jenmat1197's review against another edition
1.5
Philip K Dick is a renowned Science Fiction writer. I get that. I understand that many movies such as Paycheck, Minority Report, Blade Runner, Total Recall, and The Adjustment Bureau are based on his short stories. But it should be pointed out that they are LOOSELY based on them. As in - maybe a word or two. The rest was made up by Hollywood.
These stories were nothing but torture for me. I have to admit it. I am sure Sci Fi lovers will frown at that statement, but I need to tell the truth. I didn't enjoy it. Some of the stories were fine. But nothing was great
But, I read it. I checked it off, and so it is over and I can move on.
I can't really do much more of a review for you because there were 20-30 stories in this book and they were all different. They all had made up words of things Philip K Dick thought the future would be like. He was wrong on a lot of levels.
These stories were nothing but torture for me. I have to admit it. I am sure Sci Fi lovers will frown at that statement, but I need to tell the truth. I didn't enjoy it. Some of the stories were fine. But nothing was great
But, I read it. I checked it off, and so it is over and I can move on.
I can't really do much more of a review for you because there were 20-30 stories in this book and they were all different. They all had made up words of things Philip K Dick thought the future would be like. He was wrong on a lot of levels.
jimmypat's review against another edition
4.0
An enjoyable collection of PKD’s first published stories. Most of the stories follow the “twist” element in early SF, and most of the twists are expected by about the midpoint of the story, but they were great fun nevertheless.
katrinacharleston's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
4.0
teal_axolotl's review against another edition
3.0
Best stories:
5/5 Colony.
A beautiful story about space colonisation. Starting with a "too good to be true" exposition that almost foreshadows the troubles to come, it presents us with a challange of survival against the unknown. The story is well-structured and has a clear arc: discovery, surprise -> disbelief, self-doubt -> acceptance, problem solving -> helplessness against a thing that's too alien for humans to understand.
And at the end the reader is faced with a haunting realization of what had happened.
A great piece of cosmic horror, reminds of John Carpenter's The Thing, which was based on [b:Who Goes There?|6468870|Who Goes There?|John W. Campbell Jr.|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347690698l/6468870._SY75_.jpg|19210812]
5/5 Nanny.
Hilarious story, driven by the absurdity of Human desire to have a better, bigger thing than his neighbor fuels the manufacturer's arms race.
The rest, rated on the scale of 1-5, many of them are worth checking out:
3 Stability
2 Roog
3 The Little Movement
4 Beyond Lies the Wub
2 The Gun
4 The Skull
4 The Defenders
1 Mr. Spaceship
3 Piper in the Woods
3 The Infinites
1 The Preserving Machine
2 Expendable
3 The Variable Man
2 The Indefatigable Frog
4 The Crystal Crypt
2 The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford
2 The Builder
4 Meddler
4 Paycheck
4 The Great C
2 Out in the Garden
2 The King of the Elves
3 Prize Ship
Overall I rate this volume 3/5. But understanding that it had been written in 1952-55, even before the launch of the first satellite in 1957, makes me appreciate the good stories even more.
5/5 Colony.
A beautiful story about space colonisation. Starting with a "too good to be true" exposition that almost foreshadows the troubles to come, it presents us with a challange of survival against the unknown. The story is well-structured and has a clear arc: discovery, surprise -> disbelief, self-doubt -> acceptance, problem solving -> helplessness against a thing that's too alien for humans to understand.
And at the end the reader is faced with a haunting realization of what had happened.
A great piece of cosmic horror, reminds of John Carpenter's The Thing, which was based on [b:Who Goes There?|6468870|Who Goes There?|John W. Campbell Jr.|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347690698l/6468870._SY75_.jpg|19210812]
5/5 Nanny.
Hilarious story, driven by the absurdity of
Spoiler
nanny-bots sneakily fighting behind their owners' backs, and then going full-Transformer style and battling in the public parks.The rest, rated on the scale of 1-5, many of them are worth checking out:
3 Stability
2 Roog
3 The Little Movement
4 Beyond Lies the Wub
2 The Gun
4 The Skull
4 The Defenders
1 Mr. Spaceship
3 Piper in the Woods
3 The Infinites
1 The Preserving Machine
2 Expendable
3 The Variable Man
2 The Indefatigable Frog
4 The Crystal Crypt
2 The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford
2 The Builder
4 Meddler
4 Paycheck
4 The Great C
2 Out in the Garden
2 The King of the Elves
3 Prize Ship
Overall I rate this volume 3/5. But understanding that it had been written in 1952-55, even before the launch of the first satellite in 1957, makes me appreciate the good stories even more.
the_jun_man85's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
sobolevnrm's review against another edition
2.0
This book was fairly typical of that rather annoying form of science fiction which exists simply to be rather strange and clever. I didn't finish it.
arthurbdd's review against another edition
5.0
Though he would later evolve into one of science fiction's finest novelists, in his early career Philip K. Dick's short stories far outshone not only his tentative early novels, but also much of the rest of the field. This collection sums up his early work and reveals him to be a magnificently imaginative writer right out of the gate.
shiprim's review against another edition
5.0
İçinde belki de bir tane bile vasat öykü bulunmayan bir külliyatın ilk halkası, ilk cildi. Daha 20'li yaşlarında bile dehanın gelişi yavaştan belli ediyormuş kendisini. Pek çok öykü fikirsel anlamda harika yenilikler ve yaratıcılıklar barındırıyor. Her şeyiyle müthiş.
PKD'nin bu öykülerinin Türkçe olarak -geç de olsa- yayınlanıyor olması bizler için bir nimet, ancak yayıncı Büyülü Fener'in dikkat etmesi husular var; dizgi, imlâ ve çeviri hataları, bilhassa da baştan sona çok ucuz bir görüntü sergileyen A4 kağıdına basılmış bir kitap. Gördüm, 2. cilt de öyle, dilerim düzeltirler.
PKD'ye tapıyoruz.
PKD'nin bu öykülerinin Türkçe olarak -geç de olsa- yayınlanıyor olması bizler için bir nimet, ancak yayıncı Büyülü Fener'in dikkat etmesi husular var; dizgi, imlâ ve çeviri hataları, bilhassa da baştan sona çok ucuz bir görüntü sergileyen A4 kağıdına basılmış bir kitap. Gördüm, 2. cilt de öyle, dilerim düzeltirler.
PKD'ye tapıyoruz.