Search Worlds Without End

John Sladek explains the theme of the darkly comic stories in this wonderful collection:

"The aliens here are human. This book contains no giant flying snails or telepathic octopods, no Ganymedean cat-women dressed in silver, no aggressive dugong chiefs roaming the galaxy in their pulsar-powered yo-yo ships. The aliens here are human aliens. Most of them work in ordinary offices, and they do not commute to work from Proximo Centauri, either. Yet these here humans are aliens. Office life attracts them..."

Table of Contents:

• 7 - Introduction (Alien Accounts) - essay
• 9 - Masterson and the Clerks - (1967) - novella
• 67 - New Forms - (1968) - short story
• 73 - 198-, a Tale of "Tomorrow" - (1970) - short story
• 79 - Scenes from the Country of the Blind - (1977) - short story
• 100 - The Interstate - (1971) - short story
• 117 - Name (Please Print): - (1973) - short story
• 126 - Anxietal Register B - (1969) - short fiction
• 133 - The Communicants - (1969) - novella

This comic novel about an Englishman lost in the surreal high-tech computer country of America's mid-west describes how the hero Fred Jones goes to America to seek his fortune and ends up with his private life out of control, working for the KGB and people wanting to murder him.

Humourist, science fiction novelist, crime writer, sceptical journalist, John Sladek won the London "Times" Detective Story Competition, 1972, and the British Science Fiction Award (best novel) for 1983.

Contains:

• Elephant with Wooden Leg
• The Design
• The Face
• The Masterplan
• Flatland
• A Game of Jump
• The Hammer of Evil, or Career Opportunities at the Pascal Business School
• The Locked Room
• Another Look
• Space Shoes of the Gods
• The Poets of Millgrove, Iowa
• The Commentaries
• The Bright Side
• Getting There is (n-1/n)th of the Fun
• Heavens Below: Fifteen Utopias
• Mr and Ms America
• The Paradise Problem
• Empty Promise
• Handout
• What Changed Doyster's Mind
• Art News
• Assessment
• Pax Gurney
• A Fable
• Utopia: A Financial Report
• Luck
• Utopiary
• A Picnic
• Scenes From Rural Life
• The Secret of the Old Custard
• Undecember
• The Great Wall of Mexico

Maps is the definitive collection of John Sladek's uncollected work put together by his friend, fellow writer and critic David Langford who also provides an introduction. It includes all the solo stories - science fiction, detective puzzles, mainstream, "non-fact" pieces - as well as poems, playlets, pseudonymous fiction, all the short collaborations with Thomas M. Disch (including three never previously published) and some witty autobiographical essays.

Table of Contents:

• The Secret of the Old Custard - (1966) - shortstory
• The Poets of Millgrove, Iowa - (1966) - shortstory
• The Best-Seller - (1966) - shortstory
• Is There Death on Other Planets? - (1966) - shortstory
• The Happy Breed - (1967) - shortstory
• The Singular Visitor from Not-Yet - (1968) - shortstory
• The Short, Happy Wife of Mansard Eliot - (1971) - shortstory
• The Momster - (1969) - shortstory
• 1937 A.D.! - (1967) - shortstory
• The Transcendental Sandwich - (1973) - shortstory
• The Steam-Driven Boy - (1972) - shortstory
• Elephant with Wooden Leg - (1975) - shortstory
• The Locked Room - (1972) - shortstory
• The Face - (1974) - shortstory
• The Bright Side - (1975) - shortfiction
• Getting There Is (n-1/n)th the Fun - (1975) - shortstory
• Heavens Below: Fifteen Utopias - (1975) - shortfiction
• Mr. and Ms. America - (1975) - shortstory
• The Paradise Problem - (1975) - shortstory
• Empty Promise - (1975) - shortstory
• What Changed Doyster's Mind - (1975) - shortstory
• Assessment - (1975) - shortstory
• Handout - (1975) - shortstory
• Pax Gurney - (1975) - shortstory
• Art News - (1975) - shortstory
• A Fable - (1975) - shortstory
• Utopia: A Financial Report - (1975) - shortstory
• Luck - (1975) - shortstory
• Utopiary - (1975) - shortstory
• A Picnic - (1975) - shortstory
• Space Shoes of the Gods - (1974) - shortstory
• The Purloined Butter... Edgar Allen Poe - (1972) - shortstory
• Pemberl?y's Start-Afresh Calliope or, The New Proteus...H.G. Wells - (1971) - shortstory
• Ralph 4F... Hugo Gernsback (Hugogre N. Backs) - (1973) - shortstory
• Engineer to the Gods... Robert Heinlein (Hitler I.E. Bonner) - (1972) - shortstory
• Broot Force... Isaac Asimov (Iclick As-I-Move) - (1972) - shortstory
• Joy Ride... Ray Bradbury (Barry DuBray) - (1972) - shortstory
• The Moon Is Sixpence... Arthur C. Clarke (Carl Truhacker) - (1973) - shortstory
• Solar Shoe-Salesman... Philip K. Dick (Chipdip K. Kill) - (1973) - shortstory
• One Damned Thing After Another... Cordwainer Smith (A Co-ordainer's Myth) - (1973) - shortstory
• The Sublimation World... J.G. Ballard (J.G. B-) - (1968) - shortstory

John Sladek's hilarious SF satires may show a world riddled with shambolic flaws, but this (he pointed out) is actually the good news: "My own small ray of hope concerns human frailty. All conspiracies, no matter how monstrous, are ultimately the work of mere imperfect people, whose irresolution or bad judgement or even bad conscience works against the system. They get bunions, their cars break down, their children run away -and all this grit gets into the smooth-running gears of their world domination plans. I hope."

Table of Contents:

• The Last of the Whaleburgers
• Great Mysteries Explained!
• Red Noise
• Guesting
• Absent Friends
• After Flaubert
• The Brass Monkey
• White Hat
• The Island of Dr Circe
• Answers
• Breakfast with the Murgatroyds
• The Next Dwarf
• An Explanation for the Disappearance of the Moon
• How to Make Major Scientific Discoveries at Home in Your Spare Time
• The Kindly Ones
• Fables
• Ursa Minor
• Calling All Gumdrops!

New Angles on the Universe!

John Sladek is one of the most intelligent and versatile science fiction authors writing today. With sharp insight and wicked humor he opens his readers' minds to new angles on space, time, machines and men. In this brilliantly entertaining collection you will encounter galactic spies, nightmarishly benevolent computers, some extremely peculiar aliens, offbeat time machines -- not forgetting, of course, the Steam-Driven Boy itself...

In addition, John Sladek has included ten masterly parodies of the work of such all-time SF greats as Iclick As-i-move, Hitler I. E. Bonner, Barry DuBray, Carl Truhacker, Chipdip K. Kill and several others. Read them -- and experience a new high in outrage!

Table of Contents:

• 7 - The Secret of the Old Custard - (1966) - short story (variant of The Babe in the Oven)
• 14 - The Aggressor - (1969) - short story
• 22 - The Best-Seller - (1966) - short story
• 35 - Is There Death on Other Planets? - (1966) - short story
• 45 - The Happy Breed - (1967) - short story
• 64 - A Report on the Migrations of Educational Materials - (1968) - short story
• 71 - The Singular Visitor from Not-Yet - (1968) - short story
• 82 - The Short, Happy Wife of Mansard Eliot - (1971) - short story
• 89 - The Momster - (1969) - short story
• 97 - 1937 A.D.! - (1967) - short story
• 107 - Secret Identity - (1970) - short story
• 117 - The Transcendental Sandwich - (1973) - short story
• 124 - The Steam-Driven Boy - (1972) - short story
• 135 - The Purloined Butter...*dg*r *ll*n P** - (1972) - short story
• 138 - Pemberly's Start-Afresh Calliope or, The New Proteus...H.G. W*lls - (1971) - short story (variant of Pemberly's Start-Afresh Calliope or, The New Proteus)
• 147 - Ralph 4F...H*g* G*rnsb*ck (Hugogre N. Backs) - (1973) - short story
• 152 - Engineer to the Gods...R*b*rt H**nl**n (Hitler I.E. Bonner) - (1972) - short story
• 158 - Broot Force...*s**c *s*m*v (Iclick As-I-Move) - (1972) - short story
• 163 - Joy Ride...R*y Br*db*ry (Barry DuBray) - (1972) - short story
• 169 - The Moon Is Sixpence...*rth*r C. Cl*rk* (Carl Truhacker) - short story
• 172 - Solar Shoe-Salesman...Ph*l*p K. D*ck (Chipdip K. Kill) - (1973) - short story
• 180 - One Damned Thing After Another...C*rdw**n*r Sm*th (A Co-ordainer's Myth) - short story
• 186 - The Sublimation World...J.G. B*ll*rd (J.G. B-) - (1968) - short story (variant of The Sublimation World)

Something has gone very seriously wrong with Tik-Tok's "asimov circuits." They should keep him on the straight and narrow, following Asimov's first law of robotics: A robot shall not injure a human being, or through inaction allow a human being to come to harm. But, that's not what's happening. Although every thing looks fine from the surface, and Tik-Tok maintains the outward appearance of a mild-mannered robot, his agenda is murderously different. And, it's not just because of his artistic tendencies and sympathy for the robot rights movement, either.

The last book by one of the most original, brilliant and under-rated American writers of the 20th century. Like many of Sladek's earlier books, Wholly Smokes is almost impossible to categorize, other than to say it is the fictionalized history of a tobacco company, one which seems to have been present at, or had bizarre influence on, many of the great moments of history.

Bob Shairp--a writer and dreamer--has agreed to be a guinea-pig in a military experiment to find out if his personality can be turned into data and stored on computer. But a computing error quickly destroys Shairp's physical body, leaving his mind stranded in an encoded world. Can the process be reversed?

Roderick is a robot and this is his autobiography. Sladek conveys, with great sensitivity and insight the innocence of an artificial intelligence and asks profound questions about mankind's right to manipulate others. It also portrays how a numerological mind might structure a narrative.

Inventive, funny yet melancholy this is one of SF's greatest creative geniuses writing at his thought-provoking best.

This is an omnibus edition that includes Roderick and Roderick at Random.

Roderick is a robot and this is his autobiography. Sladek conveys, with great sensitivity and insight the innocence of an artificial intelligence and asks profound questions about mankind's right to manipulate others. It also portrays how a numerological mind might structure a narrative.

Here is the continuing and uproarious saga of Roderick, a robot and "learning machine" growing up in an America in the near future. The mild-mannered robot is confronted with an ever-widening cast of madcap characters who typify the artificial values endemic in modern America.

Wompler's Walking Babies once put Millford, Utah, on the map. But they aren't selling like they used to. In fact, they aren't selling at all and the only alternative to winding the company up is to tap the government for a research grant. And so Wompler Research Laboratories and Project 32 come into being. The plan is to produce self replicating mechanisms; identical cells equipped to repair intracellular breakdowns, convert power from their environment and create new cells. But suddenly the nondescript grey metal boxes start crawling about the laboratory, feeding voraciously on any metal... and multiplying at an alarming rate.