Philip K. Dick

This Library of America volume brings together four of Dick’s most original novels. The Man in the High Castle (1962), which won the Hugo Award, describes an alternate world in which Japan and Germany have won World War II and America is divided into separate occupation zones. The dizzying The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965) posits a future in which competing hallucinogens proffer different brands of virtual reality, and an interplanetary drug tycoon can transform himself into a godlike figure transcending even physical death. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968), about a bounty hunter in search of escaped androids in a postapocalyptic society where status is measured by the possession of live animals and religious life is focused on a television personality, was the basis for the movie Blade Runner. Ubik (1969), with its future world of psychic espionage agents and cryonically frozen patients inhabiting an illusory “half-life,” pursues Dick’s theme of simulated realities and false perceptions to ever more disturbing conclusions, as time collapses on itself and characters stranded in past eras search desperately for the elusive, constantly shape-shifting panacea Ubik. As with most of Dick’s novels, no plot summary can suggest the mesmerizing and constantly surprising texture of these astonishing books.

What if God--or a being called Yah--were alive and in exile on a distant planet? How could a second coming succeed against the high technology and finely tuned rationalized evil of the modern police state? --P. of cover.

Science fiction fans will find familiar the premise of Philip K. Dick's 1954 short story "The Father-Thing." In it, a young boy, Charlie, discovers that his father is not actually his father. The man in his house who comes home from work, kisses his mother, sits down to dinner, makes comments about his day at the office may look and talk like the real Mr. Walton, but Charlie knows better. He alone knows the hideous secret: that his real father has been killed, and that an alien now inhabits his body, and has usurped his life. It is no longer his father but the "Father-Thing." It is a familiar premise but an interesting one. Works like The Thing and, most famously, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, were especially popular in the 1950's, expressing the fear that people are not what they seem to be. The idea that something sinister may be lurking beneath a facade of suburban complacency is certainly an important component to Jack Finney's novel, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the movie of the same name. But while that work is largely about the country's paranoia and suspiciousness during the McCarthy years, Dick's story has a much more personal focus. "The Father-Thing" is more personal because it is not about the invasion of a community, but of a family. The alien takeover serves as a metaphor for estrangement, as the "Father-Thing" represents the agency-driven by seemingly inscrutable motives-that irremediably damages the household and the family's stability. Dick's story, then, is both a chilling science fiction tale and a emotionally resonant work about a child's coming to grips with a home in turmoil. Where Charlie turns when he finds himself an outcast from his home is somewhat surprising, and it reveals much about Dick's ideas about community and exile.

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is a 1965 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1965.The novel takes place in 2016. Under United Nations authority, humankind has colonized every habitable planet and moon in the Solar System. Like many of Dick's novels, it utilizes an array of science fiction concepts, features several layers of reality and unreality and philosophical ideas. It is one of Dick's first works to explore religious themes.

The first seven chapters of Philip K. Dick's The Crack in Space were first published as Cantata-140 in Fantasy and Science Fiction (07/1964). Cantata-140 was expanded from the short story Stand-By (Amazing 10/1963). The Gollancz 2003 edition of Cantata-140 is the text of The Crack in Space, not the novella published in 1964.

The VALIS trilogy is a set of science fiction/philosophical novels by author Philip K. Dick which include [VALIS](1978), [The Divine Invasion](1980), and [The Transmigration of Timothy Archer](1982). Dick's first novel about the VALIS concept originally titled "VALISystem A" (written 1976), was published as Radio Free Albemuth after Dick's death (March 1982) in 1985. Background In February and March 1974, Dick experienced a series of visions and other inexplicable perceptual and cognitive phenomena. For the rest of his life, Dick explored the philosophical implications and hypothesized about the origins of the experience, in a journal which eventually ran to hundreds of thousands of words. This work became known as the Exegesis, selections of which were published as The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick. Dick's leading hypothesis was that he had been contacted by a transcendental, mystical mind he called VALIS (vast active living intelligence system). In the summer of 1976, Dick completed a novel based on these so-called "2-3-74 experiences," which he titled VALISystem A. The novel was sold to Bantam Books, but after editor Mark Hurst suggested some possible revisions, Dick began contemplating a revision so radical as to constitute a new novel. The original VALISystem A was published posthumously as Radio Free Albemuth. The new version, titled simply VALIS, was completed late in 1978 and published in 1981 (the plot of the earlier version appears as the plot of a science fiction movie, also called "VALIS," that the characters see). By that time, Dick had completed a second novel, one also filled with his thoughts about religion and philosophy and very indirectly linked to VALIS (the VALIS entity gets but two mentions), which he called VALIS Regained and which was published as The Divine Invasion. Dick soon began talking (in letters and interviews) about a third novel to complete a "VALIS Trilogy." The novel was first to be called Fawn, Look Back, then The Owl in Daylight. After Dick's death, several omnibus editions of the "VALIS Trilogy" were published, with his final mainstream novel The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. Timothy Archer does not cite VALIS, yet Dick himself called the three novels a trilogy, saying "the three do form a trilogy constellating around a basic theme." `Synopsis- Horselover Fat believes his visions expose hidden facts about the reality of life on Earth, and a group of others join him in researching these matters. One of their theories is that there is some kind of alien space probe in orbit around Earth, and that it is aiding them in their quest. It also aided the United States in disclosing the Watergate scandal and the resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974. There is a filmed account of an alternative universe Nixon, "Ferris Fremont" and his fall, engineered by a fictionalised Valis, which leads them to an estate owned by the Lamptons, popular musicians. Valis (the fictional film) contains obvious references to identical revelations to those that Horselover Fat has experienced. They decide the goal that they have been led toward is Sophia, who is two years old and the Messiah or incarnation of Holy Wisdom anticipated by some variants of Gnostic Christianity. She tells them that their conclusions are correct, but dies after a laser accident. Undeterred, Fat goes on a global search for the next incarnation of Sophia. Dick also offers a rationalist explanation of his apparent "theophany", acknowledging that it might have been visual and auditory hallucinations from either schizophrenia or drug addiction sequelae.: : : :

Many thousands of readers worldwide consider Philip K. Dick to have been the greatest science fiction writer on any planet. Since his untimely death in 1982, interest in Dick's work has continued to mount and his reputation has been enhanced by a growing body of critical attention. The Philip K. Dick Award is now presented annually to a distinguished work of science fiction, and the Philip K. Dick Society is devoted to the study and promulgation of his works. This collection includes all of the writer's earliest short and medium-length fiction (including several previously unpublished stories) covering the years 1954-1964, and featuring such fascinating works as Minority Report (the inspiration for Steven Spielberg's film), Service Call, Stand By, The Days of Perky Pat, and many others. Here, readers will find Dick's initial explorations of the themes he so brilliantly brought to life in his later work. Dick won the prestigious Hugo Award for best novel of 1963 for The Man in the High Castle and in the last year of his life, the now-classic film Blade Runner was made from his novel Do Androids Dream Electric Sheep? The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick offers an intriguing glimpse into the early imagination of one of science fiction's most enduring and respected names. “A useful acquisition for any serious SF library or collection.”—Kirkus Reviews “More than anyone else in the field, Mr. Dick really puts you inside people's minds.” —Wall Street Journal

Martian Time-Slip is a 1964 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. The novel uses the common science fiction concept of a human colony on Mars. However, it also includes the themes of mental illness, the physics of time and the dangers of centralized authority. The novel was first published under the title All We Marsmen, serialized in the August, October and December 1963 issues of Worlds of Tomorrow magazine. The subsequent 1964 publication as Martian Time-Slip is virtually identical, with different chapter breaks.

Trouble with water / H.L. Gold -- Nothing in the rules / L. Sprague de Camp -- Fruit of knowledge / C.L. Moore -- Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius / Jorge Luis Borges -- Compleat werewolf / Anthony Boucher -- Small assassin / Ray Bradbury -- [Lottery]( / Shirley Jackson -- Our fair city / Robert A. Heinlein -- There shall be no darkness / James Blish -- Loom of darkness / Jack Vance -- Man who sold rope to the gnoles / Margaret St. Clair -- Silken-swift / Theodore Sturgeon -- Golem / Avram Davidson -- Operation afreet / Poul Anderson -- That hell-bound train / Robert Bloch -- Bazaar of the bizarre / Fritz Leiber -- Come lady death / Peter S. Beagle -- Drowned giant / J.G. Ballard -- Narrow valley / R.A. Lafferty -- Faith of our fathers / Philip K. Dick -- Ghost of a Model T / Clifford D. Simak -- Demoness / Tanith Lee -- Jeffty is five / Harlan Ellison -- Detective of dreams / Gene Wolfe -- Unicorn variations / Roger Zelazny -- Basileus / Robert Silverberg -- Jaguar Hunter / Lucius Shepard -- Buffalo gals, won't you come out tonight / Ursula K. Le Guin -- Bears discover fire / Terry Bisson -- Tower of Babylon / Ted Chiang.

A Maze of Death is a 1970 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. Like many of Dick's novels, it portrays what appears to be a drab and harsh off-world human colony and explores the difference between reality and perception. It is, however, one of his few to examine the human death instinct and capacity for murder and is one of his darkest novels.

The Game-Players of Titan is a 1963 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. Pete Garden, the protagonist, is one of several residents who own large swathes of property in a depopulated, post-apocalyptic future world. These residents are organized in groups of regular competitors who play a board game called "Bluff". These contestants (or "Bindmen") stake their property, marriages and future status as eligible game players on its outcomes. Pete also experiences bipolar disorder, which may adversely affect his competence as a Game participant. The Game is administered by amorphous, silicon-based aliens from Titan, Saturn's largest satellite. These creatures, known as the vugs, are obsessed with gambling. In addition, the Game's exogamy helps to promote human fertility after the devastation of global warfare, after satellite-borne "Henkel Radiation" weaponry from Red China sterilized much of the Earth's population. The vugs exert hegemony over Earth but do not occupy it as such. Instead, it is visualised as a paternalistic relationship. Moreover, while the vugs are telepaths, they do not allow the use of human telepathy or precognition within the context of the Game. The vugs are also involved within human society, using induced hallucination to maintain the semblance of human form. They also perpetuate the charade through the use of physical human shells or simulacra.