The Crystal Crypt

By Philip K. Dick

From the mastermind behind legendary sci-fi blockbusters like Blade Runner, Total Recall, and Minority Report, comes a thrilling short story that transports you into a treacherous world of interplanetary conflict. Prepare for a journey to the edge of human understanding in Philip K. Dick's exceptional tale: The Crystal Crypt.

As the impending war between Earth and Mars looms on the horizon, the last spaceship en route from Mars to Earth is halted by Martian forces, searching for three elusive saboteurs responsible for the destruction of a Martian city. When the culprits are not found aboard the spacecraft, it continues its journey, only to reveal an enigmatic businessman, Thacher, who befriends a young woman and two men claiming to be the hunted saboteurs. But nothing is as it seems in this tale of wits and cunning.

In a classic Philip K. Dick twist, a hidden device unveils the city's true fate --not obliterated, but shrunken and secreted away within a tiny crystal orb, now a high-stakes bargaining chip in the impending war. As deception unravels, allegiances are tested, and tensions run high, Thacher uncovers a shocking revelation that changes the course of the story and challenges the very nature of trust.

A visionary exploration of psychological depth and intentional chaos, The Crystal Crypt offers a breathtaking journey of dark humor and speculative fiction that will captivate both die-hard Philip K. Dick enthusiasts and newcomers alike.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Jan 18, 2016
• ISBN: 9781473379497

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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THE CRYSTAL CRYPT

By

PHILIP K. DICK

Copyright © 2013 Read Books Ltd.

This book is copyright and may not be

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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 described himself as an acosmic pantheist, believing in the universe only as an extension of God. Dick ultimately concluded the world is not entirely real and there is no way to confirm whether what we see is truly there at all. This question from his early studies persisted as a theme in many of his novels.

Dick married five times between 1959 and 1973, and had three children. He sold his first story in 1951 and from that point on he wrote full-time, selling his first novel in 1955. The 1950s were a difficult and impoverished time for Dick. He once said "We couldn’t even pay the late