Far Out Sci-Fi
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These were not the first Philip K Dick stories that I had read (the first was the rather amazing "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep") but were the first book of his short stories that I had read.
Something that occurred to me when reading this book was truly imaginative you could be when writing a story; I never really enjoyed the idea of a short story before reading this book. What occured to me whilst reading them was the entire point of them being short; the story is kept fresh and interesting and ideas can be explored that would quickly run out of steam if they were stretched further.
Within these hallowed pages you will find a great variety of different stories ranging from the oft-quoted title story (that was vastly expanded into Total Recall), right through to "The War With Fnools"; a crazy tale of an attempt by aliens to take over the Earth by disguising themselves as tiny real-estate salesmen.
There is such great depth of imagination and variety; yet some of the stories have a touch of the absurd about them (such as the aforementioned "The War With Fnools") and it is this that makes the book such a compelling read.
On a seperate note, the notes at the back of the book (some of which are made by the author) really flesh out the different backstories (and the mindset) of the author and are worth reading in themselves.
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Great book of great stories
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A fantastic book of short stories by the finest science fiction writer of all time.These stories are full of great ideas and humour and many were the launchpad for the ideas Dick used for his extensive and hugely successful collection of novels.As an introduction to his work in bite size chunks i can think of no finer book.Without doubt the best collection of short stories you can buy by this author,and so packed full of interesting concepts that you simply must read it.
Another point that may be worth considering is that this book is quite a hefty tomb for the price...value AND quality....hard to beat!.
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If you have an active imagination then read these stories.
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I haven't read all of the stories in this collection but the ones that I have read are just brilliantly imaginitive and hillarious. Philip K. Dick felt that he was possessed by an angel or some other kind of higher intelligence, (see Colin Wilson's "The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Unsolved Mysteries"), and this is not entirely un-evident in Dick's writings. One of my favourite stories in this volume is "War with the fnools", which is about three foot businessmen haunting the Earth with their strangeness. (The following may spoil the story a little...): the problem is that if one of the fnools eats a certain piece of food or something, all of the fnools in existence will double in size. This happens once and the fnools are exactly the same size as humans, and are indistinguishable, ... but what could happen if they doubled in size again?! The story on which the film "Total Recall" was based is very fast and difficult to follow, and is called "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale". I would recommend this collection of short stories to anyone with an active imagination and with an absurd sense of humour. Not all of Dick's stories are intended to be humourous though, and some are perhaps even deeply philosophical, and can be quite haunting. I would not only recommend these short stories, but also the accompanying volume of short stories: "Beyond Lies the Wub".
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Much more than 'just that Total Recall book'
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This is a very interesting and thought provokingly collection of short stories. PKD investigates consciousness, god, perception and well...consciousness again with his usual bizarre sense of humor. You've got to read this book, if only because of the line "But the saviour is eating Travis!".
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Fun Book
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This is the book includes the short story that became "Total Recall" the 1980s film staring Arnold Schwarzenegger - which was one of the reasons that I bought it! It's an entertaining book that really gets you thinking. I will definately read more by this author.
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