The Collected Stories Of Philip K Dick

Includes the stories that inspired the movies Total Recall, Screamers, Minority Report, Paycheck, and Next “More than anyone else in the field, Mr. Dick really puts you inside people’s minds.” —The Wall Street Journal The Philip K. Dick Reader Many thousands of readers consider Philip K. Dick the greatest science fiction mind on any planet. Since his untimely death in 1982, interest in Dick’s works has continued to mount, and his reputation has been further enhanced by a growing body of critical attention. The Philip K. Dick Award is now given annually to a distinguished work of science fiction, and the Philip K. Dick Society is devoted to the study and promulgation of his works. Dick won the prestigious Hugo Award for the best novel of 1963 for The Man in the High Castle. In the last year of his life, the film Blade Runner was made from his novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? This collection includes some of Dick’s earliest short and medium-length fiction, including We Can Remember It for You Wholesale (the story that inspired the motion picture Total Recall), Second Variety (which inspired the motion picture Screamers), Paycheck, The Minority Report, and twenty more.

THE FATHER THING contains the stories written in 1956, just before the publication of Dick's first novel, SOLAR LOTTERY. The stories are a mix of the previously uncollected and some of his most famous pieces such as Foster, You're Dead a powerful extrapolation of nuclear war hysteria, and The Golden Man, a very different story about a super-evolved mutant human.

Imagine a future where crimes can be detected before they are committed, and criminals are convicted and sentenced for crimes before committing them. This is the scenario of Philip K. Dick's classic story, now filmed by Steven Spielberg, starring Tom Cruise. In addition to MINORITY REPORT this exclusive collection includes nine other outstanding short stories by the twentieth century's outstanding SF master, three of which have been made into feature films.

This generous collection contains 22 stories and novellas written in 1953 and 1954, along with extensive and valuable story notes. Included here are a number of bona fide PKD classics, among them the title story, the brilliantly conceived account of a bizarre, ultimately catastrophic resurrection, 'The Father-Thing,' in which a young boy comes to realize that his once familiar father has somehow changed, and 'The Golden Man' (filmed in 2007 as 'Next'), which tells the tale of a golden skinned mutant who may represent the future direction of the human race. These and all the other stories in this important and necessary book offer a wide range of literary and intellectual pleasures. At the same time, they provide a fascinating glimpse into the continuing development of this iconic and hugely influential figure. --amazon.com

Philip K. Dick was one of the masters of science fiction, and his short stories consistently broke new ground. His work has provided the inspiration for many successful films, including BLADE RUNNER, MINORITY REPORT, PAYCHECK and many more. Here are his final short works, including the story which was the inspiration for TOTAL RECALL. Also included is a selection of other astounding tales, often touching on Dick's most important themes. A man remembers killing his wife - but can he trust his memories? If you were to discover that you were an android, what experiments would you perform on yourself? A supercomputer decides to attack Northern California - can it be talked out of doing the job it was designed for? Can history rewrite itself? All of these questions will be asked as you enter the world of Philip K Dick's remarkable imagination.

PAYCHECK, originally written as a short story by Philip K. Dick and first published in 1953, centres on an electrician who wakes up to discover his employer has erased his memory of the past two years -- as a security measure. When he tries to collect his paycheck, he finds he has previously signed a release replacing the money with a bag of random objects. Previous film adaptations of Dick's short stories have included the box office smash hits MINORITY REPORT, TOTAL RECALL and BLADE RUNNER, released shortly after Dick died in 1982.