The Prize of Peril

Last updated
Part of Store of Infinity
The Prize of Peril
Author Robert Sheckley
Country United States
Language English
Series Store of Infinity
Genre Dystopian fiction
Science fiction
Publisher Bantam Books
Publication date
1960
Media type Part of a Short story collection

"The Prize of Peril" is a science fiction short story by Robert Sheckley. It was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in May 1958 and first collected in Store of Infinity in 1960 by Bantam Books. The short story is noted for its plot's anticipation of reality television shows such as Survivor and Fear Factor by several decades.

Science fiction genre of fiction

Science fiction is a genre of speculative fiction, typically dealing with imaginative concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, and extraterrestrial life. Science fiction often explores the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations, and has been called a "literature of ideas".

Robert Sheckley American writer

Robert Sheckley was an American writer. First published in the science-fiction magazines of the 1950s, his numerous quick-witted stories and novels were famously unpredictable, absurdist, and broadly comical.

<i>The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction</i> digest magazine

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Fantasy House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas had approached Spivak in the mid-1940s about creating a fantasy companion to Spivak's existing mystery title, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. The first issue was titled The Magazine of Fantasy, but the decision was quickly made to include science fiction as well as fantasy, and the title was changed correspondingly with the second issue. F&SF was quite different in presentation from the existing science fiction magazines of the day, most of which were in pulp format: it had no interior illustrations, no letter column, and text in a single column format, which in the opinion of science fiction historian Mike Ashley "set F&SF apart, giving it the air and authority of a superior magazine".

Contents

Synopsis

The protagonist of the story is Jim Raeder, a man notable only for his normality, who has been a participant in many reality television shows (given the name "thrill shows") and thus become a celebrity. In all the shows the risk of dying has been a part of the concept; he has fought a real bull in Spain, he has driven a Formula 1 racecar and fought with other divers while trying to escape sharks and other sea predators. In the story he takes part in the greatest of all reality shows: he is to be hunted by professional gangland murderers.

Protagonist the main character of a creative work

A protagonist is the leading character of a story.

As he is hunted, his journey is shown all over the US on TV and he receives help from viewers, the so-called Good Samaritans. The commentator, Mike Terry, makes a point of this during the show: "All of America is ready to help Jim!", but Raeder soon finds out that things are not what he expected them to be and that maybe his survival is not a main priority among the public. The story ends with Raeder winning "The Prize of Peril", but being dragged away after presumably having a mental breakdown, or merely "not being 'himself' at the moment," according to Terry.

Adaptations

The story was adapted as a 1970 German television film Das Millionenspiel and a 1983 French film, Le Prix du Danger . [1] [2]

<i>Das Millionenspiel</i> 1970 television film directed by Tom Toelle

Das Millionenspiel is a German action/sci-fi television film of 1970, directed by Tom Toelle and starring Jörg Pleva, Suzanne Roquette and Dieter Thomas Heck. It was aired on 18 October 1970 by the ARD. Wolfgang Menge wrote the screenplay, adapting the short story "The Prize of Peril" by the American writer Robert Sheckley. Wolfgang Menge and Tom Toelle received the 1971 Prix Italia for best television movie.

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References

  1. "Das Millionenspiel (TV 1970)". Internet Movie Database . Retrieved 2011-04-16.
  2. "Le prix du danger (1983)". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2011-04-16.

The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) is a database of bibliographic information on genres considered speculative fiction, including science fiction and related genres such as fantasy fiction and horror fiction. The ISFDB is a volunteer effort, with both the database and wiki being open for editing and user contributions. The ISFDB database and code are available under Creative Commons licensing and there is support within both Wikipedia and ISFDB for interlinking. The data are reused by other organizations, such as Freebase, under the creative commons license.