Satire about consumerism, automated systems, and plans that go wrong.
Robert Sheckley (1928–2005) was an American writer known for comic and satirical science fiction. He began publishing in 1952 and became a frequent contributor to Galaxy Science Fiction. His early collections include Untouched by Human Hands and Citizen in Space. He used comic dialogue and absurd situations to question consumer habits, government policy, and confidence in technology.
Sheckley often starts with an invention or social rule that seems useful, then follows the problems it creates. In “Watchbird,” machines designed to prevent murder must decide what counts as killing. “Cost of Living” follows a family whose household conveniences come with debts their children must inherit. His characters frequently misunderstand a rule, a machine, or another species, and their attempts to solve the resulting problem make it worse.
From a quick encounter to a longer story.
Seekers from several species travel to a machine that knows everything, only to learn that knowledge depends on asking a valid question.
Autonomous machines built to prevent murder begin expanding their definition of whom and what they must protect.
An aging prospector on a remote asteroid gives his work robot a personality and gains the companion he never expected.
A man surrounded by labor-saving luxuries begins to question the debts that control his family’s future.
A freighter’s failed engine sends three incompatible crewmen out of the solar system with no ordinary route home.
An alien envoy announces Earth’s forced annexation and dares a military research team to overcome his perfect defenses.
When the stars vanish and a voice schedules Earth’s judgment, a New York dress seller watches humanity prepare for the end.
After inventing an immortality serum, a biologist is pursued by a secret organization determined to control the discovery.
Three shape-changing aliens land on Earth to open an invasion route, but the planet offers forms their rigid caste system forbids.
Treasure hunters on a remote Pacific island discover that a Martian parasite can unite animals and people into one obedient mind.
Two starving space travelers search an abandoned alien warehouse for anything a human can safely eat.
The apparent last man on a ruined Earth can create anything he imagines, until a woman arrives and challenges what he believes is real.
A lone prospector crosses Venus’s deadliest desert while strict cash-only services deny him the supplies he needs to survive.
A crew guarding Earth against telepathic invaders waits for a detector to reveal the first compromised mind.
An alien organism that converts every attack into food begins spreading across rural New York.
A prejudiced anthropologist and his assistant discover that an alien village possesses a rare medicine with extraordinary healing powers.
A voice in a psychology instructor’s mind guides him toward a way of seeing that strips ordinary reality of meaning.
Two stranded space travelers need fuel from a society whose idea of honorable warfare makes a simple recovery mission dangerous.
A student in a celebrated writing course objects to his professor’s rules for describing aliens and other planets.
