The Zap Gun
First hardcover edition, 1979
The Zap Gun (1967) is a science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick set in a future Cold War where neither side deploys its weapons. Instead, designs channeled by trance-state mediums are quietly converted into consumer goods, sustaining the illusion of an arms race while flooding the retail market with plowshared novelties. When an actual alien invasion arrives, the absence of any real military capability becomes a genuine problem. Originally serialized as Project Plowshare in Worlds of Tomorrow in 1965, and first published in book form by Pyramid in 1967. This Gregg Press edition is the first hardcover, with a frontispiece by Hannah Shapero and a new introduction by Charles Platt.
Hardcover. First Hardcover Edition. Octavo, bound in dark green cloth with gold lettering on spine. Issued without a dust jacket. Boston, MA: Gregg Press, 1979. Levack 49i. Wintz & Hyde SF31.3. ISBN: 0839824947. #10911.
Small scuff mark on front endpaper likely from a sticker removal, else fine.
Hardcover. First Hardcover Edition. Octavo, bound in dark green cloth with gold lettering on spine. Issued without a dust jacket. Boston, MA: Gregg Press, 1979. Levack 49i. Wintz & Hyde SF31.3. ISBN: 0839824947. #10911.
Small scuff mark on front endpaper likely from a sticker removal, else fine.
Additional Details
The Zap Gun (1967) is built around one of Dick's more sardonic premises. In a future Cold War between Wes-bloc and Peep-East, weapons are never actually deployed. Each side employs a trance-state medium to channel designs for new armaments from some other dimension, and the resulting weapons are then quietly converted into consumer goods, "plowshared" into toys, appliances, and novelties that flood the retail market. The arrangement suits all involved. Governments maintain the appearance of an arms race, manufacturers profit from the consumer spin-offs, and the public remains oblivious to the entire charade.
Lars Powderdry is Wes-bloc's weapons fashion designer, the medium responsible for channeling these designs. He is celebrated, carefully managed, and quietly miserable. His counterpart in Peep-East is Lilo Topchev, a young woman he knows only through surveillance photographs and spy agency reports. The novel tracks Lars across New York and Paris as he navigates the demands of his government handlers, his medical team, his mistress in Paris, and a subordinate named Henry Morris whose files contain enough compromising material to destroy anyone who moves against him. Running parallel is the story of Surley G. Febbs, an ordinary citizen drafted by lottery into a citizen oversight board called the concomodies, six individuals selected from the general public to provide nominal civilian input into weapons decisions. Febbs takes his role more seriously than anyone intended.
The plot turns when an actual alien invasion arrives and the plowshared weapons infrastructure, designed for theater rather than warfare, proves useless against a real threat. The consumer toys that have been circulating for years turn out to have unrecognized military applications, and Lars finds himself tracing the one genuine weapon concealed within the system. The novel works through this reversal with characteristic Dick restlessness, cutting between Lars, Febbs, Lilo Topchev, and the various institutional functionaries who surround them.
The Zap Gun is not among Dick's most tightly constructed novels. It was written quickly, but the central conceit, the arms industry as a consumer product pipeline, anticipates later critiques of the military-industrial complex with a bluntness that more polished fiction might have softened. The novel was originally serialized as Project Plowshare in Worlds of Tomorrow in 1965 before appearing in book form.
Lars Powderdry is Wes-bloc's weapons fashion designer, the medium responsible for channeling these designs. He is celebrated, carefully managed, and quietly miserable. His counterpart in Peep-East is Lilo Topchev, a young woman he knows only through surveillance photographs and spy agency reports. The novel tracks Lars across New York and Paris as he navigates the demands of his government handlers, his medical team, his mistress in Paris, and a subordinate named Henry Morris whose files contain enough compromising material to destroy anyone who moves against him. Running parallel is the story of Surley G. Febbs, an ordinary citizen drafted by lottery into a citizen oversight board called the concomodies, six individuals selected from the general public to provide nominal civilian input into weapons decisions. Febbs takes his role more seriously than anyone intended.
The plot turns when an actual alien invasion arrives and the plowshared weapons infrastructure, designed for theater rather than warfare, proves useless against a real threat. The consumer toys that have been circulating for years turn out to have unrecognized military applications, and Lars finds himself tracing the one genuine weapon concealed within the system. The novel works through this reversal with characteristic Dick restlessness, cutting between Lars, Febbs, Lilo Topchev, and the various institutional functionaries who surround them.
The Zap Gun is not among Dick's most tightly constructed novels. It was written quickly, but the central conceit, the arms industry as a consumer product pipeline, anticipates later critiques of the military-industrial complex with a bluntness that more polished fiction might have softened. The novel was originally serialized as Project Plowshare in Worlds of Tomorrow in 1965 before appearing in book form.
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