Total Recall

By: Philip K. Dick

Narrated by: Phil Gigante

Length: 59 mins

Publisher's summary

Philip K. Dick’s classic short story tells the story of Douglas Quail, an unfulfilled bureaucrat who dreams of visiting Mars, but can't afford the trip. Luckily, there is Rekal Incorporated, a company that lets everyday stiffs believe they’ve been on incredible adventures. The only problem is that when technicians attempt a memory implant of a spy mission to Mars, they find that real memories of just such a trip are already in Quail's brain. Suddenly, Quail is running for his life from government agents, but his memories might make him more of a liability than he is worth.

©2012 Laura Coelho, Christopher Dick, and Isa Hackett (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

An hour well-spent...or was it?

Was the main character in a dream, or did the events actually happen?

PKD draws upon unique ideas, and creates a surprisingly realistic premises from the completely bizare, and he does so in an interesting way. It is funny to me that he could bring forth more in a short story, than many authors seem capable of writing in endless hours of written material.

Good enough

This is a good enough but not a great performance of this much loved work by PKD.

Pretty great.

it was much shorter than I was expecting. the movies hit on some key points, but I won't hold my breath for any Hollywood exec to be ballsey enough to use the ending. the ending sealed this as one my favorite short stories. the narrator does a bang up job as Quade. He just does silly voices for the women though. I recommend it.

PKD good one

this is a well known and excellent story, different than the movie of course. i do think this is contained within one of the other short story collections of PKD and I didn't double check before buying. still a good performance, but may even be same reader as other collection. I have grown to like PKD more and more but generally his alternate reality ideas are his best in my opinion, Scanner, Androids, Valis, Policeman so far the best.

Similarities and Differences from the Films

I had never heard the original story of Total Recall, though I have seen both films. There are similarities and differences. The ending was unusual. Someone should do an adaptation of this work. Great story and narration.

Short but, to the point.

loved it. Such a brilliant twist to a story I thought I knew, but didn't.

After a few months, still thinking about this one

Often a PKD does do this.
Enjoyed at the time about 3 months ago.
Driving on a country road, visiting the supermarket,
cooking a meal, anytime really, I can find myself thinking about this one.
Maybe it is a Mars thing.

Good. Buy cash, not with a credit

This is the foundational short story that later became the story we know from the movies. It’s enjoyable, but only an hour long. Don’t use a credit on it, pick it up for cash on sale.

Mind Blown

Wow is all I can say about “We Can Remember it for You Wholesale” this is the first Philip K. Dick That I’ve read and it was great not even sure how they came up with the 2 movies as this is so much better I listened to this audible the Narrator was great really loved this a lot so much to think about and take in a this is just a short story.

PKD RULES on his dystopian futures!

One can always count on Phillip Dick to give you that surprise ending that will give you just enough of a chill to keep you from sleeping for the next few hours!

While this story is the original to Total Recall, and the movies that follow bear little to no resemblance to it (a 3 chapter book making a 2 hour movie?!) but if you read the story, which lacks all the depth and detail of the movie versions, you can see where and how it has been changed to fit to the big screen.

And there's always that weird ending which starts sounding like so much nonsense, but after a few minutes it'll develop into something that's really internally disturbing, that you never can tell when the true depth will pop up and become so haunting that you'll feel creeped out for some time.