The Gun

By Philip K. Dick

Nothing moved or stirred. Everything was silent, dead. Only the gun showed signs of life ... and the trespassers had wrecked that for all time. The return journey to pick up the treasure would be a cinch ... they smiled.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Start Classics
• Release date: May 30, 2014
• ISBN: 9781633552043

Philip K. Dick

Over a writing career that spanned three decades, PHILIP K. DICK (1928–1982) published 36 science fiction novels and 121 short stories in which he explored the essence of what makes man human and the dangers of centralized power. Toward the end of his life, his work turned to deeply personal, metaphysical questions concerning the nature of God. Eleven novels and short stories have been adapted to film, notably Blade Runner (based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), Total Recall, Minority Report, and A Scanner Darkly, as well as television's The Man in the High Castle. The recipient of critical acclaim and numerous awards throughout his career, including the Hugo and John W. Campbell awards, Dick was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2005, and between 2007 and 2009, the Library of America published a selection of his novels in three volumes. His work has been translated into more than twenty-five languages.

Reviews for The Gun

[wez-13 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A short story named The Gun makes you think of a dangerous weapon. You won't be wrong. And I mean cataclysmically wrong. A space craft with a crew of four investigate an unknown planet they thought unpopulated. They encounter The Gun, and the treasure it is guarding.

[pgiunta_3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

After detecting atomic fission on a nearby planet, a group of explorers are shot down only to find all life on the world annihilated after a devastating war. They locate the massive gun that fired on them. It is programmed to protect a vault of treasures-relics of a failed civilization. Before they can take the treasure with them, however, the explorers need to do something about that gun.