smalefowles's review
5.0
There is no better idea man than PKD. Most scifi writers are lucky if they have two or three unique ideas; many only have one, and milk it forever. You get the feeling PKD had three legitimately new ideas every day.
All the amphetamine takes a toll on the body, though.
This is a particularly good collection, with a mix of the famous ones (We Can Get It For You; Minority Report) and some that should be much more famous (I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon; Autofac) and a couple of totally bananas religiously inflected ones (Upon the Dull Earth; Rautavaara's Case).
<3 <3 <3
All the amphetamine takes a toll on the body, though.
This is a particularly good collection, with a mix of the famous ones (We Can Get It For You; Minority Report) and some that should be much more famous (I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon; Autofac) and a couple of totally bananas religiously inflected ones (Upon the Dull Earth; Rautavaara's Case).
<3 <3 <3
kandicez's review against another edition
5.0
He is so great! Unfortunately you end up getting a lot of the same stories over and over, but I read them again anyway.
kandicez's review
5.0
Everything he writes really makes you think. I have quite a few of his short story collections on cd, and they are great to listen to with your eyes closed. He's not big on detail, but he always get his point across. More often than not, he even throws a lesson in there.
dllh's review
3.0
Several good stories in this batch, but nothing that really blew my mind. I've also just read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and feel like based on these two books of Dick's (the only two I've read), he works much better in longer form prose. Still, it was need to read.
jhoover's review
5.0
Good shit. Gets weirder and more paranoid as it goes along, simultaneously more interesting yet the stories hold together less. Especially ones like “Faith of Our Fathers”. Every one makes you think though and while the prose is utilitarian the ideas are great
tbah926's review
5.0
I've been slowly working through this collection of short stories for a few years now, and while I am glad to finally have completed reading it, I will likely come back to some of these stories in the future. I firmly believe that science fiction is one of the genres best suited to the short-story format, and PKD delivers a series of thoughtful pieces in this collection.
Reading this collection, I was shocked to see how influential PKD has been, recognizing several of the stories as source material for movies that have come out in my lifetime ("Paycheck", "The Adjustment Team", "We Can Remember it for you Wholesale", and "Minority Report").
What I've enjoyed most about this collection is how PKD tangles with darker themes than someone like Asimov, who is ultimately more optimistic about the human condition than PKD. PKD offers a gritty vision of the future, one that respects the intellectual capacities of human beings while challenging the readers to engage with the less admirable traits of mankind.
Reading this collection, I was shocked to see how influential PKD has been, recognizing several of the stories as source material for movies that have come out in my lifetime ("Paycheck", "The Adjustment Team", "We Can Remember it for you Wholesale", and "Minority Report").
What I've enjoyed most about this collection is how PKD tangles with darker themes than someone like Asimov, who is ultimately more optimistic about the human condition than PKD. PKD offers a gritty vision of the future, one that respects the intellectual capacities of human beings while challenging the readers to engage with the less admirable traits of mankind.
ckcombsdotcom's review
Over 20 stories by a celebrated sci fi writer. My response to them was uneven. In some cases, I could definitely see his genius and enjoyed the story. In other cases, the repetition of themes grew tedious. He certainly had a fascination with combining absurd or unexpected happenings and with mundane lives. And sometimes it worked really well. The genius of The Minority Report and We can Remember it for You Wholesale is obvious, The Days of Perky Pat is insidious in it's damnation of the adults in the story. Foster, You're Dead was sharp in it's critique of capitalism. Autofac is pretty brilliant as well... and on the theme of man's quest for better technology getting the better of him. Beyond Lies the Wub was also brilliant and the ending was unexpected - I like that.
The deadening mundanity of every day life... The karmic revenge of our quest for more and more technology in our lives.
Favorites - Minority Report, The Electric Ant, We can Remember it for You Wholesale, Beyond Lies the Wub, Paycheck.
The deadening mundanity of every day life... The karmic revenge of our quest for more and more technology in our lives.
Favorites - Minority Report, The Electric Ant, We can Remember it for You Wholesale, Beyond Lies the Wub, Paycheck.
chromiumboron's review against another edition
4.0
I loved this. Obviously there are some that I liked more than others (We Can Remember It for You Wholesale, wow!), but I found the resounding theme of a post-apocalyptic world to be interesting, especially because we are discussing major extinctions in my Organismal Diversity class. We as humans are currently in the sixth extinction, which will be the first major extinction ever caused by a species. It's just intriguing to me because most of the stories seemed to have characters that had been part of a war or something that could have been prevented and thus prevented extinction. I guess I just relate. I did find some of the writing to be redundant or hard to follow, and for that reason, I had trouble getting through the longer short stories (sorry, but I really detested War Veteran). However, I really enjoyed how different the Paycheck and Minority Report movies are compared to their original stories. I can't decide which I like better, but it was nice to be able to read a story and not know exactly what was going to happen. I was a little worried about that to begin with.
Overall these stories are good, and I would recommend this to other fans of sci-fi.
Overall these stories are good, and I would recommend this to other fans of sci-fi.
vdarcangelo's review against another edition
5.0
Faves:
"The Hanging Stranger"
"The Last of the Masters"
"Strange Eden"
"Null-O"
"Exhibit Piece"
"Foster, You're Dead"
"The Chromium Fence"
"We Can Remember it for You Wholesale"
"The Hanging Stranger"
"The Last of the Masters"
"Strange Eden"
"Null-O"
"Exhibit Piece"
"Foster, You're Dead"
"The Chromium Fence"
"We Can Remember it for You Wholesale"
nightcrawler79's review against another edition
3.0
The main problem with this anthology is that too many of the stories are not especially interesting. They're not necessarily bad, just not very interesting. Some of the stories are excellent, though, and, for the most part they make up for the weak spots. Also, several of the stories have gone on to be movies (though you might not recognize them...) and will probably be of interest to many people irrespective of quality.
Most of the best stories are the ones that made it as films. They're often good for reasons other than the films that are based on them, though. Minority Report is good, though don't expect Tom Cruise's chief Anderton to show up. We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, which became Total Recall, is a long joke, though kind of a funny one. Paycheck is a real standout - just the premise makes it worth reading, and the rest isn't bad either. Second Variety, which became Screamers, has an okay premise but is missing something in execution.
Many of the remaining stories are fairly forgettable. The Hanging Man does stand out as a good Twilight Zone/Invasion of the Body Snatchers type story though. Most of the remaining stories split into rather generic humans-after-the-robots stories or enigmatic horror set pieces, with a couple good aliens-vs.-humans political pieces thrown in also.
Most of the best stories are the ones that made it as films. They're often good for reasons other than the films that are based on them, though. Minority Report is good, though don't expect Tom Cruise's chief Anderton to show up. We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, which became Total Recall, is a long joke, though kind of a funny one. Paycheck is a real standout - just the premise makes it worth reading, and the rest isn't bad either. Second Variety, which became Screamers, has an okay premise but is missing something in execution.
Many of the remaining stories are fairly forgettable. The Hanging Man does stand out as a good Twilight Zone/Invasion of the Body Snatchers type story though. Most of the remaining stories split into rather generic humans-after-the-robots stories or enigmatic horror set pieces, with a couple good aliens-vs.-humans political pieces thrown in also.