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

In this P. K. Dick short story read by award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti almost everyone had a bomb shelter, but if they didn't have the latest model, chances where they wouldn't survive a nuclear attack. Mike Foster's dad wouldn't be bullied into buying a shelter until finally one Christmas he signed up for the easy payment plan and....

"The Eyes Have It" is a humorous, early short story by Philip K. Dick that first appeared in Science Fiction Stories in 1953. In it, a bus-riding reader of a discarded melodrama with an overactive imagination is persuaded by the hackneyed prose that the world has been taken over by aliens. Thus, when "eyes slowly roved around the room", the reader imagines disembodied eyeballs traveling of their own free will. A rare example of satire from the Dick canon.

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.

The Crawlers is a science ficion short story by American writer Philip K. Dick. Submitted under the title "Foundling Home", it was first published as The Crawlers in Imagination magazine, July 1954. The story starts out from the point of view of a crawler constructing one of its curious hives. The crawler seems sentient and to genuinely enjoy building its odd dwelling. The story is set in a small Midwestern town, with references later in the story to mysterious "pools" which seem to cause mutations.

Lester Herrick, human of the future, he is by our standards rather inhuman. When Lester returns from a trip to Rexor IV a changed man, the divorce is off, and Mrs. Herrick enjoys her wedded bliss until the authorities suspect Lester isn't Lester.

When a space survey team encounters a mysterious automated weapon system on a seemingly abandoned planet, they're drawn into a tense confrontation that challenges their understanding of technology and survival.

"The Defenders" is a 1953 science fiction short story by American author Philip K. Dick and the basis for Dick's 1964 novel The Penultimate Truth. It is one of several of his short stories to be expanded into a novel. The short story was first published in the January 1953 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction.

In The Defenders, the Soviet and American survivors of a nuclear holocaust have created vast underground tunnels, so as to continue the war on the surface via remote control robots. When a robot from the surface is found not to be radioactive, a team of American scientists returns topside to investigate this anomaly. Expecting to see massive devastation, the scientists are unprepared for the shocking truth that awaits them.

"The Variable Man" is one of Philip K. Dick's most famous stories. A "fix-it man" from the past accidentally winds up on Earth 200 years in the future. His arrival may well put a crack in the progress of a delicate war by computers.

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.

"The Defenders", one of Philip K. Dick's earlier stories, describes a world where a global war between two continents has devastated the suface of the earth. Mankind has been forced to live underground where they continue to fight the war using robot "leadys" who are immune to radiation. Then a startling discovery is made about the robots which changes the entire future of mankind.

Ready for a story? Here's a selection of some of the finest science fiction shorts of recent years, including stories from Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, William Gibson, Robert Sheckley, Terry Bisson, Avram Davidson, and Philip K. Dick.

In this collection of five stories, all first published in the 1950s, Dick justified his existence by exploring a number of truly interesting ideas. In “Small Town” a man creates a perfect scale model of his own town, as a means of escaping his unbearable reality. In “Human Is” the wife of a scientist notices that her husband has returned from a scientific expedition a changed man, but she’s not complaining. In “Foster, You’re Dead” a father’s unwillingness to participate in his country’s preparations for a war that never happens, leads to unexpected consequences for his family....

This collection of five stories from early in his career casts a spotlight on Dick’s incredible imagination. In "Second Variety", robot warriors appear to have given one side the advantage in a devastating war. But a small band of soldiers begins to question just what the robots’ endgame truly is. In "Beyond Lies the Wub", a member of a spaceship’s crew buys a Wub ("a huge dirty pig!") for 50 cents, thinking it might be a good source of meat for the long journey home. Then the Wub speaks....

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?

Step into the unsettling world of Philip K. Dick's "Beyond the Door," now available as an immersive audiobook experience. This haunting short story follows a peculiar cuckoo clock with an uncanny consciousness and the tense domestic drama that unfolds around it. When Larry gifts his wife Doris a charming cuckoo clock, he's unaware of the strange bond forming between them. As Larry's jealousy grows and tensions escalate, listeners will be drawn into a tale where ordinary objects harbor extraordinary sentience.

This Science Fiction Collection brings together 20 iconic works from some of the genre's most influential authors. Featuring Ray Bradbury's atmospheric The Monster Maker and Rocket Summer, Isaac Asimov's thought-provoking Youth, E.M. Forster's dystopian The Machine Stops, and H.G. Wells' timeless masterpiece The Time Machine, the anthology explores a wide range of speculative themes. From futuristic worlds and artificial intelligence to time travel and human survival, this collection delves into the challenges and possibilities of the future.

Willianson's world, a culture that seemed a hideous nightmare to men who know nothing of beauty, must be destroyed. Philip Dick's characters have an exciting way of letting their logically motivated self-interest lead them straight down the flaming road to ruin. We suspect that it is this distinctly individual approach which has made him one of the most admired and widely read of science fiction writers of the past few years.

Time Pawn first appeared in Thrilling Wonder Stories in June ,1954. Under pressure from his publishers, Dick expanded the story into a full length novel - Doctor Futurity. The original is an excellent story but most critics agree that the expanded version was not a success.

A terrifying short from the Hugo-winning author of The Man in the High Castle, narrated by award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti, in which paranoid Verne Haskel suddenly gains almost godlike power over two towns named Woodland - one of them just outside of San Francisco, the other lovingly constructed in the basement of his home.