Showing results by author "Philip K. Dick" in All Categories

Nella città di Los Angeles una nuova droga, chiamata "Sostanza M", semina follia e devastazione. Nessuno sa cosa contenga, da dove provenga o chi la stia vendendo. Ma sono in tantissimi a usarla. Uno di loro è Bob Arctor, le cui giornate trascorrono tra sballi, incubi, conversazioni assurde con i suoi amici tossici, avventure tragicomiche. Bob è in realtà un agente della Narcotici infiltrato, anche se nessuno sa della sua doppia vita. Quando deve riferire ai superiori, indossa una tuta disindividuante, in modo che neanche i colleghi possano riconoscerlo, e diventa l'agente Fred.

"Survey Team" is the story of two planets, first published in Fantastic Universe (May 1954). "Survey Team" tells of a designated four man group of space travelers chosen to find another planet on which humankind can survive., since the once good green earth has been all but destroyed, rendered uninhabitable by nuclear war. The few remaining humans live miles beneath the surface, their resources depleted, their survival only a matter of time. Could Mars be the place they are looking for? The "survey team" has been chosen to find out.

Was wäre, wenn die Achsenmächte den Zweiten Weltkrieg gewonnen hätten? Und sich Hitler mit Japan die USA geteilt hätte? Die Grenze durch die Rocky Mountains verliefe, wo es neutrale Pufferstaaten gäbe? Und dort ein "Orakel vom Berge"? Vor dieser Unwirklichkeit flüchten die Menschen in ein Buch über die "Heuschrecken", in der die Welt so dargestellt wird, wie sie eher unserer Wirklichkeit gleicht - aber nur fast, oder ist es wirklich ganz anders herum?

This collection of five stories from early in his career casts a spotlight on Dick’s incredible imagination. In "Second Variety", robot warriors appear to have given one side the advantage in a devastating war. But a small band of soldiers begins to question just what the robots’ endgame truly is. In "Beyond Lies the Wub", a member of a spaceship’s crew buys a Wub ("a huge dirty pig!") for 50 cents, thinking it might be a good source of meat for the long journey home. Then the Wub speaks....

Dans Ubik, Philip K. Dick réunit tous les grands thèmes de la SF : la télépathie, le voyage dans le temps, la porosité entre le monde des vivants et celui des morts, et le développement des machines automatiques. Joe Chip, spécialisé dans la traque des télépathes, est envoyé sur la Lune avec d'autres agents pour neutraliser une autre équipe qui pourrait nuire à leur intérêt. Ce voyage sera-t-il irréversible ?

Eons after the last nuclear war, humans have become the inferior race. Cities have become segregated, and robots rule the world. The robots did have a sense of justice, though. If a human could score high enough on an annual test, he could move up in society. There was a catch, though. The test was so slanted toward robot mentality and knowledge, a human didn't have a chance. Then James P. Crow (Not his real name.) arrives on the scene with his window that sees into the past and the future.

Twenty-four of the greatest science fiction stories of all time in this fourth sci-fi short story collection, including works by Jerry Dunham, Emmett Dowell, James Causey, Gordon Randall Garrett, James A. Cox, Phyllis Sterling Smith, Richard A. Sternbach, Robert Sheckley, E. G. Von Wald, Keith Laumer, Jerome Bixby, Frederik Pohl, Roger Dee, Arnold Marmore, James H. Schmitz, Lester del Rey, Cordwainer Smith, Ray Bradbury, and Philip K. Dick.

The Crawlers is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick. Submitted under the title Foundling Home, it was first published as The Crawlers in Imagination magazine, July 1954. The story starts out from the point of view of a crawler constructing one of its curious hives. The crawler seems sentient and to genuinely enjoy building its odd dwelling. The story is set in a small Midwestern town, with references later in the story to mysterious "pools" which seem to cause mutations.

When a repairman accidentally discovers a parallel universe, everyone sees it as an opportunity, whether as a way to ease Earth's overcrowding, set up a personal kingdom, or hide an inconvenient mistress. But when a civilization is found already living there, the people on this side of the crack are sent scrambling to discover their motives.

"Meddler" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was first published in Future Science Fiction, October 1954 with illustration by Virgil Finlay. The technology called "The Dip" is used by historians to observe and study historical phenomenon. Wood is showing Hasten a new version of the Dip that can look into the future. Hastern is horrified by this. Not only is it illegal to Dip into the future, it is extremely dangerous. Anything from the future brought into the present has the potential to radically alter future event.

"Human Is" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was first published in Startling Stories, Winter 1955. The plot centers on the crisis facing a woman whose cold and emotionally abusive husband returns from a survey mission to the dying planet Rexor IV, changed for the better—his psyche was replaced by a Rexorian, glad to have escaped the confines of its dying planet. The story was adapted by Jessica Mecklenburg for an episode of the 2017 TV series, Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams.

"Of Withered Apples" was first published in Cosmos Science Fiction and Fantasy (July 1954). An apple tree mentally controls a woman in order to live... The story is simple enough on the surface (and perhaps a little too gimmicky in its ending), but what sticks with the reader is the woman's profound frustration, the comic dull stupidity of her husband and father-in-law, and the way nature itself calls, through her many manifestations, to the unquellable sensuality in all of us.

"Beyond Lies the Wub" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was his first published genre story, originally appearing in Planet Stories in July 1952. It was first collected in The Preserving Machine in 1969, and was included in The Best of Philip K. Dick in 1977. It was the title story for the first volume of the original edition of Dick's collected stories. Translations of "Beyond Lies the Wub" have appeared in Dutch, French, German, Italian, Polish and Spanish; and the story has been included in more than a dozen anthologies.

Sci Fi Shorts is a collection of classic science fiction stories from the golden age of space stories. This group of four unabridged short stories by various authors covers such adventures as invading technological hordes, superweapons on the moon, meteors with strange powers, and robot armies waging war on mankind.

"Souvenir" was published in Fantastic Universe in October 1954. The robot pilot informs Rogers that they have finally reached Williamson's World. Williamson's World was settled by Frank Williamson in the first attempt to establish a Terran colony outside of the solar system. No future evidence of his colony was found and it was presumed lost and it remained so for three hundred years. Rogers meets a young man after landing who assumes immediately he is from the Galactic Relay Center. He identifies himself as Gene Williamson (the great-great-great-great-grandson of Frank Williamson).

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.

"Tony and the Beetles" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in 1953. The story is told from the point of view of a young boy, Tony, living on an alien world that humans have conquered. The native species are beetle like creatures called the Pas-udenti, some of whom Tony has befriended. He loses his innocence when they turn against him after news reaches the planet that the war has turned against the humans. A Ten-Year-Old Boy Grows Up Fast When History Catches Up With The Human Race.

"The Gun" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in 1952 September issue of Planet Stories, and later published in Beyond Lies the Wub in 1984. "The Gun" has been published in Italian, German, French and Polish translations. The plot centers around a group of space explorers who investigate a planet which appears deserted. However, they are shot down and crash land on the planet. While repairing their ship, a team of explorers sets to survey the surrounding area, where they discover the ruins of an ancient city.

"The Hanging Stranger" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick, originally published in December 1953 in the magazine Science Fiction Adventures. The protagonist, Ed Loyce, is a store owner who is disturbed when he sees a stranger hanging from a lamppost, but finds that other people consider the apparent lynching unremarkable.

Odissea nello spazio, viaggio attraverso lo specchio, sfida alla realtà e ai suoi simulacri, all'identità e al potere che vuole plasmarla, questo libro mostra il percorso che conduce a una sia pur provvisoria verità come tortuoso e difficile. E nella narrativa dickiana non esiste un intervento divino che salvi Rachmael dalla falsa utopia di Bocca di Balena, come un novello Giona. Ma almeno, il fatto che il protagonista si ponga la domanda su quale sia la via della conoscenza – What way? – 'implica che una risposta, seppure parziale o insoddisfacente, possa ancora esistere.'