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

"Human Is" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was first published in Startling Stories, Winter 1955. The plot centers on the crisis facing a woman whose cold and emotionally abusive husband returns from a survey mission to the dying planet Rexor IV, changed for the better—his psyche was replaced by a Rexorian, glad to have escaped the confines of its dying planet. The story was adapted by Jessica Mecklenburg for an episode of the 2017 TV series, Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams.

En 1947 avait eu lieu la capitulation des alliés devant les forces de l'axe. Cependant que Hitler avait imposé la tyrannie nazie à l'est des Etats-Unis, l'ouest avait été attribué aux japonais. Quelques années plus tard la vie avait repris son cours normal dans la zone occupée par les nippons. Ils avaient apporté avec eux l'usage du Yi-King, le livre des transformations du célèbre oracle chinois dont l'origine se perd dans la nuit des temps.

In a 1978 interview, Phillip K. Dick said "I've always had this funny feeling about reality. It just seems very feeble to me sometimes. It doesn't seem to have the substantiality that it's suppose to have." Fortunately for us, Dick translated his feelings about reality into some of the greatest science fiction writing of all time. This collection features five stories from early in his career, when he found his voice as a writer.

X Minus One premiered in April 1955 on NBC and ran until January 1958. Like its predecessor series, Dimension X, X Minus One featured stories by the greatest names in modern science fiction: Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Clifford Simak, Robert Bloch, and many more.

Una de las obras maestras clásicas de Philip K. Dick. "El Hombre en el castillo" nos sumerge en un mundo alternativo en el cual el Eje ha derrotado a los Aliados en la segunda guerra mundial y los Estados Unidos han sido invadidos y divididos entre los vencedores. Mientras los nazis se han anexionado la costa atlántica, donde han instaurado un régimen de terror, la costa pacífica permanece en manos japonesas.

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.

What if...a machine could murder one person while implicating another for the crime? An alien being looked like livestock but spoke like a philosopher? Earth was ruined by war, and Mars was humanity's only hope? Robots were created to wage an unending war on the ravaged surface of Earth while man hid underground? Peeking into the future showed a worse result with each look?

X Minus One premiered in April 1955 on NBC and ran until January 1958. Like its predecessor series, Dimension X, X Minus One featured stories by the greatest names in modern science fiction: Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Clifford Simak, Robert Bloch, and many more.

Published shortly after his high school graduation, “Beyond Lies the Wub” is the classic short story by science fiction master Philip K. Dick. Peterson, a crew member from a spaceship visiting Mars, purchases a giant, pig-like creature called a wub. Although Captain Franco means to make a meal of the strange beast, the wub proves to be likeable and intelligent by discussing the travels of Odysseus and the impact of myth on the human spirit.

A poke at idioms, sci-fi style. If we read everything literally, we'd go mad.

Ceci est l'histoire d'un homme dont tout le monde semble avoir oublié l'existence et l'identité. La veille encore, il était Jason Taverner, producteur de télévision respecté, chanteur à ses heures et idole d'au moins trente millions de téléspectateurs. Mais lorsqu'il s'éveille dans une chambre sordide un matin, il semble être le seul être humain au monde à savoir qui était - qui avait été - Jason Taverner. Ses amis, ses collaborateurs, et même Heather, sa maîtresse et complice de toujours, affirment ne jamais l'avoir rencontré.

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.

Eons after the last nuclear war, humans have become the inferior race. Cities have become segregated, and robots rule the world. The robots did have a sense of justice, though. If a human could score high enough on an annual test, he could move up in society. There was a catch, though. The test was so slanted toward robot mentality and knowledge, a human didn't have a chance. Then James P. Crow (Not his real name.) arrives on the scene with his window that sees into the past and the future.

In "Beyond Lies the Wub", the crew of a spaceship buys a "wub", a large pig-like animal from a native martian to eat on the way home. The Wub turns out to be a sentient being capable of intelligent conversation, empathy, and possibly telepathy and mind control. When a crew member converses with the remarkable Wub, the captain makes a rash and violent decision that could put the return mission in danger.

Además de novelista, Philip K. Dick fue un prolífico autor de cuentos y relatos, muchos de los cuales han sido llevados al cine en los últimos tiempos. Él mismo reunió sus narraciones breves en cinco volúmenes que ahora recuperamos en una edición revisada. Esta segunda entrega recoge 25 relatos escritos entre 1952 y 1953, auténticas joyas literarias que destilan la magia propia de Dick y donde quedan patentes sus constantes obsesiones: la muerte, la alienación, la locura, la religión y la represión, y la naturaleza esquiva de la realidad.

"Tony and the Beetles" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in 1953. The story is told from the point of view of a young boy, Tony, living on an alien world that humans have conquered. The native species are beetle like creatures called the Pas-udenti, some of whom Tony has befriended. He loses his innocence when they turn against him after news reaches the planet that the war has turned against the humans. A Ten-Year-Old Boy Grows Up Fast When History Catches Up With The Human Race.

"The Gun" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in 1952 September issue of Planet Stories, and later published in Beyond Lies the Wub in 1984. "The Gun" has been published in Italian, German, French and Polish translations. The plot centers around a group of space explorers who investigate a planet which appears deserted. However, they are shot down and crash land on the planet. While repairing their ship, a team of explorers sets to survey the surrounding area, where they discover the ruins of an ancient city.

In "The Crystal Crypt", Earth and Mars are poised on the verge of war. On the last spaceship to leave Mars for Earth, law enforcement officials are looking for three fugitives who somehow made a great Martian city disappear. Unable to find the perpetrators, the officials allow the ship to disembark for Earth. A businessman named Thacher strikes up a conversation with a young woman and two men who reveal a very interesting secret to him about the mysterious case.

In "The Skull", a convict is offered his freedom if he agrees to travel back in time and kill someone. He learns that the assassination target was the founder of a religious sect that grew in strength and influence from its inception in 1960. Carrying his target's skull so he can identify the religious leader, the convict comes to learn a terrible secret about why he was chosen to find its owner.

Did you ever wonder at the lonely life the bird in a cuckoo clock has to lead--that it might possibly love and hate just as easily as a real animal of flesh and blood? Philip Dick used that idea for this brief fantasy tale. We're sure that after reading it you'll give cuckoo clocks more respect.