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

Floyd Jones is sullen, ungainly, and quite possibly mad, but he really can see exactly one year into the future. And this talent means that in a very short time he rises from being a disgruntled carnival fortune-teller to convulse an entire planet. For Jones becomes a demagogue, whipping up the ideal-starved population into a frenzy against the threat of the 'drifters', enormous single-cell protoplasms that may be landing on Earth soon.

Seven years after the day of the bombs, Point Reyes was luckier than most places. Its people were reasonably normal—except for the girl with her twin brother growing inside her, and talking to her. Their barter economy was working. Their resident genius could fix almost anything that broke down. But they didn't know they were harbouring the one man who almost everyone left alive wanted killed...

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.

Il quarto ed ultimo volume della raccolta di straordinari racconti di Philip K. Dick, i primi scritti del più geniale tra gli innovatori del genere della fantascienza. Un totale di trentatré racconti, pubblicati tra il 1947 e il 1953, di un Philip K. Dick che muove i primi passi nella letteratura fantascientifica.

Step into the mind-bending world of Philip K. Dick with The Eyes Have It, a satirical and surreal short story that turns ordinary phrases into a conspiracy of alien invasion. This engaging audiobook brings Dick’s sharp wit and paranoia to life, making you question the hidden meanings in everyday language. Perfect for fans of classic sci-fi, unexpected twists, and the legendary storytelling of one of the most influential science fiction writers of all time. Listen now and uncover the secrets hidden in plain sight.

California, fine anni Cinquanta: una sorta di terra promessa già alle prese con il mito postbellico dello sviluppo economico e della crescita urbana, dove la questione razziale è ancora aperta. Jim Fergesson e Al Miller sono, o credono di essere, amici. Il primo è un meccanico avanti con l'età, amareggiato dalla vita, che da anni affitta al secondo un lotto di terra adiacente alla sua officina, in cui Miller vende auto usate, relitti rabberciati alla meglio.

"Beyond the Door" is a story that asks and answers the question: What lives beyond the door? And is it dangerous? Philip Dick knows and writes wih his usual verve and pinache. The man really knows how to tell a story.

Encircled by the Centaurian Empire, the growing Terran system is being suppressed and prevented from expanding. Terra is desperate to break free, and a war with Proxima Centauri ensues. It’s a battle of technology, with the two sides just barely staying ahead of one another. Then Thomas Cole arrives from 1913.

"The Variable Man" is a science fiction story by Philip K. Dick. Excerpt: At this moment, 9:30 AM, May 7, 2136, the statistical ratio on the SRB machines stood at 21-17 on the Centauran side of the ledger. All facts considered, the odds favored a successful repulsion by Proxima Centaurus of a Terran military attack. 21-17 on the Centauran side. But a month ago it had been 24-18 in the enemy's favor. Things were improving, slowly but steadily. Centaurus, older and less virile than Terra, was unable to match Terra's rate of technocratic advance.

"Second Variety" is a science fiction story about self-producing and developing, speaking robots, which aim to extinct the human race, by Philip K. Dick. Excerpt: It was interesting, the use of artificial forms in warfare. How had they got started? Necessity. The Soviet Union had gained great initial success, usual with the side that got the war going. Most of North America had been blasted off the map. Retaliation was quick in coming, of course. The sky was full of circling disc-bombers long before the war began; they had been up there for years.

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 "Beyond the Door", a man buys a cuckoo clock for his wife who has always wanted one. When he catches her cheating on him, the man throws his wife out of the house with her lover. Though he never really cared for the clock, he keeps winding it because he dislikes the silence. But the cuckoo clock, who preferred the wife's company, begins to plot against its owner.

Mr. Spaceship is set in the distant future, where humanity is at war with "Yuks", an alien life form which does not use mechanical spaceships nor constructions. Instead, it relies on life forms. The war has been going on for a long time, and humanity has not been able to come up with a solution against the life form-based ships and mines that the Yuks use. One day, a team of researchers led by our hero Philip Kramer decides to build a spaceship which is powered by a human brain!

"Second Variety" is a short story by Philip K. Dick, first published in Space Science Fiction magazine, in 1953. A nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the West has reduced much of the world to a barren wasteland. The war continues, however, among the scattered remains of humanity. The Western forces have developed "claws", which are autonomous self-replicating robots to fight on their side. It is one of Dick's many stories in which nuclear war has rendered the Earth's surface uninhabitable.

Tony Rossi is 10 years old and lives on a planet in the Betelgeuse system with his parents. Tony's race has inhabited the planet as conquerors for eons, but today as Tony goes to town to play with his Pac-udeti friends, there is a difference. The normally submissive Pac-udeti have developed an attitude. The war has taken a turn, and the long subjugated Pac-udeti are winning.

This audiobook contains stories from the pen of Philip K. Dick, a science-fiction writer of the 50's. The stories are: "Beyond Lies the Wub", "The Gun" & "Beyond the Door".

In "Crystal Crypt", taken from the 1954 Planet Stories, the war between Mars and Terra is about to erupt and Earth has only merchants and salesmen to fight; can they carry out their mission? Will Earth be defeated, or can these non-military people scrape together a defense in time? As usual, Philip Dick gives us a rousing, highly entertaining, and exciting story with a great ending.

"The Skull" is a skilful mesh of time travel, unscrupulous governments, prisoners, and religion - with an assassin thrown in for good measure. Enjoy!

Aliens have invaded the Earth! Horrible one-celled creatures disguised as normal human beings! Well, at least that is what it seems to the author. Yes, "The Eyes Have It" is a whimsical story, making gentle fun of certain writing styles, but only a top-flight science-fictionist like Philip Dick , we thought, could have written this story, in just this way.

The terrible destruction of total nuclear war between the Western and Eastern Blocks has succeeded in sterilizing the surface of the earth. No living creature can now exist there and all humans, on both sides, have fled to the hives built miles below the surface where they constantly work to produce the war materials necessary to carry on the battle. For eight years now, the actual fighting between these super powers has been conducted by robots known as Ledeys.