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He Who Shapes / The Infinity Box

Roger Zelazny,

Kate Wilhelm

3.75 · Rating details · 104 ratings · 11 reviews

Science Fiction Double with 2 covers. He Who Shapes: 1966 Nebula Award Winning novella by Roger Zelazny. 107 pages. Flip the book over for the other story: The Infinity Box by Kate Wilhelm, Hugo-winning author. 76 pages.

Description is for the Sept. 1989 Tor First Edition.

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Paperback, Tor Doubles #12, 183 pages

Published September 1989 by Tor (first published January 1965)

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· 104 ratings · 11 reviews

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May 27, 2020 Tomislav rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science-fiction, tor-double, 5-stars

This is Tor Double #12, of a series of 36 double books published from 1988 to 1991 by Tor Books. It contains two novellas, bound together tête-bêche in mass market paperback – back-to-back, inverted, with two front covers and both titles on the spine. The novellas are listed here alphabetically by author; neither should be considered “primary.”

second read – 31 May 2020 - *****. When I recently handled this physical book from my collection, I decided to re-read it. The two stories are linked by p This is Tor Double #12, of a series of 36 double books published from 1988 to 1991 by Tor Books. It contains two novellas, bound together tête-bêche in mass market paperback – back-to-back, inverted, with two front covers and both titles on the spine. The novellas are listed here alphabetically by author; neither should be considered “primary.”

second read – 31 May 2020 - *****. When I recently handled this physical book from my collection, I decided to re-read it. The two stories are linked by psychological speculations of direct mind communication between individuals, and plot elements involving a male character’s unintentional romantic obsession with a female character.

The Infinity Box, by Kate Wilhelm (1971) ****
This was originally published in Orbit 9, edited by Damon Knight, and was nominated for 1972 Nebula in the novella category. Edward Laslow and his wife meet their new neighbor Christine. Eddie is drawn to her and discovers that she is susceptible to the transference of his mind into her body. But things are more complicated than he realizes. A wonderfully concept-driven story, even if Eddie's motivations seem exaggeratedly violent.

He Who Shapes, by Roger Zelazny (1965) ***
This was originally published in the January 1965 issue of Amazing Stories, and won the 1966 Nebula in the novella category. It was later expanded into the novel The Dream Master. It was later adapted and extensively revised for film as Dreamscape (1984). The novella is set 35 years in the future (that calculates to the year 2000) with overpopulation, self-driving cars, intelligent service dogs, and dance performance robots. Psychologist Dr. Charles Render shapes virtual realities, and experiences them together with his patients, as neuroparticipation therapy often for a condition he calls autopsychomimesis. That is, the condition of a person who aspires to experience the traumas and struggles they need to validate their self-identity in a world which in truth protects them from it.

In the end, (view spoiler)

first read - 2 October 1989 - ****. When Tor Doubles were first released, I reliably purchased and read most of them. My thoughts about them at the time have been incorporated into the reviews I wrote for my second read, above. However, I will say that “He Who Shapes” fell flat for me back then, while I see much more now. ...more

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Nov 04, 2020 Jan Priddy rated it did not like it

I slogged through Zelazny's novella and thought/hoped Wilhelm's story would be better, but ultimately no. The science is shaky in both, more dated in Zelazny and fantastic (not "good" but fantasy) in Wilhelm. Capable writers in a genre I have read and loved for fifty years. I should have enjoyed these novellas from 1965 and 1971. But really? yuck. These are the precise sort of stories I avoided back in the day. Sexist, dated, mid-century male-gaze and offering nothing forward-looking at all. Sit ...more

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Nov 20, 2020 Drew rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi

Hard to rate a Tor double novel. Kate Wilhelm’s “The Infinity Box” was 5 stars easy. Another great psychological whirlwind of science fiction. I just love her style and stories. As for Zelazny’s “He Who Shapes”, I give it one star. Just never worked for me from page 1 to page 107.

So, splitting the difference, I should give 3 stars but Wilhelm demands I give more.

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Oct 25, 2017 Dan rated it it was ok

Shelves: science-fiction

Two stars for Zelazny's contribution, three for Kate Wilhelm's. Zelazny's story was the longer one, 107 vs. 76 pages, so the two rating carries the day.

I was surprised Zelazny's novella was so bad. I love his Amber series, but here we have the pretentious Zelazny, the one who writes so artistically he doesn't feel an obligation to make sense. After all, poetry is often too self-referential for outsiders to derive the meaning. Why, Zelazny must have wondered, can't he take similar liberties? Answ Two stars for Zelazny's contribution, three for Kate Wilhelm's. Zelazny's story was the longer one, 107 vs. 76 pages, so the two rating carries the day.

I was surprised Zelazny's novella was so bad. I love his Amber series, but here we have the pretentious Zelazny, the one who writes so artistically he doesn't feel an obligation to make sense. After all, poetry is often too self-referential for outsiders to derive the meaning. Why, Zelazny must have wondered, can't he take similar liberties? Answer: he isn't writing poetry.

Roughly two thirds of the words written tie into the main story, which is that a blind woman wants to become a shaper, someone who makes visual dreams for clients. Her motivation, I think, it's hard to tell for sure, is that she wants to compensate for being blind. In a way, she can see if Render will agree to train her to create these visual dreams. So he does.

That's pretty much the story to the extent I could dig one out of the verbage. The rest of the writing is about smoking lots of cigarettes, dogs being given the ability through advanced science to talk, and getting in self-driving cars and letting them go wherever really, really fast. It was a mishmash of irrelevant nonsense I couldn't tie into the story. Oh, and Zelazny writes really cool, unfamiliar words to show off his vocabulary and take you out of his story in order to admire his pretty word choice and win an award from easily impressed critics, which I guess he did.

The marginally better story was Kate Wilhelm's, but it's not all that inspired either. Her characters talk about smoking too, only one third as much as Zelazny's, which is still too much. Don't have anything for a character to do? Have him take a break and smoke. At least the story was more linear and made sense with hardly any boring tangents.

The main character has this power to possess another character. No, I'm not talking slavery here. He can take over a woman's body. How he comes to realize he has this ability is pretty original and is the one and only part of the story I liked.

My main problem with the rest of the story was that it didn't have any real point. I couldn't figure out why Wilhelm felt the need to tell this story. It seems to be that taking possession of other people (if you can) is a really bad, unethical thing to do. Really? I wouldn't have known.

I also was uncomfortable with the graphic sex thinking. I guess it was realistic enough. Young people would think this way quickly, but it's a pretty dark take on human nature. That would be okay, I like dark, except here there is no real point of learning as a reward for putting up with the miserable depiction.

All in all, I think people can find better books to read. These two are not recommended. ...more

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Jul 19, 2018 Pongo rated it really liked it

Wow - so Zelazny. He's amazing. The He Who Shapes story stuck with me after I'd finished it for many many days (and into my dreams). It made me think. It creeped me out a little. It was good.
I haven't read The Infinity Box yet (July 2018), but I did read that its author, Kate Wilhelm, has passed over the rainbow reading bridge. She won awards, so I'm expecting a good story there too.
...more

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Dec 14, 2012 G33z3r rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, anthology, contemporary-fantasy, award-winner

These old Tor Double books were a fascinating physical construct, two covers for the price of one! (Also two novellas.)

Roger Zelazny's "He Who Shapes" won several awards, and was later expanded into "The Dream Master".

But this reading, I was mostly interested in Kate Wilhelm's "The Infinity Box", which I don't think I read the first time I picked up this book. It's an interesting enough psychological story, more contemporary fantasy and science fiction, though I never did understand the title. ...more

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Sep 06, 2011 Gabrielle Zdep rated it it was amazing

Focusing around an immersive futuristic psychotherapy technique, "He Who Shapes" is intelligent, imaginative and shows an incredible depth of understanding of human psychology and interpersonal relationships. The intense plotline combined with vivid imagery, sharp characterizations and well-written dialogue make this easily the best sci-fi short story I've ever read. Genre aside, it's also one of the more intelligent and nuanced pieces of writing I've come across in a while. ...more

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Nov 28, 2014 Jeff Youngstrom added it

My review of Infinity Box from July 12,
1995
My review of He Who Shapes from July 12, 1995
...more

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Dec 14, 2011 Zac rated it really liked it

Shelves: mary

I've read a handful of these TOR doubles and this is by far the best pair of them I've encountered so far. Both great stories, though when read together, clearly very anxiety inducing! haha ...more

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Sep 16, 2015 Mckinley rated it it was ok

Shelves: short-story, scifi, novella, hugo-nebula

He Who Shapes, still not a Zelazny fan...

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Oct 14, 2015 Jon Norimann rated it liked it

Shelves: science_fiction

OK standard science fiction short stories. Not taking long to read and about worth the time spent

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About Roger Zelazny

Roger Zelazny

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Roger Zelazny made his name with a group of novellas which demonstrated just how intense an emotional charge could be generated by the stock imagery of sf; the most famous of these is A Rose for Ecclesiastes in which a poet struggles to convince dying and sterile Martians that life is worth continuing. Zelazny continued to write excellent short stories throughout his career. Most of his novels dea ...more