The Lunatics of Terra

by John Sladek

John Sladek's hilarious SF satires may show a world riddled with shambolic flaws, but this (he pointed out) is actually the good news: "My own small ray of hope concerns human frailty. All conspiracies, no matter how monstrous, are ultimately the work of mere imperfect people, whose irresolution or bad judgement or even bad conscience works against the system. They get bunions, their cars break down, their children run away -and all this grit gets into the smooth-running gears of their world domination plans. I hope."

Genres: Science Fiction

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

John Thomas Sladek (generally published as John Sladek or John T. Sladek, as well as under the pseudonyms Thom Demijohn, Barry DuBray, Carl Truhacker and others) was an American science fiction author, known for his satirical and surreal novels.

Reviews

[R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stories are:

The Last of the Whaleburgers
Great Mysteries Explained!
Red Noise
Guesting
Absent Friends
After Flaubert
The Brass Monkey
White Hat
The Island of Dr Circe
Answers
Breakfast with the Murgatroyds
The Next Dwarf
An Explanation for the Disappearance of the Moon
How to Make Major Scientific Discoveries at Home in Your Spare Time
The Kindly Ones
Fables
Ursa Minor
Calling All Gumdrops!

[Mike Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent, easy-to-read and often hilarious set of short stories, with a sci-fi aspect to each. Some of the writing is amazingly witty and well-constructed (e.g. "Like if a computer word processor was able to see what I was going to say next and come in first with, “What I was going to say next and come in first with, ‘Come in first’ or something” or something like that.’") and each little vignette is followed by an afterword, to explain the history or context of each story.
Highly recommended!