Well, when facing a movie category for the month of movies based upon stories by Philip K. Dick, and a book category of books that have turned into movies, I said to myself "Self, why not combine the two categories in what will hopefully come across as quite the brilliant idea and less like a lazy cop-out that you and I both know it is, and actually review Philip K. Dick stories!" (please don't pay any attention to how I use phrases like "you and I" when I talk with myself). Thus, I present this review of one of the many anthologies of stories by the man himself, The Philip K. Dick Reader.

Most of his stories are from the 50's and 60's, along with many other greats of sci-fi such as Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein. As such, much of his work can be amusingly quaint, full of rockets and atomic power and various others 50's-esque sci-fi. What's interesting, though, is that many of his stories are not so quaint, and could easily pass for something written recently. One can read these stories and think "now that's an interesting concept!" (which was said quite often to myself whilst reacquainting myself with this anthology...you can sense a running theme, I'm guessing). That's actually what I like about his work, that his stories make you think. Not in a "Man, that was deep" kind of way, where you potentially feel dumb if you don't immediately understand all 17 layers of a story, but in a "Gosh, what would happen in that circumstance and/or set-up?" I believe that's why his stories are chosen for movies.

Which segues handily into this particular anthology! (I am a master of segues, though, alas, the school wasn't accredited and thus try as I might, I can't get the rest of the Geek Speakers to call me "Master"). This particular anthology is a modified version of volume 3 of The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, modified to include many of the stories from which movies are made. Included within are the original stories for Total Recall ("We Can Remember it for You Wholesale"), Next ("The Golden Man"), Screamers ("Second Variety"), and both Minority Report and Paycheck (called...er..."The Minority Report" and "Paycheck"). Also included are 19 other stories of his.

So, of course, the question then becomes... are the stories any good? Why yes, many of them are! As per usual with anthologies, not all stories are home-runs, but there are quite a few that stand out, particularly the aforementioned ones that were turned into movies. "Paycheck", "Minority Report", and "We Can Remember it for You Wholesale" are particularly excellent stories, and it is easy to see why they were chosen to film. The concepts within are noteworthy and the writing is superb, making these into page-turners that are over far too quickly (as can happen with short stories...hence the word "short"). The story "Second Variety" is also quite well known (and worthy) -- it was even chosen to be included in the collection The Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century. From the non-movie-fied variety, I particularly enjoyed the stories "The Hanging Stranger", about a man who notices something odd in his town that doesn't seem to bother anyone else, and "Pay for the Printer" about the effective end of a civilization as we/they know it. There are other good stories within, though a few that I feel rather blasé about. But all-in-all, a good little collection.

As an anthology as a whole, though, it does leave a little to be desired. Readers of my past anthology reviews may have noted that I particularly like it when short story collections include commentary on the stories within, and at least mention of when/where the stories were first published. This has none of that. Not even original copyright dates. Just the stories. Alas.

Still, besides that little issue, this is a good, worthy anthology. It's particularly worthy if one is not familiar with Dick's work at all, or only familiar with him based on the movie adaptations. This makes an excellent introduction to his style. So go pick this book up and find out whether or not the movies are better. What could be a better companion to our Movie Marathon section this month?!

   -- K. Burtt