The Status Civilization

Last updated
Cover of the first edition, published by Signet. The Status Civilization.jpg
Cover of the first edition, published by Signet.

The Status Civilization is a science fiction novel by American writer Robert Sheckley, first published in 1960.

Contents

The Status Civilization concerns Will Barrent, a man who finds himself, without memory of any crime or, indeed, of his previous life, being shipped across space to the planet Omega.

Omega, used to imprison extreme offenders, has a hierarchical society of extreme brutality, where the only way to advance (and avoid dying) is to commit an endless series of crimes. The average life expectancy from time of arrival on Omega is three years. The story concerns Barrent's attempt to survive, escape, and return to Earth to clear himself of the accusations against him.

Plot summary

Will Barrent awakes in a room with no memory of his past life. He is told he is on a ship en route to the prison planet Omega. This, along with the wiping or suppression of his memory, is a punishment for committing murder on Earth.

On Omega, killing new arrivals is legal until sunset on Landing Day. Barrant manages to survive with the help of a woman who hands him a gun and then seems to disappear.

Barrent begins to integrate into Omegan society. The law reflects the state religion, which is based around the worship of Evil (always capitalised) and an entity known as The Black One. All inhabitants of the planet are convicts from Earth whose memories have been suppressed, but many try to regain parts of their memory by the use of drugs or a kind of psychic reading known as "skrenning". Barrent tries a drug and recalls an image of himself standing over a dead body while holding a gun. This persuades him that he was guilty, despite his normal revulsion to killing.

Barrent avoids killing and several other Omegan customs, and is soon arrested for the crimes of non-drug addiction and impiety, and sent for a trial by ordeal. He is made to fight for his life against a large robot in an arena. Among the spectators he sees the woman who gave him the gun on his first day, and she tells him through gestures how to find the robot's hidden weakness. Having defeated the robot, Barrent's status is increased and he is able to meet the woman who helped him, Moera Ermais. Ermais turns out to be part of a secret organisation. She tells Barrent she thought of recruiting him because he seemed to have good survival skills, but was not allowed to because of his murder conviction.

Barrent seeks out a "skrenner" to try to learn about his conviction. She names the victim and directs Barrent to a man on Omega who claims to have committed the murder. She also tells him of a confusing vision of the future, in which she saw Barrant looking at a shattered, "shiny" version of his own corpse. Barrant, now believing he was framed, sends a message to Ermais and becomes less interested in obeying Omegan laws.

Barrant's continued non-conforming behaviour leads to him being selected for the annual "Hunt" and "Games", both of which are fatal to most entrants. He wins the Games and is engulfed by a manifestation of the Black One, which turns out to be an elaborate light-show controlled by the secret organisation. They believe that society on Omega is on the verge of collapse, and hope to avert or survive this by re-directing people's energy into an uprising against Earth. Barrant is smuggled aboard a returning prison ship, hoping to gain information about Earth and see if there are any underground movements that might be willing to oppose the presumed oppressive Earth government.

Earth turns out to be a uniform, sleepy and stagnant society, developing neither socially nor technologically. Its striking social stability is maintained by robots brainwashing children in "closed classes," which they are required to attend but cannot consciously remember. There is a world religion, an amalgam of all the "good" aspects of previous Earth religions. Its ideology closely resembles that on Omega, differing mostly in words and in the justifications for various actions.

As Barrent comes closer to the truth about the reasons for his exile, his conscious mind conflicts with the subconscious programming he received as a child. He finally learns that, although innocent of the murder, circumstances had made him appear guilty. That was enough to trigger his own programming, causing him to turn himself in to the automated legal system. He also finds that everybody has been programmed to commit suicide if they ever consciously learn about their programming. Barrent struggles not to be killed by his programmed alter ego, which he associates with his image in a mirror. Eventually he prevails, shattering the mirror in the process.

Reception

Dave Langford reviewed The Status Civilization for White Dwarf #80, and stated that "unsubtle, action-packed fun with satirical touches, set on a world where crime is the law and the hero soon gets into trouble for non-drug addiction." [1]

Reviews

Related Research Articles

<i>Speaker for the Dead</i> 1986 novel by Orson Scott Card

Speaker for the Dead is a 1986 science fiction novel by American writer Orson Scott Card, an indirect sequel to the 1985 novel Ender's Game. The book takes place around the year 5270, some 3,000 years after the events in Ender's Game. However because of relativistic space travel at near-light speed Ender himself is only about 35 years old.

<i>Foundations Edge</i> 1982 novel by Isaac Asimov

Foundation's Edge (1982) is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, the fourth book in the Foundation Series. It was written more than thirty years after the stories of the original Foundation trilogy, due to years of pressure by fans and editors on Asimov to write another, and, according to Asimov himself, the amount of the payment offered by the publisher. It was his first novel to ever land on The New York Times best-seller list, after 262 books and 44 years of writing.

<i>The Caves of Steel</i> 1954 novel by Isaac Asimov

The Caves of Steel is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov. It is a detective story and illustrates an idea Asimov advocated, that science fiction can be applied to any literary genre, rather than just being a limited genre in itself.

<i>Foundation and Earth</i> 1986 novel by Isaac Asimov

Foundation and Earth is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, the fifth novel of the Foundation series and chronologically the last in the series. It was published in 1986, four years after the first sequel to the Foundation trilogy, which is titled Foundation's Edge.

<i>So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish</i> 1984 book by Douglas Adams

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish is the fourth book of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "trilogy of six books" written by Douglas Adams. Its title is the message left by the dolphins when they departed Planet Earth just before it was demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass, as described in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. A song of the same name was featured in the 2005 film adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Sheckley</span> American writer

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

<i>Robots and Empire</i> Science fiction novel by the American author Isaac Asimov

Robots and Empire is a science fiction novel by the American author Isaac Asimov, published by Doubleday Books in 1985. It is part of Asimov's Robot series, which consists of many short stories and five novels.

<i>The Naked Sun</i> 1956 novel by Isaac Asimov

The Naked Sun is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, the second in his Robot series. Like its predecessor, The Caves of Steel, this is a whodunit story. It was first published in book form in 1957 after being serialized in Astounding Science Fiction between October and December 1956.

<i>The Robots of Dawn</i> 1983 novel by Isaac Asimov

The Robots of Dawn is a "whodunit" science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, first published in 1983. It is the third novel in Asimov's Robot series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Randall Garrett</span> American writer

Gordon Randall Phillip David Garrett was an American science fiction and fantasy author. He was a contributor to Astounding and other science fiction magazines of the 1950s and 1960s. He instructed Robert Silverberg in the techniques of selling large quantities of action-adventure science fiction, and collaborated with him on two novels about men from Earth disrupting a peaceful agrarian civilization on an alien planet.

<i>Altered Carbon</i> 2002 novel by Richard K. Morgan

Altered Carbon is a 2002 cyberpunk novel by the English writer Richard K. Morgan. Set in a future in which interstellar travel and relative immortality is facilitated by transferring consciousnesses between bodies ("sleeves"), it follows the attempt of Takeshi Kovacs, a former U.N. elite soldier turned private investigator, to investigate a rich man's death. It is followed by the sequels Broken Angels and Woken Furies.

<i>Tik-Tok</i> (novel) 1983 science fiction novel by John Sladek

Tik-Tok is a 1983 science fiction novel by John Sladek. It received a 1983 British Science Fiction Association Award.

<i>Options</i> (novel) 1975 novel by Robert Sheckley

Options is a 1975 absurdist science fiction novel by American writer Robert Sheckley, published in paperback by Pyramid Books. The first British edition appeared in 1977, and a French translation was published in 1979.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demon Princes</span> A series of five science fiction novels by Jack Vance

Demon Princes is a series of five science fiction novels by Jack Vance, which cumulatively relate the story of Kirth Gersen, a man trained by his grandfather to exact revenge on five notorious interstellar crime bosses, collectively known as the Demon Princes, who carried the people of his village off into slavery during his childhood. Each novel deals with his pursuit of one of the five Princes.

<i>Armitage III</i> 1995 cyberpunk original video animation series

Armitage III is a 1995 cyberpunk original video animation series. It centers on Naomi Armitage, a highly advanced "Type-III" android. In 1996, the series was edited into a film called Armitage: Poly-Matrix.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mind uploading in fiction</span> References of mind uploading in fiction

Mind uploading, whole brain emulation, or substrate-independent minds, is a use of a computer or another substrate as an emulated human brain. The term "mind transfer" also refers to a hypothetical transfer of a mind from one biological brain to another. Uploaded minds and societies of minds, often in simulated realities, are recurring themes in science-fiction novels and films since the 1950s.

<i>The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge</i>

The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge is a collection of science fiction short stories by American writer Vernor Vinge. The stories were first published from 1966 to 2001, and the book contains all of Vinge's published short stories from that period except "True Names" and "Grimm's Story".

Il était une fois… l'Espace is an animated science fiction television series from 1982 until 1983, directed by Albert Barillé. It is part of the Once Upon a Time... franchise.

<i>Isaac Asimovs Robot City: Odyssey</i> 1987 novel by Michael P. Kube-McDowell

Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Odyssey is a science fiction novel written in 1987 by Michael P. Kube-McDowell. It is part of the series Isaac Asimov's Robot City, inspired by Isaac Asimov's Robot series. The 1995 computer game Robot City is based on the plot of Odyssey.

"Retreat Syndrome" is a 1965 short story by American writer Philip K. Dick. The story contains some common Dick themes such as a questionable reality and drug use. It was first published in Worlds of Tomorrow Science Fiction and was later reprinted the collections The Preserving Machine (1969), The Preserving Machine and Other Stories (1977), We Can Remember It For You Wholesale (2000) and The Eye of the Sibyl and Other Stories (2004).

References

  1. Langford, Dave (August 1986). "Critical Mass". White Dwarf . No. 80. Games Workshop. p. 9.
  2. "Title: The Status Civilization".