The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick - Vol 1
I think this is the first time that I’ve ever sat down and read through a collection of short stories - it seems to require a totally different mindset. In the notes, Philip K. Dick defines the difference between a novel and short story as follows: a short story may deal with murder; a novel deals with the murderer, and his actions stem from a psyche which, if the writer knows his craft, he has previously presented.
One of the things that quickly comes at you is the time period in which these short stories were written - talks of the devastating war between Soviet Union and the United States, the nuclear holocaust, martians and plutonians running amok. However, unlike many other science fiction, Dick focuses on the minds of the people, not at how the latest gizmo saves the day. He seems to believe in inner goodness of people - most of the stories has an happy ending, or at least an interesting ending. The life always goes on.
Besides his fascination with the time mirrors and time scoops, he uses variety of objects and ideas in his stories, some plausible and others wildly impossible. However, through it all, he always comes with realistic characters interacting in understandable ways. I love stories with (mostly) happy endings, interesting twists, and unpredictable take on the world. This was a pretty good book to wind down the hectic 4 months of school - a collection of short, interesting stories to get the brain moving again.
And oh yeah, we had a blackout here. 