A diverse, mind-streching collection spanning the stunning career of Philip K. Dick, award-winning author of The Man in the High Castle, this is a must-have anthology for every science fiction fan.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
PKD's best short story,
By A Customer
This review is from: I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon (Hardcover)
Philip K. Dick was one of science fiction's short story "master craftsmen", though he was better known for his novels. His short stories are reminicent of Frederic Brown's, but usually Dick's were better paced and fuller. Published almost exclusively in SF magazines, most of his best stories were printed in Del Ray's "The Best of Philip K. Dick" collection. A good handful of these are some of the authentic gems of short SF.
Towering above all the others (including the others collected in this volume), however, is "Frozen Journey", published in this volume with the less effective title "I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon". This was one of the first Dick stories to see "mainstream" print, as it first appeared in "Playboy", usually the domain of writers like Roth and Mailer.
This short story brings together so many Dick themes in one place, it's like a pure distillation of his explorations; the unclear nature of reality, the difficulty of gender relations, the mistrust of technology, and the tendency to mental instability. But there is also something new here, a powerfully moving evocation of the effect of one man's guilt and sorrow on his consciousness and his resulting isolation from other people. In this story, Dick is able to wed his well-noted ontological ambiguity seemlessly with his compassion for humanity's predicament, something only partially achieved by his best novels (though some come close, notably "Do
Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?").
All of the elements of the story serve to demonstrate the central tragedy, bring us in to the heart of the protagonist, make us see through his troubled eyes (even at the reality he has become blind to), and move us to reflect on the profound metaphor Dick has created: life as a frozen journey through space, alone with the shadows in our minds and hearts, broken by the sorrows of lost love, corrupted conscience, impending decay and death. Not since the "half-life" concept in "Unik" has Dick created such a potent and bleak image.
To my mind this story represents a special kind of apex for Dick, his deepest expression of tragedy. It deserves to stand among the best such in English in short story form.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Small collection, but effective,
By
This review is from: I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon (Hardcover)
I typically like to have "complete works" collections with short stories, but I think that this one really works. Of his shorts, some of the best are in here; the title story "I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon" and "Explorers, We" really stand out. I would say that even if you have some of these, the introduction is worth it alone. Some very insightful commentary of his work, as well as a nice antecdote on the German translation errors in "Ubik," one of Dick's most celebrated novels, make this a nice one to have in the collection for a fan of Dick's work and thought process. Hard covers are great to have, and always worth the money for something with as much re-read value as this. I find it kind of a let down that to date, no film adaptation of any of Dick's books have done him justice at all. Not even close. Minority Report, Total Recall, and Blade Runner have all been pretty successful films, but absolutely not even close to the otherworldly quality of the space that Dick puts the reader into. He makes the staples of sci-fi like time travel, space exploration, and ESP seem completely reasonable. It is a true talent to allow the reader to suspend disbelief enough to chew through a story without once questioning the logic, to not sever that umbilical cord that the artist should build between you and the art. Though some of the stories here are definitely not some of Dick's more compelling reads, such as the story that kicks off the collection "The Short and Happy Life of the Brown Oxford," you will absolutely find that the majority here makes up for anything that might steer you away from shelling out the extra dough for a good, hard cover collection such as this.
4.0 out of 5 stars
I hope I shall introduction soon,
By
This review is from: I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon (Hardcover)
You will find here a collection of generally easy reading and entertaining science fiction. "The Exit Leads In" was particularily interesting to me, since I was also drafted. Then, there is the great quote "Money is the offical seal of sanity." (P. 98) However, the most important piece in the book is the twenty-three page introduction by Philip K. Dick himself who discusses his religiosity somewhat in depth. I did not know PKD was an Episcopalian. Who would think to care? But, one's experiences and religion frequently influences behavior and prose. So, for instance, read the title story and then refer back to the introduction. Heck! I still do not know what the story is about. Perhaps it means nothing. Oh, well. PKD fans should consider purchasing this out of print title from Amazon Marketplace sellers or borrowing it from a public library, if the governor of your Land of Taxes has not shut it down yet, for the introduction alone, the introduction which, perhaps, may be used as a template to understand the author's other works.
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