---
product_id: 8199706
title: "Selected Stories Of Philip K. Dick"
price: "AR$61095"
currency: ARS
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.com.ar/products/8199706-selected-stories-of-philip-k-dick
store_origin: AR
region: Argentina
---

# Selected Stories Of Philip K. Dick

**Price:** AR$61095
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Selected Stories Of Philip K. Dick
- **How much does it cost?** AR$61095 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.ar](https://www.desertcart.com.ar/products/8199706-selected-stories-of-philip-k-dick)

## Best For

- Customers looking for quality international products

## Why This Product

- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Description

Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick contains twenty-one of Dick’s most dazzling and resonant stories, which span his entire career and show a world-class writer working at the peak of his powers. In “The Days of Perky Pat,” people spend their time playing with dolls who manage to live an idyllic life no longer available to the Earth’s real inhabitants. “Adjustment Team” looks at the fate of a man who by mistake has stepped out of his own time. In “Autofac,” one community must battle benign machines to take back control of their lives. And in “I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon,” we follow the story of one man whose very reality may be nothing more than a nightmare. The collection also includes such classic stories as “The Minority Report,” the basis for the Steven Spielberg movie, and “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale,” the basis for the film Total Recall . With an introduction by Jonathan Lethem, Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick is a magnificent distillation of one of American literature's most searching imaginations.

Review: A treasure trove from sci-fi's great master - I might as well admit this at the beginning of the review: I am not generally a fan of short stories. I'm not making any sort of universal statement here so much as saying that I think the form tends to elevate shallow writing that is built around some sort of twist or reveal at the end. Bradbury is a bete noire of mine because of this very tendency, but he shares with many science fiction writers that genre's tendency toward writing about ideas instead of emotions or relationships, which has tended to turn a lot of people off of this particular genre as it can be difficult for a lot of people to connect with that approach. The genre does have its natural strengths: people are always interested in progress and the future, and moreso than many genres, sci-fi lends naturally to the exploration of social, political, and moral issues in its stories. I'm admittedly a huge sci-fi nut for those reasons, though I can understand why a lot of people are scared away. It's those people, though, who would get the most out of Philip K. Dick. Dick falls into almost none of the pitfalls that I mentioned previously. His short stories are excellent examples of the form, with strong ideas and surprisingly rich themes to boot. Dick's work has obviously been adapted to the screen many times, and a good handful of stories from the book are recognizable from their film adaptations, but the original stories are frequently more interesting and more substantive than the feature films they inspired! So, the average-ish Ben Affleck thriller Paycheck turns out to have been inspired by a story not only about seeing the future, but also about commercial-government tensions and its character turns out to be an anti-hero, motivated by corporate greed. Minority Report was a more successful (and much better) film than Paycheck, and it too is vastly different from its film. The basic ideas (precogs, arresting murderers before they commit their crimes) but in the story, the protagonist has to stop a military coup in Washington (and it lacks the film's sappy ending, too, which is a plus). There are, of course, lots of cool stories here that have not been made into movies, like the post-apocalyptic "Second Variety", in which a few remnants of humanity have to fight against an army of rebellious androids that come in three varieties, as well as some of Dick's more trippy writing, like a story in which an elderly man is asked to become the "king of the dwarves" in their battle against the gnomes, in which it certainly seems like he's going crazy, but the story is told from his perspective and it leaves some ambiguity. It's scary, fascinating, sad, and brainy, but also a little funny in a darkly comic way: that's the Dick trademark, I suppose. Most science fiction writers who become successful are good at coming up with nifty concepts and cool ideas, and Dick obviously has those, but even more impressive to me is the emotional component that Dick brings to his writing. This is a lot harder for me to deconstruct, but suffice it to say that Dick has that little extra something that turns a good story into a great one. When a story is supposed to be tragic, it almost always is. When the writing is supposed to be exciting, Dick pulls it off. His ability to define characters briefly and thoroughly certainly helps here, but Dick simply just knows how to engage the heart as well as the head, which is likely what has won him such an exalted place among science fiction writers over the years. That place is well-merited. I highly recommend this book to everyone.
Review: A quite underappreciated short story writer. - Widely known and praised by his long string of novels, Philip K. Dick was also a prolific (if underappreciated) writer of short fiction. This 2002 anthology published by "Panteon Books" serves as a perfect introduction for the neophyte wishing to delve into the main obsessions and recurrent themes of an author who has persistently remained in the outer fringes of the literary canon. This book showcases some of the abilities of PKD in the difficult art of the short story form. The 21 stories reprinted here are taken both from early, middle and late periods of his literary career. A representative (if not exhausting) treasury of Dick's best and most influential fictions. The reader unacquainted with Dick will soon realize while reading this book the big debt that most modern action and science fiction films owe to this author. As with all anthologies, the materials here featured are somewhat uneven, and not all the stories have the same level of brilliance. My personal favourites are "Imposter", "Second Variety", "The Exit Door Leads In" and "Rautavaara's Case", all of which have struck me as literary masterpieces. Other quite good stories are the famous "The Minority Report, "Paycheck", "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale", "Foster, You're Dead", "Upon the Dull Earth" and "Adjustment Team". Unfortunately, there are a few "duds" as well, being "The Days of Perky Pat", "Faith of Our Fathers", "A Game of Unchance" or the awful "The King of the Elves" some of the worst in the pack. The rest of the stories are alright, not great nor bad, just entertaining. Some of the plot details used in them have become slightly dated though, such as the Cold War, the atomic war craze, Eastern versus Western bloc, etc. But by the same token, other themes like consumerism, classism, cultural conflicts or corporate control are still relevant today and smartly dealt with in these pages. Although PKD was far from being a great literary stylist, I think that his short stories tend to be fresher and better written than his novels (which for me are rather dreadful) and because of their short length they are usually able to convey Dick's recurrent themes of paranoia and unreality more proficiently. At his best, Dick can be extremely subversive and ingenious, and the thought-provoking quality of stories such as "The Exit Door Leads In" or "Rautavaara's Case" shouldn't be underestimated. He can be tragic, humorous, caustic, terrifying, extravagant, sadistic or just plain hallucinatory (sometimes all of it at once). Perhaps not a GENIUS in the strict sense of the word, but a worthy figure nonetheless that deserves the attention of anyone interested in literature with philosophical substance. The material quality of the book is top-notch; the volume is a beautiful solid hardback printed on white (not recycled) paper. The font size of the text does not strain the eyes and the cover also comes with a dust-jacket plus an excellent binding. This printing is the kind of book that goes from one generation to another if proper care is taken about it. Three stars for the overall contents of the book, plus one more for the quality of the edition.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #73,971 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #201 in Science Fiction Anthologies (Books) #270 in Fantasy Anthologies #382 in Time Travel Fiction |
| Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,113 Reviews |

## Images

![Selected Stories Of Philip K. Dick - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71X8d1qF14L.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A treasure trove from sci-fi's great master
*by A***. on July 18, 2010*

I might as well admit this at the beginning of the review: I am not generally a fan of short stories. I'm not making any sort of universal statement here so much as saying that I think the form tends to elevate shallow writing that is built around some sort of twist or reveal at the end. Bradbury is a bete noire of mine because of this very tendency, but he shares with many science fiction writers that genre's tendency toward writing about ideas instead of emotions or relationships, which has tended to turn a lot of people off of this particular genre as it can be difficult for a lot of people to connect with that approach. The genre does have its natural strengths: people are always interested in progress and the future, and moreso than many genres, sci-fi lends naturally to the exploration of social, political, and moral issues in its stories. I'm admittedly a huge sci-fi nut for those reasons, though I can understand why a lot of people are scared away. It's those people, though, who would get the most out of Philip K. Dick. Dick falls into almost none of the pitfalls that I mentioned previously. His short stories are excellent examples of the form, with strong ideas and surprisingly rich themes to boot. Dick's work has obviously been adapted to the screen many times, and a good handful of stories from the book are recognizable from their film adaptations, but the original stories are frequently more interesting and more substantive than the feature films they inspired! So, the average-ish Ben Affleck thriller Paycheck turns out to have been inspired by a story not only about seeing the future, but also about commercial-government tensions and its character turns out to be an anti-hero, motivated by corporate greed. Minority Report was a more successful (and much better) film than Paycheck, and it too is vastly different from its film. The basic ideas (precogs, arresting murderers before they commit their crimes) but in the story, the protagonist has to stop a military coup in Washington (and it lacks the film's sappy ending, too, which is a plus). There are, of course, lots of cool stories here that have not been made into movies, like the post-apocalyptic "Second Variety", in which a few remnants of humanity have to fight against an army of rebellious androids that come in three varieties, as well as some of Dick's more trippy writing, like a story in which an elderly man is asked to become the "king of the dwarves" in their battle against the gnomes, in which it certainly seems like he's going crazy, but the story is told from his perspective and it leaves some ambiguity. It's scary, fascinating, sad, and brainy, but also a little funny in a darkly comic way: that's the Dick trademark, I suppose. Most science fiction writers who become successful are good at coming up with nifty concepts and cool ideas, and Dick obviously has those, but even more impressive to me is the emotional component that Dick brings to his writing. This is a lot harder for me to deconstruct, but suffice it to say that Dick has that little extra something that turns a good story into a great one. When a story is supposed to be tragic, it almost always is. When the writing is supposed to be exciting, Dick pulls it off. His ability to define characters briefly and thoroughly certainly helps here, but Dick simply just knows how to engage the heart as well as the head, which is likely what has won him such an exalted place among science fiction writers over the years. That place is well-merited. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A quite underappreciated short story writer.
*by S***R on November 26, 2011*

Widely known and praised by his long string of novels, Philip K. Dick was also a prolific (if underappreciated) writer of short fiction. This 2002 anthology published by "Panteon Books" serves as a perfect introduction for the neophyte wishing to delve into the main obsessions and recurrent themes of an author who has persistently remained in the outer fringes of the literary canon. This book showcases some of the abilities of PKD in the difficult art of the short story form. The 21 stories reprinted here are taken both from early, middle and late periods of his literary career. A representative (if not exhausting) treasury of Dick's best and most influential fictions. The reader unacquainted with Dick will soon realize while reading this book the big debt that most modern action and science fiction films owe to this author. As with all anthologies, the materials here featured are somewhat uneven, and not all the stories have the same level of brilliance. My personal favourites are "Imposter", "Second Variety", "The Exit Door Leads In" and "Rautavaara's Case", all of which have struck me as literary masterpieces. Other quite good stories are the famous "The Minority Report, "Paycheck", "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale", "Foster, You're Dead", "Upon the Dull Earth" and "Adjustment Team". Unfortunately, there are a few "duds" as well, being "The Days of Perky Pat", "Faith of Our Fathers", "A Game of Unchance" or the awful "The King of the Elves" some of the worst in the pack. The rest of the stories are alright, not great nor bad, just entertaining. Some of the plot details used in them have become slightly dated though, such as the Cold War, the atomic war craze, Eastern versus Western bloc, etc. But by the same token, other themes like consumerism, classism, cultural conflicts or corporate control are still relevant today and smartly dealt with in these pages. Although PKD was far from being a great literary stylist, I think that his short stories tend to be fresher and better written than his novels (which for me are rather dreadful) and because of their short length they are usually able to convey Dick's recurrent themes of paranoia and unreality more proficiently. At his best, Dick can be extremely subversive and ingenious, and the thought-provoking quality of stories such as "The Exit Door Leads In" or "Rautavaara's Case" shouldn't be underestimated. He can be tragic, humorous, caustic, terrifying, extravagant, sadistic or just plain hallucinatory (sometimes all of it at once). Perhaps not a GENIUS in the strict sense of the word, but a worthy figure nonetheless that deserves the attention of anyone interested in literature with philosophical substance. The material quality of the book is top-notch; the volume is a beautiful solid hardback printed on white (not recycled) paper. The font size of the text does not strain the eyes and the cover also comes with a dust-jacket plus an excellent binding. This printing is the kind of book that goes from one generation to another if proper care is taken about it. Three stars for the overall contents of the book, plus one more for the quality of the edition.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ One of the best "overviews" of PKD's work and career
*by J***E on January 9, 2023*

Back in college, I read through all five volumes of Philip K. Dick's short stories, so there wasn't necessarily anything new in Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick so much as a chance to revisit some of the short fiction of one of the all-time great science-fiction authors. Moreover, to read Dick's short stories - especially if you're only familiar with his novels, particularly some of his more philosophical ones - is to remember how great the man was at executing a pulp premise. The hook of "Paycheck" is so flawlessly executed that I'm just in awe of it - and how the rest of the story delivers on that hook is a treat to watch unfold. The same could be said about so many here - "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale," "The Minority Report," "Adjustment Team," and many more - but what I appreciate about this collection is that it's not just the great pulp tales. No, what makes this collection a fantastic primer for the newcomers is that it feels like a chronological plunge through Dick's development as a writer, starting with his pulp stories and ending with his fascination with the afterlife and Gnostic ideas. And along the way, you get his takes on society, religion, capitalism, and more, with the book serving double duty as both an essential collection of Dick's tales and a superb overview of his career, including the fun and the heartbreaking (I can't let this review go without mentioning the astonishing and quietly horrifying and devastating "A Little Something for Us Tempunauts") as points on the continuum. I'm already in the tank for PKD, so you can factor that into my review, but as a fan, this is probably one of the most solid "overview" collections out there I've found.

---

## Why Shop on Desertcart?

- 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016
- 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories
- 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price
- 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members)
- 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection
- ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews

**Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.com.ar/products/8199706-selected-stories-of-philip-k-dick](https://www.desertcart.com.ar/products/8199706-selected-stories-of-philip-k-dick)

---

*Product available on Desertcart Argentina*
*Store origin: AR*
*Last updated: 2026-07-06*