The Philip K. Dick Reader

Like the other Philip K. Dick collection I read, lots of good, and some great, stories in this collection! ("Paycheck" being a particular favorite!) It is kind of like a sci-fi version of the Twilight Zone! Lots of war themes, end of the world scenarios, and man vs. robot conflicts. Major political, social, and military issues and commentaries, a lot reflecting the times in which they were written. But my favorite of the bunch may be "The Eyes Have It", which is pretty darn funny and almost out of place in this group! And "Fair Game" which is majorly Twilight Zoneish! I have really become a big fan of this author!

PKD invents many elements of the Twilight Zone twist ending, making most of the stories seem unfairly hackneyed. The best stories (esp. "Minority Report") rely on sheer confusion and paranoia rather than misdirection. "We Can Remember..." has cheesy TZ twist ending but is great anyway.

Always wanted to read this author due to all the fame his novels and stories get. I found this a really good set of short stories and each of them were entertaining and interesting. At times a little dated and you could see common themes related to paranoia, communism, nuclear holocaust played throughout most of the stories. Interesting also to see how different the Minority Report and Total Recall stories were from their movies. Would definitely recommend to sci-fi readers and now I would like to read his longer novels.

The main problem with this anthology is that too many of the stories are not especially interesting. They're not necessarily bad, just not very interesting. Some of the stories are excellent, though, and, for the most part they make up for the weak spots. Also, several of the stories have gone on to be movies (though you might not recognize them...) and will probably be of interest to many people irrespective of quality.

Most of the best stories are the ones that made it as films. They're often good for reasons other than the films that are based on them, though. Minority Report is good, though don't expect Tom Cruise's chief Anderton to show up. We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, which became Total Recall, is a long joke, though kind show more of a funny one. Paycheck is a real standout - just the premise makes it worth reading, and the rest isn't bad either. Second Variety, which became Screamers, has an okay premise but is missing something in execution.

Many of the remaining stories are fairly forgettable. The Hanging Man does stand out as a good Twilight Zone/Invasion of the Body Snatchers type story though. Most of the remaining stories split into rather generic humans-after-the-robots stories or enigmatic horror set pieces, with a couple good aliens-vs.-humans political pieces thrown in also. show less

One of my favorite authors. Philip K. Dick could always be counted on for a fresh and interesting take in his stories. This is a great collection of his short stories.

Wonderful. Reads like a good Twilight Zone marathon.

This marvelous collection of 24 stories includes such gems as “Fair Game,” “The Hanging Stranger,” “The Last of the Masters,” “War Veteran,” “Exhibit Piece,” “Sales Pitch,” “The Chromium Fence,” and several tales that were adopted into film, such as “We Can Remember it for You Wholesale” (Total Recall, 1990), “The Minority Report” (Minority Report, 2002), “The Golden Man” (Next, 2007), and “Second Variety” (Screamers, 1995).

Additionally, “Sales Pitch,” “Exhibit Piece,” “The Hanging Stranger,” and “Foster, You’re Dead!” were dramatized in the 2017 Amazon Prime anthology series, Electric Dreams, based on the works of Philip K. Dick.