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A review by goomz
The Philip K. Dick Reader by Philip K. Dick
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.