From his first published work of fiction in 1952 until his death in 2005, Robert Sheckley wrote more than two hundred short stories and dozens of novels. He is known as one of the great humorists in the science fiction field, with stories such as “The Day the Aliens Came,” “What Is Life?,” and “The Two Sheckleys.”

Robert Sheckley wrote frequently of everyman heroes caught in a world they don’t understand, featured in stories such as “The Altar,” “A Ticket to Transai,” and “The Mountain without a Name.” He also explored mythology and the nature of heroism in stories such as “Agamemnon’s Run,” “The Quijote Robot,” and “The Never-Ending Western Movie.” Additionally, he explored the ways in which humans interact with their machines and with each other in stories such as “Watchbird,” “The Girls and Nugent Miller,” and “Seventh Victim.”

This collection includes thirty-one stories, including the short novels Dramocles and Minotaur Maze.

Robert Sheckley was born in Brooklyn in 1928 and began publishing fiction in 1951. His short stories appeared in magazines such as Galaxy, Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Playboy. He published more than twenty novels and edited Omni magazine. His stories were adapted for television and film, including the movies Freejack and The Tenth Victim. He received the Author Emeritus career honor from the Science Fiction Writers of America in 2001. He died in 2005.