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fishface's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
Racist dinosaurs?
mattstein's review against another edition
5.0
tommooney's review
4.0
A brilliant sf adventure full of laugh-out-loud moments, bags of charming intergalactic characters, and clever satire. I loved it.
quiteawful's review
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
ohmadeline's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
thesillyoldbear's review against another edition
5.0
Absurd, surreal and deviously funny. Much like the beings that poor Tom Carmody encounters on his voyage home the narrative Sheckley weaves feels both familiar and alien.
If you're not above audiobooks, I highly recommend John Hodgman's narration, if you are, get a job.
If you're not above audiobooks, I highly recommend John Hodgman's narration, if you are, get a job.
phileasfogg's review
4.0
'Where have you been all my life, Dimension of Miracles?'
'Sitting unread on a shelf since May 4, 1990. You paid 40 cents for me at that bookstall at Adelaide's Central Market, at a time when your wealth consisted of a grand total of $4.47. During the succeeding years you'd sometimes move me back and forth on the shelf as you squeezed more books in. Once you put me in a box and moved me to another house. But you never read me. And I'm so short!'
'That was very remiss of me. I regret it.'
'So, what changed? What finally led you to take me in your arms and absorb me into your brain?'
'It's hard to say. One day I needed a new bedtime book because I'd finished all the Tintins, and it occurred to me that I should finally read Dimension of Miracles. You weren't even on my reading pile. It took me a while to find you, because you were actually on the shelf where you belong, and I searched and searched for you in my reading pile, the three rooms full of bookcases where all the books I plan to read in the next ten years end up and where I can never find anything. It was a puzzle: why did it suddenly occur to me to want to read you? Then it hit me: I'd been reading The Green Hat by Michael Arlen, and noticed that he surprisingly used the word "dimension" in the modern science fiction sense, despite writing in 1924. That got me thinking about the word "dimension", and it must have stirred deep memories of you.'
'So, what did you think?'
'I really liked you. Also, you are really amazingly like The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which was written some years after you and was, with its sequels, my favourite book for many years.'
'Are you calling Douglas Adams, who is apparently one of your heroes, a plagiarist, a thief?!'
'Not at all. I think Doug and Bob were drinking from the same well. Or smoking from the same pipe. And that well isn't too far away from the rabbit-hole Alice (in Wonderland) fell into, or the world out of which the Third Policeman rode his bicycle. I can imagine some drunken evening when one of Douglas's buddies might have described an amazing book he was reading and Douglas fell asleep and forgot about it but then years later out popped The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Whatever the explanation, I'm very glad you and Hitch-Hiker both exist.'
'Sitting unread on a shelf since May 4, 1990. You paid 40 cents for me at that bookstall at Adelaide's Central Market, at a time when your wealth consisted of a grand total of $4.47. During the succeeding years you'd sometimes move me back and forth on the shelf as you squeezed more books in. Once you put me in a box and moved me to another house. But you never read me. And I'm so short!'
'That was very remiss of me. I regret it.'
'So, what changed? What finally led you to take me in your arms and absorb me into your brain?'
'It's hard to say. One day I needed a new bedtime book because I'd finished all the Tintins, and it occurred to me that I should finally read Dimension of Miracles. You weren't even on my reading pile. It took me a while to find you, because you were actually on the shelf where you belong, and I searched and searched for you in my reading pile, the three rooms full of bookcases where all the books I plan to read in the next ten years end up and where I can never find anything. It was a puzzle: why did it suddenly occur to me to want to read you? Then it hit me: I'd been reading The Green Hat by Michael Arlen, and noticed that he surprisingly used the word "dimension" in the modern science fiction sense, despite writing in 1924. That got me thinking about the word "dimension", and it must have stirred deep memories of you.'
'So, what did you think?'
'I really liked you. Also, you are really amazingly like The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which was written some years after you and was, with its sequels, my favourite book for many years.'
'Are you calling Douglas Adams, who is apparently one of your heroes, a plagiarist, a thief?!'
'Not at all. I think Doug and Bob were drinking from the same well. Or smoking from the same pipe. And that well isn't too far away from the rabbit-hole Alice (in Wonderland) fell into, or the world out of which the Third Policeman rode his bicycle. I can imagine some drunken evening when one of Douglas's buddies might have described an amazing book he was reading and Douglas fell asleep and forgot about it but then years later out popped The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Whatever the explanation, I'm very glad you and Hitch-Hiker both exist.'