Anything You Can Do ...
Tags
Summary
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers who want a quick sense of American science fiction short story style from the Golden Age
- Intermediate and advanced English learners who need public-domain English texts for extensive reading practice
- Organizers of science fiction reading groups looking for lightweight discussion material
- Science fiction fans interested in themes of technological competition and satire on human nature
Not a good fit for
- Readers who prefer long-form hard science fiction or complex worldbuilding
- Readers who are still at the beginner stage of English reading and would struggle with the original text
- Science fiction fans expecting contemporary technological details and near-future settings
Reading tips
- Read through once to grasp the plot and satirical points, then revisit how the foreshadowing at the beginning echoes the ending.
- While reading, note the author's attitude toward technological competition and compare it with similar themes in today's fiction.
- You may consult historical background material on science fiction's Golden Age to understand the work's context and limitations.
- For the original English text, use a dictionary tool and try to read it in one sitting to maintain the rhythm.
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.
Contents
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FAQ
Is this book a novel or a short story?
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About the author
Randall Garrett (1927-1987) was an American science fiction writer active in the mid-twentieth century. Public information about his life is limited, and details such as his exact birth and death dates and nationality still require further verification. The library holds 43 of his works, including The Highest Treason, Dead Giveaway, The Foreign Hand Tie, Thin Edge, The Asses of Balaam, Anything You Can Do!, That Sweet Little Old Lady, and The Bramble Bush. Judging from these titles, his output consists mainly of short stories and novellas, often built around tricks, misunderstandings, and reversals. He was skilled at creating suspense within a limited space, advancing plots through witty dialogue and a brisk pace, and frequently ending with an unexpected twist. His titles often carry a playful, ironic tone, showing a confident command of science fiction conventions and a humorous attitude toward them. Although public information is limited, these works remain useful samples for studying mid-twentieth-century English-language science fiction short fiction.
