The Game of X

I've read and re-read this book at least a half-dozen times in the past 30 years. Parts still reduce me to helplessly uncontrolled laughter. Superb spoof of the James Bond type spy genre of the 1960s. As funny today as when new, like most of Sheckley's early material.

This is just about the most hilarious book I have ever read. And I have read most of the stuff by Addams and Pratchet. It is about a typical guy who is looking for a job and sort of accidentally ends up as an alleged super agent of a very secret secret agency. He then is supposed to extract a communist defector from Venice. This turns out to be most difficult and (for the reader) funny.

I read this book as a teenager, read it again and again, and finally got rid of it because I thought I had memorized it. That was over 20 years ago and I would really love to read it again! The author's descriptive capabilities will have you rolling with laughter, so make sure you're not standing up when you read it.

"The Game of X" is not the usual type of Sheckley book. He leaves sci-fi and fantasy to take on the spy field. The hero is just a regular guy who is mistaken for a spy. He knows nothing of the circumstances he is thrust into but through quick wits he makes the right moves and with a lot of luck his wrong moves turn out to be the right ones because his opponants have misjudged his abilities. It is "a great read". I could not put it down and someday I'll find it again --- and hang on to it this time!