#869 The King of Elves- Philip K. Dick

#869 The King of Elves- Philip K. Dick

At the end of a quiet rainy day, Shadrach was closing up his filling station and saw a group of elves cowering in the cold and wet. He welcomed them to his home up the street and they were thankful. In the night, the Elf King died and announced his successor to be Shadrach himself. The simple act of kindness he had shown in their hour of need, had proven him kind and worthy enough to be King of the Elves.

“You brought him inside your house, out of the rain. He knew that you ecpected nothing for it, that there was nothing you wanted. He had known few who gave and asked nothing back.”

He accepted the post, and although most of his friends and neighbors thought he was going a bit looney, His best friend Phineas knew he wasn’t. A war with the trolls was coming and his leadership was needed. He wasn’t prepared to leave his filling station so soon, but found himself face-to-face with the surprising leader of the Trolls. Great opportunity reveals great men, even if you are not prepared for it.

Rating: 7-7-8-7 Total= 29

#841 Paycheck- Philip K. Dick

#841 Paycheck- Philip K. Dick

This is one of PKD’s classic stories. It deals with time viewing and technology. Jennings is an electrical mechanic, probably the best out there. He wakes up from a high-security job with Rethrick construction. Due to the nature of the work and the heavy government attention on it, Jennings’ memory has been wiped clean. He has lost the last two years of his life, but the job was done and he is about to be paid handsomely.

Instead of the money he was promised, the clerk tells him he opted to be allowed to take out a bag full of object from the plant. He made this decision before his memory was wiped, so he has no idea why he wouldn’t take the money. He soon realizes however, the seven seemingly benign objects he took out are clues to getting back to the Rethrick plant, he just doesn’t know why yet.

“The decision had actually been his. Amazingly, after two years of work he had preferred a handful of trinkets instead of fifty thousand credits. But more amazingly, The handful of trinkets was turning out to be worth more than the money.”

Besides being a great sci-fi story about time viewing, there is a serious anti-government tilt here. The world has changed into a heavy police state, and where the church used to be the antithesis of government, corporations have taken their place.

“It was the government against the corporation, rather than the state against the church.”

The revolution apparently is fomenting inside of places like Rethrick Construction. Jennings wants in, and since he’s the only one who knows how to run the Time Scoop machine…the future looks good.

Rating: 7-9-9-9 Total= 34

#784 Roog- Philip K. Dick

#784 Roog- Philip K. Dick

Inventive, funny, and an idea copied many times since Roog’s 1951 publication. Boris is a guard standing outside his master’s house. The important stores of food are being kept outside in metal bins and it’s Boris’ job to make sure they are secure. Strange foreigners come by each week and pillage the food bins despite his best efforts to ward them off.

You think of Philip K. Dick and assume this is a sci-fi story and the Roogs are space aliens or something. But as it turns out, Boris is a dog, the Roogs are garbage men taking out the trash from the garbage bins. Boris barks up a storm each week when they come by annoying the neighbors. A good story is all about changing perspective.

Rating: 7-8-8-8- Total= 31

#756 Beyond Lies the Wub- Philip K. Dick

#756 Beyond Lies the Wub- Philip K. Dick

I guess “You are what you eat” is an apt adage for this story. Men and local creatures are loading a cargo ship when one crew member comes walking back with a huge pig-like creature called a Wub. It is a greatly respected animal around here and the crew member bought it for fifty cents. Looking like a pig, and being four-hundred pounds of potential food, Captain Franco wondered how it would taste.

Aboard the ship they had suffered some food spoilage, and the Captain now looked towards the wub again for a food source. Except the wub isn’t really a pig, it is a highly evolved race and has learned to defend itself with reason. It had accessed the minds of the passengers and “spoke” to the captain using some sort of ESP. Trying to philosophize his way out of the boiler, the Wub uses mythology to illustrate his usefulness. Ever wonder whether we’d still consume animals if they talked like us? Well, some life forms have a strong survival instinct.

Rating: 7-8-7-7 Total= 29

#86 Oh, to be a Blobel!- Philip K. Dick

#86 Oh, to be a Blobel!- Philip K. Dick

George was a spy during the war between humans and Blobels, large amoeba-like single celled creatures occupying Mars, and Titan. To become this spy, he was converted into Blobel form. Since the war he has not been able to stop the uncontrolled conversions and remains a Blobel for almost half his existence.

“…for almost twelve hours a day, he reverted…to his old war-time Blobel shape. To a formless unicellular-like blob, right in the middle of his own apartment.”

Because of this, he is unable to live a normal human life. His homeostatic robot psychoanalyst has a great idea and recommends that George get together with Vivian. She is a Blobel and spied on humans during the war, and like Gorge converts to her spy form uncontrollably. Since they are the same form 7 hours a day and are equally outcasts in their community, the pairing makes sense.

Both of them “are outcasts in either civilization; both of [them] are stateless and hence gradually suffering a loss of ego-identity.”

They marry, and have 4 children…one full Blobel, one full human and two hybrids. The tension on their marriage and their burgeoning business is immense. The end has a great vintage O.Henry twist to it.

Notable Passage: “Pete, I cant go on. I have a gelatinous blob for a child.”

Rating: 7-8-8-8 Total= 31

#74 What the Dead Men Say- P.K. Dick

#74 What the Dead Men Say- P.K. Dick

It’s the year 2075, the world’s richest man lies dead, in frozen suspended animation. His smart but uneducated PR man, Johnny Barefoot, is supposed to bring him back to life. But they fail to revive him back to “half-life”, the pre-cursor to full re-animation.

However, the most powerful man in the world becomes the most powerful man in the afterlife. The voice of Louis Sarapis suddenly appears to be emanating from a light-week away right outside the solar system.  These post-mortem transmissions give instructions to Barefoot and his grand-daughter, the drug addict religious heir to his communications empire. His power grows and all communication systems broadcast remnants of Sarapis, his voice, his shadowy image, knocking out any ability for real-time communications. 

His aim appears to be political, of course, and he moves to elect his long-time ally from beyond the grave.  Intrigue, conspiracy, dead-men talking…all sorts of fun here. There were several fun tid-bits.   Dick foresees the inevitable merger of the Democratic and Republican parties into one duopoly. Also interesting was when Sarapis supposedly communicates with the living by remotely typing out a message, it was described as “Got a text”.  I’m guessing that 1964 is probably the earliest use of that phrase in that context. 

Notable Passages: “Burial is barbaric…remnant of the primitive origins of our culture.”

Being dead- “It was dreamlike. I don’t mean vague or unreal. I mean the logic, the weightlessness; you see, that’s the main difference. You’re free of gravity. Its hard to realize how important that it, but just think how many of the characteristics of the dream derive from that one fact.”

Rating: 7-10-9-8 Total= 34

#61 War Game- Philip K. Dick

#61 War Game- Philip K. Dick

It’s holiday shopping time and the new toys from an advanced extra-terrestrial world have to be tested. The Ganymedean products contain potentially dangerous technology and cannot be released until we know they are safe for children. 

There is a suit that tricks the brain into seeing made-up realities, there is an alien version of Monopoly (monopoly is always just monopoly they posit), and there is a war game.  The war game has highly adaptable soldiers trying to take a Citadel.  As the structure defends itself, The toy soldiers fight back, but ultimately loses:

“It has to, psychologically speaking, it symbolizes the external reality. The dozen soldiers, of course, represent to the child his own efforts to cope. By participating in the storming of the citadel, the child undergoes a sense of adequacy in dealing with the harsh world. Eventually he prevails, but only after a painstaking period of effort and patience…at least that’s what the instruction book says.”

The test team is worried that the soldiers might: “…make a ninety degree turn and start firing at the nearest human being.”

Their concerns increase as it appears that the game could be programed to slowly make a bomb, or some kind of Ganymedean Trojan Horse.  In the end the true danger may be just under our nose and could be in the most tame and ubiquitous item.

Rating: 7-8-8-7 Total= 30

#49 Second Variety- Philip K. Dick

#49 Second Variety- Philip K. Dick

In an alternate Cold War outcome, the earth has been mostly destroyed by nuclear bombs.  Two sides still battle on “terra” near Normandy, France.  The Americans have designed AI creatures called “claws” that have decimated the Russian defenses. In a familiar arms race refrains they justify it by:

“If we hadn’t invented them, they would have.”

“It was interesting, the use of artificial forms of warfare. How had they got started? Necessity.”

We learn that the Claws have started designing their own AI machines that can’t or don’t care to discern between American or Russian troops, and will kill any human they find. The first variety is The Wounded Soldier designed to make real living soldiers open the bunkers for the Claws.  The third variety looks like a human child and is called David Edward Derring (D.E.D or dead). As they wonder what the missing Second Variety is, the trapped humans turn on each other in a paranoid state.

There is a lot of Cold War symbolism in this story, marveling at the chilling effectiveness of the robots, a Russian solder says: “It only takes one of them. Once the first one gets in it admits the others. Hundreds of them, all alike…Perfect socialism…the ideal of the communist state. All citizens interchangeable.” A perfect statement of the communist stereotype that American’s feared during the “Red Scare.”

There was a nice symbol of the gray lizard that masked itself as the color of the ash, calling it the “perfect adaptation.” Overall a good story, extremely predictable now, but I’m sure less so in 1953. It probably could have been 20 pages shorter. 

Notable Passage: “Your creations are your greatest achievements.”

Rating: 7-7-6-8 Total= 28