Final Examination

In Robert Sheckley's darkly comic visions of doom, the ordinary world is suddenly invaded by the unimaginable. A Queens dress salesman first dismisses reports of stars vanishing from the Milky Way, only to watch the night sky empty into a cosmic mystery that turns public curiosity into panic, wild theories, and dread. In another story, a New York shopkeeper hears a disembodied voice announce that Earth will face judgment in five days, and the message—heard everywhere, in every language and accent—throws the city into confusion as people argue over the voice's identity and the meaning of the warning. As the deadline approaches, fear gives way to strange, revealing behavior: truces are made, sins are tallied, money is given away, and social order begins to collapse under the pressure of the end. Families, strangers, and rivals respond with generosity, romance, and uneasy solidarity, while the shopkeeper and his wife move through a city transformed by impending judgment. Sheckley blends satire, suspense, and cosmic horror, finding both absurdity and tenderness in humanity's last days. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.