Customer Reviews

The Status Civilization

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I wish I could find more books by Robert Sheckley.
"The Status Civilization" is one of those maddening little
pieces which reaches out and grabs your attention with
the sheer _audacity_ of scope and ideas, only to fall
short when it comes to delivering substance. Part of the
problem is that it's a very short book; I read it in an
English paperback as part of a two-novels-in-one, a la Ace
Double.

The story starts with a familiar premise : Earth, having
become an enlightened techno-utopia, no longer executes
its criminals. Instead, such deviant elements are dumped
on the surface of a vaguely livable planet called
Omega. For good measure, the convicts' minds are wiped clean
of all past memories. Our protagonist is one of these convicts.

He's been sent up for murder. Problem is, he doesn't want to believe it. Problem with that is that the memories leaking out from "beneath the surface" seem to indicate that he is.

At the beginning, at least, he's got a few more important
things to worry about, like surviving. See, Omega doesn't have nice Earth values concerning the sanctity of life. Instead, a citizen's status is dependent upon how many people he can kill...but only according to the rules.

He narrowly escapes death, but only at the price of killing
in self-defense. This touches off a round of self-doubt, but, at the same time, catapults him into
Omegan society as the proprietor of a poisioners' shop. This gives him time to become acquainted with some of the more quaint Omegan customs, like mandatory substance addiction and the worship of Evil. Later, he finds himself the unhappy subject of a Hunt, and an unwilling participant in In the absence of patriachal authority, our happy band of convicts have developed a uniquely maladaptive society - one in which death is celebrated above all else. No wonder the average lifespan is only three years.

Eventually he uses his remaining morals to drag himself out of the muck and effect an escape. The Earth he finds is superfically a triumph of Utopian central planning : everyone has a job, everyone seems happy, crime and war are unknown, et. al. Robots cater to all humankind's needs. The worship of life and Good are central tenets of civilization. It is, oddly enough, a complete antithesis of Omega. The
people are SO open-hearted that they don't even mind his
presence, despite the fact that he sticks out like a sore
thumb.

Something is wrong. Very wrong. Naturally, finding this
wrong and curing it (and coincidentally coming to terms with
the split images of himself as killer/saviour) ties off
the novel.

I say "ties off" instead of "ends", because that's what it
feels like : a stopping point for a novel that could have
gone on longer. By the end of the book, I had become attached to the nutty, schizoid worlds of Omega and Earth, and curious as to the motives of the robots who are (implicitly) controlling them both.

Omegan life is downright entertaining; like a little boy poring through travel books crossed with the thrill of a police novel. Sheckley manages it all with a sort of deadpan/matter-of-fact narrative that manages to slip events past one so quickly that they're felt rather than seen.

The sheer weight of ideas reminds me of Phillip K. Dick novels. Perhaps this one, like so many of his, was written under a short contract. How else could one get delightful scenes of cowering outside the door to Hell's Congregation in a blizzard, or the twisted dual religions of Evil and Good that dominate Omega and Earth? Make no mistake...Sheckley can more than hold his own in astonishment.

I wanted more...but unless Hollywood picks up and films this one (not likely in the wake of Freejack's flop at the box office)it probably won't be forthcoming. If you can find this for a reasonable price (if you live in the UK, for instance, and have access to paperback reprints), give it a try. I'd be hesitant to pay great amounts for it used, unless I was more of a Sheckley fan...but it's books like this that keep me looking for more.

The Status Civilization is an excellent tale that never gets old. Will Barrent is among a group of prisoners from Earth who have had their memories wiped and are left to live on the planet Omega. This is a planet ruled by criminals where you advance by being bad and devising clever ways to beat the law. One may recall the film Escape from New York where Manhattan Island is made a prison. This world is different in that there are class systems in this world (the highest appears to be Hadji) and there are actual laws that govern. One of the best ways to advance is to find ways to get around the law.

Barrent is almost killed by a group of Hadjis but manages to outsmart them and this allows him to gain a "Free Man" status. Challenges are thrown at him that he keeps overcoming and slowly advances. He encounters an underground organiztion whose goal is to get back to Earth and reclaim their place there. Eventually Barrent will become the agent to execute their plan. When the reader finally learns what is going on back on Earth, it is not what you expect and like the Twilght Zone there is an ironic end to the tale.

The book that I read also included Sheckley's Notions:Unlimited collection of short stories. These are each excellent twist ending tales that would be perfect for episodes of The Twilight Zone. From a tale with a creature that is similar to The Blob, to a planet with dangerous winds, a world inhabited by a lone Earthman that other Earth people think he is lying about his heritage. My favorite of these tales is called Double Indemnity where a time traveler attempts a new scheme at insurance fraud.

Each tale is excellent and as good as any short science fiction tale being written today. If you can get your hands on a copy of this book, don't hesitate to get it! An extremely pleasant surprise that will not disappoint you!

Science fiction is often called the "literature of ideas" and this short novel exemplifies that concept. The idea in "The Status Civilization" is to strand an innocent man convicted of murder on a prison planet where all is topsy-turvy. The only rule of law is that all must break the law. If you don't break the law, you get into trouble. Murder is the highest ideal of the citizen. Drug addiction is mandatory. They have a church on this planet, but it worships "Evil", and yes, attendance is mandatory.

The planet Omega is like a space-age Australia back when the British used that contintent to dump off their criminals and social malcontents. New arrivals are criminals joining fellow criminals who must now form their own society. But in this case, all have their memories erased before being stranded on Omega. They are given only one bit of self-knowledge: The crime they committed on Earth.

The hero is Will Barrent, convicted of murder -- a murder he no longer remembers, of course. The problem is, he has the nagging feeling he is innocent, and seems to only want to be good and do good. But now he must try to fit in with an entire planet consisting of and run by other criminals.

It's a terrific premise, and in the hands of one of the true masters of science fiction, this short novel becomes a marvelously entertaining read. Expect nothing but nonstop action, and little in the way of desciption of anything that does not move along the plot. For example, Sheckley wastes no time with describing scenary or filling out the details of the environment of an alien planet -- it's just bare bones movement of the protagonist doing this, and doing that, as he works his way through his terrible situation.

In my personal pantheon of favorite science fiction gods, Robert Sheckley is among the top three. The primary reason is this: He is a master of a certain kind of cynical, dry and wry irony that is nothing less than hilarious. It's Sheckley's extremely unique STYLE that separates him from the run-of-the-mill sf writer.

What really pushes this seemingly pulp yarn over the top to a solid 5-star book is the brilliant way it ends, revealing an unexpected depth of meaning and message. It's a sizzling commentary on post-modern society that cuts to the bone. Extraordinary.

"The Status Civilization", albeit a quick read, is highly entertaining as a satire and as a bit of science fiction. Scheckley's prose is terse and easy to read, the chapters well cut, and the stroyline quick moving that makes the book impossible to put down. The 150 pages disappear in a blink. The only part of the book that is laborious are the final few chapters, which act as a satire on modern living, and are a bit dense with criticism although tey do employ interesting satiric conventions. As a bit of dystopian/utopian literature, it is well worth reading, especially along side Kurt Vonnegut's "Player Piano".

After reading Sheckley's short stories, this novel just seemed to drag on forever. Though it might have been entertaining in a short story, the premise seems thin for a novel. If you want to read his best work, read: The Masque Of Manana and leave the novels alone.

A Marxist dogma, a part of the state religion of the Soviet Union, was that the future Communist society will experience the withering away of the state. There is a book from the 1970s called 1001 Soviet Political Joke; joke number 22 asks whether there will be a KGB under future Communism. The answer is no: citizens will arrest themselves for sedition. Sheckley was probably not aware of this, and hit upon the same idea independently: on a future peaceful Utopian Earth, people are brainwashed from the early childhood so that if they harbor criminal or seditious thoughts, they become amnesiac and in this state take the next spaceship to a prison planet, where life is living hell, and murder is the favorite sport. This novel follows one such man from his amnesiac awakening on a prison planet-bound spaceship to his discovery of the secret of peace on Earth.

Good fun read involving increasingly zany philosophical conundrums in a sci-fi format.

"You have been classified as a peon. You have a right to get killed". Will Barrent has just departed a space ship landing area to explore planet Omega. He is free catch according to the law. Will has no prior memories but he acknowledges having been sentenced to the planet for murder. But nothing is explained and he is left stumbling in a society where laws are upside down; where evil is rewarded.

The story center around issues of perception: What's real? What is truth? In this dystopian planet only endless series of violent crimes can keep citizens afloat. The formalised violence is regulated by a strict law where drug emporiums, poison and antidote sellers, assassin's guilds go to church to worship evil Dark. Everyone is obligated to attend sleep clinic and build up drug addiction. Will burrows into his almost-wiped memories with the help of outcasted mutants and finds certainty of being innocent. He meets underground movement: people who were sent there not for real crimes but for the offense of nonconformity on Earth. Will is sent to hijack Earth ship to return and organize resistance on Earth. He is faced with Utopia which as alienating as the Omega. No cash is needed, no police force, no military. Everything is run by androids and robots. And the identity of the person who framed him for murder turns out to be the final consequence of any world where order and conformity are valued above all else.

Two (2) stars. Written in 1960 the social commentary has certain charm and style. The laws of the Omega keep the reader guessing what awaits in the next corner. The mirror, Earth, has lost touch with its technology and automated machines make wild comedy. The terse story in 140 pages leaves the characterization, moral laws and satire about social status in Omega limited and predictable. The super hero Will solves all puzzles in a whim and bulldozes forward. A fast-food adventure story.