Dimension of Miracles
A New Yorker wins an intergalactic prize and loses his way home.
Dimension of Miracles is a 1968 satirical science fiction novel by American writer Robert Sheckley, incorporating elements of absurdism. The story follows Tom Carmody, a New Yorker who wins a prize in the Intergalactic Sweepstakes. The novel is notable for its comedic and surreal take on space travel and identity.
Quick Facts
- Author
- Robert Sheckley
- Publication year
- 1968
- Nationality
- American
- Genre
- Satirical science fiction
- Protagonist
- Tom Carmody
Facts from the source article.
Plot summary
Tom Carmody, an unlucky civil servant, wins the main prize of the Galactic Lottery due to a computer error. As a human from Earth, he lacks galactic status and should not have been eligible, but he obtains the Prize before the mistake is discovered and is allowed to keep it. Because he is not a space-traveling creature, he has no homing instinct to guide him back to Earth, so the lottery organizers cannot transport him home. His removal from his home environment causes, by the universal law of predation, a predatory entity to spring into existence that perpetually pursues and aims to destroy him. Forced to flee, Carmody uses his Prize to meet several well-meaning but usually incompetent aliens who attempt to find where, when, and which Earth he belongs on. He ends up transporting from Earth to Earth across different phases and realities of his planet, none of which are in the time or condition he expects.
Similarity with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Dimension of Miracles has been cited as similar to Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In an interview for Neil Gaiman's book Don't Panic: The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Companion, Adams stated he had not read any Sheckley until after writing the Guide and seeing it printed, and later found some parallels between the two works eerie but coincidental. Gaiman, in an interview two decades later and five years after Adams' death, paraphrased Adams as saying some resemblances had been disturbingly close.
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