Shell Game

By Philip K. Dick

Delve into the mind-bending world of Philip K. Dick's Shell Game, a crucial piece from the master of psychological science fiction who brought us cult classics such as Blade Runner, Total Recall, and Minority Report.

In this gripping short story, a group of mentally unwell patients find themselves stranded on an alien planet after the robot-controlled spaceship transporting them crash lands. Convinced they are under constant attack by alien forces or possible human adversaries, the patients struggle to find answers to their bizarre predicament. Faced with their own paranoia and unsettling memories, their endless quest for truth leads to dangerous infighting and unsettling discoveries.

Exploring the relationship between reality and delusion, Dick weaves a tale that begs the question: how can we trust our own judgment when everything we know becomes uncertain? Shell Game showcases the genius of Philip K. Dick's imagination, skillfully blending speculative fiction with profound psychological depth. Frequented by intentional chaos and extreme uncertainty, this story will captivate the most avid sci-fi enthusiasts and fans of pulp fiction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Jan 18, 2016
• ISBN: 9781473379442

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.

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Shell Game

(1953)

BY

Philip K. Dick

Copyright © 2013 Read Books Ltd.

This book is copyright and may not be

reproduced or copied in any way without

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

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Philip K. Dick

Philip Kindred Dick was born on December 16 1928, in Chicago, Illinois. The death of his twin sister, Jane, six weeks after their birth profoundly affected the writer in later life and is said to account for the recurring theme of the ‘phantom twin’ in many of his works.  

Dick and his family moved to the Bay Area of San Francisco when he was young, and later on to Washington DC following his parents divorce. Dick attended Elementary school and then a Quaker school before the family moved back to California. It was around this time that Dick began to take an active interest in the science fiction genre, reading his first magazine ‘Stirring Science Stories’, at age twelve.

Dick attended High School in Berkeley, California, where he and fellow science fiction author Ursula K.Le Guin were members of the same graduating class (1947) but were unknown to each other at the time. After graduation, he briefly attended the University of California in Berkeley, taking classes in History, Psychology, Philosophy, and Zoology. Through his studies in Philosophy, he came to believe that existence is based on internal perceptions which do not necessarily correspond to external reality; he