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Philip K Dick

Ubik

Philip K Dick

Valis

Philip K Dick

We Can Build You

Philip K Dick

World of Chance

Philip Kindred Dick

A Maze of Death

Fourteen strangers came to Delmak-O. Thirteen of them were transferred by the usual authorities. One got there by praying. But once they arrived on that planet whose very atmosphere seemed to induce paranoia and psychosis, the newcomers found that even prayer was useless. For on Delmak-O, God is either absent or intent on destroying His creations.<

Philip Kindred Dick

A Scanner Darkly

<p>British Science Fiction Award (1978)</p><p>Bob Arctor is a dealer of the lethally addictive drug Substance D. Fred is the police agent assigned to tail and eventually bust him. To do so, Fred takes on the identity of a drug dealer named Bob Arctor. And since Substance D—which Arctor takes in massive doses—gradually splits the user’s brain into two distinct, combative entities, Fred doesn’t realize he is narcing on himself.</p><

Philip Kindred Dick

Beyond Lies the Wub

<p>The slovenly wub might well have said: Many men talk like philosophers and live like fools.</p><

Philip Kindred Dick

Beyond the Door

<p>Larry Thomas bought a cuckoo clock for his wife—without knowing the price he would have to pay.</p><

Philip Kindred Dick

Confessions of a Crap Artist

Confessions of a Crap Artist is one of Philip K. Dick’s weirdest and most accomplished novels. Jack Isidore is a crap artist—a collector of crackpot ideas (among other things, he believes that the earth is hallow and that sunlight has weight) and worthless objects, a man so grossly unequipped for real life that his sister and brother-in-law feel compelled to rescue him from it. But seen through Jack’s murderously innocent gaze, Charlie and Juddy Hume prove to be just as sealed off from reality, in thrall to obsessions that are slightly more acceptable than Jack’s, but a great deal uglier.<

Philip Kindred Dick

Deus Irae

In the years following World War III, a new and powerful faith has arisen from a scorched and poisoned Earth, a faith that embraces the architect of world wide devastation. The Servants of Wrath have deified Carlton Lufteufel and re-christened him the Deus Irae. In the small community of Charlottesville, Utah, Tibor McMasters, born without arms or legs, has, through an array of prostheses, established a far-reaching reputation as an inspired painter. When the new church commissions a grand mural depicting the Deus Irae, it falls upon Tibor to make a treacherous journey to find the man, to find the god, and capture his terrible visage for posterity.<

Philip Kindred Dick

Die besten Stories

<p>Titel der Originalausgabe: The Best of Philip K. Dick Aus dem Amerikanischen von Rainer Zubeil Copyrigt © 1977 by Philip K Dick Copyright © der deutschen Übersetzung 1981 by Moewig Verlag, München Vorwort: © 1977 by Brunner Facts and Fiction Ltd.</p><

Philip Kindred Dick

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Bladerunner

<p>‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ was published in 1968. Grim and foreboding, even today it is a masterpiece ahead of its time.</p><p>By 2021, the World War had killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remained coveted any living creature, and for people who couldn’t afford one, companies built incredibly realistic simulacrae: horses, birds, cats, sheep…</p><p>They even built humans.</p><p>Emigrees to Mars received androids so sophisticated it was impossible to tell them from true men or women. Fearful of the havoc these artificial humans could wreak, the government banned them from Earth. But when androids didn’t want to be identified, they just blended in. </p><p>Rick Deckard was an officially sanctioned bounty hunter whose job was to find rogue androids, and to retire them. But cornered, androids tended to fight back, with deadly results.</p><

Charles Dickens

David Copperfield

<p>In his early childhood days, a young boy, David Copperfield, had been living with his mother and their servant Peggotty. His mother marries a very cruel man, Mr. Murdstone and David is being sent away to Salem House where it is not very safe at all. It was a run-down London boarding school where Mr. Creakle beats up young boys. David’s mother soon gives birth to a son by Mr. Murdstone. Unfortunately she dies after a while. David was dragged out of school and was forced to work at a wine warehouse with Mr. Murdstone. David runs from work and lives with his great-aunt, Miss Betsey Trotwood, where he lives a happier life. She soon adopts him and sends him off to Dr. Strong’s school in Canterbury. When David was done with his education at Dr. Strong’s school, he goes to work at the law firm of Mr. Spenlow and Jorkins. He meets his significant other, Dora Spenlow and falls in love with with her. After that, they were engaged to each other.</p><p>They had their very first child but Dora becomes ill and dies after giving birth, along with the child. It was a sad life for David but he tries to move on. He had traveled abroad for several years and realizes he truly loves this other woman, Agnes Wickfield. David becomes a famous writer and marries Agnes. They live happily ever after along with their friends.</p><

Philip Kindred Dick

Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along after the Bomb

“Dr. Bloodmoney” is a post-nuclear-holocaust masterpiece filled with a host of Dick’s most memorable characters: Hoppy Harrington, a deformed mutant with telekinetic powers; Walt Dangerfield, a selfless disc jockey stranded in a satellite circling the globe; Dr. Bluthgeld, the megalomaniac physicist largely responsible for the decimated state of the world; and Stuart McConchie and Bonnie Keller, two unremarkable people bent the survival of goodness in a world devastated by evil. Epic and alluring, this brilliant novel is a mesmerizing depiction of Dick’s undying hope in humanity.<

Philip Kindred Dick

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said

<p>On October 11 the television star Jason Taverner is so famous that 30 million viewers eagerly watch his prime-time show. On October 12 Jason Taverner is not a has-been but a never-was—a man who has lost not only his audience but all proof of his existence. And in the claustrophobic betrayal state of “Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said”, loss of proof is synonyms with loss of life.</p><p>Taverner races to solve the riddle of his disappearance, immerses us in a horribly plausible Philip K. Dick United States in which everyone—from a waiflike forger of identity cards to a surgically altered pleasure—informs on everyone else, a world in which omniscient police have something to hide. His bleakly beautiful novel bores into the deepest bedrock self and plants a stick of dynamite at its center.</p><

Philip Kindred Dick

Humpty Dumpty in Oakland

<p>Al Miller is a sad case, someone who can’t seem to lift himself up from his stagnant and disappointing life. He’s a self-proclaimed nobody, a used car salesman with a lot full of junkers.</p><p>His elderly landlord, Jim Fergesson, has decided to retire because of a heart condition and has just cashed in on his property, which includes his garage, and, next to it, the lot that Al rents. This leaves Al wondering what his next step should be, and if he even cares.</p><p>Chris Harman is a record-company owner who has relied on Fergesson’s to fix his Cadillac for many years. When he hears about Fergesson’s sudden retirement fund, he tells him about a new realty development and urges him to invest in it. According to Harman, it’s a surefire path to easy wealth. Fergesson is swayed. This is his chance to be a real businessman, a well-to-do, gentleman, like Harman.</p><p>But Al is convinced that Harman is a crook out to fleece Fergesson. Even if he doesn’t particularly like Fergesson, Al is not going to stand by and watch him get cheated. Only Al’s not very good at this, either. He may not even be right.</p><

Philip Kindred Dick

Marsianischer Zeitsturz

<p>Mit großem Enthusiasmus und Pioniergeist haben die Menschen den Mars besiedelt. Doch nun, Jahre später, ähnelt das Leben dort auf erschreckende Weise dem Alltagstreiben auf der Erde. Und auch die politischen Grabenkämpfe setzen sich nahtlos fort: Arnie Kott ist bereits der mächtigste Mann auf dem Mars, aber das ist ihm nicht genug. Mittels eines geistesgestörten Jungen, für den die Schranken der Zeit nicht existieren, will er seinen Feinden eine endgültige Niederlage beibringen. Doch der Junge ist nicht nur in der Lage, vorwärts und rückwärts durch die Zeit zu stürzen, er kann Vergangenheit und Zukunft auch nach den Vorstellungen seines umnachteten Gehirns umgestalten. Die gewohnte Ordnung der 0.00cm Dinge zerfällt, Raum und Zeit lösen sich auf. Und der Traum vom Pionierleben wandelt sich endgültig zum Alptraum ...</p><p>»Philip K. Dick ist ein visionärer und zugleich naiver (im guten Sinne des Wortes) Science-Fiction-Maler. Er ist ein Bosch im Fell eines Holzschnitzers, ein Goya, der mit der Schminke und dem Rouge einer Theatergarderobe aus der Provinz arbeitet.«</p><p>- </p><p>»Das ist nicht nur ein geniales Buch in bester Philip-K.-Dick-Manier, sondern auch einer der hervorragendsten Mars-Romane, die je geschrieben wurden. So wie Dick es schildert, könnte es eines Tages wirklich sein.«</p><p>- </p><p>Philip K. Dick, 1928 in Chicago geboren, schrieb schon in jungen Jahren zahllose Stories und arbeitete als Verkäufer in einem Plattenladen in Berkeley, ehe er 1952 hauptberuflich Schriftsteller wurde. Er verfaßte über hundert Erzählungen und Kurzgeschichten für diverse Magazine und Anthologien und schrieb mehr als dreißig Romane, von denen etliche heute als Klassiker der amerikanischen Literatur gelten. Philip K. Dick starb am 2. März 1982 in Santa Ana, Kalifornien, an den Folgen eines Schlaganfalls.</p><

Philip Kindred Dick

Martian TimeSlip

Warning: Although this the action of this book is set on Mars, it could just as easily have taken place in one of the desert communities around Los Angeles. The real action takes place inside the minds of the characters. If you're looking for all the external trappings of interplanetary Sci-Fi, you will be deeply disappointed. Approach it with an open mind, and you will be richly rewarded. What happens when one of the most powerful men on the planet Mars finds that real-estate speculators are intent on gobbling up the remote and seemingly worthless Franklin D Roosevelt mountains? Naturally he wants to find out why. A casual conversation with a psychologist followed by a chance encounter with a master repairman leads to one of those Dickian leaps: Since (1) autistic children do not respond to others because they are living in the future, (2) just build a machine to slow down time and (3) maybe even use it to go back in time and retroactively post a claim on the land before the speculators do. Well, the mechanism works, in a way. The speculators were proposing to build giant apartment blocks to help relieve overcrowding on polluted Earth. The autistic boy, Manfred Steiner, sees much further, however, to the time the apartment block would become a warehouse for the sick and dying, a "tomb world," of which he himself is a denizen. Manfred's visions have a way of bending the reality of those around him; he persistently retreats to a vision of reality as "gubble" -- entropy seen as large wormlike constructs that underlie reality, leading to pure "gubbish." MARTIAN TIME-SLIP is one of my favorite Philip K Dicks. (The problem is that I like all 15 or so I've read more or less equally.) Reading Philip K Dick tends to bend your sense of reality much as Manfred Steiner does. And one can't help looking over one's shoulder for a few hours after reading him. I see Dick as not so much a science fiction writer as a creator of disturbing and eerily plausible futures. <

Philip Kindred Dick

Mr. Spaceship

<p>A human brain-controlled spacecraft would mean mechanical perfection. This was accomplished, and something unforeseen: a strange entity called—</p><

Philip Kindred Dick

Nanny

Philip Kindred Dick

Piper in the Woods

<p>Earth maintained an important garrison on Asteroid Y-3. Now suddenly it was imperiled with a biological impossibility—men becoming plants!</p><

Philip Kindred Dick

Second Variety

The claws were bad enough in the first place—nasty, crawling little death-robots. But when they began to imitate their creators, it was time for the human race to make peace—if it could!<

Philip Kindred Dick

The Crystal Crypt

<p>Stark terror ruled the Inner-Flight ship on that last Mars-Terra run. For the black-clad Leiters were on the prowl ... and the grim red planet was not far behind.</p><

Philip Kindred Dick

The Defenders

Philip Kindred Dick

The Eye of the Sibyl and Other Classic Strories

The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick

Since his untimely death in 1982, interest in Philip K. Dick’s works has continued to grow, and his reputation has been enhanced by an expanding body of critical appreciation. This fifth and final volume of Dick’s collected works includes 25 short stories, some previously unpublished.<

Philip Kindred Dick

The Eyes Have It

<p>A little whimsy, now and then, makes for good balance. Theoretically, you could find this type of humor anywhere. But only a topflight science-fictionist, we thought, could have written this story, in just this way….</p><

Philip Kindred Dick

The Gun

Philip Kindred Dick

The Hanging Stranger

Philip Kindred Dick

The Infinites

“Yes,” the calm, inflexible thought came. “You are right. We are the hamsters from the laboratory. The pigs carried for your experiments and tests.” There was almost a note of humor in the thought. “However, we hold nothing against you, I assure you. In fact, we have very little interest in your race, one way or another. We owe you a slight debt for helping us along our path, bringing our destiny onto us in a few short minutes instead of another fifty million years. For that we are thankful…”<

Philip Kindred Dick

The Man in the High Castle

<p>It’s America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. The few Jews who still survive hide under assumed names. In San Francisco the I Ching is as common as the Yellow Pages. All because some 20 years earlier the United States lost a war—and is now occupied jointly by Nazi Germany and Japan.</p><p>This harrowing, Hugo Award-winning novel is the work that established Philip K. Dick as an innovator in science fiction while breaking the barrier between science fiction and the serious novel of ideas. In it Dick offers a haunting vision of history as a nightmare from which it may just be possible to awake.</p><

Philip Kindred Dick

The Minority Report and Other Classic Stories

The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick

<p>Many thousands of readers consider Philip K. Dick the greatest science fiction mind on any planet. Since his untimely death in 1982, interest in Dick’s works has continued to mount and his reputation has been further enhanced by a growing body of critical attention. The Philip K. Dick Award is now given annually to a distinguished work of science fiction, and the Philip K. Dick Society is devoted to the study and promulgation of his works.</p><p>This collection includes all of the writer’s earliest short and medium-length fiction (including some previously unpublished stories) covering the years 1954-1964. These fascinating stories include “Service Call”, “Stand By”, “The Days of Perky Pat”, and many others.</p><

Philip Kindred Dick

The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford and Other Classic Stories

The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick

This collection includes all of the writer’s earliest short and medium-length fiction (including some previously unpublished stories) covering the years 1952-1955. These fascinating stories include “Beyond Lies the Wub”, “The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford”, “The Variable Man”, and 22 others.<

Philip Kindred Dick

The Skull

<p>Conger agreed to kill a stranger he had never seen. But he would make no mistakes because he had the stranger's skull under his arm.</p><

Philip Kindred Dick

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

In this wildly disorienting funhouse of a novel, populated by God-like—or perhaps Satanic—takeover artists and corporate psychics, Philip K. Dick explores mysteries that were once the property of St. Paul and Aquinas. His wit, compassion, and knife-edged irony make The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch moving as well as genuinely visionary.<

Philip Kindred Dick

The Variable Man

He fixed things—clocks, refrigerators, vidsenders and destinies. But he had no business in the future, where the calculators could not handle him. He was Earth’s only hope—and its sure failure!<

Philip Kindred Dick

We Can Remember It for You Wholesale

Charles Dickens

Bleak House

Soon after she returns to Bleak House, Esther decides to go to London to see Mr. Guppy. First, she visits Caddy and Prince Turveydrop. Taken aback by Esther's scarred face, Guppy emphatically retracts his former marriage proposal to Esther. Esther obtains from him a promise to "relinquish all idea of . . . serving me." She no longer needs Guppy's assistance in helping her learn her real identity, and Guppy's presence could possibly endanger her attempt to be secret about what she has learned from Lady Dedlock.<

Philippe Delerm

La première gorgée de bière et autres plaisirs minuscules

<p>On dit que la vie n'est pas simple et que le bonheur est rare. Pour Philippe Delerm, il tient en trente-quatre "plaisirs minuscules". Il évoque ici tour à tour, sous forme de petites séquences, la satisfaction immense qu'il tire tantôt de petits gestes insignifiants, tantôt d'une bienheureuse absence de gestes. Toutes les saisons sont évoquées dans ce petit ouvrage délicieux qui s'apparente presque à un manuel du bonheur à l'usage des gens trop pressés. Les plaisirs de la table y ont une place privilégiée et, tout comme les plaisirs d'un autre ordre, font ressurgir avec humour et nostalgie l'univers de l'enfance, chez le narrateur comme chez le lecteur, rendus complices par la merveilleuse banalité des situations décrites. Grâce à ce traité de vie simple, Delerm nous rappelle que prendre le temps, socialement ou à part soi, n'est pas une perte de temps. Certaines séquences sont toutefois ambiguës, comme celle sur Le Dimanche soir. S'ouvrant sur la description d'une joie, elles s'achèvent avec gravité sur une sensation douloureuse, comme pour nous rappeler que le bonheur, s'il n'est pas rare, est tout de même précieux.</p><p>«C’est facile, d’écosser les petits pois. Une pression du pouce sur la fente de la gousse et elle s’ouvre, docile, offerte. Quelques-unes, moins mûres, sont plus réticentes – une incision de l’ongle de l’index permet alors de déchirer le vert, et de sentir la mouillure et la chair dense, juste sous la peau faussement parcheminée. Après, on fait glisser les boules d’un seul doigt. La dernière est si minuscule… L’écossage des petits pois n’est pas conçu pour expliquer, mais pour suivre le cours, à léger contretemps. Il y en aurait pour cinq minutes mais c’est bien de prolonger, d’alentir le matin, gousse à gousse, manches retroussées. On passe les mains dans les boules écossées qui remplissent le saladier. C’est doux; toutes ces rondeurs contiguës font comme une eau vert tendre, et l’on s’étonne de ne pas avoir les mains mouillées. Un long silence de bien-être clair, et puis il y aura juste le pain à aller chercher.»</p><p>«Mise en scène avec humour par France Jolly, sept comédiens fort sympathiques nous font partager des instants qui valent moins que rien, mais comptent plus que tout»</p><

Philippe Djian

Betty Blue

Djian's five novels have won acclaim in Europe, and the present one was a bestseller later adapted into an offbeat film. It's not likely, however, that this tedious and melodramatic on-the-road novel of the most formless kind will have much impact here. The story revolves around the love affair between a drifter with an unpublished novel to his credit and a beautiful girl with itchy feet who, for no discernible reason (Djian doesn't seem to believe in reasons), goes from such eccentricities as pouring paint over a car and torching a house to self-destructive madness. Her passion-driven lover follows her from place to place (none identified), flattered by her faith in his literary talents and ready to try his hand at practically anything to keep the affair afloatplumbing, housepainting, pizza-making, selling pianos and, finally, armed robbery. The lovers fail to inspire credibility, or even interest, the events smack more of fantasy than reality and every so often the generally sloppy prose sinks to the level of "A smile spread over her face like an atomic bomb." Here is one disciple Kerouac would have disclaimed.<

Philippe Djian

Ça c’est un baiser

Ce roman réunit au début tous les clichés du polar. De nos jours, dans une grande ville plutôt glauque et violente, «malade de ses cracks boursiers, de ses délocalisations sauvages, des affrontements sociaux et ethniques qui la harcèlent, des guérilleras urbaines qui se multiplient?», un homme et une femme mènent une enquête autour du meurtre de Jennifer Brennen. L'homme, Nathan (40 ans), est un flic ordinaire marié à Chris. Il est en pleine déprime. Sa femme vient de le quitter pour rejoindre la maison communautaire de Wolf (professeur d'économie politique à Berlin) et de ses amis, tous des militants anti-mondialistes très actifs, branchés sexe et bio. Wolf, homosexuel notoire, est donc l'amant de Chris. Cependant, Nathan installe chez lui Paula Consuelo-Acari (28 ans), un top-model très en vue qu'il s'abstient de «baiser» car sa libido le porte toujours vers sa femme Chris. Marie-Jo, la coéquipière de Nathan, 32 ans, est une grosse fille aux yeux verts, qui se bourre d'amphétamines et qui pèse autour de 90 à 100 kilos. Elle partage son existence avec Franck, écrivain et professeur de «creative writing» à l'université. Au retour de ses longues courses à pied, Marie-Jo se laisse prendre violemment par Ramon, un petit mâle de vingt-cinq ans son voisin d'en dessous qui couche également avec Franck son mari. Nathan et Marie-Jo couchent aussi régulièrement ensemble au cours de l'enquête qu'ils poursuivent. A l'issue de leurs investigations, on comprend que la victime Jennifer Brennen, retrouvée étranglée, les dents fracassées, adhérait à la mouvance anti-mondialiste afin de se venger de son père, un redoutable homme d'affaire maffieux et criminel. Brennen le père sera d'ailleurs liquidé à la fin du roman par Nathan. Pour vivre, Jennifer déguisée en infirmière faisait la pute dans un hôpital. Elle a également joué dans quelques films pornos amateurs. Nathan et Marie-Jo sont sans cesse rattrapés par leurs problèmes psychologiques, sentimentaux, sexuels et professionnels. L'imbroglio est complet. Après avoir investi le roman porno (Vers chez les blancs), Philippe Djian s'introduit cette fois dans l'univers du polar, ou plus exactement feint de s'y introduire. Dans les plis du récit, qui est plus qu'un pur exercice de style, il propose toutes sortes de digressions, de notations, de variantes comme la démonstration de sa liberté face à tous les genres. Il néglige les figures imposées au polar car l'enquête n'aboutira jamais. Certes le paysage est délétère et violent, les relations entre les êtres sont distendues, crapuleuses, perverses et sadiques et il n'y a donc ni fin, ni conclusion, ni morale. <

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