Search results for ""author philip k. dick""

Philip K Dick’s classic dystopian novel set in the future where the remaining human survivors on Earth must gamble for their future with aliens from Titan, one of the moons circling Saturn. Roaming the pristine landscape of Earth, cared for by machines and aliens, the few remaining humans alive since the war with Titan play Bluff, allowing them to win or lose property and also form new marriages in order to maximise the remote chance some pairings will produce a child. When Pete Garden, a particularly suicidal member of the Pretty Blue Fox game-playing group, loses his current wife and his deed to Berkeley, he stumbles upon a far bigger, more sinister version of the game. The telepathic, slug-like Vugs of Titan are the players and at stake is the Earth itself. The Game-Players of Titan is a brilliantly conceived vision of a future dystopia, full of imaginative detail, moments of pure humour and thought-provoking musings on the nature of perception, as the seemingly straightforward narrative soon turns into a tumultuous nightmare of delusion, precognition and conspiracy.

Read more less

Another classic novel from the world's greatest writer of science fictionJason Taverner is a Six, the result of top secret government experiments forty years before which produced a handful of unnaturally bright and beautiful people ... and he's the prime-time idol of millions until, inexplicably, all record of him is wiped from the data banks of Earth. Suddenly he's a nobody in a police state where nobody is allowed to be a nobody.Will he ever be rich and famous again? Was he, in fact, ever rich and famous?

Read more less

Jason Taverner has a glittering TV career, millions of fans, great wealth and something close to eternal youth. He is one of a handful of brilliant, beautiful people, the product of top-secret government experiments forty years earlier. But suddenly, all records of him vanish. He becomes a man with no identity, in a police state where everyone us closely monitored. Can he ever be rich and famous again? Or was that life just an illusion?

Read more less

The definitive editions of Philip K. Dick's short stories, containing some of the most defining works in the Science Fiction genre.This stunning new edition of Philip K Dick's work includes the influential 'Adjustment Team' and 'The Father Thing', as well as a litany of mind-expanding other works. Work your way through some of the most influential stories from the 20th century, which have had a massive impact on popular culture.'I am bowled over. I am so impressed by the variety in stories, and how interesting the individual story ideas are' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'Philip K. Dick is a master of messing with your head in a story' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'Enter the Mind of a Genius . . . This collection of short stories by Philip K. Dick are great, thought provoking, funny, and some really frightening' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'This blew my mind, and then some. The ideas and concepts alone need five stars. What an amazing man' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Read more less

The definitive editions of Philip K. Dick's short stories, containing some of the most defining works in the Science Fiction genre.This stunning new edition of Philip K Dick's work includes the influential 'Beyond Lies the Wub' and 'Second Variety', as well as a litany of mind-expanding other works. Work your way through some of the most influential stories from the 20th century, which have had a massive impact on popular culture.'One of the most original practitioners writing any kind of fiction' Sunday Times'No other writer of his generation had such a powerful intellectual presence' Brian Aldiss'Thought-provoking,original,deeply moving. HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'Very fun. Classic PKD' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'Wow. Every single story in this book could be made into a contemporary movie' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'Absolutely brilliant . . . Strongly recommend to everyone (even those who normally do not like science fiction)' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Read more less

Nick and his family are forced to leave Earth in order for him to keep his cat, Horace - because all pets are now banned, as they use up badly needed resources. They settle on Plowman's Planet, where they discover a variety of strange and wonderful alien lifeforms.But not all of these weird lifeforms are benevolent - and the family is involved in a series of increasingly dangerous mishaps. Can Horace and Nick manage to outwit the Wub, the Werjes, the Trobes - and the most dangerous of all, the Glimmung?Philip K. Dick's only children's book, first published after his death, brings together many of his most famous alien creations in one gently humorous tale.

Read more less

Joe Fernwright works as a pot-healer, a repairer of ceramics, in a dull future where there isn't much call for his skills. He's broke and bored when the offer from the Glimmung comes along. It might just be the answer to both his financial and spiritual problems, even if it does mean working on a strange project on Plowman's Planet with other assorted odd creatures. The only thing is that the Glimmung may just be divine and ask for more than Joe's commitment to the job ...

Read more less

Another classic novel from the world's greatest writer of science fictionJason Taverner is a Six, the result of top secret government experiments forty years before which produced a handful of unnaturally bright and beautiful people ... and he's the prime-time idol of millions until, inexplicably, all record of him is wiped from the data banks of Earth. Suddenly he's a nobody in a police state where nobody is allowed to be a nobody.Will he ever be rich and famous again? Was he, in fact, ever rich and famous?

Read more less

Bruce Stevens is a young buyer for a big discount house when he meets the recently divorced Susan Faine. She suggests that he might like to manage her ailing typewriter store and he leaps at the suggestion. Then he realizes that Susan was his teacher when he was in fifth grade. In spite of that, they are married within days. And then the odd compulsions and instabilities start to interfere with their plans. Milton Lumky, the paper salesman in whose area they live, is uneasy about their future ...

Read more less

Based on the stories contained in this volume, the ten-part anthology series, Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams is written and executive produced by Emmy-nominated Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica, Outlander) and Michael Dinner (Justified, Masters of Sex), with Oscar nominated Bryan Cranston (Trumbo, Breaking Bad) both executive producing and appearing in the series.Each episode will be a sharp, thrilling standalone drama adapted and contemporised for global audiences by a creative team of British and American writers. The series will both illustrate Philip K. Dick's prophetic vision and celebrate the enduring appeal of the prized Sci-Fi novelist's work. Other guest stars include Janelle Morae, Anna paquin, Timothy Spall and Benedict Wong.The ten stories included are:THE HANGING STANGER, THE COMMUTER, THE FATHER-THING, EXHIBIT PIECE, IMPOSSIBLE PLANET, SALES PITCH, FOSTER YOU'RE DEAD, THE HOOD MAKER, HOLY QUARREL, IF THERE WERE NO BENNY CEMOLI, AUTOFAC and HUMAN IS

Read more less

As the eagerly-anticipated new film Blade Runner 2049 finally comes to the screen, rediscover the world of Blade Runner . . . World War Terminus had left the Earth devastated. Through its ruins, bounty hunter Rick Deckard stalked, in search of the renegade replicants who were his prey. When he wasn't 'retiring' them with his laser weapon, he dreamed of owning a live animal - the ultimate status symbol in a world all but bereft of animal life. Then Rick got his chance: the assignment to kill six Nexus-6 targets, for a huge reward. But in Deckard's world things were never that simple, and his assignment quickly turned into a nightmare kaleidoscope of subterfuge and deceit - and the threat of death for the hunter, rather than the hunted . . .

Read more less

Glen Runciter está muerto. O lo están todos los demás? Lo que es seguro es que alguien ha muerto en una explosión organizada por los competidores de Runciter. De hecho, sus empleados asisten a un funeral. Pero durante el duelo comienzan a recibir mensajes desconcertantes, e incluso morbosos, de su jefe. Y el mundo a su alrededor comienza a desmoronarse de un modo que sugiere que a ellos tampoco les queda mucho tiempo.Esta mordaz comedia metafísica de muerte y salvación (que podrá llevar en un cómodo envase) es un tour de force de amenaza paranoica y comedia absurda, en el cual los muertos ofrecen consejos comerciales, compran su siguiente reencarnación y corren el riesgo continuo de volver a morir.

Read more less

Policías y criminales han sido siempre las dos caras de una misma moneda, pero ningún novelista ha sabido explorar esta perversa simbiosis como Philip K. Dick. Fred es el agente de policía encargado de investigar y detener a Bob Arctor, peligroso traficante de la adictiva y letal Sustancia D.Para ello Fred se adentra en un mundo donde resulta difícil diferenciar la realidad de los sueños y se sumerge en un juego perverso con Bob, en el que será a la vez cazador y presa, hasta que la pesadilla culmina con un sorprendente enfrentamiento final entre el policía y el traficante.Cáusticamente divertida e inquietantemente certera en la descripción de yonquis, colgados, traficantes, buscavidas y policías, quizás sea la novela sobre drogas más desconcertante jamás escrita. El director Richard Linklater la llevó a la gran pantalla en 2006.Sobre la portada: Los protagonistas son las drogas y la paranoia, así que se escogió como motivo central la flor azul de donde se extrae la Sustancia,

Read more less

The science fiction masterpiece behind the cult classic films Bladerunner and Bladerunner 2049.World War Terminus had left the Earth devastated. Through its ruins, bounty hunter Rick Deckard stalked, in search of the renegade replicants who were his prey. When he wasn't 'retiring' them with his laser weapon,he dreamed of owning a live animal - the ultimate status symbol in a world all but bereft of animal life.Then Rick got his chance: the assignment to kill six Nexus-6 targets, for a huge reward. But in Deckard's world things were never that simple, and his assignment quickly turned into a nightmare kaleidoscope of subterfuge and deceit - and the threat of death for the hunter rather than the hunted ...Readers have been blown away by Philip K. Dick:'Now I understand what all the fuss is about. The guy is a visionary . . . Every paragraph launches us forward, demands our attention . . . a classic example of the finest science fiction' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'Probably my favourite Philip K. Dick book . . . set in a dystopian Earth much dilapidated after 'World War Terminus' . . . I cannot praise this book enough, it really is one of the all-time greats' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'A science fiction masterpiece . . . about a post-apocalyptic world seeking resurrection through the rediscovery of empathy. But who is more empathetic - humans or androids? What is the dividing line? The book constantly explores how far human ideas of life, death, religion and love could survive in a dark uncaring world' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'I thought this was great and original . . . The Earth has become barely habitable due to nuclear winter, radiation and depopulation . . . a really cool story and I think only PKD could have written something of this style. I would recommend this . . . if you liked the Blade Runner movies' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Read more less

Philip K Dick’s visionary forerunner to the novel ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ that became the film Bladerunner, tells the story of Louis Rosen and his love for the daughter of his business partner and the truth about where his life-like androids might end up… Making an animatronic replica of Abraham Lincoln has never been easier. Finding someone to buy it is the hard part. Louis Rosen’s firm, the Frauenzimmer Piano Company, builds electronic organs and upright pianos. Deciding to expand the business the firm get ambitious, building exact reconstructions of famous personalities. Sam K. Barrows, a lunar real estate tycoon wants to repopulate the moon with their creations, and he’s the only one rich enough to buy them. As the Lincoln model develops a fault and Rosen begins to fall for the daughter of his business partner, things go from bad to worse and his mental health rapidly begins to deteriorate. ‘We Can Build You’ bears striking similarities in Dick’s later novel ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ which was later transformed into Ridley Scott’s extraordinary science fiction film classic ‘Bladerunner’.

Read more less

Jack Isidore is a 'crap artist', a collector of crackpot ideas and worthless objects. His beliefs make him a man apparently unsuited for real life and so his sister, an edgy and aggressive woman, and his brother-in-law, a crass and foul-mouthed businessman, feel compelled to rescue him from it. But, observed through Jack's murderously innocent gaze, Fay and Charley Hume are seen to be just as obsessed as Jack. Their obsessions may be a little more acceptable than Jack's but they are uglier. And, in the end and thanks to Jack's intervention, theirs lead to tragedy ...

Read more less

No man in their rightful mind would kill their wife miles from home. Chuck Rittersdorf has recruited some robot help, and now, in the madness and dysfunction of the Alphane moon, there seems no better place to carry out his cruel plans unless he too is part of a much larger conspiracy. Alpha Centauri, a star within the closest star system to earth, has several orbiting moons, among which is Alpha III M2. On this remote moon, a colony, originally set up to provide respite for the mentally ill is about to become the focus of a secret invasion plan. Among them is Chuck Rittersdorf, a 21st century CIA robot programmer, who has decided to kill his own wife via a remote control simulacrum. He enlists the aid of a telepathic Ganymedean slime mould called Lord Running Clam, an attractive female police officer and various others both witting and unwitting. But when Chuck finds himself in the midst of an interplanetary spy ring on the Alphane moon inhabited entirely by certified maniacs, his personal revenge plans begin to awry as the nature of reality itself is called into question in this brilliantly inventive tale of interstellar madness, murder and violence.

Read more less

It began with a blinding light, a divine revelation from a mysterious intelligence that called itself VALIS (Vast Active Living Intelligence System). And with that, the fabric of reality was torn apart and laid bare so that anything seemed possible, but nothing seemed quite right. It was madness, pure and simple. But what if it were true?

Read more less

The definitive editions of Philip K. Dick's short stories, containing some of the most defining works in the Science Fiction genre.This stunning new edition of Philip K Dick's work includes the influential 'We Can Remember It For You Wholesale' and 'The Electric Ant', as well as a litany of mind-expanding other works. Work your way through some of the most influential stories from the 20th century, which have had a massive impact on popular culture.'A great collection, showcasing Dick's evolution' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'my reason for giving the book a five-star rating has to do with my emotional state I felt when I closed the last page. I feel that I delved into a more extensive realm of PKD's mind by reading this collection' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'An amazing collection of downright bizarre fiction. So many excellent stories that it would be hard to pick a favorite' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Read more less

A masterwork by Philip K. Dick, this is the final, expanded version of the novellla THE UNTELEPORTED MAN, which Dick worked on shortly before his death. In LIES, INC., fans of the science fiction legend will immediately recognise his hallmark themes of life in a security state, conspiracy, and the blurring of reality and illusion. In this wry, paranoid vision of the future, overpopulation has turned cities into crammed industrial anthills. For those sick of this dystopian reality, one corporation, Trails of Hoffman, Inc., promises an alternative: Take a teleport to Whale's Mouth, a colonized planet billed as the supreme paradise. The only catch is that you can never come back. When a neurotic man named Rachmael ben Applebaum discovers that the promotional films of happy crowds cheering their newfound existence on Whale's Mouth are faked, he decides to pilot a spaceship on the 18-year journey there to see if anyone wants to return.

Read more less

Four people's lives intertwine and collide in this early novel from one of the SF greatsSan Francisco in the 1950s, a turning point in American culture: the rise of rock and roll and the teenage lifestyle. Jim Briskin is a disc jockey on radio KOIF. He's still in love with his ex-wife, Pat - even though she's about to marry someone else at the station - and she's vacillating between them. But when he takes her to visit the desperate household of two of his teenage fans, she seduces the boy into abandoning his pregnant wife - who then claims Jim as her protector and support.And all around them the cultural upheaval of postwar American society is manifest, by teenage outcasts who have a remote-controlled Nazi automobile they use to bump into the rich kids' cars; by Thisbe Holt, the dancer who performs for conventioneers by stuffing herself inside a clear plastic bubble; by blaring used-car ads and the conflict between generations. Dick gives us a vision of redemption tempered with layered ironies and a lot of real humour.

Read more less

As the Communists advance, a small group of Americans trapped in a Chinese factory must learn to work together in this early novel from Philip K. DickThree American workers are left behind in China by their employer, biding their time in an abandoned factory as the communists approach. As they while away the days, both the young and naive Carl Fitter and the older, worldly Verne Tildon vie for the affections of Barbara Mahler, a woman who may not be as tough as she acts.But Carl's innocence and Verne's boorishness might drive Barbara away from both of them ...This early novel by Dick, unpublished in his lifetime, is a remarkable insight into his future works.

Read more less

One of Dick's earliest books but his last to be published, this is the story of one man's descent into depression and madness - and his escape to the other sideStuart Hadley is a young radio electronics salesman in early 1950s Oakland, California. He has what many would consider the ideal life. He has a nice house, a pretty wife, a decent job with prospects for advancement - but he still feels unfulfilled. Something is missing from his life.Hadley is also an angry young man - an artist, a dreamer, a screw-up. He tries to fill his void first with drinking, then sex, and then with religious fanaticism, but nothing seems to be working and it is driving him crazy. He reacts to the love of his wife and the kindness of his employer with anxiety and fear.Is there anything that can bring him back to the world?Winner of both the HUGO and JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARDs for BEST NOVEL, Philip K. Dick is widely regarded as the premiere science fiction writer of his day. The object of cult-like adoration from his legions of fans, he has come to be seen in a literary light that defies classification in much the same way as Borges and Calvino. With breathtaking insight, he utilizes vividly unfamiliar worlds to evoke the hauntingly and hilariously familiar in our society and ourselves.

Read more less

Five of Philip K. Dick's best novels in one fantastic value volume: the best of SF's visionary masterThis volume contains DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? (filmed as BLADERUNNER), MARTIAN TIME SLIP, UBIK, THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH and A SCANNER DARKLY. Taken together they represent the best of Philip K. Dick's unique imagination. In Dick's writing nothing is what it seems, our sense of the world's order is fatally undermined and mass media tells us nothing but artful lies. Films such as THE MATRIX and THE TRUMAN SHOW would not have been made but for Philip K. Dick. His work has never been more timely.

Read more less

World War Terminus devastated the Earth. Through its ruins, bounty hunter Rick Deckard searches for the renegade replicants he is sent to 'retire', while he dreams of owning a live animal - the ultimate status symbol in a world all but bereft of natural life. The opportunity of a lifetime: kill six Nexus-6 targets, for a huge reward. But in Deckard's world things aren't that simple, and his assignment turns into a nightmare kaleidoscope of subterfuge and deceit - and the hunter becomes the hunted . . . Voted in a Locus poll as one of the 100 pre-1990 SF Novels, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep spawned two blockbuster movies. Philip K. Dick won multiple awards for his works, examining human identity, psychology, conspiracy and paranoia, challenging the idea of objective truth in a manner that remains relevant today.'A masterclass in sci-fi wonderment' - Empire'One of the most original practitioners writing any kind of fiction' - The Sunday Times Welcome to The Best Of The Masterworks: a selection of the finest in science fiction

Read more less

A masterly tale of political deception from the most significant writer of SF in the 20th centuryWorld War III is raging - or so the millions of people crammed in their underground tanks believe. For fiteen years, subterranean humanity has been fed on daily broadcasts of a never-ending nuclear destruction, sustained by a belief in the all powerful Protector. Now someone has gone to the surface and found no destruction, no war. The authorities have been telling a massive lie. Now the search begins to find out why.

Read more less

In the overcrowded world and cramped space colonies of the late 21st century, tedium can be endured through the use of the drug Can-D, which enables the user to inhabit a shared illusory world. When industrialist Palmer Eldritch returns from an interstellar trip, he brings with him a new drug, Chew-Z, which is far more potent than Can-D, but threatens to plunge the world into a permanent state of drugged illusion controlled by the mysterious Eldritch.THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH is, by universal consent, one of his three key novels, and the book in which he first took his perennial interest in the fragile nature of reality to a new level of imaginative intensity.

Read more less

Glen Runciter está muerto. O lo están todos los demás? Lo que es seguro es que alguien ha muerto en una explosión organizada por los competidores de Runciter. De hecho, sus empleados asisten a un funeral. Pero durante el duelo comienzan a recibir mensajes desconcertantes, e incluso morbosos, de su jefe.Y el mundo a su alrededor comienza a desmoronarse de un modo que sugiere que a ellos tampoco les queda mucho tiempo.Esta mordaz comedia metafísica de muerte y salvación (que podrá llevar en un cómodo envase) es un tour de force de amenaza paranoica y comedia absurda, en la cual los muertos ofrecen consejos comerciales, compran su siguiente reencarnación y corren el riesgo continuo de volver a morir.

Read more less