You were the best and you always will be

A belated thank you to Mr Sheckley for his wonderful sf stories. Undoubtedly one of the best writers of science fiction of the 20th century, and certainly the funniest!

Goodbye Robert. The greater SF author of short stories. I really loved your books, your mix of intelligence, irony and yiddish humour. You are been a fellow for me, for many years. Now, let me tear because I will not read other book by you, in future. Welcome to End City, Robert. And thank you very much. Very very much.

Please contact me by ICQ: 483175659. I have a news for you.

We met only a very few times, but I will always remember you as a unique person and writer.

Goodbye Dear Friend,

You were a giggling bad boy, a twelve-year old crammed in an old gnome's body. I knew you for twenty-five years. Many a night you snoozed on our old sofa in the Venice Canals. Many a day we hawked our movies around Hollywood and had idiotic adventures. But spent most of the days and night, in my place or in your musty office up in Portland, laughing and smoking and drinking to ridiculous excess. Mostly it was the laughter. Laughing till the neighbors complained and then laughing some more till we cried. I miss you so much, you old bastard, and I will always remember you as the sweetest, cleverest and funniest man I have ever had the honor to call my friend.

1960's Sitting around the Kiosko spinning tall tales. The only scientifically literate person to talk to among all the scribblers. Now the Kiosko is gone and Santa Eulalia is the uglyist village in the Balearaics. Still a few contemporaries, some better than others. Condolences to his family.

Assessing Robert Sheckley in Literary History

magicdragon2 [my LiveJournal blog]
2005-12-18 06:58 pm UTC (link)

Posted on Kathryn Cramer's blog,
"Robert Sheckley has died" thread:

If you have any way of obtaining, or even just
reading, the 5 volume "Collected Short Fiction of
Robert Sheckley" -- do so! I treasure my copy, but not
so much as I treasure the memories of visits and
dinners and parties that my wife and I had with him
over the past 20 years, and myself alone in the decade
before that.

One secret to his dazzling success was, he explained
to me, that when he started writing, he didn't know
that there was such a thing as research. He stood in
awe of other authors, whom he thought had just made it
all up. Hence he developed the habit of provoking his
imagination and setting the bar high for multiple
independent fantastic inventions within each story.

"10th Victim" and "Freejack" are not enough. We should
have at least a dozen Hollywood films from his works.
He was deadly serious and screamingly funny at the
same time; an attribute shared by Harlan Ellison and
Mark Twain.

Hence his "funny" work is not quite in the same
category as Frederic Brown or Douglas Adams (the
latter being highly influenced by Sheckley). In the
long run, he is more likely to be categorized with
Anton Chekhov.

The world is a darker and duller place without him.

Posted by: Jonathan Vos Post |
Sunday, December 18, 2005 at 01:54 PM

He wrote so many great short stories; I was never disappointed by him. He will truly be missed by anybody who read him.

I only knew you for one year but somehow it felt much longer, I will cherish the 2 books you signed for me and will build my collection via E-Bay.
As I read some of your works I can’t help but be amazed by the da Vinci like vision you had, you were ahead of the times.
I can honestly say that I will be a better person for having known you, and will look back fondly on that last cup of tea and wisdom we shared the day before you were stricken.
Rest in peace.

Farewell. I have no words, just his book on my table.