Book: 'The Store Of The Worlds' by Robert Sheckley

The short version: This was a ball to read. A fantastic set of deeply funny and thoughtful science fiction stories from a long forgotten master. Now for the long version...

Robert Sheckley was writing 'funny science fiction' long before Douglas Adams kicked off the 'Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy phenomenon'. 'The Store of the Worlds' is a fascinating modern collection of the most memorable of his stories. They're all brilliant, and I'm on record as disliking short fiction! I was introduced to Sheckley by the discovery that the film 'Condorman' (I don't care what you say; It's awesome!) was loosely based on his novella 'The Game Of X', then I read his novella 'Dimension X', and then 'The Store of the Worlds' hovered on my book list for ages before finally shuffling into its full papery splendour on the book pile. And then I put off reading it, because it was full of short stories. That was the wrong move as even now there are five or six people who will probably have a chance of getting this book for their next birthday or Christmas.

So, what's good about 'The Store Of The Worlds'? It's irreverent AND idealistic. Some of the stories are plain cynical and some are ultimately optimistic. Sheckley seems to have an eye for a realistic and funny view on love. In fact, the story that has been most sticky in my mind so far is called 'The Language Of Love', wherein a man who finds 'I love you' a too mundane way to convey his feelings to his girlfriend, studies for months on a world which perfected the language and understanding of love, just to come back and realise he is only 'mildly fond' of the lovely lady. It loses much in the translation, but is actually very very funny. It seems strange that his is a name that doesn't appear more often in reviews and recommendations. Perhaps that is because very few novels successfully appear in the usually humourless and arid genre of science fiction? Only Sheckley and Adams spring to mind, with Jasper Fforde staying firmly off in his own little playpen of obscure delights. If Roger Zelazny had written more science fiction he would be firmly in the club too.

Short review? One of the problems with lighter stories and novels is that the enjoyment is going to be more ephemeral than substantial. I could go on at length about the stories contained, but that would be doing a subtle disservice to the material. The stories contained in 'The Store of the Worlds' are not intended to be analysed deeply, much as lots of pulpy stories weren't. They were intended to entertain and sell magazines and books. However, the breadth of stories is fascinating. As an author Sheckley knew when to pull out the twist 'Twilight Zone' type bittersweet ending as well as the occasional hopeful denouement. You're never entirely sure what you're going to get. 'A slightly less predictable and horrific version of 'The Twilight Zone'' is probably a good description to give 'The Store of the Worlds', a rare short story collection that was hard to give up until it was over. Every story seemed meticulous and thoroughly well-conceived. Good job, compilers, and good job to you too, Mr Sheckley.

Now it's time to dig deep and find a way through 'A Tale Of Two Cities' again. It too is wonderful but the knowledge of the ending weighs upon every page.

O.