Robert Sheckley (1928–2005)

One will find the stories quite discontinuous in quality and tone, but the good ones are true masterpieces of the genre.
One of them is, possibly, the most uplifting sci-fi story ever. Imagine that Gene Roddenberry and [a:Adrian Tchaikovsky|1445909|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1282303363p2/1445909.jpg] of [b:Children of Time|25499718|Children of Time (Children of Time, #1)|Adrian Tchaikovsky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1431014197l/25499718._SY75_.jpg|45276208] fame have a literary child, and you will get an idea of it. Imagine an eco-system galaxy where every species is interconnected to the other. Imagine keeping your identity without any need to be ever isolated or misunderstood or scared anymore. One cannot but put down the story and start day-dreaming.
Writing the review few months after finishing the listen, few other stories come to mind. The title one, classic comedic sci-fi, presents quite the lame ending; however, the description of the various life-forms in the storage building is mind bending enough to lure one back again and again to the story. Sheckley had indeniably a wild imagination.
The best title, however, is the first one. It would be difficult to find modern, "woke" sci-fi able to describe in the same, poignant way the point of view of the irreducible other.
Worth listening to, although the thick accent of Master Sheckley himself reading one of the stories made it next to impossible to understand the plot for this poor, ignorant, tone deaf foreigner; in general, the readers did a decent job.
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I am generally not a lover of short stories. I find that they tend to either be half baked ideas or stories that try to do too much in too littler space. Sheckley has found a good balance, however, that keeps each of his stories interesting without dragging. Though these are not masterfully written, the ideas they present are interesting and well worth discussing. I have and will continue to recommend this book to friends, but only those with a penchant for science fiction and a love of the dry humor that made Douglas Adams famous.… (more)