A Big Book of Sci Fi Stories
A friend lent me The Philip K. Dick Reader some time ago, and I've finally finished all 24 short stories it contains. I rather like collections of short stories, they give a good variety of an author's writing, they are easy to put down and pick up again later and because they're short the story doesn't drag.
This collection of science fiction includes four that serve as a basis for movies including the Minority Report and Total Recall. These come at the end of the collection and I actually read them first. I think they are a bit more polished, or maybe less strange and easier to follow is a better way to put it.
I enjoyed all the stories in the Reader. Most are rather gloomy pictures of a future earth destroyed by war or machines. Often there is a hero of sorts who is clever, resourceful and often subverting the establishment. A lot of the stories have a twist ending and are often thought provoking. There are a couple amusing stories in the mix too. I liked one called Shell Game about a planet of ship wrecked paranoids. Maybe not an original idea but the telling of it is so good.
The storytelling is what makes Dick's stories so enjoyable to read. His tales move at a fast pace and are thought provoking without sounding pedantic. One of the things I like about science fiction is reading others views of what the future will hold, both in terms of social concepts and new technology. In one story a person far in the future is taking photographs, though the camera is small and flat it still uses film that needs to be developed which amused me quite a bit.
When you think about it next year will be 2010 why don't we all have flying cars and robots to do the dishes yet?
This collection of science fiction includes four that serve as a basis for movies including the Minority Report and Total Recall. These come at the end of the collection and I actually read them first. I think they are a bit more polished, or maybe less strange and easier to follow is a better way to put it.
I enjoyed all the stories in the Reader. Most are rather gloomy pictures of a future earth destroyed by war or machines. Often there is a hero of sorts who is clever, resourceful and often subverting the establishment. A lot of the stories have a twist ending and are often thought provoking. There are a couple amusing stories in the mix too. I liked one called Shell Game about a planet of ship wrecked paranoids. Maybe not an original idea but the telling of it is so good.
The storytelling is what makes Dick's stories so enjoyable to read. His tales move at a fast pace and are thought provoking without sounding pedantic. One of the things I like about science fiction is reading others views of what the future will hold, both in terms of social concepts and new technology. In one story a person far in the future is taking photographs, though the camera is small and flat it still uses film that needs to be developed which amused me quite a bit.
When you think about it next year will be 2010 why don't we all have flying cars and robots to do the dishes yet?
Labels: books
| 22:07
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home