The Sixth Day and Other Tales

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Primo Levi

Simon & Schuster, New York, 1991, 1990, 1988, English; originally published in Italian

Fiction

ISBN: 9780671626174

A collection of 25 science fiction-like short stories that take place in a universe in which scientific advances, gone unchecked, create a dehumanized and amoral world where machines write poetry and replicate anything, including human beings.

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Bruce Hannah

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The story “The Sixth Day” is a must-read for anyone ever caught up in one of those design meetings where everything is impossible and nothing can change, “because, that’s the way it is.” Levi’s explorations of the “mimer” (a duplicating machine that makes three-dimensional copies) and other fabulous American devices foretell much of what might be the future.

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