Minority Report and Other Stories (Unabridged Stories)

By: Philip K. Dick

Narrated by: Keir Dullea

Viewed by many as the greatest science fiction writer on any planet, Philip K. Dick has written some of the most intriguing, original, and thought-provoking fiction of our time. This collection includes stories that will make you laugh, cringe...and stop and think.

In "The Minority Report," a special unit that employs those with the power of precognition to prevent crimes proves itself less than reliable. This story was the basis of the feature film Minority Report.

In, "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale," an everyguy's yearning for more exciting "memories" places him in a danger he never could have imagined. This story was the basis of the feature film Total Recall.

In "Paycheck," a mechanic who has no memory of the previous two years of his life finds that a bag of seemingly worthless and unrelated objects can actually unlock the secret of his recent past, and insure that he has a future. This story was the basis of the feature film Paycheck.

In "Second Variety," the UN's technological advances to win a global war veer out of control, threatening to destroy all of humankind. This story was the basis of the feature film Screamers.

And "The Eyes Have It" is a whimsical, laugh-out-loud play on the words of the title.

©1987 The Estate of Philip K. Dick (P)2001 and © 2002 HarperCollinsPublishers, Inc.

PK Dick is always a joy to read or listen to

Working my way through all the audiobooks by this author that I can find. He was a visionary and an extraordinary storyteller. My one -sizable gripe - about this audio book is not about the author(extraordinary) or the narrator ( engaging, entertaining) but with the inexplicable way that the chapters are divided up. There’s no rhyme nor reason to it. Chapters begin in the middle of stories; one chapter might contain parts of one story and then parts of another. It’s so frustrating because it limits being able to go back to any specific story to relisten. There’s no list of stories anywhere, another frustration that would have been remedied if each chapter were named for a story as other short story collections are organized and labeled. Gah!

Weird audio editing

The only story I really liked was Minority Report. We Can Remember It for You Wholesale and Paycheck had weird endings. The other ones were just straight weird. I forget what they were called.

The audiobook itself was strangely edited. aside from the first one starting at the beginning, the subsequent story start in the middle of chapters. There's also an unnecessary orchestral interlude randomly throughout some of the stories. The narrator was good though.

Good, but narration could use some help

Great compilation, I would just suggest better differentiation of book titles. it was a little difficult at first to realize you had switched to the next book.

Great stories...what was the sound editor smoking?

Great short stories, really good narration, but the sound editing is......bizarre. The chapters do not in any way align with the actual stories, so it is hard to find where the next story begins. (for instance, Chapter 4 is 31:04 long, but the third story "Paycheque" begins at 16:40) To make matters worse, there are occasional random bits of music, but not in any consistent way. It is just so weird and I really can't fathom how this exceptional science fiction was released in this bizarre format.

That being said, I really enjoyed the actual material and am glad I listened to it. These stories were each the basis of successful movies; it is interesting to hear the original story, and compare it to its big screen adaptation.

I enjoyed the program

I enjoyed the program. It is a selection of his notable short stories or novellas.

Please fix

The chapter divisions do not correlate with the individual stories and make it very difficult to navigate. Everything is fine except that glaring issue.

Original and Intriguing Fiction

This book contains several stories of various lengths. "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" is the basis for the "Total Recall" movies and with "Paycheck" they are worth the 5 star rating. For original, and intriguing fiction Phillip K. Dick is the Grand Master.

My only complaint is that the chapters don't seam to be broken at the end of the stories.

Highly recommended.

Minority Report

I had read some of these many years ago. I never really liked the way the Dick developed his characters but his ideas--his IDEAS--were and are amazing. That is why so many movies have been made of these stories, sometimes changing the story lines significantly (as in Minority Report) but retaining the central ideas. So, I think the book is a good listen for that reason, plus Dullea does a good job.

A sci find classic that proves more fun than the movies

Sorry and performance were top notch.

I gave 4 stars because the formatting seemed to have an awkward transition to audible. I am sure this must have been intended as tapes or perhaps discs first. Music interludes and chapter breaks come at odd points rather than divisions between the actual stories.

For Fans of Sci-Fi Psychological Thrillers

Every story except for the final little 7 minute one is phenomenal.

The audiobook is very lazily organized though, with a completely nondescript 7 "chapters" that don't line up with the beginning and end of the short stories.

Narrator is solid. I recommend this collection to anyone who has the capacity for critical thinking and an interest in sci-fi.