AnyBook4Less.com	Find the Best Price on the Web Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Home  |  Store List  |  FAQ  |  Contact Us  |
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money Keyword AuthorISBN

Title: Dimension of miracles ([Gollancz SF]) by Robert Sheckley ISBN: 0-575-00199-2 Publisher: Gollancz Pub. Date: 1969 Format: Unknown Binding

Your Country USA Canada United Kingdom Australia Austria Belgium France Germany Italy Netherlands Switzerland Currency AutoUSD CAD GBP EUR AUD CHF Delivery Only cheapest delivery All delivery options Include Used Books Are you a club member of: Barnes and Noble Books A Million Chapters.Indigo.ca

Average Customer Rating: 4.12 (8 reviews)

Rating: 2
Summary: Not all it's cracked up to be
Comment: I think Douglas Adams was being nice when he said he thought Sheckley was better than him. Yes, the book had its moments of comedy, but certainly nothing to guffaw about. Mere chuckles. And, characterization...I didn't care in the least what happened to Tom Carmody. In fact, his character was there to perform a function in what seemed to be a philosophical argument Sheckley was trying to work through. Dimensions of Miracles was more like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance in that way, where the characters don't really matter, it's the discussion that matters. All else is window dressing. It had a few interesting bits, though. Like when Carmody finds that the higher beings of the galaxy aren't as perfect as he'd imagined they'd be, and one of them says, "What did you expect? I'm only sentient, you know." The planet builder, Maudsley, and the God, Melichrone were intriguing characters. But, the bit about the Predator was boring and ridiculous as it only served to further fuel Sheckley's philosophy and give a contrived sense of urgency to the plot. I think tales like this should be left to masters like Pynchon, who in The Crying of Lot 49 achieves much the same levels of paranoia and existentialism but with a great deal more grip. If you're looking to compare Adams and Sheckley, like I did after having read Neil Gaiman's Don't Panic: the HHGttG Official Companion, don't waste your time. Adams hadn't read this stuff until after he'd written most of his own books, and indeed, well after the Dr. Who episodes and HHGttG radio programs. If you're looking for jokes, technological satire, as well as characters who make you care what happens to them, read Adams instead.

Rating: 5
Summary: Sheckley's Masterpiece
Comment: This is one of the wittiest, craziest, most profound books I have ever read. It's a cosmic mind-youknowwhat with a strange bittersweet ending. I have had hilarious times hearing friends discuss Sheckley's concepts in DIMENSION, in his other two brilliant books MINDSWAP and JOURNEY OF JONES, and in his lean-and-mean short stories. Rudy Rucker (before he wrote his weirdly mean-spirited Saucer book), told me Mindswap was one of the books that inspired him to write sf. Dimension was the one that inspired me. If you like James Branch Cabell, Vonnegut, Bradbury at his tightest, Ambrose Bierce at his loopiest, and Chesterton at his craziest and most profound, if any of this means anything to you, you will LOVE this brilliant satire about the creation of earth, the alternative world of dinosaurs, the most hellish city ever built, why God's incompetence is his greatest quality, and why, ultimately, You Can't Go Home Again. This, my friends, is one of the great satirical fantasies of science fiction.

Rating: 5
Summary: Dimension of Mircles
Comment: This is a wonderful book. I first read it in 1968, and it presaged brand labels on the outside of clothing, a media culture, and a number of other things. And it's really funny. My copy is falling apart, I've loaned it out so many times. Thus far, each person who has read it has loved it. I'm happy to be able to obtain another copy.