Second Variety
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About this ebook
In a world torn apart by endless warfare between the Soviet Union and the United Nations, humanity struggles to survive amidst the desolation of a nuclear wasteland. Philip K. Dick's captivating short story, Second Variety, delves deep into the consequences of war and the relentless pursuit of power.
Originally published in 1953, this chilling science fiction masterpiece has inspired blockbuster films like Screamers and its sequel Screamers: The Hunting. From the author that brought you timeless cinematic classics such as Blade Runner, Total Recall, and Minority Report, comes an unforgettable adventure that will leave you questioning the boundaries of trust and the cost of destruction.
As Russia pushes the United States to the brink, the UN devises a last-ditch effort to win the war-- an arsenal of deadly, self-replicating assassin machines known as "claws". Equipped with the ability to evolve and the sole objective to exterminate all living organisms, the claws are programmed to recognize and spare those who wear designated badges. But when the machines begin to uncover unexpected ways to outsmart their creators, the very existence of life on Earth is threatened.
Second Variety presents a gripping and thought-provoking story that challenges the nature of humanity and the ramifications of technology gone awry. With unforgettable characters, nail-biting suspense, and an unsettling take on a dystopian future, this is one book you won't be able to put down.
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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Reviews for Second Variety
114 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Meh.. Was unfinished. It was
Witten in a nice fashion but very predictable. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5There would be little point in giving a synopsis of each of the 24 stories in this book. That would give a false sense of repetition since many feature images of ash and overturned bathtubs -- the aftermath of nuclear war -- or struggles between mutants and normal humans, each fearing their extinction. But they don't seem any more repetitious than a skilled musician working variations on a theme for that is what many are. These stories, written in 1953 and 1954 -- with one exception, are arranged chronologically, so the student of Dick can see him play with an idea for two or three stories in a row.Along the way we get the humor, intricate plotting, and sudden reversals in our moral sympathies characteristic of Dick. And there are the machines that so often are a force of death in Dick though they behave more and more like life. Such is the case with the title story, one of Dick's most paranoid and basis for the movie Screamers. When sophisticated weapons take on human guise and began to stalk man, what Dick calls his grand theme, knowing who is human and who only pretends to be, is starkly exhibited.Other famous stories are "The Golden Man" with its purging of mutants before they infect the human gene pool, "The Father-Thing" which is what a boy realizes has replaced his real father, and "Sales Pitch", a story which anticipates, with its all purpose android advertising its virtues through rather thuggish means, the work of Ron Goulart. There are some memorable stories not so well known. "Foster, You're Dead" was originally conceived as a protest against a remark by President Eisenhower that citizens should be responsible for their own bomb shelters. Its young hero lives terrified in a world where making knives from scratch and digging underground shelters are parts of the school curriculum and each new year brings the newest model of bomb shelter, terrified because his father can't afford to buy one for the family. "War Veteran" reads like a futuristic _Mission Impossible_ episode. The spirit of Charles Fort may be at work in "Null-O", a satire on the absurd philosophy that no distinctions between things are valid, a philosophy practiced by "perfect paranoids". (Fort may have inspired the weakest and first story in the collection, "Fair Game", with its van Vogtian plotting giving way at the end to a silly twist.)Dick fans will see "Shell Game", with its colony of paranoids, as sort of a test run for Dick's Clans of the Alphane Moon, and the time jumping child of "A World of Talent" is reminiscent of Manfred Steiner in Dick's Martian Time-Slip. This collection also features one of Dick's occasional fantasies, "Upon the Dull Earth".Any admirer of Dick will want to read this collection, and those needing an introduction to his work will find no bad stories in this exhibit of 14 months in Dick's career.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Awesome- This book is a short story collection by P K. Dick. P.K. Dick has been the writer who inspired all sorts of sci-fi movies. This book claimed to have the story that inspired the movie "Next" in it. (I haven't seen the movie so I couldn't tell you if the story fit or not.) It amazed me how many different types of dystopia he came up with. Dick has imagined the end of civilization probably hundreds of different ways (and disturbing ways.) Some of his stories have a haunting quality that keep me thinking long after I've read them.