Project Gutenberg 2009-07-18 Public domain in the USA. 169 Sheckley, Robert 1928 2005 Barbee, Phillips Lang, Ned O'Donnevan, Finn Barbee, Phillip Finlay, Virgil 1914 1971 Finlay Beside Still Waters Produced from Amazing Stories Oct.-Nov. 1953. Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net "Beside Still Waters" by Robert Sheckley is a science fiction novella written in the early 1950s. The book explores themes of isolation and companionship set against a backdrop of space exploration. It follows the story of a prospector named Mark Rogers who seeks solitude on a remote asteroid but finds companionship in a robot named Charles. The narrative centers on Mark Rogers, who lives on a desolate slab of rock in the asteroid belt after years of fruitless searching for valuable resources. As the years pass, Mark transforms Charles, a standard robot, into a companion that reflects his own philosophies and feelings. Their conversations unfold against the vastness of space, revealing the contrasts between their personalities—Mark's cynicism and Charles's idealism. Ultimately, as Mark's health deteriorates and their environment grows increasingly inhospitable, their relationship deepens, leading to poignant reflections about companionship, loss, and the stars above. Charles’s final thoughts resonate with themes of love and friendship as he faces solitude once more, capturing the essence of what it means to seek connection amidst desolation. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Reading ease score: 86.4 (6th grade). Easy to read. en Science fiction Short stories Robots -- Fiction PS Text Science Fiction Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy Category: Novels 35106 2025-07-12T07:50:05.245640 text/html 30767 2021-01-05T08:45:01 text/html 289010 2025-07-12T07:50:10.049621 application/epub+zip 287341 2025-07-12T07:50:07.910649 application/epub+zip 76228 2025-07-12T07:50:06.778638 application/epub+zip 450164 2025-07-12T07:50:11.584635 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 442888 2025-07-12T07:50:09.307647 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 149493 2022-09-13T15:26:40.072027 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 28580 2025-07-12T07:50:04.997643 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 28460 2021-01-05T08:45:01 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 20789 2025-07-12T07:50:11.712626 application/rdf+xml 14003 2025-07-12T07:50:07.264630 image/jpeg 3583 2025-07-12T07:50:07.019634 image/jpeg 213184 2021-01-05T08:45:01 application/octet-stream application/zip 10812 2021-01-05T08:45:01 application/octet-stream application/zip 288088 2025-07-12T07:50:05.262654 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia en.wikipedia