The Complete Roderick

Roderick is a robot who learns. He begins life looking like a toy tank, thinking like a child, and knowing nothing whatever of human ways. But as he will discover, growing up and becoming fully human is no easy task in a world where many people seem to have little difficulty giving up their humanity and descending to other levels. Published here for the first time in one volume, the two novels which comprise THE COMPLETE RODERICK are John SLadek's satirical masterpiece. ► A classic novel... it reeks simultaneously of CANDIDE, PLAYER PIANO and THE WIZARD OF OZ. ◄ GUARDIAN * The Complete Roderick is widely considered to be the most ambitious and genius work of a novelist described by The Encyclopedia of ScienceFiction as "the most formally inventive, the funniest, and very nearly the most melancholy of modern US science fiction writers." * Gollancz SF Masterworks (I) #45 Previously published as 1. Roderick or The Education of a Young Machine (1980) Granada, 348pp US Timescape/Pocket version (1982) is about 2/3 of original UK version. 2. Roderick at Random or The Further Education of a Young Machine (1983) Granada, 317pp