September 2022 Book Review of Electric Dreams

Date-9.6.22

 Electric Dreams

Written by Phillip K. Dick

About from Goodreads.com

Though perhaps most famous as a novelist, over the course of his career Philip K. Dick wrote more than one hundred short stories, each as mind-bending and genre-defining as his longer works. Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams collects ten of the best from across his career. In “Autofac,” Dick shows us one of the earliest examples (and warnings) in science fiction of self-replicating machines. “Exhibit Piece” and “The Commuter” feature Dick exploring one of his favorite themes: the shifting nature of reality, and whether it is even possible to perceive the world as it is. And “The Hanging Stranger” provides a thrilling, dark political allegory as relevant today as it was when it was written at the height of the Cold War.

     Strange, funny, and powerful, the stories in this collection highlight a master at work, drawing on his boundless imagination and deep understanding of the human condition.

Review

Will be spoilers once you get to the actual short story reviews. 

Electric Dreams was a collection of Sci-Fi stories by Phillip K. Dick. It was my very first time reading any of Dick’s work and I was in love with his work before I even finished the first story. One thing I enjoy when I read old Sci-Fi stories is that they are usually written about the 2000s. So I like seeing how they expected it to be and how correct they were. 

Since this book is a bunch of short stories Dick has written. I will be writing up a few reviews of a few of them but, at the bottom, I will be giving each a separate rating. Then at the end, I will give an overall rating.

The Exhibit Piece

This was the very first short story I read from Dick and I enjoyed it.  The Exhibit Piece is about a man (Miller) loving the 20th century which was caused because he was the researcher of that century. He was obsessed with it to the point he would wear clothes from that time period and talk like he was from that time period. For example, he told a coworker “Try to understand, Fleming. By accustoming myself to everyday objects of my research period I transform my relation from mere intellectual curiosity to genuine empathy. You have frequently noticed I pronounce certain words oddly. The accent is that of an American businessman of the Eisenhower administration. Dig me?” This obsession leads Miller to find a portal to a place like the 20th century.

The first thing I enjoyed was that I didn't know when exactly this took place, all I know is the building that Miller worked in was extremely large because each floor of the building was a different century, so I was assuming he was in the 3000s, but it ends up that wasn’t important on a bit because this story had time travel and dimensional travel. Time travel was something I enjoyed reading about as a child (no wonder I enjoyed Doctor Who as a child.) The other thing I enjoyed was the ending, I won't give it away because I want you to check it out but the ending was something I was not foreseeing. 

I give this short story 4 out of 5.

The Commuter

The Commuter was an intriguing read. This story was something I have never read anything like this before. The basis of the story is about a commuter that keeps showing up every day asking for a ticket to a place called Macon Heights which neither of the men working at the train station has ever heard of. After they tell him each time that the place doesn't exist he poofs out of existence.  After this takes place a few more times, one of the workers goes on an adventure to find Macon Heights.

Since this was an intriguing read I give it 3 out of 5 stars. 

The Impossible Planet

The Impossible Planet is about a little old lady that wants to go to Earth before she dies so she asks a ship captain to take her there. The problem is no one knows where Earth is anymore. The captain asks her a few questions about the solar system earth and then he randomly guesses and takes her there.

This story was bitterly sweet because of how badly she wanted to see earth before she passed. I found her to be extremely adorable. After all, she wanted to see the planet because her grandfather told her about how beautiful the earth was. Sadly the planet they went to was far from beautiful; it was a desolate planet that was on its last leg. 

The Hanging Stranger

This story was about a man who is on his way to his store when he sees a body of a man strung up and hanging in the middle of town. He also is the only one that notices and everyone else seems not to care.

This one was shocking and made me think about the conspiracy theories that an alien race called Reptilians has taken over our governments and are slowly taking over everyone. It also started to make me think if that conspiracy was around in the 50s when Dick wrote this story or did this conspiracy begin because of sci-fi stories like this one. This story led me down a rabbit hole of are Sci-fi books are inspired by conspiracy theories or are they the other way around? Originally I was going to give this book 3 out of 5 but since this book made me think I am going to give it 5 out of 5. Without this book, I don't think I would have thought about that and I love it when books and stories do that.

Sales Pitch

Sales Pitch was about a man that is fed up with all of the ADS that are plaguing his life. In this world, you are chased down the street by ADbots (I would hate this because it would be a sensory overload for normal people. so it would probably give me a heart attack because of the panic attack my sensory disorder would cause me to have.) When he wasn't on the streets and he was in space heading or coming home from work he would see them constantly on billboards that would make sounds and some of them would even transmit videos into their brains, so there was no way to escape the ADS. Here is one of the ADS he was plagued with on this way to work, “Have a retinal vidscreen installed in your least-used eye. Keep in touch with the world; don’t wait for out-of-date hourly summaries.” Then one day he is home with his wife when a bot comes to show them a new thing that he was selling. It ends up he was selling himself and he would not leave till they bought him.

I enjoyed this story because I think everyone hates ADS so I understood how the main character felt being plagued by all of the ADS

I ended up giving this entire book. 4 out of five because I did enjoy most of it except Father-Thing and Autovac. I also gave it a 4 because I don't see myself reading this book again even though I enjoyed it.

The Exhibit Piece- ⅘

The Commuter- ⅗ 

The Impossible Planet- ⅗ 

The Hanging Stranger- 5/5 

Sales Pitch- ⅘ 

The Father-Thing- ⅕ 

The Hood Maker- ⅘

Foster, You’re Dead- ⅗ 

Human Is- 5/5 

Autofac- ⅖ 

OVERALL-⅘  ⭐️

Info

Trigger warning-  Sucide, Death

Spice level-  0/ 5 🌶

Other books in the Series-NA

Publish date-September 2017

Awards-Unknown

Genres- Sci-Fi, Short Stories, Cyberpunk