Volume III: Upon the Dull Earth

By: Philip K. Dick

Narrated by: Peter Berkrot

Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) was one of the seminal figures of 20th century science fiction. His many stories and novels, which include such classics as The Man in the High Castle and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, reflect a deeply personal worldview, exploring the fragile, multifarious nature of reality itself and examining those elements that make us - or fail to make us - fully human. He did as much as anyone to demolish the artificial barrier between genre fiction and literature, and the best of his work has earned a permanent place in American popular culture.

Upon the Dull Earth is the third installment of a uniform, five-volume edition of The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick. This generous collection contains 22 stories and novellas written in 1953 and 1954, along with extensive - and valuable - story notes. Included here are a number of bona fide PKD classics, among them the title story, the brilliantly conceived account of a bizarre, ultimately catastrophic resurrection, "The Father-Thing," in which a young boy comes to realize that his once familiar father has somehow changed, and The Golden Man (filmed in 2007 as Next), which tells the tale of a golden skinned mutant who may represent the future direction of the human race. These and all the other stories in this important and necessary audiobook offer a wide range of literary and intellectual pleasures. At the same time, they provide a fascinating glimpse into the continuing development of this iconic - and hugely influential - figure.

©2012 Laura Leslie, Isa Dick Hackett, and Christopher Dick (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Needs to be remastered.

This is the second one in the series, where it is sometimes hard to distinguish the title from the text. Other than that I love the performance, and the stories are great.

Great PKD

Great PKD. Worth the money. The reader is a little difficult to hear if you are in a cat traveling. He is great with headphones or earbuds.

Another great collection

Where to start? To those who don’t like how PKD is writing: try to enjoy how he follows through on a premise and works through it and almost without exception, to a consistent and satisfying conclusion, often an intelligent twist of joke. Take that, you moronic space military opera cliffhanger writing hacks! Learn from it.

As these are from the 50s, women are often of the “damsel in distress” variety - there are “heaving bosoms” and the like. That said, it’s better than many of his contemporaries, and to me, acceptable as long as you understand it’s a cartoon… in at least one case - “the golden man” - the twist of the story makes you wonder if the author doesn’t have a more just view on this maybe? It’s written in a denigrating fashion to women, as if they’d be more driven by physical attraction than anything intellectual (than men are, haha), but ultimately, what the woman is doing (and further women hinted at will be doing), they’re acting more human than the males…

Overall, please read/listen!

On to the next volume!

Pretty good but I enjoyed Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 more

Volume 3: Upon The Dull Earth

1. Fair Game (1959)
2. The Hanging Stranger (1953)
3. The Eyes Have It (1953)
4. The Golden Man (1954)
5. The Turning Wheel (1954)
6. The Last of the Masters (1954)
7. The Father-Thing (1954)
8. Strange Eden (1954)
9. Tony and the Beetles (1954)
10. Null-O (1958)
11. To Serve the Master (1956)
12. Exhibit Piece (1954)
13. The Crawlers (1954)
14. Sales Pitch (1954)
15. Shell Game (1954)
16. Upon the Dull Earth (1954)
17. Foster, You're Dead (1955)
18. Pay for the Printer (1956)
19. War Veteran (1955)
20. The Chromium Fence (1955)
21. Misadjustment (1957)
22. A World of Talent (1954)
23. Psi-Man Heal my Child (1955)
24. Notes