- Title:
- The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Volume 3: The Father-Thing
- By:
- Philip K. Dick
- Pages:
- 376
- Rating:
- 3
A fitting tribute to a great philosophical writer who found science fiction the ideal form for the expression of his ideas – The Independent
The third volume of the definitive five-book set of the complete collected stories of the twentieth century’s greatest sf author; twenty-three tales which were written in little more than a year, before Philip K. Dick’s first novel, Solar Lottery, was published in 1956. Many of these stories are previously uncollected, but also included here are some of Dick’s most famous pieces, like 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.
This is a brilliant collection vividlly displaying some of the best of Dick’s originality, quirky-humour and overflowing ideas.
One of the most original practitioners writing any kind of fiction. Philip K. Dick made most of the European avant-garde seem navel-gazers in a cul-de-sac – Sunday Times
A stunning composite portrait of our times – The Observer
The most consitently brilliant SF writer in the world… author of more good short stories than I can count – John Brunner
Volume 3/5. Includes stories from 1953-1959:
– Fair Game
– The Hanging Stranger
– The Eyes Have It
– The Golden Man
– The Turning Wheel
– The Last of the Masters
– The Father-Thing
– Strange Eden
– Tony and the Beetles
– Null-O
– To Serve the Master
– Exhibit Piece
– The Crawlers
– Sales Pitch
– Shell Game
– Upon the Dull Earth
– Foster, You’re Dead
– Pay for the Printer
– War Veteran
– The Chromium Fence
– Misadjustment
– A World of Talent
– Psi-Man Heal My Child!
Other editions of this volume are titled:
– Second Variety [by Citadel],
– Second Variety and Other Classic Stories [by Citadel],
– Upon the Dull Earth,
– Upon the Dull Earth and Other Stories
Editions published by Citadel include “Second Variety” into Volume 3, whereas other editions had it in Volume 2.
Some of my favourites of this volume are The Hanging Stranger (another great foreshadowed ending), The Eyes have It (because it’s just silly), The Golden man (even if the end is a little scary) and Sales Pitch.
However, top-billing has to go to War Veteran! Grand writing.