SFFaudio Readalong: The Status Civilization by Robert Sheckley

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The Status Civilization by Robert Sheckley

SFFaudio MetaWe’ve got a plans!

Specifically, we’re doing a readalong. That is, we get a few podcasters and bloggers together reading the same book (or listening to the same audiobook) and then talk about it on the SFFaudio Podcast.

Our first official readalong will be:

The Status Civilization by Robert Sheckley (read the |WIKIPEDIA| entry)

First published as Omega! in the August and September 1960 issues (a two-part serial) of Amazing Science Fiction Stories, The Status Civilization has been reprinted more than a dozen times.

If you’d like to have read the novel by the time of the podcast’s release, on April 26, you can either find a paper edition, get the ebook from |PROJECT GUTENBERG| and/or get the unabridged audiobook from Audible.com or iTunes:

The Status Civilization by Robert SheckleyThe Status Civilization
By Robert Sheckley; Read by Mark Douglas Nelson
5.5 hrs. – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Wonder Audio
Availiable at Audible and iTunes
Will Barrent has no memory of the murder for which he was convicted. He will now have to live his life sentence on the prison planet Omega. The few that survive there do it by committing crimes. And the more adept the planet inmates are at higher crime, the more they climb their bizarre anti-social ladder. They all must live in a society where drug addiction is mandatory, as is the worship of the Dark One. Barrent’s goal is to find why he was sent to this mad world and to clear his name and return to Earth. But first he must survive – for a life sentence on Omega is usually a short sentence indeed.

Posted by Jesse Willis

5 thoughts to “SFFaudio Readalong: The Status Civilization by Robert Sheckley”

  1. This is a great idea and I am all for it, but couldn’t you wait a just little while? I have just checked on Librivox and this book is now just awaiting proof-listening (although you can download the un-proofed files)….

  2. Heh heh.

    I guess the feline has departed the sack.

    The release date on the podcast, and the LibriVox release, are not co-incidental.

    One of the people who will be participating in that discussion will be Gregg Margarite the narrator of that LibriVox release. Another participant, if all goes as planned, will be Rick Jackson of Wonder Audio. Rick commissioned the commercial version from another LibriVox narrator (Mark Douglas Nelson).

  3. Huh. I’ve been meaning to read more Sheckley. The man gets a lot of respect from fans older than me, the Russian fans, etc., so there must be a lot more to him than I got from him as a kid.

    Maybe being older and more cynical will finally pay off! :)

  4. My version of The Status Civilization is now available at LibriVox.org.

    I do not wish it to compete with the commercial version, which I believe to be superior to my proletarian alternative. I am a fan of both Mark Douglas Nelson and Wonder Audio, and I want to see both prosper. So if you are going to listen to my version I request you to pledge the purchase of another title from Wonder. We need the professionals…

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