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Post by Ish Kabbible on Oct 19, 2014 20:29:40 GMT -5
The Golden Man Philip K. Dick 1980 Cover Illustration:Richard Sparks (Methuen Edition-not the Clint Eastwood version here)15 short stories ranging from 1953 through 1974.Originally published in Galaxy, Worlds of If, Orbit, Famous SF, Future SF, Magazine of F & SF , Amazing Stories and more. Editor Mark Hurst was a huge Dick fan and was quite frustrated how difficult it was to track down some of Phil's previously published short fiction. He was determined to alleviate this by compiling ,at that time, this group of stories that were not collected in earlier Dick compendiums. Even though this is not a "greatest hits" collection, every story is well worth reading. This book also includes a 13 page introduction from the author regarding his ups and downs as a SF writer and short comments for each story that's included. Some favorite stories include: The Golden Man-Xmen fans would be interested in this story on how the government would immediately try to kill all mutants The King Of The Elves-A rare tongue in cheek fantasy tale by Dick of a human assuming the Elf throne and leading a battle against the trolls The Mold Of Yancy-John Edward Yancy is broadcast daily, expressing his everyman opinions on every subject. The world is enthralled by Yancy. A bit too enthralled The Unreconstructed M-A murder machine that also plants evidence to frame innocents The War with the Fnools-Earth is locked in battle with the Fnools, 2 foot high aliens who look like real estate agents Meddler-Another example of time travel damaging the present A Game of Unchance-Interstellar carnivals can be more than they seem Sales Pitch-No one drives a hard sell as much as a robot Precious Artifact-Milt Biskle has completed his task of terraforming Mars for human colonization. He's got a nagging feeling that something's not quite right back on earth Small Town-Verne Haskell has a miniature scale sized model of his town in his basement that he's worked on for 40 years. The Pre-Persons-Abortions are now legal up to the age of 12 As usual, Dick's penchant for things not being what they seem are in evidence in many of these tales including a foreboding sense of paranoia But some stories also contain a great sense of humor. Not a bad story in the bunch.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2014 8:56:40 GMT -5
"The Golden Man," IIRC, is the (very loose) basis for the Nicolas Cage movie Next. Disney or someone similar option "King of the Elves" for a youth-oriented film awhile back, but I have no idea if that's still in development or not.
"The Pre-Persons" provoked a storm of criticism of abortion rights advocates in the field, most prominently Ursula K. LeGuin, who pretty much split with PKD over it. Earlier, she'd written a novel, The Lathe of Heaven (filmed twice, both time for PBS, I believe), that was very much an hommage to him & in fact might've been dedicated accordingly.
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Post by berkley on Oct 21, 2014 0:50:19 GMT -5
I had this copy of the Golden Man that came out in I think the early 80s: The two things I remember most about it are the title story - a typically outside-the-box PKD take on the old SF concept of humanity's encounter with its own evolutionary replacement - and the intro that Ish mentioned where PKD writes about his early days as a struggling (and I mean really struggling) writer.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 21, 2014 9:09:42 GMT -5
Yep -- that's the one I had. Not sure if I still do, since I've got the 5-volume Collected Stories that came out in the '90s, but I hope it's on my shelves. The intro mentioned above is pretty much worth the price of admission.
Can't remember now (if the credit is given) who drew the cover, but that figure really reminds me of some artist I can't quite identify off the top of my head ...
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Oct 21, 2014 9:46:58 GMT -5
The Methuen Edition I own is an English publisher whose front cover image was unavailable on the internet as far as I looked. It's a 3rd edition from 1986. That intro by PDK was as good as any particular story in the collection. Also interesting to read PDK evolve as a writer from simpler Twilight Zone type of stories to tales he's best known for, questioning reality and truth and revelations that totally change the stories' perspectives
I seem to have fallen into a pattern of every other book I'm reading is by PDK now. But first I'm about to start a short novel by Robert Silverberg called The Man In The Maze from 1969
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Post by berkley on Oct 21, 2014 10:34:16 GMT -5
I brought back almost all my old PKD paperbacks last time I visited my parents' place but seem to have left The Golden Man back home. When I was looking for a picture of that particular edition on google images I came across these two, both of which I like better: I wouldn't have recognised it as a Ken Barr painting but that looks like his signature. I never liked his covers for various Marvel B&W mags in the 70s , but I've since found out that he did some excellent work elsewhere.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 21, 2014 11:03:48 GMT -5
Yep. Never really realized it before, but at least at a distance his signature resembles Gray Morrow's a fair amount.
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Post by Jesse on Oct 21, 2014 15:25:49 GMT -5
Quillsby Doug Wright I'm not sure but this may be the first play that has been mentioned in this thread. This award winning play was turned into a film back in 2000. I had an English professor that made us read this in class and I'd thought I'd revisit it when I recently found my copy of it. The book contains graphic descriptions of sexual acts and other debaucheries often disturbing and horrific. It examines the effects the Marquis' writings had on readers, censorship and hypocrisy. Quills depicts the last days of the Marquis de Sade at the Charenton insane asylum. When it's discovered that confinement hasn't stopped the Marquis from writing Abbé du Coulmier is encouraged by Dr. Royer-Collard to take cruel measures to stop him. This sets off a chain of events that leads to the death of laundress Madeleine LeClerc and the Coulmier being corrupted himself in a most ironic way. The ending also features a very unexpected and memorable visual.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 21, 2014 21:35:18 GMT -5
Definitely the first play in the thread! I'm not so intro graphic sex descriptions, but sounds like an interesting story... is it one of those semi-true historical fiction type deals, or a made up story with historical figures in it?
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Post by Jesse on Oct 22, 2014 19:04:01 GMT -5
Definitely the first play in the thread! I'm not so intro graphic sex descriptions, but sounds like an interesting story... is it one of those semi-true historical fiction type deals, or a made up story with historical figures in it? It's inspired by the work of the Marquis de Sade and "reimagines" his last years. Charenton was a real lunatic asylum in France and the Abbe was a Catholic priest that really worked there.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 23, 2014 0:36:07 GMT -5
Today's book:
Never the Twain by Kirk Mitchell
Ish had read and posted about this a while back (I think it was Ish, anyway), and Paperback Book Swap hooked me up.
It was a little hard to get into (the main character is pretty unlikable for a large bit of the story), but once I was about 1/2 way through it really turned a corner... I've had alot of good luck with time travel stories lately.
I'm always a sucker for Civil War era stuff, too, so that helped, and a happy yet unexpected ending was a nice surprise.
@ Jesse: That's just the sort of historical fiction I like.. it's always amusing to compare what's in the book to real life... especially when it's something that's not well documented (and thus not a sure thing).
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 23, 2014 0:36:53 GMT -5
double post!
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Oct 23, 2014 0:54:39 GMT -5
Today's book: Never the Twain by Kirk Mitchell Ish had read and posted about this a while back (I think it was Ish, anyway), and Paperback Book Swap hooked me up. Twas I and I'm glad you enjoyed it
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 25, 2014 12:00:34 GMT -5
Beyond the Barrier Damon Knight c. 1965 Macfadden Bartell (originally 'Tree of Time') I'd never heard of the publisher.. apparently they did (and still do) LOTS of magazines. I really enjoyed this one... Prof. Gordon Naismith is multi-teaching his physics class when someone asks him what a Zug is. This leads him to remember he is really from the distant future, and two rival groups are trying to convince him to help him get rid of the other. While the near future (1980), is not very exciting, the only sign of 'future tech' is the ability to have a teach be in multiple classrooms at once, and still retain the memories of each, that, and video phones (of course). I'd think that would trigger lots of other stuff, but since it wasn't important to the story (the book shifted to future locales less than 1/2 way though). The time travel bits were almost a joke, but they works for the story, and there was a really cool scene with the main character driving through the Earth and out the other side that was really well done. I'm on a good streak for endings, as this one was once again a good, interesting twist that left me satisfied. Definitely recommended.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 25, 2014 21:43:56 GMT -5
Beyond the Barrier was one of the first non-juvenile sf novels I ever read, coming after only PKD's Time Out of Joint (& maybe Three Stigmata) & probably Harry Harrison's Plague from Space. Can't really remember anything about it at this late date -- that was, lord, probably pushing 42 years ago.
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