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shreyasdeshpande1992's review
5.0
Absolutely amazing. I've always meant to read some of his stuff, so a book full of short stories seemed perfect. It contains most of the stories which have been adapted into movies.
I found it fascinating from a psychology perspective too. I had heard that Dick may have been schizophrenic, and I can absolutely see where that comes from, now. So many of the stories involve paranoia, warping of reality, or a complete disbelief in reality. That he is able to tackle those themes on such a deep level and still construct fascinating stories all around it shows how much skill he had.
Ratings:-
I found it fascinating from a psychology perspective too. I had heard that Dick may have been schizophrenic, and I can absolutely see where that comes from, now. So many of the stories involve paranoia, warping of reality, or a complete disbelief in reality. That he is able to tackle those themes on such a deep level and still construct fascinating stories all around it shows how much skill he had.
Ratings:-
shivani_maurya's review
4.0
My very first read by Philip K. Dick..and I am already onto his other collections :D Anyways moving on to the review..I started this collection with "Second Variety" and half expected to find something akin to Asimov and his robots..A futuristic diorama unfolding in the imagination, of a world where humans can't live without machines and bots..But in retrospect and to my surprise, Dick's science-fiction does not rely as much on science as it does on the elements of fiction..
His stories happen to humans..husband-wife, father-son, soldiers, kids, wanderers, technicians, revolutionaries etc..And exactly for this fact, they are so much more relatable..All the while I wondered less about the aliens and the fancy gadgets and more about how the human protagonist would react..Thoughts like "What's he/she gonna do now?", "There's no way he's escaping this", "I bet he is the one!!", "Oh my God!! Open your eyes, damn it!", "No! Don't go to the old lady!!", "C'mmon! He is one of them now!!"..The stories are a touch-and-go kind..They lead on the reader, in favour of his/her suspicions..And WHAM!!..down goes the white flag of truce between Dick and the reader, as he shoots us down with epiphanies..
All I can say is : Dick is good..real good at the "Whoa!!" moments..And these being short stories, one can easily make a guess at his genius in getting the readers riled up with such short accounts..So impressed I was/am that I think each of his stories deserve a mention with their own ratings..
3★ Beyond Lies the Wub
3★ Roog
3.5★ Paycheck
4.5★ Second Variety
3.5★ Imposter
3★ The King of the Elves
3★ Adjustment Team
3★ Foster, You're Dead!
3★ Upon the Dull Earth
3.5★ Autofac
3.5★ The Minority Report "and to think this was one of the influences that led to Psycho-Pass..Nostalgia(sigh)"
3★ The Days of Perky Pat
3★ Precious Artifact
3.5★ A Game of Unchance
4★ We Can Remember It for You Wholesale
3★ Faith of Our Fathers
3★ The Electric Ant
4★ A Little Something for Us Tempunauts
3.5★ The Exit Door Leads In
3★ Rautavaara's Case
3.5★ I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon
I confess that I had known PKD only for his "The Man in the High Castle"..But I am glad that he has written enough sci-fi stories to keep me away from other genres for a while :)
His stories happen to humans..husband-wife, father-son, soldiers, kids, wanderers, technicians, revolutionaries etc..And exactly for this fact, they are so much more relatable..All the while I wondered less about the aliens and the fancy gadgets and more about how the human protagonist would react..Thoughts like "What's he/she gonna do now?", "There's no way he's escaping this", "I bet he is the one!!", "Oh my God!! Open your eyes, damn it!", "No! Don't go to the old lady!!", "C'mmon! He is one of them now!!"..The stories are a touch-and-go kind..They lead on the reader, in favour of his/her suspicions..And WHAM!!..down goes the white flag of truce between Dick and the reader, as he shoots us down with epiphanies..
All I can say is : Dick is good..real good at the "Whoa!!" moments..And these being short stories, one can easily make a guess at his genius in getting the readers riled up with such short accounts..So impressed I was/am that I think each of his stories deserve a mention with their own ratings..
3★ Beyond Lies the Wub
3★ Roog
3.5★ Paycheck
4.5★ Second Variety
3.5★ Imposter
3★ The King of the Elves
3★ Adjustment Team
3★ Foster, You're Dead!
3★ Upon the Dull Earth
3.5★ Autofac
3.5★ The Minority Report "and to think this was one of the influences that led to Psycho-Pass..Nostalgia(sigh)"
3★ The Days of Perky Pat
3★ Precious Artifact
3.5★ A Game of Unchance
4★ We Can Remember It for You Wholesale
3★ Faith of Our Fathers
3★ The Electric Ant
4★ A Little Something for Us Tempunauts
3.5★ The Exit Door Leads In
3★ Rautavaara's Case
3.5★ I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon
I confess that I had known PKD only for his "The Man in the High Castle"..But I am glad that he has written enough sci-fi stories to keep me away from other genres for a while :)
goomz's review against another edition
5.0
This book made me into, well, a Philip K. Dick Reader. I knew the man's name by the movies he's responsible for, but I never looked into his works or researched him. For me, this was just a book by an author I've heard of that wound up in an armful of books I acquired at a Barnes & Noble. All of these short stories are fairly (dare I say) "normal", and well... they're scifi. Good scifi. The image I had in my mind of PKD after finishing this was worlds apart from what it became after I read my first novel of his, "Lies, Inc." (Yep. "Lies, Inc." was my first PKD novel.) You won't find the man's full-on reality bending here, but it definitely is hinted at. Overall, a fantastic place to start for those of you interested in Philip, and remains one of my favorites to this day.
NOW. Time to go over each bad-boy in this.
"Fair Game" (1959)
A story with a twist that reminded me of a cross between The Far Side and Goosebumps.
"The Hanging Stranger" (1953)
DARK. A predictable ending, but the imagery described in the beginning is unnerving.
"The Eyes Have It" (1953)
Every English class doing a unit on figurative language needs to assign this one. Brilliant, clever, funny, short.
"The Golden Man" (1954)
An odd story that I can't help but imagine taking place in the X-Men universe. If you imagine Nicolas Cage as the Golden Man, it's a lot better.
"The Turning Wheel" (1954)
An intelligent stab at L. Ron Hubbard and reincarnation/caste systems. Some creative predates to some themes in "The Man In The High Castle" can be found, and is enjoyable even if the main character is a bit of an ass.
"The Last of the Masters" (1954)
Quite primitive, and probably one of the few in the book worth skipping.
"The Father-Thing" (1954)
Laughably unrealistic children, and a plot I'm sure R.L. Stine would've loved. I can't tell if this is a parody or not. It turned out being a great success for the kids, for sure... if the ending turned out to be BLOODY MURDER, for one, that would be predictable, and two, a total mood killer. Sometimes it's nice to have little kids who are right, and win!
"Strange Eden" (1954)
An overall funny story, that reminds me of ancient mythology mixed with a spin on the general consensus about where human evolution will lead.
"Tony and the Beetles" (1954)
One of the best out of the book. I could imagine this being a scene of an scifi epic, or even a decent movie. A coming of age story... IN SPACE. It'd sell millions.
"Null-O" (1958)
Parody? It's hard to tell.
"To Serve the Master" (1956)
Standard sci-fi fare, with an ending not too incredibly hard to guess (not that I did).
"Exhibit Piece" (1954)
This is the most "Dickian" short story in this book. New readers, THIS is what you're getting into.
"The Crawlers" (1954)
A mildly disturbing premise with poor execution. Unintentionally funny for some of the images that are brought up in my mind... a certain Invader Zim episode involving babies comes to mind.
"Sales Pitch" (1954)
A thought-provoking piece of black humor about to what heights of intrusiveness advertising can climb to. I can see this happening, sadly. PKD didn't like the ending, but I thought it was genius.
"Shell Game" (1954)
Hm, pass. Doesn't really give me any burning desire to dive into "Clans of the Alphane Moon". Maybe I need to read it slower next time.
"Upon the Dull Earth" (1954)
This one stands out in Philip K. Dick's work. For one, it's quite clearly fantasy. Two, SCENERY IS ACTUALLY DESCRIBED. Zoinks. If it weren't for the ending, I would assume some mix-up occurred at the publishing house.
"Foster, You're Dead!" (1955)
This should be required reading somewhere. An extremely meaningful piece that goes over capitalism and coming of age (sort of), that I think of regularly, even if it is a bit anti-climactic
"Pay for the Printer" (1956)
All good scifi authors predicted future technology. This is PKD's turn, predicting 3D printers in 1956. Yowza.
"War Veteran" (1955)
A slow going but great read, with characters and a writing style very reminiscent of his novels.
"The Chromium Fence" (1955)
This is for me the best piece of satire PKD has ever wrote, this time about ambivalence and political radicalism. Although the ending is overly dark, this one has almost haunted me, and I think about it regularly.
"We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" (1966)
A lighthearted and comical story, that had to have at least some inspiration towards "Beautiful Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". Knowing that Michael Gondry is making a Ubik adaption in 2012 (supposedly), I would not be surprised. It's quite obvious that this story was thrown into the book just so "Total Recall" could grace the book cover... it's eight years newer than any other story in the entire collection. Tsk tsk tsk.
"The Minority Report" (1956)
The great story behind the good movie. Why the movie didn't keep the original's ending I will never know.
"Paycheck" (1953)
For as action oriented as it is, I enjoyed it. It makes you learn to appreciate the random things you find in your pockets every now and then.
"Second Variety" (1953)
Predictable ending is predictable. The last couple sentences make up for it though.
NOW. Time to go over each bad-boy in this.
"Fair Game" (1959)
A story with a twist that reminded me of a cross between The Far Side and Goosebumps.
"The Hanging Stranger" (1953)
DARK. A predictable ending, but the imagery described in the beginning is unnerving.
"The Eyes Have It" (1953)
Every English class doing a unit on figurative language needs to assign this one. Brilliant, clever, funny, short.
"The Golden Man" (1954)
An odd story that I can't help but imagine taking place in the X-Men universe. If you imagine Nicolas Cage as the Golden Man, it's a lot better.
"The Turning Wheel" (1954)
An intelligent stab at L. Ron Hubbard and reincarnation/caste systems. Some creative predates to some themes in "The Man In The High Castle" can be found, and is enjoyable even if the main character is a bit of an ass.
"The Last of the Masters" (1954)
Quite primitive, and probably one of the few in the book worth skipping.
"The Father-Thing" (1954)
Laughably unrealistic children, and a plot I'm sure R.L. Stine would've loved. I can't tell if this is a parody or not. It turned out being a great success for the kids, for sure... if the ending turned out to be BLOODY MURDER, for one, that would be predictable, and two, a total mood killer. Sometimes it's nice to have little kids who are right, and win!
"Strange Eden" (1954)
An overall funny story, that reminds me of ancient mythology mixed with a spin on the general consensus about where human evolution will lead.
"Tony and the Beetles" (1954)
One of the best out of the book. I could imagine this being a scene of an scifi epic, or even a decent movie. A coming of age story... IN SPACE. It'd sell millions.
"Null-O" (1958)
Parody? It's hard to tell.
"To Serve the Master" (1956)
Standard sci-fi fare, with an ending not too incredibly hard to guess (not that I did).
"Exhibit Piece" (1954)
This is the most "Dickian" short story in this book. New readers, THIS is what you're getting into.
"The Crawlers" (1954)
A mildly disturbing premise with poor execution. Unintentionally funny for some of the images that are brought up in my mind... a certain Invader Zim episode involving babies comes to mind.
"Sales Pitch" (1954)
A thought-provoking piece of black humor about to what heights of intrusiveness advertising can climb to. I can see this happening, sadly. PKD didn't like the ending, but I thought it was genius.
"Shell Game" (1954)
Hm, pass. Doesn't really give me any burning desire to dive into "Clans of the Alphane Moon". Maybe I need to read it slower next time.
"Upon the Dull Earth" (1954)
This one stands out in Philip K. Dick's work. For one, it's quite clearly fantasy. Two, SCENERY IS ACTUALLY DESCRIBED. Zoinks. If it weren't for the ending, I would assume some mix-up occurred at the publishing house.
"Foster, You're Dead!" (1955)
This should be required reading somewhere. An extremely meaningful piece that goes over capitalism and coming of age (sort of), that I think of regularly, even if it is a bit anti-climactic
"Pay for the Printer" (1956)
All good scifi authors predicted future technology. This is PKD's turn, predicting 3D printers in 1956. Yowza.
"War Veteran" (1955)
A slow going but great read, with characters and a writing style very reminiscent of his novels.
"The Chromium Fence" (1955)
This is for me the best piece of satire PKD has ever wrote, this time about ambivalence and political radicalism. Although the ending is overly dark, this one has almost haunted me, and I think about it regularly.
"We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" (1966)
A lighthearted and comical story, that had to have at least some inspiration towards "Beautiful Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". Knowing that Michael Gondry is making a Ubik adaption in 2012 (supposedly), I would not be surprised. It's quite obvious that this story was thrown into the book just so "Total Recall" could grace the book cover... it's eight years newer than any other story in the entire collection. Tsk tsk tsk.
"The Minority Report" (1956)
The great story behind the good movie. Why the movie didn't keep the original's ending I will never know.
"Paycheck" (1953)
For as action oriented as it is, I enjoyed it. It makes you learn to appreciate the random things you find in your pockets every now and then.
"Second Variety" (1953)
Predictable ending is predictable. The last couple sentences make up for it though.
nuka_ev's review
adventurous
challenging
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.75
A collection of short stories many of which ended up being their own books entirely. It was great to see the premise to many of the best works of fiction to date.
Content Warnings
It maybe rough to switch stories especially when the plot thickens but I did add several more books to my reading list!
matt_bitonti's review
5.0
Phillip K. Dick is the master of the premise. No one sets a premise like him. His short stories start off like a thunderclap. The settings, the mechanisms of what is possible in these worlds, are truly breathtaking. It's not an obscure fact that several short stories in this book inspired full-length movies, and those movies were often hugely successful. But when reading these stories one after the other, the endings often have a vague trailed-off lack of definite resolution. At first, I perceived this trait to be a flaw but as time went on the uncertainty became fun. I looked forward to these endings, like a gambler looking forward to the spin of the roulette wheel. A more concrete ending could not be more profound as the brain activity that is sparked after Phillip K. Dick dunks you in the cold ocean of uncertainty and you have to swim to shore. It's not the easiest option but it might be the most rewarding.
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