The Shipshape Miracle

"The Shipshape Miracle" by Clifford D. Simak is a science fiction novella written during the early 1960s. The story centers around Cheviot Sherwood, a castaway stranded on an uninhabited planet, contemplating his fate while unknowingly harboring a wealth of diamonds. The book explores themes of identity, humanity, and the merging of man and machine through its foundational premise of a sentient spaceship. In the narrative, Sherwood finds himself in a precarious situation after his spaceship breaks down, rendering him marooned. While grappling with his isolation, he unexpectedly encounters a mysterious black ship that reveals itself to be alive and capable of thought. The ship, which has merged with the consciousness of its human creator, offers Sherwood a way out. However, it soon becomes clear that Sherwood himself might become a part of the ship's existence, as the entity has been searching for someone like him—one who would not be missed in the world. The story culminates in a tension-filled realization of what it means to lose one's humanity in the pursuit of survival and a deeper exploration of the idea that not all miracles are beneficial. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Clifford Donald Simak was an American science fiction writer. He won three Hugo Awards and one Nebula Award. The Science Fiction Writers of America made him its third SFWA Grand Master, and the Horror Writers Association made him one of three inaugural winners of the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement. He is associated with the pastoral science fiction subgenre.