Philip K

Philip K. Dick – Puttering about in a Small Land

Genre: Science_Fiction

When Roger and Virginia Lindhal enroll their son Gregg in Mrs Alt’s Los Padres Valley School in the mountains of Southern California, their marriage is already in deep trouble. Then the Lindhals meet Chic and Liz Bonner, whose two sons also board at Mrs Alt’s school.

The meeting is a catalyst for a complicated series of emotions and traumas, set against the backdrop of suburban Los Angeles in the early 1950s. As Roger, Virginia, Chic and Liz orbit each other in ever-decaying circles, their lives threaten to run out of control.

This is a realistic novel filled with details of everyday life and skilfully told from three points of view. It is powerful, eloquent, and gripping.

Winner of both the HUGO and JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARDs for BEST NOVEL, Philip K. Dick is widely regarded as the premiere science fiction writer of his day. The object of cult-like adoration from his legions of fans, Philip K. Dick has come to be seen in a literary light that defies classification in much the same way as Borges and Calvino. With breathtaking insight, he utilizes vividly unfamiliar worlds to evoke the hauntingly and hilariously familiar in our society and ourselves.

Philip K. Dick – Mary and the Giant

Genre: Science_Fiction

Mary Anne Reynolds is a young and vulnerable woman, determined to make her own way in the world. But Pacific Park, California, in the 1950s is not really the place for Mary. Her relationship with a black singer offends against the small town’s views on sexual mores and exposes its bigoted views on race. This is a powerful portrayal of the claustrophobia of small-town California, and Mary Anne Reynolds is one of the most memorable characters Dick ever created.

Philip K. Dick – The Man Whose Teeth Were All Exactly Alike

Genre: Science_Fiction

Leo Runcible – of Runcible Realty – is too excitable and too pushy. His wife drinks too much. He may be a man of principle, but Liberal Jewish Leo is an outsider in the lilywhite Carquinez, Marin County.

When he gets into a pointless argument with a customer over his neighbour Walt Dombrosio’s house guests, the resulting ramifications follow a bizarre logic of cause and effect to lead in entirely unexpected directions …

And can Leo really have found the skull of a Neanderthal man in middle America?