Philip K. Dick

[OrwellwasRight]

Why didn’t somebody turn me on to this guy when I was in high school? That’s when I became a life long fan of Vonnegut and Orwell. Started Le Guin in middle school, too! I also dabbled Huxley and Bradbury in high school. Someone recommended Heinlein to me after college (Blech!). But nobody ever said you gotta go read this great social commentary sci fi by Dick and there is loads of it out there. I just ready The Penultimate Truth and it is so relevant—and there are like 30 more books to read.

That is all.

[patphil]

1. He was a major player in the Sci Fi expansion of the 50's through the 70's

Last edited Mon Oct 13, 2025, 06:32 PM - Edit history (1)

I read several of his books. I considered him the equal of people like Bradbury, Asimov, and Heinlein.
Oh yes, also Arthur Clarke.

[OrwellwasRight]

11. There are so many Dick books.

Which would you most recommend?

I know many of his stories have been made into films and even a TV show, but many of them do not emphasize the social commentary aspects, but rather are more action oriented.

Where should I start if I’m interested in the commentary heavy stories?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. Put Ellison on your list. Heinlein predicted the world you are living in better than anyone alive or dead.

Decades ago Heinlein predicted skin-tight fashions, widespread photovoltaic power, self-driving cars, evangelical dictator president of the US, common-place acceptance of homosexualism and transgenderism (which exists today despite backward looking maga revisionism), and commercial space travel. However, like all futurists, he has more failed predictions than successful.

All laid out with compelling yarn spinning. He has his flaws as a writer (multiple) but Heinlein is the most influential science fiction writer of all time.

Orwell's reputation rests on one spectacular book of science fiction and one iconic animal fable. He does have many top shelf essays but they are not widely read.

Bradbury is very lyrical, poetry disguised as prose. Le Guin has sociological insights nobody has come close to.

If you like Dick, you need to get deep into Harlan Ellison.

The Year's Best Science Fiction series edited by Gardner Dozois is well worth reading, all 35 years up to 2018, for modern cutting edge short stories and longer form short fiction.

[Pluvious]

6. I recall Heinlein's Moon Is A Harsh Mistress...

Which was written in the 50's iirc, had a talking AI managing the Moon base

Like Author Clark (who thought up original ideas like an orbital satellite and space elevators) had a very creative mind

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. Yes. 1966, a time when computers were rooms you walked into.

In the MIAHM, set in 2076, the computer (Mike) was still a room, but quite intelligent.

Today in 2026 (three months shy), our generative AIs that simulate intelligence (but don't have it yet) are very large rooms you walk into ("data centers" ).

[Pluvious]

9. Ah right, only a decade off lol

At the rate we're advancing AI, quantum computing and robotics, we'll be seeing sentient positronic robots working as nannies and firefighters in the next decade !

[OrwellwasRight]

13. The Heinlein I read was Stranger in a Strange Land

To me, it seemed written by someone obsessed with sex, and it used sex as to pretend it was a “deep” novel but it wasn’t really deep at all. It was not to my taste. I was just disappointed. If this is what passes as a sci fi masterpiece, give me 1984 and Cat’s Cradle any day of the week. Maybe he’s got something less sexist and sex-obsessed out there, but until then, I’ll stick other authors.

[OrwellwasRight]

10. Thanks for the recommendation!

Any book in particular to start with?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

12. Dangerous Visions is a collection that he edited which has one of his

The book is very much in his mindset and kind of PKDickian. It was a very influential collection and a mind-bending read.

[OrwellwasRight]

14. Thanks! Nt

[rsdsharp]

3. Your "Blech" author helped Dick -- a stranger -- when he was ill, and even loaned him money.

In the introduction to the 1980 short story collection The Golden Man, Dick wrote: "Several years ago, when I was ill, Heinlein offered his help, anything he could do, and we had never met; he would phone me to cheer me up and see how I was doing. He wanted to buy me an electric typewriter, God bless him—one of the few true gentlemen in this world. I don't agree with any ideas he puts forth in his writing, but that is neither here nor there. One time when I owed the IRS a lot of money and couldn't raise it, Heinlein loaned the money to me. I think a great deal of him and his wife; I dedicated a book to them in appreciation. Robert Heinlein is a fine-looking man, very impressive and very military in stance; you can tell he has a military background, even to the haircut. He knows I'm a flipped-out freak and still he helped me and my wife when we were in trouble. That is the best in humanity, there; that is who and what I love."

[OrwellwasRight]

15. Proof that people can be great humans

Even when you disagree with their ideas. A far cry from today’s U.S. culture in which people who disagree with us call us evil and vile and dehumanize us.

[byronius]

4. PK Dick and Ellison have been my staples since high school.

I was in a band formed of people who all loved Dick. My attorney son has now read his entire catalog.

Ellison is my personal favorite. And I still love Heinlein very much.

[OrwellwasRight]

16. Thanks! Nt

[EverHopeful]

5. If you use kindle, there's a great collection of 20 of his stories

It's called Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick.

[OrwellwasRight]

17. I don't use kindle, but thanks.

I try to patronize used books stores and libraries whenever possible. I will take a look for it in any case!

[Pluvious]

8. If you can, watch the series...

"Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams"
( maybe available on YouTube iirc )

Trailer here:
https://www.amazon.com/Philip-K-Dicks-Electric-Dreams/dp/B089VMBBKH

JFYI

An online community for followers of Philip K. Dick, old and new, along with the promotion of his work and the sharing of information, text, audio or visual that pertains to his life, his work and his legacy. Includes news, articles, criticism, interviews, biography, synopses of major works, reviews, links, and much more.

https://philipdick.com/

I think you also would greatly enjoy Blindsight by Peter Watts
He reminds me a lot of PKD

[OrwellwasRight]

18. Thanks!!

I definitely will check both out!

[Pluvious]

19. I just remembered...

There was a movie made of his story A Scanner Darkly

It was super trippy, in particular because they chose to use a special effects film technique called Roto scoping

I can't remember it very well, but I remember how it made me feel

[OrwellwasRight]

20. Thx. Robert Downey Jr, right?

I think I remember it coming out, but I never saw it. I really like Linklater, so I'll try to check it out. A cop addicted to a drug seems like it may have parallels to Minority Report (which I have seen but never read).

[Pluvious]

21. Yes, and Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Woody Harelson...

The story was published in '77, set in '94 - so it's easy to imagine how drugs could have run away in society lol

Reeves plays the undercover narcotics cop, and the drug is "Substance D," a synthetic that creates a type of dementia, disrupting brain synapses and severing the connection between the right and left hemispheres of the brain.

Good stuff !