HUMAN IS?: A Philip K. Dick Reader (Gollancz S.F.)

I loved this selection of Philip K. Dick's short stories. Some old favourites are included along with some that I had not encountered before. This author was truly before his time and managed to make interesting social commentaries with vivid settings. It is obvious that the cold war figured highly in his thinking and in some ways he was a product of his times, yet he manages to rise above it and express idea's that were not popular at the time. He must have been an amazing lateral thinker!Addendum: I was asked to provide a list of the contents as they were not freely available. I've outlined them below.Stories include (from the TOC):Beyond Lies The Wub,The Defenders, Roog,Second Variety,Impostor,The Preserving Machine,The Variable Man,Paycheck,Adjustment Team,The Father-Thing,Foster, You're Dead,Human Is,The Mold of Yancy,If There Were No Benny Cemoli,The Days of Perky Pat,Oh, To Be a Blobel!,We Can Remember It For You Wholesale,The Electric Ant,A Little Something For us Tempunauts,The Pre-Persons,There is also a short, one page 'About The Author' at the end.

This is a fine single volume collection of some of PKD's best short stories.The stories contained in this collection are:Beyond Lies The WubThe DefendersRoogSecond VarietyImposterThe Preserving MachineThe Variable ManPaycheckAdjustment TeamThe Father-ThingFoster, You're DeadHuman IsThe Mold of YancyIf There Where No Benny CemoliThe Days of Perky PatOh, To Be A Blobel!We Can Remember It For You WholesaleThe Electric AntA Little Something For Us TempunautsThe Pre-PersonsThis volume is a great introduction to PKD's short stories. The complete collection of PKD's short stories is the Gollancz 5 volume set, from which the above stories are taken. The 5 volume set consists of:Hopefully the full 5 volume set will also be made available on the kindle in the not too distant future.If you are new to Philip K Dick's work I would also recommend the following novels (which generally seem to be regarded as among his best):

I really enjoyed the story. I read this after seeing the tv version on Amazon. It’s a great story for all.

I am a massive fan of Philip K. Dick's novels and this was my first venture into his short stories, arguably the area he most excelled in.I was a little put-off and somewhat disheartened at first as one of the earliest stories in the collection is, in my opinion, the worst story he ever wrote. But, reading on, I re-aquainted myself with the true genius that was Philip K. Dick.Funny, deep and mind-bending, everything you could want from dystopian science-fiction. He is the best there ever was and this collection is a prime example of his brilliance.

Nice and simple early shortie by master of SF, Philip K. Dick! Could have made a great novel. Well, maybe he did some...