Short Fiction

The airships rose in a thick swarm, black gnats shooting up in triumph from a dead carcass.

Reading Dick's classic Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? earlier this year and loving it made me curious to explore more of his bibliography. Checking out this freely available short story collection seemed like a great idea to get a good overview of his general writing.

The short stories in this ebook vary in length and quality. From lengthier texts about the cultural impact of war to brief pages that feel like a Goosebumps story. Not everything lands and some stories are just lukewarm, but others are very engaging and present more unique ideas from this creative author.
If you've never read another Dick text before though, you'll get a pretty clear overview of his typical themes including the theoretical parts of large-scale conflicts, interplanetary contact, existentialism, and high concept technology.
Besides writing engaging conflicts and vivid world-building, he seems to be really good at pulling together established sci-fi concepts in unique combinations.

If you like reading science fiction, this collection is a pretty easy pick-up to get through bit by bit.