Thumbs up for Dimension of Miracles by Robert Sheckley. Science fiction.
My boyfriend is quite taken with Sheckley right now, and as the bits he read out loud to me seemed highly promising, I was looking forward to trying some out for myself. He recommended this one for a plane ride, and it hit the spot. Smart, quick-paced, and very witty, it reminded me of Douglas Adams and John M. Ford’s How Much For Just The Planet?. Good stuff, and I’ll be reading more Sheckley in the future for sure.
“‘Yes, the designer made a rather neat use of compound reverse curves with transitional vanishing points,’ the Messenger said knowledgeably. ‘He also utilized temporal edge distortion to evoke awe. Rather pretty, I suppose, in an obvious sort of way. The design for that cluster of buildings over there, you will be interested to know, was lifted bodily from a General Motors Exhibition from your own planet. It was judged an outstanding example of Primitive Quasi-Modernism; quaintness and coziness are its main virtues. Those flashing lights in the middle foreground of the Drifting Multiscraper are pure Galactic Baroque. They serve no useful purpose.'”
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