Philip K Dick
Beyond Lies the Wub was the first story ever published by science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. In this short story Peterson buys a "wub" from a local before his departure from Mars and takes it back aboard the ship on which he is a crew member. But the captain Franco cites his concerns about the extra weight of having this huge pig-like creature on-board, although he really seems more interested in how it might taste. Once in space however,
...Under extreme duress, the human mind can come up with an array of impossibly complex coping mechanisms. Is that what's behind the strange epidemic that army physician Henry Harris has noticed overtaking soldiers who have returned from the distant celestial body known as Asteroid Y-3? Harris makes a trip to the asteroid to figure things out—and seems to fall prey to the 'delusion' himself. Fans of Philip K. Dick's unique brand of suspenseful
...TV repairman Ed Loyce sets out for what he thinks will be a typical day at work—and finds himself in a world in which everything has been turned topsy-turvy. The first indication that things are amiss occurs when Loyce spies a stomach-turning abomination in the town park—and none of his fellow citizens seem to care. Find out what's gone wrong by reading this chilling short story from master of the weird Philip K. Dick.
Time travel, interplanetary war, technology races between enemy nations—this early novella from science fiction mastermind Philip K. Dick has something for every fan of the genre. In the story, an increasingly heated conflict between two outer-space civilizations is impacted by an unlikely figure—the time-traveling 'variable man' of the tale's title.
Influential American science fiction writer Philip K. Dick was fascinated by the idea of nuclear warfare and the dire aftermath of such an event. This scenario preoccupied Dick throughout much of his career and served as the backdrop to many of his stories and novels. In the short story Second Variety, the human population has been decimated by nuclear war, and small tribes of survivors are forced to battle a species of lethal robot soldiers.
...Gather Yourselves Together is one of Philip K. Dick's earliest novels, written when he was just twenty-four years old. It tells the story of three Americans left behind in China by their employer, biding their time as the Communists advance. As they while away the days, both the young and naïve Carl Fitter and the older and worldly Verne Tildon vie for the affections of Barbara Mahler, a woman who may not be so tough-as-nails as she
...Following a devastating nuclear war, the Moral Reclamation government took over the world and forced its citizens to live by strictly puritanical rules—no premarital sex, drunkenness, or displaying of neon signs—all of which are reinforced through a constant barrage of messaging to the public. The chief purveyor of these messages is Alan Purcell, next in line to become head of the propaganda bureau. But there is just one problem: a
...10) Valis
"Dick is one of the ten best American writers of the twentieth century, which is saying a lot. Dick was a kind of Kafka steeped in LSD and rage."*
What...
"Dick skillfully explores the psychological ramifications of this nightmare."—New York Times Review...
Long before Ridley Scott transformed Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? into Blade Runner, Philip K. Dick was banging away at his typewriter in relative obscurity, ostracized by the literary establishment. Today he is widely...
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17) Mr. Spaceship
Imagine an advanced spacecraft powered by the human brain. That's the remarkable technology at the heart of this fascinating short story by science fiction mastermind Philip K. Dick. A professor nearing the end of his natural lifespan donates his brain to the cutting-edge research effort—but will he ultimately follow along with the plan?
Far in the future, Earth's empire has grown to include dozens of different civilizations, many of which have been subjugated to serve humanity's growing need for cheap labor. In the short story "Tony and the Beetles," a young boy hatches an unlikely friendship with some of the insect-like creatures that are treated as slaves—and sets off a firestorm of unintended consequences in the process.
19) The Skull
Travel backward and forward in time—literally—in this thought-provoking tale from science fiction master Philip K. Dick. A prisoner is given the opportunity to regain his freedom if he accepts a dangerous mission that could change the course of history. He accepts—but has no idea how profound the consequences of his decision will be.
20) The Defenders
Prolific science fiction writer Philip K. Dick penned hundreds of short stories, novels, and other pieces over the course of his career. The Defenders is a short but spellbinding tale that imagines a dystopian version of America in which the Cold War dispute with the Soviet Union has been fought to a devastating conclusion.