Volume I: The King of the Elves

By: Philip K. Dick

Narrated by: Kate Rudd

Length: 20 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) was one of the seminal figures of 20th century science fiction. His many stories and novels, which include such classics as The Man in the High Castle and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, reflect a deeply personal world view, exploring the fragile, multifarious nature of reality itself and examining those elements that make us - or fail to make us - fully human. He did as much as anyone to demolish the artificial barrier between genre fiction and "literature," and the best of his work has earned a permanent place in American popular culture.

The King of the Elves is the opening installment of a uniform, five-volume edition of The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, expanded from the previous Collected Stories set to incorporate new story notes, and two added tales, one previously unpublished, and one uncollected. This generous collection contains 22 stories and novellas including Dick's first published story, "Beyond Lies the Wub," together with such landmark tales as "The Preserving Machine," in which an attempt to preserve our fragile cultural heritage takes an unexpected turn, The Variable Man, a brilliantly imagined novella encompassing war, time travel, and the varied uses of technology, and the title story, in which Shadrach Jones, owner of a dilapidated gas station in Colorado, stumbles into an ongoing war between trolls and elves, and encounters a fantastic - and utterly unexpected - destiny. Like the best of Dick's novels, these stories offer a wide variety of narrative and intellectual pleasures, and provide an ideal introduction to one of the singular imaginations of the modern era.

©2010 The Philip K. Dick Testamentary Trust (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

good stories, wrong narrator

the narrator does a fine job. however they choose a female narrator and 90% of the characters are male.

Fun, Strange and Humorous!

Great stories, especially if you enjoy tales that are a bit unusual. Several of the stories featured have some pretty humorous themes, they had me rolling with laughter! Others are creepy and atmospheric, so there's a good variety here.

My only complaint is, the actor reading the stories sometimes has a very strange cadence. It took me a while to get used to it, but the book was still greatly enjoyable.

The Best of Dick

These are the best of the stories Dick gave us before his what-ifs became too serious to be fun.

Need headers between stories

Bad editing choices have greatly diminished the narrator's performance, but atleast the chapter skip coincides with the stories

Insights from another era

A good collection of early PKD works and insights associated with them. A solid addition to a PKD Fan's library.

5 Stars!

Loved listening to every minute of this audio book. What an amazing collection, can't wait to listen to the rest!

Stories you know, an Author to Love,

If you have never read much of PKD's work then you are in for a treat. Not even the Narrators abysmal performance can bring you out of focus (for long). This is a great way to get a varied taste of his many great stories.

They are a fine selection of work, with creative well described settings, dialogue driven characters and plot. Numerous times I was sad to see the stories end, but rare was the ending that left you unfulfilled.

As others note, the narrator has much to be desired. I disagree with those who argue that some just are not used to or open to a female narration.

The truth is the Narrator lacks any range in voices, offering up the same small handful of voices again and again. Worst of all, some of the voices are so forced and out of place they momentarily break concentration, bringing you out of the story and back to reality.

I am excited to learn the next four volumes have different narrators. That said, I recommend getting this volume despite the awful narrator. The stories are great, and with audible there is no risk if you find her voices too jarring.

Great

Great stories. Okay narration. Substandard chapter/story separation and titles.

And almost zero cringey moments, despite “damsel in distress” minimal roles for women.

I think some of the criticism of the narrator is unfair - she’s okay, and maybe it’s a fair counterweight to this pure make fantasy world.

Have already bought all other titles of the series in a sale… but will listen to something worse in between, to really enjoy these!

PKD Deserves Better

Usually I’m indifferent to the gender of the narrator but I can only restate the complaint made elsewhere in these reviews - since the vast majority of the characters in these stories are male, why did they choose a female narrator for this book ? What’s worse is she seems to lack the ability to give the voices any variety so I’m constantly unsure who’s talking. To cap it off all the male characters (virtually all of them) sound congested and not especially bright. And most annoying of all is that this is a collection of short stories yet none of the titles are listed in the table of contents. Seems to me that at least this minimal convenience could have been provided. Philip K Dick is one of my favorite authors and I wish more than minimal effort had been made in the production of this book. I’ve bought the rest of this series since I’m a completist but I sure hope they’re a lot better presented than this first volume.

Quite an assortment!

If you like PK Dick but don't always have the time for a novel, these volumes are for you! Dick wrote such an expanse of thematic sci-fi, there's something for everyone here. Space travel, time travel, romance, folk tales, and always with a satisfying twist or two! Get one volume to start; I think you'll love it!