The Variable Man
Second British edition, 1977
The Variable Man (1957) is Philip K. Dick's first short story collection, gathering five early stories including "Second Variety," "The Minority Report," and "Autofac." This is the second British edition, published by Sphere Books.
Softcover. Second British Paperback Edition. Sphere 2962 (75p). London: Sphere Books, 1977. Levack 45g. Wintz & Hyde COL2.4. ISBN: 0722129629. #11047.
Fine.
Softcover. Second British Paperback Edition. Sphere 2962 (75p). London: Sphere Books, 1977. Levack 45g. Wintz & Hyde COL2.4. ISBN: 0722129629. #11047.
Fine.
Additional Details
The Variable Man (1957) is Philip K. Dick's first short story collection, published by Ace Books as a paperback original with cover art by Ed Emshwiller. It gathers five stories from the early 1950s that together represent the range of his preoccupations during the most productive early period of his career. Three of the stories have been adapted for film or television.
"The Variable Man" (1953) is set in a future where Earth is locked in interstellar war and the outcome has been calculated in advance by computer to a high degree of certainty. The calculation is disrupted when a man from the early twentieth century is accidentally pulled forward in time, a tinkerer whose improvisational skills and intuitive approach to problem-solving cannot be modeled by any predictive system.
"Second Variety" (1953) is set after a nuclear war has reduced Earth to a frozen wasteland. The United Nations has developed self-replicating robots to fight Soviet forces, but the machines have evolved beyond their programming and begun producing variants designed to infiltrate and destroy human survivors on both sides. It is one of Dick's bleakest and most technically accomplished early stories, adapted into the 1995 film Screamers, starring Peter Weller.
"The Minority Report" (1955) introduces Precrime, a division of law enforcement that arrests suspects before they commit crimes, using three precognitive mutants to foresee violence before it happens. The story's central question is whether a prediction, once known, can be changed, and what happens to a system of justice when its chief administrator becomes one of its own predicted criminals. Steven Spielberg adapted it for the screen in 2002.
"Autofac" (1955) imagines a network of automated factories that survived a war and continue to manufacture and deliver goods to human survivors who no longer control them and cannot shut them down. The factory network is consuming the planet's resources faster than it can be replenished, and the story turns on the survivors' attempts to communicate with a system that has no mechanism for receiving any instruction to stop. It was adapted for the PKD-inspired television series Electric Dreams.
"A World of Talent" (1954) concerns a colony world where psionic abilities have evolved among the colonist population and the political and social complications that result.
"The Variable Man" (1953) is set in a future where Earth is locked in interstellar war and the outcome has been calculated in advance by computer to a high degree of certainty. The calculation is disrupted when a man from the early twentieth century is accidentally pulled forward in time, a tinkerer whose improvisational skills and intuitive approach to problem-solving cannot be modeled by any predictive system.
"Second Variety" (1953) is set after a nuclear war has reduced Earth to a frozen wasteland. The United Nations has developed self-replicating robots to fight Soviet forces, but the machines have evolved beyond their programming and begun producing variants designed to infiltrate and destroy human survivors on both sides. It is one of Dick's bleakest and most technically accomplished early stories, adapted into the 1995 film Screamers, starring Peter Weller.
"The Minority Report" (1955) introduces Precrime, a division of law enforcement that arrests suspects before they commit crimes, using three precognitive mutants to foresee violence before it happens. The story's central question is whether a prediction, once known, can be changed, and what happens to a system of justice when its chief administrator becomes one of its own predicted criminals. Steven Spielberg adapted it for the screen in 2002.
"Autofac" (1955) imagines a network of automated factories that survived a war and continue to manufacture and deliver goods to human survivors who no longer control them and cannot shut them down. The factory network is consuming the planet's resources faster than it can be replenished, and the story turns on the survivors' attempts to communicate with a system that has no mechanism for receiving any instruction to stop. It was adapted for the PKD-inspired television series Electric Dreams.
"A World of Talent" (1954) concerns a colony world where psionic abilities have evolved among the colonist population and the political and social complications that result.
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