Book Review: "Untouched by Human Hands" by Robert Sheckley

I am not one to read that much Sci-Fi and even though that is the case, I am still fascinated by the new collection of Penguin Sci-Fi Classics as they seem to involve things far beyond the norms of the genre. For example: I read the book “Hair Carpet Weavers” and honestly, it wasn’t really like any other Sci-Fi book I had ever read. My problem with Sci-Fi is that I kind of roll my eyes at the thought of aliens coming to attack our planet and the likes of that. But, the new collection of Sci-Fi Classics by Penguin Books has taught me that there is so much range to this genre and that I probably shouldn’t pigeon-hole it as being about one particular thing. This book I read is called “Untouched by Human Hands” by Robert Sheckley and it is a group of short stories. Each story today could be called speculative fiction instead of just Sci-Fi seeing as a lot of the messages underlying the texts still prevail today. The writing is dark and often fast-paced with the stories themselves being no more than a maximum of about twenty or so pages each. Though the stories are short, they still convey their message with a strange vigour that puts the reader in a state of awe at the extended metaphor lying beneath.

One of the stories I enjoyed was about a planet on which they had to kill the surplus women because there were too many of them. The silence of these women to endure being killed by their lovers and husbands is a message that is still massive in our own time as women are still complicit in toxic relationships in which they are abused. This story may read quite strangely, but its underlying message is brilliant as the extended metaphor has been taken full advantage of. Another story I thought was pretty amazing was about a man and his family. His child wants to go to Mars on a rocket ship but his mother and father state that it is probably a better idea that he stays on Earth and marries a nice girl, having a very normal life. There are a lot of contraptions in the house and in the wake of a suicide, the father is quite upset and so buys himself another expensive contraption. All it needs to work is the push of a button. A great extended metaphor for the bleak reality in which technological advancement may leave the majority of the world facing utter despair and depression, this story has to be my favourite from the whole collection mostly because not a lot happens and yet, so much is covered about modern progresses in technology. No monsters, no aliens, nothing - just an extended metaphor that turns out to be dark as hell when you finish the short story.

As you can see, I was very much into this book and I enjoyed it far more than I have enjoyed other Sci-Fi novels or short stories. Robert Sheckley’s writing has a great amount of depth though it may not seem that way when you start. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to see what the Golden Age of Science Fiction thought about our own modern day. You will either be completely and pleasantly surprised by what it written in front of you, or you will be absolutely horrified and in abject terror at what you have just read. There are really only two ways it can go - but you will definitely enjoy it.