Philip K. Dick: Minority Report review

At first, I honestly thought this book would be solely on Minority Report. I didn't realise it was a short story collection, not until I finished the first story by which the whole collection is named.
This book contains the following short stories by the great science fiction and cyberpunk writer Philip K. Dick: "Minority Report", "Imposter", "Second Variety", "War Game", "What the Dead Men Say", "Oh, to Be a Blobel!", "The Electric Ant", "Faith of Our Fathers" and "We Can Remember it for You Wholesale".

I have to admit that I really enjoyed Spielberg's movie version of Minority Report, so I expected something similar from the story. I was really disappointed. The only same thing is the idea of pre-crime and the name of the protagonist, that's about it. The story has its merits, but after being consumed by the movie I felt that something was missing.
I sincerely apologize, mr. Dick.

The other story which has been made into a movie, is "We Can Remember it for You Wholesale", known for the public as Total Recall. The storyline is quite the same in the beginning, but the original story takes a whole other turn which is definitely not bad. "We Can Remember it for You Wholesale" is not an action story, but an interesting vision of the future and the capability to alter people's memories. (And to think it without Arnold Schwart-, Schwarz-, you know, that guy, wasn't problem at all.)

Most of the short stories in this book contained themes of humanity - what is human and how can you tell the difference between a human and a machine or human and an alien? Typical questions for cyberpunk. "Imposter", "Second Variety", "Oh, to Be a Blobel!", "Faith of Our Fathers" and "The Electric Ant" discussed these themes widely, and in very interesing manners. Though the first two stories were a bit predictable with their climax endings, I really liked their plot and its development. And Dick is a great narrator.

The least interesting stories were "What the Dead Men Say" (a bit too long and too dull for my taste) and that mentioned "Minority Report". I think if I've read the story first and then saw the movie, it would be different. Apart from these stories the collection was brilliant and should be read by anyone who claims they like science fiction and / or cyberpunk.

/ [Caterin S.]

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