The Philip K. Dick Collection

This boxed set includes all three Library of America volumes collecting Philip K. Dick’s best science fiction novels:

The Man in the High Castle• The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?• Ubik• Martian Time-Slip• Dr. Bloodmoney• Now Wait for Last Year• Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said• A Scanner Darkly• A Maze of Death• VALIS• The Divine Invasion• The Transmigration of Timothy Archer

Customer Reviews:

A gorgeous collection of Philip K. Dick's greatest novels

By Robert Moore - November 17, 2009

SF is today gaining more and more respectability among serious readers and academic literary critics. Although there are a handful of stories from the pulp era of the twenties, thirties, forties, and fifties, there were few stories that would stand up to any kind of literary analysis and virtually no novels that would. The so-called Big Three of the forties and fifties - Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and Arthur C. Clarke - shock serious readers today coming to them for the first time. They were not only not good writers by mainstream criteria, they were actively bad writers. This is not to say that there weren't some good ideas here and there (Asimov's Foundation series or Clarke's CHILDHOOD'S END or Rama novels are often interesting), but that the prose is almost always atrocious, the characters stock and uninteresting, and the stories and novels completely lacking in literary excellence. This was intentional. Let me repeat that: the books and stories were intentionally... read more

Wondeful collector's edition, but take care

By John Maltby - May 5, 2010

These are wonderful novels in a first class collector's set. I would award 5 stars except that, sadly, volume 1 of my set has some pages missing from the first novel ("The Man in the High Castle"). These are pages 159 to 174 inclusive (pages 158 and 175 face each other), so you should check your edition carefully when you receive it to ensure that you are not similarly disadvantaged.

Amazon has offered to replace the set, but as this requires me to post the entire collection back from Australia I have instead decided to live with the missing pages and accept Amazon's alternative offer of a 20% refund.

I discovered the defect when actually reading "The Man in the High Castle", so you can imagine my frustration and annoyance when I hit the missing pages. The novels are printed on good quality fine paper, so it is difficult to flick through the pages and catch every one to check for further omissions. I think the rest of my volume 1 and volumes 2 and 3 are OK, but I... read more

I'm really enjoying this.

By Terrence Walsh - January 3, 2010

The guy who left the first review did a good job explaining most of what you need to know about this set. I received this as a Christmas present along with an Amazon Kindle. I picked the first volume up and started reading it Christmas evening and my Kindle is still in its box. These books are well-made and with proper care will likely be among the items for sale in your estate. I've finished The Man in the High Castle which I found compelling and am working on the Three Stigmata of Plamer Eldritch. I don't remember ever enjoying Sci Fi as much as I do this stuff. Very imaginative and certainly innovative. I think most people who are into reading for pleasure, but not mindlessly will enjoy these books.