Beyond Lies The Wub: Volume One Of The Collected Stories - Softcover

Dick, Philip K

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1857988795 ISBN 13: 9781857988796

Publisher: Gollancz, 1999

Synopsis

A matchless display of Philip K. Dick's quirky, humorous, idiosyncratically philosophical world view. With one exception, all the stories of this volume were written over a nine-month period between 1951 and 1952, when Dick was making his first impact as a writer.

About this title

Review:

Though best known for Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the source of the classic SF film Blade Runner, for four decades in dozens of stories and novels Philip K. Dick turned into poetic prose the metaphysical doubt and surreal zeitgeist of the late 20th century. This volume, the first of five, finds him at the beginning of his career, just starting to develop the themes which would make him one of the most important writers of the latter half of the century. The 25 stories come with a forward by the author, an introduction by Roger Zelazny, who co-wrote Deus Irae with Dick, and six pages of informative notes. From the previously unpublished "Stability" (1947) to "Nanny" (1952), these are science-fiction stories, fantasies, unique gimmicks and oddities. "Roog" is a dog's-eye view of refuge collectors, "The Preserving Machine" a chill allegory on the nature of change, while the title story concerns a psychic Martian with a remarkable survival mechanism.

Inevitably some of the SF elements have dated, but it doesn't matter: Dick wasn't predicting the future, but shining a bright, sometimes mordant light on the baffling nature of reality. These stories still dazzle because they are mind-bendingly inventive, quirkily humorous, filled with original and startling ideas. Dick, who said he wrote about "The shock of dysrecognition", was a true original, a writer who expanded to possibilities of fiction. This collection is essential reading for anyone who wants to stretch the horizons of their universe. --Gary S. Dalkin

Book Description:

The first volume of the complete stories of the twentieth century's greatest SF author.

About this edition

• Publisher: Gollancz
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1857988795
• ISBN 13: 9781857988796
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416