NationStates Jolt Archive

I've read quite a bit of P K Dick now, and I was wondering if there are any other great novelists/short-story writers like him today. Zany, slightly off short SF stories. Are there any writers like him today? I'd love to get book tips.

You can get some off-beat sci-fi from Stanislaw Lem. It's not really the same 'questioning whether or not you are real' thing you get from Dick, but it's odd. He's one of the only sci-fi authors I read, after I came to terms with sci-fi. (I thought maybe I didn't like science fiction after all, but a friend pointed out that I did, just that there was soo much of it that sucked.)

I've read quite a bit of P K Dick now, and I was wondering if there are any other great novelists/short-story writers like him today. Zany, slightly off short SF stories. Are there any writers like him today? I'd love to get book tips.

I don't know that Dick is entirely unique... there are some more 'bladerunner' books (written by Derek Jeter, I think), that I read a few years ago... that catch SOME of what Dick deals in... but, well, you have to remember, Dick was 'not a well man'... and that was what he wrote.

I'm finding it hard, right now, to put names to authors that might compare...

I'm finding it hard, right now, to put names to authors that might compare...

The only name that is springing to my mind (which is admittedly quite addled at the moment) is one I haven't read, but have heard lots of good things about. That is Ice by Anna Kavan. Who I understand was not a well women, and that from what I have read wrote the book as an allegory to her opium addiction.


Though she cannot be considered recent since she died in the late 60's AFAIK.

*insert immature joke about the author's last name here*

*insert immature joke about the author's last name here*

*Insert immature joke about fans of said author refer to themselves*


Maybe it is time for a proud Dickhead (http://www.spiked-online.co.uk/articles/00000006D96C.htm)rollcall.

The only name that is springing to my mind (which is admittedly quite addled at the moment) is one I haven't read, but have heard lots of good things about. That is Ice by Anna Kavan. Who I understand was not a well women, and that from what I have read wrote the book as an allegory to her opium addiction.


Though she cannot be considered recent since she died in the late 60's AFAIK.

Well... Dick has been dead for a few years now... maybe not that long... early 90's maybe?

I read a collection of short stories, semi-scifi, semi-horror... semi-just-whatever, a few (MANY) years back. I remember very little about it, except that the SAME people kept turning up at accidents all the time, and they were catching the released souls of the departed, I think. There was a swan image in there, which I think equated to the souls released.

I'm pretty sure the author wrote ONLY that collection of stories, and died fairly young... and I've been trying to put a name to it ever since.... rlevent, in as much, only, as that author reminded me of Dick.

Well... Dick has been dead for a few years now... maybe not that long... early 90's maybe?

I read a collection of short stories, semi-scifi, semi-horror... semi-just-whatever, a few (MANY) years back. I remember very little about it, except that the SAME people kept turning up at accidents all the time, and they were catching the released souls of the departed, I think. There was a swan image in there, which I think equated to the souls released.

I'm pretty sure the author wrote ONLY that collection of stories, and died fairly young... and I've been trying to put a name to it ever since.... rlevent, in as much, only, as that author reminded me of Dick.

That about the souls is insanely uncanny. I had that exact idea a few days ago. Scary...

That about the souls is insanely uncanny. I had that exact idea a few days ago. Scary...

What the hell? Maybe I imagined it then, and I'm just reading your mind?