Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Sphere (1969), Paperback
Description
Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML: Time travel, interplanetary war, technology races between enemy nations�??this early novella from science fiction mastermind Philip K. Dick has something for every fan of the genre. In the story, an increasingly heated conflict between two outer-space civilizations is impacted by an unlikely figure�??the time-traveling 'variable man' of the tale's title
User reviews
LibraryThing member lilywren
One of my favourite Sci-Fi authors is Philip K Dick. Most of his books I have read have involved dystopian futures providing an undercurrent of paranoia and fear of the authorities. The Variable Man was one of his earlier (short) stories, published in Space Science Fiction in 1953. This was my
The story tells of 'Terra' (otherwise know as Earth) which is, to all intents and purposes, being held hostage by the Centurian Empire - an Empire which refuses to let Terra expand and travel into the wider universe. As a consequence, war cannot be far away. Terra has developed a computer system which uses the law of probabilities and is able to calculate the odds of victory of war against Proxima Centauri and when the odds tip into it's favour, at last, it puts in emergency measures to commence war. However, the result of these 'measures' accidently bring Thomas Cole, a kind of 'handy man' from 1913, into their current day and lead to the probabilities of defeat increasing for Terra and unpredicable and variable calculations - hence the title 'The Variable Man'.
OK, so I have tried, at best, to give a brief synopsis of the tale and, as far as short stories go, it was a good one. I would say it is pure 'hard' sci-fi (as one would expect for said publication) and very different to some of the books I have read by Dick. Naturally, as a short story, one has to get quite a bit in and fast. The Variable Man does so. That said, I feel it is nowhere near as good as later offerings but does show the beginnings of a wonderful author.
A good, quick read but not the best introduction I feel to Philip K Dick's work. For that I would recommend his later works 'Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said' or 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'
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first venture using an eReader by the way...The story tells of 'Terra' (otherwise know as Earth) which is, to all intents and purposes, being held hostage by the Centurian Empire - an Empire which refuses to let Terra expand and travel into the wider universe. As a consequence, war cannot be far away. Terra has developed a computer system which uses the law of probabilities and is able to calculate the odds of victory of war against Proxima Centauri and when the odds tip into it's favour, at last, it puts in emergency measures to commence war. However, the result of these 'measures' accidently bring Thomas Cole, a kind of 'handy man' from 1913, into their current day and lead to the probabilities of defeat increasing for Terra and unpredicable and variable calculations - hence the title 'The Variable Man'.
OK, so I have tried, at best, to give a brief synopsis of the tale and, as far as short stories go, it was a good one. I would say it is pure 'hard' sci-fi (as one would expect for said publication) and very different to some of the books I have read by Dick. Naturally, as a short story, one has to get quite a bit in and fast. The Variable Man does so. That said, I feel it is nowhere near as good as later offerings but does show the beginnings of a wonderful author.
A good, quick read but not the best introduction I feel to Philip K Dick's work. For that I would recommend his later works 'Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said' or 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'
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LibraryThing member DRFP
A very mixed bag of some of Dick's early shorts. I thought the titular story laughably poor. "Second Variety" is much better, a tense tale and probably the best story in the collection. "Minority Report" is a similarly tense story based around identity and motives but I felt the ending, although
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fully explained, a little weak. The remaining stories were neither here nor there - not as bad as "The Variable Man" or as decent as "Second Variety." A mixed bag of stories that, collectively, aren't anything more than average. Show Less
LibraryThing member drardavis
This is one of Dick’s first works and shows only traces of his genius, but those traces stand out above the background of a copy of the old style sci-fi that he must have been reading. The Variable man himself could become really interesting given more emphasis. A throw-away idea at the end, a
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device that would allow every citizen to vote on political issues, is an anti-establishment theme that will become a signature of his later writing. His faster-than-light travel, ftl (was this the first use of the acronym?), is based on an interesting semi-paradoxical distortion of Einstein’s relativity theory. As an object’s speed increases, its length decreases and its mass increases, so simply keep the speed increasing until the object disappears as it goes faster than the speed of light. The missing concepts are interesting to contemplate. Show Less
LibraryThing member Lyndatrue
The title of this work is REALLY important. The short novel, "The Variable Man," which is the first of five in this collection, has its own entry on LT. I'm probably blind when it comes to most of PKD's works, especially the early ones, but he's a rara avis, even in a world (Science Fiction) that
Read "Autofac." You may look at your fancy 3D Printer differently, in a few yars.
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contains plenty.Read "Autofac." You may look at your fancy 3D Printer differently, in a few yars.
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LibraryThing member bnielsen
Indeholder "The Variable Man", "Second Variety", "The Minority Report", "Autofac", "A World of Talent".
"The Variable Man" handler om ???
"Second Variety" handler om i næste krig udvikler amerikanerne robotfabrikker der laver krigsrobotter - de nyeste varianter ligner mennesker og er tæt på at
"The Minority Report" handler om ???
"Autofac" handler om autonome fabrikker i krig med hinanden om resourcer efter en atomkrig
"A World of Talent" handler om ???
Glimrende novelle
"The Variable Man" handler om ???
"Second Variety" handler om i næste krig udvikler amerikanerne robotfabrikker der laver krigsrobotter - de nyeste varianter ligner mennesker og er tæt på at
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udrydde alle mennesker der ikke har søgt tilflugt på månebasen - pigen Tasso hjælper soldaten Hendrick med at finde ud af hvordan variant nr II ser ud"The Minority Report" handler om ???
"Autofac" handler om autonome fabrikker i krig med hinanden om resourcer efter en atomkrig
"A World of Talent" handler om ???
Glimrende novelle
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Language
Original publication date
1957
Physical description
224 p.
ISBN
0722129580 / 9780722129586