James Branch Cabell, Vonnegut, Bradbury at his tightest, Ambrose Bierce at his loopiest, and Chesterton at his craziest and most profound, if any of this means anything to you, you will LOVE this brilliant satire about the creation of earth, the alternative world of dinosaurs, the most hellish city ever built, why God's incompetence is his greatest quality, and why, ultimately, You Can't Go Home Again. This, my friends, is one of the great satirical fantasies of science fiction.

This is a wonderful book. I first read it in 1968, and it presaged brand labels on the outside of clothing, a media culture, and a number of other things. And it's really funny. My copy is falling apart, I've loaned it out so many times. Thus far, each person who has read it has loved it. I'm happy to be able to obtain another copy.

Unlike its predecessor, "If at Faust" is not funny, the characters are entirely unformed--even the ones we met in the prequel--and there are many agitating inconsistencies in the plot. This is supposedly about a contest between good and evil which takes place at the close of every milennium. It was pretty clear when the first book took place, but this one is less certain. Are we in the year 2000? There's no indication. If we are, why do the contestents concern themselves so much with the medieval and renaissance cultures? Demons in the contemporary world might have been fun. And if this is not the year 2000, why in the world is there a contest? Several stages and characters are set up and introducted and then are just left alone, never developing into anything important or interesting. Basically, nothing happens, and it's just not funny. It's missing the absurd adorability and enchanting ingenuity (and humor) of the first book, "Bring Me the Hea! d of Prince Charming." All I can say in it's favor is that it's a very quick read.

If At Faust you don't Succeed is the second book of a trilogy made by Roger Zelazny and Robert Sheckley. Though this book wasn't nearly as good as the first, I must say that it was still a worthy sequel. In this book, there is a contest being held between good and evil, and the victor gets to rule over mankind for the next thousand years. In this book, a human named Faust was chosen to represent mankind, but a thief named Mack accidentally got put in his place. So Faust goes off in search of Mack through time and space so he can switch places with Mack and gain his rightful place in the contest. If at Faust you Don't Succeed seems to be a bit more serious than the book before it (Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming), so some readers may be turned off by this fact. Other than that, it is still a great book and worth reading if you were a fan of the first book.

8/13/01 I have read both Zelazny's and Sheckley's books:"If At Faust You Don't Succeed"(timed in the middle ages with the wrong apothecary being kidnapped by the evil forces in error) and "Bring Me The Head Of Prince Charming", where body parts of the dead, are used to reconstruct a Prince (using legs of a coward who'd run away during a battle which gave the legs the magic of 'speed'.They had credit cards from the supernatural world for their expense account to be able to pay for the services and supplies they needed from 'dark humans' who dealt in darkness with the occult,etc.The bottom line in these millenium wars between good and evil was that the good would default it they used any dishonest means to win the power of 1000 years and the bad would default if they used anything but their atypical deceptions to win the power to influence the world for 1000 years.. Although you're almost sure from the beginning who'll win, the book has enough slapstick humor to make you want to go the route with them as the baddies feel they've got their scheme in place this time.

Noted sci-fi author Sheckley revisits the mystery form in this pleasing PI story. Middle-aged ex-hippie Hob Dranconian has settled down in New Jersey after spending the last 20 years running around the world enjoying life and dealing drugs to the funseekers of the world. This book finds him trying to track down some stolen sailboards in Spain via his Ibiza office, and trying to locate a missing old friend in Paris. Sheckley sets off down these two paths with solid plotting, amusing characters, and a clear sense of making sure all is not as it seems. It's a nice quick read, I'll definitely be checking out the sequel: Soma Blues and prequel: Draconian New York.

This is the second book in Sheckley's Hob Draconian series. It features a hilarious scene in a French taxi with a French poodle who is smarter than one of the passengers! Sheckley's series is witty, urbane, and filled with the kind of small touches only an experienced writer can deliver. If you are looking for "something different" in the mystery category, you won't go wrong with this!

When I heard about this book, I was excited, since Sheckley is one of the few writers who writes decent comedic science fiction.

His foray into mystery is not a successful one. This book wasn't good or bad, it was just ordinary. There was nothing really remarkable about the plot or the characters, and I found it hard to get into this book.

If you want my opinion, stick to Sheckley's scifi stuff.

I look forward to each new book by Robert Sheckley, and have yet to be disappointed. This new novel in Sheckley's adventures of the soft-boiled detective Hob Draconian is a fast-paced romp, filled with ironic wit, intrigue and plot situations that are as bizarre as the characters that inhabit them. So put on your traveling shoes and read your way to a smile. Highly recommended.