Human Man’s Burden
by Robert Sheckley, Galaxy Science Fiction (September, 1956)
reprinted 12 Great Classics of Science Fiction, ed. Groff Conklin (Fawcett, 1963), pp. 57-71.
A disarming little story that, in setting itself up as a comedy, appears to make one point about men, women and the human condition, switches as if to make another, then turns out to have been about robot sentience and master/slave dynamics.
All the Things You Are
by Robert Sheckley, Galaxy (July 1956); UK edition no. 42 (September 1956), 118-128.
A humorous if inconsequential short story from that once-thriving SF subgenre wherein civilised Earth crews in their technologically advanced ships go rocketing about the galaxy, abjectly messing up first contact with more primitive peoples. Funny enough, without rising to any great heights.
Hands Off
by Robert Sheckley
Galaxy Science Fiction (April, 1954); UK No. 18 (September, 1954), pp. 54-63.
SF novelette offering a two-pronged narrative, following the actions firstly of an unscrupulous human pirate crew, and secondly of the principled alien whose near-totally incompatible physical makeup renders it impossible for them to steal his spaceship. A whimsical, waggish tale of comeuppance.
Protection
by Robert Sheckley
Galaxy Science Fiction (April, 1956); UK No. 39 (June, 1956), pp. 54-63.
One of those technically insubstantial Sheckley short stories that nevertheless skims along with sufficient comedic insouciance to qualify as a good read. The protagonist accepts an alien protection service, just because it’s free, but in doing so brings about his own undoing.
A Thief in Time
by Robert Sheckley, Galaxy Science Fiction (July, 1954); UK No. 21 (December, 1954), pp. 4-27.
A light-hearted romp but the time travel paradox isn’t explored so much as indulged in, ad hoc, until (it feels) Sheckley rollicked his word count up to novelette length and the editor had enough pages filled to put a stop to it.
Keep Your Shape
by Robert Sheckley
Galaxy Science Fiction (November, 1953); UK No. 13 (April 1954), pp. 4-20.
Humorous SF invasion short story with philosophical undertones. Sheckley posits a race of shapechangers whose oppressive caste system limits each individual to a prescribed set of forms. Confronted with Earth’s biological diversity, the disgruntled lower echelons exhibit a tendency to go native!
Masters of Science Fiction: Robert Sheckley
ed. John Pelan (Centipede Press, 2021)
A vast collection (33 stories, 700+ pages) in stately hardcover. The selection is representative, capturing Sheckley’s mastery, his near misses, and his distended bouts of abject self-indulgence. Never lacking for voice, Sheckley championed narrative informality and shifted the frontier of satirical SF.
The Robot Who Looked Like Me
by Robert Sheckley (Sphere, 1978)
A short fiction collection in which the reader is promised (and given) satire, inventiveness and humour, but also off-the-cuff storytelling, an intrusive sexual focus, a name writer’s complacency and maddening, devil-may-care flights of fancy that lead nowhere under the guise of surrealism.