Philip K Dick
From the iconic author of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, stories that inspired the original dramatic series.
Though perhaps most famous as a novelist, Philip K. Dick wrote more than one hundred short stories over the course of his career, each as mind-bending and genre-defining as his longer works. Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams collects ten of the best. In "Autofac," Dick shows us one of the earliest examples
...The discovery of mysterious gateway leads to a new world full of dangerous possibilities in this science fiction tale from an iconic author.
When a repairman accidentally finds a parallel universe, everyone sees it as an opportunity, whether as a way to ease Earth's overcrowding, set up a personal kingdom, or hide an inconvenient mistress. But when a civilization is found already living there, the people on this side of the crack
...On Mars, the harsh climate could make any colonist turn to drugs to escape...
In this dystopian novel from the author of The Man in the High Castle, humanity is forced to live underground while a great secret hides above them.
In the future, most of humanity lives in massive underground bunkers, producing weapons for the nuclear war they've fled. Constantly bombarded by patriotic propaganda, the citizens of these industrial anthills believe they are waiting for the day when the war will be over and they
...For years, the third moon in the Alphane system was used as a psychiatric hospital. But...
After the twentieth century's devastating series of wars, the world's governments banded together into one globe-spanning entity, committed to peace at all costs. Ensuring that peace is the Vulcan supercomputer, responsible for all major decisions. But some people don't like being taken out of the equation. And others resent the idea that the Vulcan is taking the place of God. As the world grows ever closer to all-out war, one functionary frantically
...10) The Variable Man
A man is brought into the future during the midst of an intergalactic war, when government computers can predict the outcome of the conflict. However, when this man from the past is factored into the computers calculations the results are unexplainable.
Philip K. Dick was an American science-fiction novelist, short-story writer and essayist. His first short story, "Beyond Lies the Wub," was published shortly after his high school graduation.
...11) Deus Irae
An artist searches for God so he can paint his portrait in Philip K. Dick's collaboration with Roger Zelazny. After World War III, the Servants of Wrath cult deified the mysterious Carlton Lufteufel, creator of the doomsday weapon that wiped out much of humanity. But to worship the man, they need an image of him as a god, and no one has ever seen him. So the high priests send a limbless master painter named Tibor McMasters into the wilderness on
...12) The Simulacra
In a post-WWIII world, a matriarch maintains rule against a popular uprising in this sci-fi classic by the author of The Man in the High Castle.
On a ravaged Earth, fate and circumstances bring together a disparate group of characters, including an android president, a First Lady who calls all the shots, fascist with dreams of a coup, a composer who plays his instrument with his mind, and the world's last practicing therapist.
...13) Second Variety
Influential American science fiction writer Philip K. Dick was fascinated by the idea of nuclear warfare and the dire aftermath of such an event. This scenario preoccupied Dick throughout much of his career and served as the backdrop to many of his stories and novels. In the short story Second Variety, the human population has been decimated by nuclear war, and small tribes of survivors are forced to battle a species of lethal robot soldiers.
...14) The Gun
Take an intergalactic trip with renowned science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. In The Gun, the crew of a spaceship are sent out to recover a remarkable weapon that seems to be capable of causing nearly inconceivable levels of damage. How will they protect humanity from the deadly device?
Time has begun moving backward. People greet each other with "goodbye," blow smoke into cigarettes, and rise from the dead. When one of those rising...
16) Solar Lottery
From the acclaimed author of Ubik—in the future, Earth's leader is randomly chosen by a computer, but some are unwilling to leave everything to chance.
In 2203 anyone can become the ruler of the solar system. There are no elections, no interviews, no prerequisites whatsoever—it all comes down to the random turns of a giant wheel. But when a new Quizmaster takes over, the old one still keeps some rights, namely the
...A powerful and enigmatic alien recruits humans and aliens to help it restore a sunken cathedral in this touching and hilarious novel.
Sometimes even gods need help. In Galactic Pot-Healer that god is an alien creature known as The Glimmung, which looks alternately like a flaming wheel, a teenage girl, and a swirling mass of ocean life. In order to raise a sunken city, he summons beings from across the galaxy to Plowman's Planet. Joe Fernwright...Long before Ridley Scott transformed Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? into Blade Runner, Philip K. Dick was banging away at his typewriter in relative obscurity, ostracized by the literary establishment. Today he is widely...