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Sheckley, Robert UNTOUCHED BY HUMAN HANDS book-date: 1954 | |
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Ballantine
1954 1st Paperback Jack Coggins .35 VG to VG+ | ||
Untouched by Human Hands, by Robert Sheckley. This is his first collection of SF stories (and his first book.) For a man who's first story was published in 1952, to have a set of this quality by 1954 is quite a feat. The Monsters These are from Magazine of F&SF, Galaxy, Fantastic, Astounding, Fantasy, Climax and Amazing - 2 are from 1952, the rest are from 1953. Some plot teasers [excerpted from a review in Astounding December 1954]: In "The Monsters," a human expedition appears monstrous because of its "inhuman" social customs; in "Ritual" another expedition struggles against what the aliens believe to be human customs. "Cost of Living" is very close to a number of Bradbury treatments of our mechanized future... "Shape" shows us the revolt of an alien people against its stereotypes; "Specialist" counterpoises with a wholly shapeful civilization in which we have an unexpected part... Finally, "Warm" goes devilishly into a doomed mind and "Seventh Victim" has (let's face it!) a Fritz Leiber savagery to the close. I wish I had thirteen stories as good as these when I was twenty-four - or forty-four, for that matter. [-P. Schuyler Miller] |