Yanik’s Reviews > The Philip K. Dick Reader > Status Update

The Chromium Fence was very blunt, heavy handed and almost a caricature of us/them Fascism. But, ugh, was it pitch black.

Pay for the Printer was very cool, especially in our world of 3d-printing and AI reliance. Very relevant message.
In the middle of War Veteran and I'm not really feeling it. Bit too much of the classic sci-fi tropey pitfalls. The Cold War-reflective premise is decently interesting, but the characters are just wildly bizarrely out of place. Add to that mid-century standards and time-travel...We'll see.

Upon the Dull Earth is why I read. Such a bright, vivid piece of storytelling that masterfully paints a world and pulls you in, for a short bit makes you part of its bizarre chaos. The fact we follow the POV of Rick, the possessive, self-centered boyfriend to the fantastically fascinating, intelligent, Silvia who communicates with the beyond and has her life planned out for herself is very poignant to the theme.

Shell game was fun, in a dark psychological horror kind of way.
Upon the Dull Earth was on another level. Fantastic prose, great characterization for its tiny cast and huge, terrifying implications with its biblical horror fantasy plot.

Oh wow, there has been a lot of hyper-capitalist dystopia and a decent amount of android/robot exploration, but it hasn't come together like this before.
Sales Pitch was an actual 1954 Cyberpunk short story. Yes, it has the gender norms, mid-century trappings and vocabulary of the time, but man is it cyberpunk in everything else, from the visuals and themes to the dark depressive storytelling.

Serve the Master- Post AI/Robot was Apocalypse humanity living in underground shelters/vaults. Very brutal Fallout-esque world.
Exhibit Piece- Escapism from a future dystopia via portal fantasy. Again, Fallouty vibes with the mid-century modern Cold War setting.
The Crawlers- One of the closest to horror so far. Main theme being humanities destructive drive for knowledge and power without heed for the consequences.

Have been hyper-focused on Star Wars for a bit. The Living Force's humorous tone isn't wat I want today so this is a nice side-read to pick back up again.

Tony and the Beetles is a quick, dark story about humanity's eternal strife and conquest. The need to take, expand, exploit through violence.
There might be nods to the American Civil War in there too.
And it's all wrapped in a young boy's hopeful day of laying with his friends and dreaming of larger things.
Quite a gut punch.

Strange Eden is a short little story that does everything it can to make you hate the blustering, impulsive, rapist POV character and humanity as a whole. Quite cathartic ending.

The Father-Thing was great. Some Edgar-Suit vibes.
I can see a lot of things that these stories influenced. Cyberpunk(of course), Man in Black, Fallout.