Showing results by author "Philip K. Dick" in All Categories

"Beyond Lies the Wub" was Philip K. Dick's first published story and appeared in Planet Stories magazine. In it, a crew takes an alien aboard their ship but the alien's appearance belies its intelligence and powers.

When Roger and Virginia Lindhal enroll their son Gregg in Mrs. Alt's Los Padres Valley School in the mountains of Southern California, their marriage is already in deep trouble. Then the Lindhals meet Chic and Liz Bonner, whose two sons also board at Mrs. Alt's school. The meeting is a catalyst for a complicated series of emotions and traumas, set against the backdrop of suburban Los Angeles in the early fifties.

This novel, Dick said, is about Leo Runcible, "a brilliant, civic minded liberal Jew living in a rural WASP town in Marin County, California." Runcible, a real estate agent involved in a local battle with a neighbor, finds what look like Neanderthal bones in Marin and dreams of rising real estate prices because of the publicity. But it turns out that the remains are more recent, the result of an environmental problem polluting the local water supply.

Ready for a story? Here's a selection of some of the finest science fiction shorts of recent years, including stories from Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, William Gibson, Robert Sheckley, Terry Bisson, Avram Davidson, and Philip K. Dick.

Nick has a problem. He has a cat named Horace, and cats are quite illegal on Earth. In fact all pets are illegal on Earth, and Horace has been reported to the anti-pet man. The only way for Nick and his family to keep Horace is to emigrate to Plowman's Planet. Little did they know that, rather than the pastoral paradise Nick's father envisioned, they would land in the middle of a planetwide war against an entity known as Glimmung, a conflict in which Nick and Horace would play a pivotal role.

Gather Yourselves Together is one of Philip K. Dick’s earliest novels, written when he was just 24 years old. It tells the story of three American workers left behind in China by their employer, biding their time as the Communists advance. As they while away the days, both the young and naïve Carl Fitter and the older and worldly Verne Tildon vie for the affections of Barbara Mahler, a woman who may not be as tough-as-nails as she acts. But Carl’s innocence and Verne’s boorishness could end up driving Barbara away from both.

Al Miller is a self-proclaimed nobody, a used-car salesman with a lot full of junkers. His elderly landlord, Jim Fergessen, has decided to retire and has just cashed in on his property, which includes the lot that Al rents next to Fergessen's garage. Chris Harman is a record-company owner who has relied on Fergessen's for years to fix his Cadillac. When he hears about Jim Fergessen's sudden retirement fund, he tells him about a new realty development that Harman swears is a surefire path to easy wealth.

Substance D - otherwise known as Death - is the most dangerous drug ever to find its way on to the black market. It destroys the links between the brain's two hemispheres, leading first to disorentation and then to complete and irreversible brain damage. Bob Arctor, undercover narcotics agent, is trying to find a lead to the source of supply, but to pass as an addict he must become a user, and soon, without knowing what is happening to him, he is as dependent as any of the addicts he is monitoring.

Lester Herrick, human of the future, he is by our standards rather inhuman. When Lester returns from a trip to Rexor IV a changed man, the divorce is off, and Mrs. Herrick enjoys her wedded bliss until the authorities suspect Lester isn't Lester.

Twenty-four of the greatest science fiction stories of all time in this fourth sci-fi short story collection, including works by Jerry Dunham, Emmett Dowell, James Causey, Gordon Randall Garrett, James A. Cox, Phyllis Sterling Smith, Richard A. Sternbach, Robert Sheckley, E. G. Von Wald, Keith Laumer, Jerome Bixby, Frederik Pohl, Roger Dee, Arnold Marmore, James H. Schmitz, Lester del Rey, Cordwainer Smith, Ray Bradbury, and Philip K. Dick.

This fourth volume of Favorite Science Fiction Stories contains 22 more gripping tales.

Willianson's world, a culture that seemed a hideous nightmare to men who know nothing of beauty, must be destroyed. Philip Dick's characters have an exciting way of letting their logically motivated self-interest lead them straight down the flaming road to ruin. We suspect that it is this distinctly individual approach which has made him one of the most admired and widely read of science fiction writers of the past few years.

As curator of the Twentieth Century Exhibit, George Miller felt that to do a good job, he had to live his work. Then, one day, somebody got into his exhibit, and he went to investigate.

Philip K. Dick skrev nogle af sine mest ildevarslende fremtidsvisioner om USA i novelleform i 50erne. Deres kredsen om temaer som overvågningssamfundet, tiden og det menneskelige - og den totale paranoia - har siden fascineret laesere verden over. - Og i de sidste 20 år biografgaengere med, for siden 1982, hvor Ridley Scott for første gang filmatiserede Philip K. Dick, er flere af hans noveller omformet til biografens laerred - og i et stadig voksende tempo.

Written as a sequel to Second Variety, this is an exciting and thought-provoking view into a different world than the one left in "Second Variety". We have a fascination with time travel. But what could go wrong? Give this a listen, and see what you think.

In "Piper in the Woods", an army doctor is asked to treat a soldier from Asteroid Y-3 who claims he is a plant. This wouldn't be a problem, but the soldier is incapable of any physical activity, preferring to stand still and point himself towards the sun. When more soldiers return from Asteroid Y-3 also claiming to be plants, Dr. Harris travels there to investigate. While there, he learns about a mysterious indigenous people living in the woods called "Pipers", who might be able to shed some light on the subject.

In The Defenders, the Soviet and American survivors of a nuclear holocaust have created vast underground tunnels, so as to continue the war on the surface via remote control robots. When a robot from the surface is found not to be radioactive, a team of American scientists returns topside to investigate this anomaly. Expecting to see massive devastation, the scientists are unprepared for the shocking truth that awaits them.

En un futuro cercano, la tercera guerra mundial se recrudece a marchas forzadas, y la Tierra, plagada de virus y radioactividad, resulta inhabitable; al menos, eso cree la inmensa mayoría de la población que, confinada en factorías subterráneas, sólo conoce del exterior lo que ve en los informes televisivos. Pero éstos no ofrecen más que mentiras sistemáticas ideadas por profesionales del artificio, guardianes de una realidad radicalmente distinta: la guerra acabó hace años y el planeta es un gran jardín.

Precorrendo i motivi cari al cyberpunk, Philip K. Dick affonda la penna nei temi della decadenza, delle fantasie cosmiche e delle inquietudini interiori che attanagliano l'uomo moderno. Chi o cos'è Valis? È un'imperscrutabile entità intelligente che vive nello spazio? O forse un meccanismo, una formula o, ancora, un essere vivente vero e proprio, che emana uno sconvolgente flusso di informazioni sulla natura dell'universo?

Set in San Francisco in 1956, The Broken Bubble traces the ups and downs and ins and outs of four characters who are not quite sure of the lives they’re living. Jim Briskin, local radio DJ, his ex-wife Pat, the young married couple Art and Rachel Emmanual – all are acutely observed and sympathetically portrayed. Briskin is suspended from his job for refusing to read a particularly repellant ad, while Art foolishly gets mixed up in a group of absurd would-be revolutionaries. As they all get entangled and not quite disentangled with each other, it becomes apparent they are seeking only – in typical Dick fashion – to live more or less happily - if not ever after, then at least for a while. Modest as it may seem, it is an ambition very difficult to achieve.