Early Stories of Philip K. Dick
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The Variable Man
by Philip K. Dick
Part of the Early Stories of Philip K. Dick series
In The Variable Man, Earth (The Terran System) is in a cold war with the older, corrupt Centaurian System, suppresses Terra from exploring space and expanding its borders. When a devastating new weapon called Icarus is developed by Terra, everyone expects the odds to tip in Terra's favor. But the computers calculating these odds find an unknown variable that throws off the odds. A time traveler from 1913, known as Thomas Cole has arrived. Can this variable man from the past rescue mankind from a catastrophic future?
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The Eyes Have It
by Philip K. Dick
Part of the Early Stories of Philip K. Dick series
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.
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The Hanging Stranger
by Philip K. Dick
Part of the Early Stories of Philip K. Dick series
In The Hanging Stranger, TV salesman Ed Loyce is a practical man who, when he sees something wrong tries to correct it. Then one day he sees a lifeless body hanging in the town square. What he can't figure out is, why nobody seems to care.
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Mr. Spaceship
by Philip K. Dick
Part of the Early Stories of Philip K. Dick series
In Mr. Spaceship, humans in the distant future are at war with alien life forms known as Yuks. Using outdated, mechanical machines to wage war against the life-based weapons of the advanced Yuks, a research team decides to build a spaceship powered by a human brain. Enlisting a dying professor who agrees to donate his brain to the project, the humans believe they have turned the tables on the Yuks. But the spaceship has other plans.
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(13)
Beyond Lies the Wub
by Philip K. Dick
Part of the Early Stories of Philip K. Dick series
In Beyond Lies the Wub, the crew of a spaceship buys a wub, a large pig-like animal from a native Martian to eat on the way home. The Wub turns out to be a sentient being capable of intelligent conversation, empathy, and possibly telepathy and mind control. When a crew member converses with the remarkable Wub, the captain makes a rash and violent decision that could put the return mission in danger.
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The Gun
by Philip K. Dick
Part of the Early Stories of Philip K. Dick series
In The Gun, a group of space explorers are shot down above a deserted planet. While some of the crew work on repairing the ship, the remainder set out to investigate the planet. Otherwise unpopulated, they discover the huge gun that shot them down sitting atop a trove of cultural artifacts from a bygone civilization. What harm could come of dismantling the gun and taking a few of the artifacts home with them?
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(5)
Piper in the Woods
by Philip K. Dick
Part of the Early Stories of Philip K. Dick series
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.
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(13)
The Skull
by Philip K. Dick
Part of the Early Stories of Philip K. Dick series
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.
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(4)
The Crystal Crypt
by Philip K. Dick
Part of the Early Stories of Philip K. Dick series
In The Crystal Crypt, Earth and Mars are poised on the verge of war. On the last spaceship to leave Mars for Earth, law enforcement officials are looking for three fugitives who somehow made a great Martian city disappear. Unable to find the perpetrators, the officials allow the ship to disembark for Earth. A businessman named Thacher strikes up a conversation with a young woman and two men who reveal a very interesting secret to him about the mysterious case.
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Beyond the Door
by Philip K. Dick
Part of the Early Stories of Philip K. Dick series
In Beyond the Door, a man buys a cuckoo clock for his wife who has always wanted one. When he catches her cheating on him, the man throws his wife out of the house with her lover. Though he never really cared for the clock, he keeps winding it because he dislikes the silence. But the cuckoo clock, who preferred the wife's company, begins to plot against its owner.
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(13)
Second Variety
by Philip K. Dick
Part of the Early Stories of Philip K. Dick series
In Second Variety, UN forces have retreated to a moon base in the aftermath of early Soviet victories in a nuclear conflict. In response, the UN forces developed special robots, called Claws, which feature spinning blades and rudimentary artificial intelligence. Six years later, the Soviet leadership asks for negotiations to end the war. A UN officer travels back to earth to discover that not only have the Claws learned to replicate themselves, they have also created a much deadlier cyborg that threatens humanity itself. The inspiration for the movie Screamers.
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The Defenders
by Philip K. Dick
Part of the Early Stories of Philip K. Dick series
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.
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(2)
Tony and the Beetles
by Philip K. Dick
Part of the Early Stories of Philip K. Dick series
In Tony and the Beetles, ten-year old Tony Rossi, an Earthman growing up on Betelgeuse, becomes aware that the natives, known as the Pas-Udeti, are driving out the Earthmen colonists on nearby Orion. His father, a staunch believer in the superiority of Earthmen, describes Tony's native friends as Beetles. A trip into town to meet his native friends leads to awkward encounters with a Pas-Udeti cab driver and a fellow bus passenger. When his newly aggressive Pas-Udeti friends rebuke him, Tony realizes that being born in a place doesn't necessarily mean you are welcome there.
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