Reviews

Robert Sheckley deftly manipulates — in a mere (but dense) 127 pages — a plot straight from the pulps involving prison planets and gladiatorial fights against terrifying robots into a scathing and artfully constructed work of satire.

Due to the almost novella length of The Status Civilization do not expect any unnecessary declamations on technology or the nature of the world or government or endless interior character monologues for Sheckley clearly prefers — and revels in — the shorter form.

Told with energy and wit The Status Civilization (1960) is a fast and enjoyable read. Highly recommended for all fans of 50s/early 60s science fiction dystopia (you get two dystopic worlds in this novel) — especially of the satirical bent.

You may read this book free now online via ProjectGutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20919

jayshay's review against another edition

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3.0

Actually this is more a 3.5 review. Despite a fairly two dimensional main character and a lot of explaining, the ideas and wit of this novelette really carried the day. Favourite bits were the identical religious speeches on both Omega and Earth (only spoiled a bit because Sheckley couldn't restrain himself from pointing out the same point at the end) and the copying of past authors that passes itself off as creation, both for the pulps and the higher literary forms. (In the camp of there are no new ideas in art, I suppose.) Some of his points like the insularity of people's pursuits on Earth have to strike rather close to home for people, like myself, who spend a large part of their energies on the internet.

It is good that the book ends where it does because I found myself fairly easily formulating a lot of counter-measures that the computers/robots could come up with to ensure that the Omegans don't get anywhere with their plans. (If you've programmed everyone to police themselves it would be fairly easy to also slip in a solider program in case a part of your population rebelled or broke free from conditioning. This doesn't even address the problem that the computers are really the only ones with up to date technology.) But that really isn't the point of this story, which is to dissect with urbanity the culture of conformity of the 50s and early 60s. That the work still has bite today shows how society is always in that balance between unrestrained, creative, yet dangerous energy and the safety of stultifying security. All hail our internet nanny overlord!

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I listened to the librivox production of this work, read by Gregg Margarite. His reading style is slightly wooden, but he is a terrific reader and well suited to the 50's tone. And best of all, librivox is free!

toonitopia's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

looruzki's review

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

zivan's review

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4.0

There are no PCs, but this work has aged pretty well.

seano's review

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1.0

Not a science fiction classic. More like a rejected Twilight Zone script. It had some good ideas, but the execution was pretty pedestrian.

It was however, short.

myxomycetes's review

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3.0

It’s 1950s SF in the hip mode (think Bester and Pohl) with one of those What-If planetary monoculture set-ups. What if a world was populated by mental patients? What if a world was populated by Medieval re-enactors? I

n this case it’s, What if there was a prison world where evil was considered good? It’s dopey, but not completely so – not quite Bizarro World, but certainly not The Dispossessed either – and every now and then the satire’s particularly sharp and pointed.

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