Beyond Lies the Wub (Collected Stories: Vol 1) [Paperback]

Philip K Dick (Author), Philip K. Dick (Author)

Book Description

Series: Collected Short Stories of Philip K. Dick | Publication Date: 1987

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...fitting tribute to a great philosophical writer who found science fiction the ideal form for the expression of his ideas" -- The Independent

'An elusive and in-incomparable artist' -- Ursula K. Le Guin

'One of the most original practitioners writing any kind of fiction.' -- Sunday Times

About the Author

SALES POINTS * ' A fitting tribute to a great philosophical writer who found science fiction the ideal form for the expression of his ideas' The Independent * ' One of the most original practitioners writing any kind of fiction. Philip K. Dick made most of the European avant-garde seem naval gazers in a cul-de-sac' Sunday Times * ' An elusive and incomparable artist' Ursula K. Le Guin

Product Details

• Paperback: 397 pages
• Publisher: Millennium Paperbacks (1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1857988795
• ISBN-13: 978-1857988796
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 1.3 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,297,499 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars His Master's Voice, July 6, 2000

By 

albemuth - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond Lies the Wub (Collected Stories: Vol 1) (Paperback)

These are the earliest stories PKD wrote, starting with the previously unpublished 1947 story "Stability" and ending with "Prize Ship", written in 1952. There are 25 of them in the lot, most with comments from the author. Some real gems are collected here (like "King of the Elves" and the pulpy "The Infinites"), but also some rather, ah, unpolished work.

But the thing is that this is not just interesting because of the actual stories but it gives a direct line to the developing talent of the man and that man at this point in his life was blossoming with ideas. He just hadn't yet gotten to the point where he knew how to express them. But that really doesn't stop one who is willing to drop those preconceived notions as to what constitutes good science fiction; this is FICTION with a capital letter, imagined from the get-go and heading towards uncharted waters. Reading this stuff made me long for such stuff today - most of what you get these days is pale and boring, closer to science fact and lacking in any true originality.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must for any Science Fiction fan, January 13, 2006

By 

not4prophet (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond Lies the Wub (Collected Stories: Vol 1) (Paperback)

The name Philip K Dick emerges quite frequently in any debate over the identity of the world's greatest science fiction author. Consider, then, the claim that Dick short stories are actually a more impressive achievement than his novels. Excessive, you say? I think it's true. Dick's one hundred-odd stories contain at least one mention of most of the ideas that shaped modern imaginative fiction. As such, the five-volume collection of his stories, of which "Beyond Lies the Wub" is the first volume, must be centerpiece of any serious scifi collection.

Dick's prose is never lavish, but always plain and workable. In a sense this merely disarms us, as we don't expect such wondrous invention from apparently normal writing. Aside from that limitation, however, these stories range over everything imaginable: from fantastic to prosaic, from the present time to far future settings, and from horror to tragedy to light-hearted wry humor. Two of the best comedy stories in this volume feature Dr. Labyrinth, a kooky inventor who sees problems and solutions quite differently from the rest of the human race. In "The Preservation Machine", he invents a method for converting musical works to animals, so as the great classical masterpieces can have better odds of survival in a Darwinian world. In "The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford", he discovers that inanimate objects will come to life if they are sufficiently irritated. "The Preservation Machine" ends with the discovery that the struggles of a dog-eat-dog world have transformed the works of Bach and Schubert into hideous bits of cacophany, a prime example of how even Dick's humorous tales are not without their bite.

On the horror end we have "Colony" and "Meddler". In "Colony", a exploration team on a new planet finds that murderous blobs of protoplasm are capable of imitating any inanimate object. As Dick himself says is the end notes: "The Ultimate in paranoia is not believing that everyone is out to get you, but rather that everything is out to get you. "Meddler" tells the tale of reckless engineers who build a mirror scoop for observing the future. Regrettably, their own observations guarantee that the future will be a worse place. How can this be? Dick explains the enigma in high style.

Among the more solid hard sf stories is "Mr. Spaceship". An elderly professor agrees to have his brain donated to a cause; it will be installed as the command unit for a spaceship, where its intelligence will allow it to navigate alien minefields. However, the titular vessel has plans of its own, and may prove capable of outwitting both the humans and the aliens. It's a fine example of Dick's faith in individual cleverness against the mass stupidity of government, bureaucracy and corporatism.

It's hard to pick a best story from such a volume; it's a classic case of 'they're all so good'. Top honors would have to go to "The Little Movement". A bizarre old man sells toy soldiers to unsuspecting children. But who's really in charge of the operation, and how can such a sinister scheme be stopped? In second place comes "Nanny", a triumph of wicked humor and shrewd observations of human nature. Mechanical nannies are sold to suburban families, but (as always) there's more going on than meets the eye. In this one, Dick correctly anticipated how parental obsession with child safety would come to overrule common sense.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Short yet Well Done, August 20, 2011

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Dr. Bojan Tunguz (Indiana, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beyond Lies the Wub (Kindle Edition)

A cargo ship is about to take off from the Martian surface and head to Earth. At the last minute one of the crewmen loads a wub onto the spaceship - a large creature that is familiar to earthlings by another, more prosaic, name. The crew intends to use the wub for the purpose of supplementing their food supply, but shortly after the takeoff it turns out that despite its external familiarity, wub is in fact a very different creature. The ensuing confusion and confrontation make up the bulk of the story.

This is an extremely short and interesting PKD story. It is written in the inimitable style of this sci-fi legend. The main theme has been explored many times by other authors, but PKD manages to leave his own imprint on it. Due to the story's brevity there is virtually no character development, and a few transitions are a bit rough. In particular the ending, although quite interesting and thought-provoking, leaves too much to suggestion and implication. Nonetheless, this is a very entertaining short sci-fi story.