#38 Imposter (1953)- Philip Dick

The earth is involved in a brutal war with the Outspacers.  Spence Olham, an engineer working with The Project is arrested and accused of being an enemy spy.  According to intelligence, because of his high level access he was chosen by the Outspacers to be killed and replaced by a robot carrying an animated u-bomb.  Of course Olham denies any of this is true and we spend the whole story wondering which side is correct.

“There wasn’t anyway I could demonstrate that I wasn’t myself.”

This is an OK story, which apparently inspired two different feature films, the last of which was released in 2002 and starred Gary Sinise…who knew?  It has some typically fun Sci-fi elements like warring alien races, humanoid robots, space stations on the far side of the moon, etc.  Overall it’s a satisfying read although not at the same level as Dick’s more important works.

Among the myriad nitpicking one can do while reading sci-fi stories, was a fun little moment when Olham escapes capture on the moon.  We are in a society so sophisticated that we can travel to the moon in an hour by ourselves but security is so lax that a war criminal of the highest order can elude his death sentence by the equivalent of a “look at that pink elephant over there” distraction prank.  Amusing.

 Notable Passage: “Everyone was frightened, everyone was willing to sacrifice the individual because of the group fear.”

Rating: 7-7-7-6 Total= 27