Robert Sheckley, 1928-2005

When I was a teenage science fiction fan, avidly catching up with about five decades worth of stories from the Astounding era onward, Robert Sheckley was one of my favorite discoveries. His stories had a wonderfully twisted sense of humor—sci-fi isn’t always the easiest genre to pull off satire in, but Sheckley knew how to do it, over and over again. Likewise absurdism: Long before there was Douglas Adams, there was Sheckley. One of my favorite short stories was “Bad Medicine,” which just happens to be available from Project Gutenberg; there are a few more stories available as well.

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9 December 2005 | obituaries |