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The Gun
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
26 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 1952
48 people are currently reading
632 people want to read
About the author
Philip K. Dick
2,006 books22.5k followersPhilip Kindred Dick was a prolific American science fiction author whose work has had a lasting impact on literature, cinema, and popular culture. Known for his imaginative narratives and profound philosophical themes, Dick explored the nature of reality, the boundaries of human identity, and the impact of technology and authoritarianism on society. His stories often blurred the line between the real and the artificial, challenging readers to question their perceptions and beliefs.
Raised in California, Dick began writing professionally in the early 1950s, publishing short stories in various science fiction magazines. He quickly developed a distinctive voice within the genre, marked by a fusion of science fiction concepts with deep existential and psychological inquiry. Over his career, he authored 44 novels and more than 100 short stories, many of which have become classics in the field.
Recurring themes in Dick's work include alternate realities, simulations, corporate and government control, mental illness, and the nature of consciousness. His protagonists are frequently everyday individuals—often paranoid, uncertain, or troubled—caught in surreal and often dangerous circumstances that force them to question their environment and themselves. Works such as Ubik, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, and A Scanner Darkly reflect his fascination with perception and altered states of consciousness, often drawing from his own experiences with mental health struggles and drug use.
One of Dick’s most influential novels is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which served as the basis for Ridley Scott’s iconic film Blade Runner. The novel deals with the distinction between humans and artificial beings and asks profound questions about empathy, identity, and what it means to be alive. Other adaptations of his work include Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, and The Man in the High Castle, each reflecting key elements of his storytelling—uncertain realities, oppressive systems, and the search for truth. These adaptations have introduced his complex ideas to audiences well beyond the traditional readership of science fiction.
In the 1970s, Dick underwent a series of visionary and mystical experiences that had a significant influence on his later writings. He described receiving profound knowledge from an external, possibly divine, source and documented these events extensively in what became known as The Exegesis, a massive and often fragmented journal. These experiences inspired his later novels, most notably the VALIS trilogy, which mixes autobiography, theology, and metaphysics in a narrative that defies conventional structure and genre boundaries.
Throughout his life, Dick faced financial instability, health issues, and periods of personal turmoil, yet he remained a dedicated and relentless writer. Despite limited commercial success during his lifetime, his reputation grew steadily, and he came to be regarded as one of the most original voices in speculative fiction. His work has been celebrated for its ability to fuse philosophical depth with gripping storytelling and has influenced not only science fiction writers but also philosophers, filmmakers, and futurists.
Dick’s legacy continues to thrive in both literary and cinematic spheres. The themes he explored remain urgently relevant in the modern world, particularly as technology increasingly intersects with human identity and governance. The Philip K. Dick Award, named in his honor, is presented annually to distinguished works of science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States. His writings have also inspired television series, academic studies, and countless homages across media.
Through his vivid imagination and unflinching inquiry into the nature of existence, Philip K. Dick redefined what science fiction could achieve. His work continues to challenge and inspire, offering timeless insights into the human condition a
Raised in California, Dick began writing professionally in the early 1950s, publishing short stories in various science fiction magazines. He quickly developed a distinctive voice within the genre, marked by a fusion of science fiction concepts with deep existential and psychological inquiry. Over his career, he authored 44 novels and more than 100 short stories, many of which have become classics in the field.
Recurring themes in Dick's work include alternate realities, simulations, corporate and government control, mental illness, and the nature of consciousness. His protagonists are frequently everyday individuals—often paranoid, uncertain, or troubled—caught in surreal and often dangerous circumstances that force them to question their environment and themselves. Works such as Ubik, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, and A Scanner Darkly reflect his fascination with perception and altered states of consciousness, often drawing from his own experiences with mental health struggles and drug use.
One of Dick’s most influential novels is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which served as the basis for Ridley Scott’s iconic film Blade Runner. The novel deals with the distinction between humans and artificial beings and asks profound questions about empathy, identity, and what it means to be alive. Other adaptations of his work include Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, and The Man in the High Castle, each reflecting key elements of his storytelling—uncertain realities, oppressive systems, and the search for truth. These adaptations have introduced his complex ideas to audiences well beyond the traditional readership of science fiction.
In the 1970s, Dick underwent a series of visionary and mystical experiences that had a significant influence on his later writings. He described receiving profound knowledge from an external, possibly divine, source and documented these events extensively in what became known as The Exegesis, a massive and often fragmented journal. These experiences inspired his later novels, most notably the VALIS trilogy, which mixes autobiography, theology, and metaphysics in a narrative that defies conventional structure and genre boundaries.
Throughout his life, Dick faced financial instability, health issues, and periods of personal turmoil, yet he remained a dedicated and relentless writer. Despite limited commercial success during his lifetime, his reputation grew steadily, and he came to be regarded as one of the most original voices in speculative fiction. His work has been celebrated for its ability to fuse philosophical depth with gripping storytelling and has influenced not only science fiction writers but also philosophers, filmmakers, and futurists.
Dick’s legacy continues to thrive in both literary and cinematic spheres. The themes he explored remain urgently relevant in the modern world, particularly as technology increasingly intersects with human identity and governance. The Philip K. Dick Award, named in his honor, is presented annually to distinguished works of science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States. His writings have also inspired television series, academic studies, and countless homages across media.
Through his vivid imagination and unflinching inquiry into the nature of existence, Philip K. Dick redefined what science fiction could achieve. His work continues to challenge and inspire, offering timeless insights into the human condition a
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 96 reviews
March 6, 2019
This early Dick effort first published in Planet Stories (1952) is remarkable both for its sobering theme of the dangers of automation--a theme Dick would return to again--and the playful way in which it develops its narrative.
A spaceship is dispatched to a distant planet because of a powerful fission explosion. It arrives to find a planet devastated by nuclear holocaust, but guarded by an apparently indestructible anti-aircraft gun which persists in its relentless and fatal fire, unaffected by the death of the civilization it was designed to protect.
Its theme—the merciless automation of the machines of death, which may now be nearly immortal, capable of outliving the destroyed civilizations which create them—is handled well, but I liked even better the way Dick transformed his story into a quest narrative in the middle, turning the gun into a guardian dragon, the records of the burnt civilization into a treasure to be guarded, and giving us a little hint of a romantic triangle as a bonus. All this serves to lighten the narrative, and disarm the reader so he may be surprised when the tale returns to its grim central theme.
This sort of narrative trick is one of the things Dick did best: keeping the reader unbalanced, unsure of his relationship to the story itself and the unsettling world it creates.
June 30, 2025
An entertaining action adventure about spaceship travel to another planet on which everyone's dead after a nuclear explosion. However an automatic omnipotent gun keeps the ambitious travelers who have their eyes on the treasures (mostly photographs, home videos and memorabilia) of the planet, at bay. A sub-plot involves a female traveler trying to chose her mate between two men who might lead the mission in the future. But neither man seem to want her, lol.
Once again, this story is really thin on descriptions about the planet and the gun. PKD had great ideas. He could not be bothered righting epic prose or creating Lovecraftian monsters. Sci-fi fans who shit on PKD for not being more sci-fi can fuck off! The dude had the best ideas, unfortunately stolen by Nolan and Weir and never got any credit.
I felt like The Gun was not your typical PKD short story. Nothing about anonymous forces working against ONE man and creating/distorting his reality. This was a straightforward time travel action adventure thriller.
Once again, this story is really thin on descriptions about the planet and the gun. PKD had great ideas. He could not be bothered righting epic prose or creating Lovecraftian monsters. Sci-fi fans who shit on PKD for not being more sci-fi can fuck off! The dude had the best ideas, unfortunately stolen by Nolan and Weir and never got any credit.
I felt like The Gun was not your typical PKD short story. Nothing about anonymous forces working against ONE man and creating/distorting his reality. This was a straightforward time travel action adventure thriller.
January 2, 2020
Eerie story of a mindless, automated weapon on a war ravaged alien planet. And like an abandoned minefield, it's still claiming victims long after the war has ended. It would seem like at least a few episodes of Star Trek TNG, and likely other series and films, were based on this concept.
June 29, 2017
If It’s Broken, Don’t Mend It
The Gun, a short story Philip K. Dick had published in 1952, is a clever comment on the dangers of armament and military innovation, written probably under the influence of the first stages of the Cold War, but it also has a double-barrelled twist in its tail.
A group of space explorers has been attracted to a hitherto unexplored planet by the light of nuclear fission, and a scan of the planet’s surface tells them that a nuclear maelstrom has made it uninhabitable. Nevertheless, they are suddenly shot at and have to make an emergency landing. While the ship is being repaired, some of them reconnoitre the planet and come across a huge gun in a deserted and contaminated city, and it soon becomes obvious to them that the gun is an intelligent weapon, automatically scanning the sky and destroying any object it detects there. The explorers are dismayed at and puzzled by a culture that apparently spent so much effort and skill on developing and building such powerful weapons:
By now, probably the most unsuspecting reader will have got some idea of what planet our more peacefully-minded spacemen, who even wonder at the possibility of inter-species warfare, have discovered. And yet, they discover something more: Beneath that monstrous gun, deep down below the ground there is a treasure trove of cultural artefacts, books, films, and other relicts, the planet’s culture in a nutshell. They decide to salvage this treasure and soon also find a way of destroying the gun – simply because it is not able to defend itself from an attack led from the ground. This is why they can simply batter it to pieces. When they take off in their spacecraft, determined to return one day and salvage the whole treasure instead of just the few samples they take on board, one of them says:
Now, I couldn’t help thinking that it might not be such a good idea for those apparently less bellicose people to learn more about and allow themselves to be influenced by a culture who had evidently destroyed itself. Nevertheless, there is another surprise in store for us, but if you have not read the story as yet, you might want to experience it on your own.
If you don’t, read on here:
The Gun, a short story Philip K. Dick had published in 1952, is a clever comment on the dangers of armament and military innovation, written probably under the influence of the first stages of the Cold War, but it also has a double-barrelled twist in its tail.
A group of space explorers has been attracted to a hitherto unexplored planet by the light of nuclear fission, and a scan of the planet’s surface tells them that a nuclear maelstrom has made it uninhabitable. Nevertheless, they are suddenly shot at and have to make an emergency landing. While the ship is being repaired, some of them reconnoitre the planet and come across a huge gun in a deserted and contaminated city, and it soon becomes obvious to them that the gun is an intelligent weapon, automatically scanning the sky and destroying any object it detects there. The explorers are dismayed at and puzzled by a culture that apparently spent so much effort and skill on developing and building such powerful weapons:
”’They must have been used to the sight, guns, weapons, uniforms. Probably they accepted it as a natural thing, part of their lives, like eating and sleeping. An institution, like the church and the state. Men trained to fight, to lead armies, a regular profession. Honored, respected.’”
By now, probably the most unsuspecting reader will have got some idea of what planet our more peacefully-minded spacemen, who even wonder at the possibility of inter-species warfare, have discovered. And yet, they discover something more: Beneath that monstrous gun, deep down below the ground there is a treasure trove of cultural artefacts, books, films, and other relicts, the planet’s culture in a nutshell. They decide to salvage this treasure and soon also find a way of destroying the gun – simply because it is not able to defend itself from an attack led from the ground. This is why they can simply batter it to pieces. When they take off in their spacecraft, determined to return one day and salvage the whole treasure instead of just the few samples they take on board, one of them says:
”’[…]After all, their possessions, their music, books, their pictures, all of that will survive. We’ll take them home and study them, and they’ll change us. We won’t be the same afterwards. […]’”
Now, I couldn’t help thinking that it might not be such a good idea for those apparently less bellicose people to learn more about and allow themselves to be influenced by a culture who had evidently destroyed itself. Nevertheless, there is another surprise in store for us, but if you have not read the story as yet, you might want to experience it on your own.
If you don’t, read on here:
October 13, 2025
4 Love-PKD Stars
no review in the works, highly recommend, especially for those readers keen on PKD 💛🧚♀️🙋🏼.
no review in the works, highly recommend, especially for those readers keen on PKD 💛🧚♀️🙋🏼.
January 9, 2023
Quite an enjoyable early story from the King of Sci-Fi that I got for free from the Public Domain on my kindle. This one finds the action in a space mission that finds itself on a desolate and deserted planet. While hovering overhead, the Captain spies something about the landscape that stands out, but while the spacecraft is landing, they're shot out of the air by a huge mechanical gun seemed to be manned by no one. The crew decides to investigate the gun and also what it's guarding.
I can definitely see this story's influence on other longer works in the genre and this story kept me captivated the whole time. It ends with a foreboding air of future doom and gloom, and had a bit of an early AI vibe mixed with old booby-trap fiction like The Goonies that I found interesting. Reminded me of the 2000 film Mission to Mars in parts, but also, weirdly, also of Alien though you will not find vicious alien creatures here. This story's power rests in the uncovering of secrets and the knowledge of what gives The Gun its power. And also, in typical Dick fashion, does its part to warn of progression as well as its point of no return. Especially when it comes to military enhancements and weaponry.
4 stars. I really enjoy finding these old stories online.
I can definitely see this story's influence on other longer works in the genre and this story kept me captivated the whole time. It ends with a foreboding air of future doom and gloom, and had a bit of an early AI vibe mixed with old booby-trap fiction like The Goonies that I found interesting. Reminded me of the 2000 film Mission to Mars in parts, but also, weirdly, also of Alien though you will not find vicious alien creatures here. This story's power rests in the uncovering of secrets and the knowledge of what gives The Gun its power. And also, in typical Dick fashion, does its part to warn of progression as well as its point of no return. Especially when it comes to military enhancements and weaponry.
4 stars. I really enjoy finding these old stories online.
March 2, 2020
Philip K dick was a profound science fiction writer. This one, ’The Gun’ is my first attempt exploring Dick’s little isle of sci-fi. After reading, It turned up to me that this work is based on the technophobia of the author.
Dick sees the rise of automated machinery as a negative and unstoppable effect. He writes metal don’t breathe as men and it can survive until it wears. On the other hand, thinking about his claim it’s obvious that machines do not require air to breathe. An ecological disaster is nothing to the machines and it is absent in its logic. We give birth to an undying selfish logic.
A part of me agrees with him about the danger of automation on a mass scale. This was published in 1952 and a time period where there was no tech like AI existed. Human creates machines for reducing workload purposes at the beginning. It came a long way and now we are amused by the machines. The next breakthrough, maybe something like sex robots. This is the horror of the future.
Dick sees the rise of automated machinery as a negative and unstoppable effect. He writes metal don’t breathe as men and it can survive until it wears. On the other hand, thinking about his claim it’s obvious that machines do not require air to breathe. An ecological disaster is nothing to the machines and it is absent in its logic. We give birth to an undying selfish logic.
A part of me agrees with him about the danger of automation on a mass scale. This was published in 1952 and a time period where there was no tech like AI existed. Human creates machines for reducing workload purposes at the beginning. It came a long way and now we are amused by the machines. The next breakthrough, maybe something like sex robots. This is the horror of the future.
October 1, 2019
Este es el tipo de historia que me gusta: rápida, directa, con un poco de reflexión y con un giro al final. No estará magníficamente escrita, pero cumple su cometido.
June 9, 2021
It's a good short story. It offers a good tale, but it doesn't offer anything new in it. I enjoyed it nonetheless.
February 2, 2013
When it was first published, in 1952, this must be an interesting story about a weapon that outlived its creators, today, when wars started to be fought with semi-autonomous drones, and military are on the brink of making "The Gun" real, it is eerily close to the real life.
August 17, 2016
Another short story by PKD. The twist is always something I look forward to with him and this one is no disappointment.
May 19, 2021
Short but great
This is a cool little story. Well worth 10 mins of your day and nice little lunchtime short SF tale
This is a cool little story. Well worth 10 mins of your day and nice little lunchtime short SF tale
April 4, 2024
Autonomous weapons systems weren't developed until the 1980s, but those who created them didn't heed Dick's clear warning in this story: don't destroy all that's important in quest to protect it. I also really love forward thinking, like the female Vice Captain Nasha taking over when the Captain dies, combined with nostalgia, like the Captain being honoured in a body burning ceremony, something that dates back to Viking times.
July 2, 2011
Ultimate in planet protection
Audio Book MP3 downloaded from
http://librivox.org/short-science-fic...
Public Domain stories from Project Gutenberg, that are read by volunteers.
I listen to these short stories while walking to and from work.
Play Duration: 00:27:55
Read By: Gregg Margarite
Audio Book MP3 downloaded from
http://librivox.org/short-science-fic...
Public Domain stories from Project Gutenberg, that are read by volunteers.
I listen to these short stories while walking to and from work.
Play Duration: 00:27:55
Read By: Gregg Margarite
January 31, 2020
Me; I'll read the first ever Philip K Dick book.
Look up Fantastic Fiction.
First book listed - The Gun
Me: well the Gun is his first book I'll read it.
Later I find out - nope not the first book.
Thanks Fantastic Fiction, not So much this time!
However this was a fantastic story, and I am glad to have read it.
More of PKD please!
Philip K Dick #1
Look up Fantastic Fiction.
First book listed - The Gun
Me: well the Gun is his first book I'll read it.
Later I find out - nope not the first book.
Thanks Fantastic Fiction, not So much this time!
However this was a fantastic story, and I am glad to have read it.
More of PKD please!
Philip K Dick #1
January 21, 2015
As much as I like PKD, there's not a whole lot to this short story. The story is based on an interesting idea, but everything leading up to the idea is lackluster.
August 15, 2023
An excellent short story. Written in the 60's but spookily relevant in today's conversations on AI!
January 12, 2024
My first PKD dud. LoL.
July 29, 2025
This is one of the PKD stories I wish could have been longer. Not sure why the reviews are so low.
February 3, 2025
Dick called it! We are all screwed!
A space expedition vessel is surprise attacked when surveying a planet for resources and the quest for answers as to who, what, where and why they were attacked ensues!
The exploration bits in this had me thinking of LV-426, from Alien, as our motley crew headed off into unknown territory to find the big gun that shot them down. Maybe Ridley Scott pinched it from here, although they weren't attacked in the film, they did find a space jockey and a big gun looking thing. One can wonder.
The adventure plays out with our team dealing with the injured crew members and working out what exactly happened on this scorched destroyed planet. There are hints along the way and the conclusion at the end left this sitting with me for a little longer than I expected it to.
There is plenty to ruminate on here, and the ending, if you allow it to fester in your brain, will allow some pessimistic pondering for a few days after finishing it.
A space expedition vessel is surprise attacked when surveying a planet for resources and the quest for answers as to who, what, where and why they were attacked ensues!
The exploration bits in this had me thinking of LV-426, from Alien, as our motley crew headed off into unknown territory to find the big gun that shot them down. Maybe Ridley Scott pinched it from here, although they weren't attacked in the film, they did find a space jockey and a big gun looking thing. One can wonder.
The adventure plays out with our team dealing with the injured crew members and working out what exactly happened on this scorched destroyed planet. There are hints along the way and the conclusion at the end left this sitting with me for a little longer than I expected it to.
There is plenty to ruminate on here, and the ending, if you allow it to fester in your brain, will allow some pessimistic pondering for a few days after finishing it.
August 18, 2025
Reseña Nº36 del 2025
UNA JOYITA PERDIDA DE LA CIENCIA FICCION, EN ESPAÑOL
Para quienes me conocen, la ciencia ficción me acompañó desde que era chico audiovisualmente, pero en el ámbito literario fue recién a partir del 2018. Desde entonces, cada año me permito leer algo de este género que me produce tanto placer. En esta ocasión, un cuento que no fue traducido a mi idioma, hasta ahora.
Originalmente publicado en la revista Planet Stories en 1952, la edición que dispongo es completamente artesanal (al ser de dominio público, no hay/tiene ISBN) con tan solo 36 páginas. ¿La historia? Una nave que desciende a un planeta desconocido hasta que un disparo los saca de su rutina y los tripulantes, en medio de su exploración, deben buscar la causa que casi les provoca su muerte y la forma de volver a sus hogares sin ser amenazados por algo que, al parecer, no es controlado por nadie.
Para alguien que ya leyó al autor, fue hermoso volver a su universo. Para quien no, es un buen comienzo empezar con sus cuentos, como "El informe de la minoría" siendo el más conocido gracias a Steven Spielberg, o "EL CONMUTADOR" que fue plasmado en la serie Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams (que, al mismo tiempo, se basa en el libro homónimo) .
En fin, una breve y grata experiencia para amantes del cyberpunk (aunque en este caso es space-opera) .
FRASE DESTACADA: "-Este es su tesoro (...) Probablemente toda su literatura está aquí. Sus historias, sus mitos, sus ideas sobre el universo...
-Y su historia (...). Vamos a poder rastrear su desarrollo y descubrir qué fue lo que los llevó a convertirse en lo que fueron."
PD: lo leí en español bajo el nombre de "EL CAÑÓN", en la edición de Editorial Artefacto.
UNA JOYITA PERDIDA DE LA CIENCIA FICCION, EN ESPAÑOL
Para quienes me conocen, la ciencia ficción me acompañó desde que era chico audiovisualmente, pero en el ámbito literario fue recién a partir del 2018. Desde entonces, cada año me permito leer algo de este género que me produce tanto placer. En esta ocasión, un cuento que no fue traducido a mi idioma, hasta ahora.
Originalmente publicado en la revista Planet Stories en 1952, la edición que dispongo es completamente artesanal (al ser de dominio público, no hay/tiene ISBN) con tan solo 36 páginas. ¿La historia? Una nave que desciende a un planeta desconocido hasta que un disparo los saca de su rutina y los tripulantes, en medio de su exploración, deben buscar la causa que casi les provoca su muerte y la forma de volver a sus hogares sin ser amenazados por algo que, al parecer, no es controlado por nadie.
Para alguien que ya leyó al autor, fue hermoso volver a su universo. Para quien no, es un buen comienzo empezar con sus cuentos, como "El informe de la minoría" siendo el más conocido gracias a Steven Spielberg, o "EL CONMUTADOR" que fue plasmado en la serie Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams (que, al mismo tiempo, se basa en el libro homónimo) .
En fin, una breve y grata experiencia para amantes del cyberpunk (aunque en este caso es space-opera) .
FRASE DESTACADA: "-Este es su tesoro (...) Probablemente toda su literatura está aquí. Sus historias, sus mitos, sus ideas sobre el universo...
-Y su historia (...). Vamos a poder rastrear su desarrollo y descubrir qué fue lo que los llevó a convertirse en lo que fueron."
PD: lo leí en español bajo el nombre de "EL CAÑÓN", en la edición de Editorial Artefacto.
March 30, 2022
You download these things, read them, and then discover they are short stories. I'm not certain why this happens so frequently with this particular author. I had the same experience on Amazon and on my Library's website. Ah well.
Anyway, a simple story with a more or less predictable ending and you think "this is pretty basic stuff" and then an alien character unexpectedly states humans are the only species in the galaxy that wages INTRAspecies war.
WHOA !
Anyway, a simple story with a more or less predictable ending and you think "this is pretty basic stuff" and then an alien character unexpectedly states humans are the only species in the galaxy that wages INTRAspecies war.
WHOA !
April 10, 2023
Wellcome to the 50s.
The plot is not so hard to figure out, if you enjoy science fiction of the Golden Age.
We are supposed to think of one thing, but the end tells another story. Mr Dick rather ruins it with a clue, early on, that can't be misunderstood. Possibly forced by the Editor/publisher, because 'people won't understand'.
Well, those of us who cut our teeth on Golden Age SF aren't fooled for a second.
He could have put the clue in in the last sentence...
The plot is not so hard to figure out, if you enjoy science fiction of the Golden Age.
We are supposed to think of one thing, but the end tells another story. Mr Dick rather ruins it with a clue, early on, that can't be misunderstood. Possibly forced by the Editor/publisher, because 'people won't understand'.
Well, those of us who cut our teeth on Golden Age SF aren't fooled for a second.
He could have put the clue in in the last sentence...
April 21, 2024
another very solid, fun story. the ending was a bit obvious, and i don't know why it took these sophisticated astronauts so long to figure out that they could disable the gun, & i don't know why they didn't think a little more about whether any other defenses on the planet would still be intact. there are many, many little things you may wonder about.
but that's ok. fun story. not perfect. so what. still fun.
but that's ok. fun story. not perfect. so what. still fun.
April 24, 2025
My review of The Gun is based on listening to Scott Miller expertly narrate the story. I enjoyed this short story about a decimated planet with an automatic gun. I believe the author captured perfectly the ability of people to lose sight of the bigger picture when dealing with a challenge. In some ways the story reminded me of past experiences – not with any automatic gun on post-apocalyptic planets.
October 14, 2025
A decidedly so-so sci-fi tale from the 50's.
Pretty poor science. Being able to recognise, read and understand a first-contact alien's language immediately.
The twist in the tale was not unexpected.
It was poignant, for the time, with its fear of 'the bomb'.
Most notable takeaway for me was that a woman was present AND in some authority in the ship's crew, which If I'd read it 'back in the day' I would have thought was novel and exciting.
Pretty poor science. Being able to recognise, read and understand a first-contact alien's language immediately.
The twist in the tale was not unexpected.
It was poignant, for the time, with its fear of 'the bomb'.
Most notable takeaway for me was that a woman was present AND in some authority in the ship's crew, which If I'd read it 'back in the day' I would have thought was novel and exciting.
December 11, 2020
Wonderful Sci-Fi reading
A marvellous Sci-Fi novella, that is will written with interesting characters. The story line is fast moving with lots of twist and turns leading to the unexpected conclusion. I would recommend this novella to anyone who is looking for a quick read. Enjoy reading 🔰 2020 😆
A marvellous Sci-Fi novella, that is will written with interesting characters. The story line is fast moving with lots of twist and turns leading to the unexpected conclusion. I would recommend this novella to anyone who is looking for a quick read. Enjoy reading 🔰 2020 😆
August 8, 2021
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.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 96 reviews