Second Variety and Other Stories
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Second Variety and Other Stories
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Narrated by:
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William Coon
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By:
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Philip K. Dick
About this listen
When asked by an interviewer "Why is there science fiction?" Phillip K. Dick responded, "There is science fiction because the human brain craves sensory and intellectual stimulation before anything else, and the eccentric view provides unlimited stimulation, the eccentric view and the invented world.... The function of SF, psychologically, is to cut the reader loose from the actual world that he inhabits…." And cut us loose he does. And never disappoints.
This collection of five stories from early in his career casts a spotlight on Dick’s incredible imagination. In "Second Variety", robot warriors appear to have given one side the advantage in a devastating war. But a small band of soldiers begins to question just what the robots’ endgame truly is. In "Beyond Lies the Wub", a member of a spaceship’s crew buys a Wub ("a huge dirty pig!") for 50 cents, thinking it might be a good source of meat for the long journey home. Then the Wub speaks. In "The Eyes Have It", a man’s imagination gets the best of him, as he takes the words in a paperback novel a bit too literally. In "Piper in the Woods", a doctor attempts to unravel the mystery of why workers on an asteroid base begin to behave as if they have become plants. In "The Variable Man", giant computers indicate earth will likely win an interstellar war that will free it from the limits imposed by an aging Centauran empire. Plans are disrupted, however, when a man from the past arrives and throws off all calculations.
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Simulacra for me & simulacra for you.
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 8,407
It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith. Whilst working at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he secretly dreams of freedom. And in a world where love and sex are forbidden, where it’s hard to distinguish between friend and foe, he meets Julia and O’Brien and vows to rebel.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Revelation!
- By wotsallthisthen on 04-07-24
By: George Orwell, and others
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The Martian
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 37,906
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 33,723
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Story5 out of 5 stars 33,619
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive - and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet.
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1 out of 5 stars
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I love Wil Wheaton but why not R. C. Bray?
- By L. Newman on 01-11-20
By: Andy Weir
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Starter Villain
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 10,786
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 9,584
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 9,578
Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Volcanic Lairs, Death Rays & Cats… Oh My! 😼
- By C. White on 09-19-23
By: John Scalzi
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Artemis
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Rosario Dawson
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 94,747
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 86,726
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Story4 out of 5 stars 86,524
Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent. Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A ferrari with no motor
- By will on 11-18-17
By: Andy Weir
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The Signal
- By: Eric Buchman, Gabriel Urbina, Sarah Shachat
- Narrated by: Paget Brewster, full cast
- Length: 2 hrs and 39 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 510
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 488
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Story4 out of 5 stars 489
Two astronomers have detected a strange, pulsing signal from deep space. Within hours, the US government goes into lockdown, restricting airspace and scrubbing scientific data. Was the signal an intercepted communication revealing alarming plans for an enemy’s military strike? Or has humanity at long last found proof of extraterrestrial life?
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5 out of 5 stars
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A great new twist on the “alien conspiracy” genre
- By Amazon Customer on 12-08-24
By: Eric Buchman, and others
What listeners say about Second Variety and Other Stories
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- E.
- 11-04-11
The narrator's accent / inflection ruins this book
The stories are great, but I cannot listen to this narrator. He does try to "perform" the stories using different accent and intonations, but his natural way of speaking makes me want to rip my headphones and ears off.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- lavi
- 09-16-11
terrible acting
The phony accents were impossible to listen to. I'm certain that the stories are great, but
i won't know until I've checked it out in print.
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