Pol Pot was an idealistic, reclusive figure with great charisma and personal charm. He initiated a revolution whose radical egalitarianism exceeded any other in history. But in the process, Cambodia desended into madness and his name became a byword for oppression. In the three-and-a-half years of his rule, more than a million people, a fifth of Cambodia's population, were executed or died from hunger and disease. A supposedly gentle, carefree land of slumbering temples and smiling peasants became a concentration camp of the mind, a slave state in which absolute obedience was enforced on the 'killing fields'. Why did it happen? How did an idealistic dream of justice and prosperity mutate into one of humanity's worst nightmares? Philip Short, the biographer of Mao, has spent four years travelling the length of Cambodia, interviewing surviving leaders of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge movement and sifting through previously closed archives. Here, the former Khmer Rouge Head of State, Pol's brother-in-law and scores of lesser figures speak for the first time at length about their beliefs and motives.
The first comprehensive, fully up-to-date biography of Vladimir Putin, woven into the tumultuous saga of Russia over the last sixty years Vladimir Putin is the world’s most dangerous man. Alone among world leaders, he has the power to reduce the United States and Europe to ashes in a nuclear firestorm and has threatened to do so. He invades his neighbors, most recently Ukraine, meddles in western elections, and orders assassinations inside and outside Russia. His regime is autocratic and deeply corrupt. But that is only half the story. Unflinching, hard-hitting, and objective, Philip Short’s biography gives us the whole tale, up to the present day. To the fullest extent anyone has yet been able, Short cracks open the strongman’s thick carapace to reveal the man underneath those bare-chested horseback rides. In this deeply researched account, readers meet the Putin who slept in the same room as his parents until he was twenty-five years old, who backed out of his wedding right beforehand, and who learned English in order to be able to talk to George W. Bush. Vladimir Putin is wreaking havoc in Europe, threatening global peace and stability and exposing his fellow citizens to devastating economic countermeasures. Yet puzzlingly many Russians continue to support him. This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the many facets of the man behind the mask that Putin wears on the world stage. Drawing on almost two hundred interviews conducted over eight years in Russia, the United States, and Europe and on source material in more than a dozen languages, Putin will be the last word for years to come.
One of the great figures of the twentieth century, Chairman Mao looms irrepressibly over the economic rise of China. Mao Zedong was the leader of a revolution, a communist who lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty, an aggressive and distrustful leader, and a man responsible for more civilian deaths than perhaps any other historical figure. Now, four decades after Mao's death, acclaimed biographer Philip Short presents a fully updated and revised edition of his ground-breaking and masterly biography. Vivid, uncompromising and unflinching, Short presents in one-volume the man behind the propaganda - his family, his beliefs and his horrors. In doing so he shows us both the human being Mao was, and the monster he became.
Short's masterful assessment--informed by secret documents recently found in China--provides an up-close look at Mao Tse-tung, the colossal figure whose shadow will dominate into the 21st century. of photos. 4 maps.
THE FATHER THING contains the stories written in 1956, just before the publication of Dick's first novel, SOLAR LOTTERY. The stories are a mix of the previously uncollected and some of his most famous pieces such as Foster, You're Dead a powerful extrapolation of nuclear war hysteria, and The Golden Man, a very different story about a super-evolved mutant human.
Peterson, a crew member from a spaceship visiting Mars, purchases a giant, pig-like creature called a wub. Although Captain Franco means to make a meal of the strange beast, the wub proves to be likeable and intelligent by discussing the travels of Odysseus and the impact of myth on the human spirit. Philip K. Dick was an American science-fiction novelist, short-story writer and essayist. His first short story, “Beyond Lies the Wub,” was published shortly after his high school graduation. Some of his most famous short stories were adapted for film, including “The Minority Report,” “Paycheck,” “Second Variety” (adapted into the film Screamers) and “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” (adapted into the film Total Recall). HarperCollins brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperCollins short-stories collection to build your digital library.
Twenty-second century historian George Miller is completely dedicated to his job studying the history and culture of the twentieth century, and has even created an accurate replica of a twentieth-century dwelling. But when George investigates an odd noise in the exhibit, he stumbles upon a strange reality existing inside of his replica. Philip K. Dick was an American science-fiction novelist, short-story writer and essayist. His first short story, “Beyond Lies the Wub,” was published shortly after his high school graduation. Some of his most famous short stories were adapted for film, including “The Minority Report,” “Paycheck,” “Second Variety” (adapted into the film Screamers) and “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” (adapted into the film Total Recall). HarperCollins brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperCollins short-stories collection to build your digital library.
When Larry Thomas purchases a cuckoo clock for his wife he finds that he is woefully unprepared for what awaits beyond the door of the clock. Philip K. Dick was an American science-fiction novelist, short-story writer and essayist. His first short story, “Beyond Lies the Wub,” was published shortly after his high school graduation. Some of his most famous short stories were adapted for film, including “The Minority Report,” “Paycheck,” “Second Variety” (adapted into the film Screamers) and “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” (adapted into the film Total Recall). HarperCollins brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperCollins short-stories collection to build your digital library.
A definitive biography of one of the twentieth century's most glamorous, complicated political figures. Aesthete, sensualist, bookworm, politician of Machiavellian cunning: FranCois Mitterrand was a man of exceptional gifts and exceptional flaws who, during his fourteen years as President, strove to drag his tradition-bound and change-averse country into the modern world. As a statesman and as a human being, he was the incarnation of the mercurial, contrarian France which Britain and America find so perennially frustrating. He embodied the ambiguities and the contradictions of a nation whose modern identity is founded on a stubborn refusal to fit into the Anglo-American scheme of things. Yet he changed France more profoundly than any of his recent predecessors, arguably including even his great rival, Charles de Gaulle. During the war he was both the leader of a resistance movement and decorated for services to the collaborationist regime in Vichy. After flirting with the far Right, he entered parliament with the backing of conservatives and the Catholic Church before becoming the undisputed leader of the Left. As President he brought the French Communists into the government the better to destroy them. And all the while he managed to find time for an extraordinarily complicated private life. This is a human as much as a political biography, and a captivating portrait of a life that mirrored Mitterrand's times.
This collection brings together the best of Philip K. Dick short stories in a single volume!TABLE OF CONTENTS: ADJUSTMENT TEAMIMPOSTORPAYCHECKTHE KING OF THE ELVESSECOND VARIETYTHE MINORITY REPORT
When Ed Loyce heads to work at his TV repair shop, he is startled to find the dead body of a complete stranger hanging from a lamp post outside. But when he calls attention to the morbid display, the strange reactions of his friends and neighbours bring him to a disturbing realization. Philip K. Dick was an American science-fiction novelist, short-story writer and essayist. His first short story, “Beyond Lies the Wub,” was published shortly after his high school graduation. Some of his most famous short stories were adapted for film, including “The Minority Report,” “Paycheck,” “Second Variety” (adapted into the film Screamers) and “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” (adapted into the film Total Recall). HarperCollins brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperCollins short-stories collection to build your digital library.
In the aftermath of a devastating nuclear war between the United Nations and the Soviet Union, sophisticated robots—nicknamed “claws”—are created to destroy what remains of human life. Left to their own devices, however, the claws develop robots of their own. II-V, the second variety, remains unknown to the few humans left on Earth. Or does it? Philip K. Dick was an American science-fiction novelist, short-story writer and essayist. His first short story, “Beyond Lies the Wub,” was published shortly after his high school graduation. Some of his most famous short stories were adapted for film, including “The Minority Report,” “Paycheck,” “Second Variety” (adapted into the film Screamers) and “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” (adapted into the film Total Recall). HarperCollins brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperCollins short-stories collection to build your digital library.
In a distant future where humans are at war with an alien species called the Yuks, scientists have developed the ultimate weapon—a spacecraft controlled by a human brain. Philip K. Dick was an American science-fiction novelist, short-story writer and essayist. His first short story, “Beyond Lies the Wub,” was published shortly after his high school graduation. Some of his most famous short stories were adapted for film, including “The Minority Report,” “Paycheck,” “Second Variety” (adapted into the film Screamers) and “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” (adapted into the film Total Recall). HarperCollins brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperCollins short-stories collection to build your digital library.
When a group of men crash to the surface of an alien planet, they are hemmed in on all sides by a deadly, un-crossable bog. Attacked by an unknown enemy, the group grows increasingly uncertain as the violence escalates while the enemy combatant remains unseen and no bodies are ever recovered. Philip K. Dick was an American science-fiction novelist, short-story writer and essayist. His first short story, “Beyond Lies the Wub,” was published shortly after his high school graduation. Some of his most famous short stories were adapted for film, including “The Minority Report,” “Paycheck,” “Second Variety” (adapted into the film Screamers) and “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” (adapted into the film Total Recall). HarperCollins brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperCollins short-stories collection to build your digital library.
A group of space soldiers are sent to investigate what they believe to be an abandoned planet when they are shot down and forced to crash land on its surface. While repairing their ship, they discover the ruins of an ancient city—guarded by the mysterious gun that shot them down. Philip K. Dick was an American science-fiction novelist, short-story writer and essayist. His first short story, “Beyond Lies the Wub,” was published shortly after his high school graduation. Some of his most famous short stories were adapted for film, including “The Minority Report,” “Paycheck,” “Second Variety” (adapted into the film Screamers) and “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” (adapted into the film Total Recall). HarperCollins brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperCollins short-stories collection to build your digital library.
After getting held up on his way to work, Ed Fletcher worries about the repercussions he will face when he reaches his office. Little does he know that his late arrival will give him a glimpse behind the very fabric of human existence and put him at odds with powers he cannot comprehend. Philip K. Dick was an American science-fiction novelist, short-story writer and essayist. His first short story, “Beyond Lies the Wub,” was published shortly after his high school graduation. “Adjustment Team” was adapted into the 2011 film The Adjustment Bureau, starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt. Many of Philip K. Dick’s other stories have been similarly adapted, including “The Minority Report,” “Paycheck,” “Second Variety” (adapted into the film Screamers) and “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” (adapted into the film Total Recall). HarperCollins brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperCollins short-stories collection to build your digital library.
After a devastating war between the United States and the Soviet Union mankind has taken refuge beneath Earth’s surface. But the war continues above ground, with robots called “leadys” fighting on our behalf—or so the humans think. “The Defenders” was later expanded into a full-length novel entitled The Penultimate Truth, published in 1964. Philip K. Dick was an American science-fiction novelist, short-story writer and essayist. His first short story, “Beyond Lies the Wub,” was published shortly after his high school graduation. Some of his most famous short stories were adapted for film, including “The Minority Report,” “Paycheck,” “Second Variety” (adapted into the film Screamers) and “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” (adapted into the film Total Recall). HarperCollins brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperCollins short-stories collection to build your digital library.
When bizarre creatures begin plaguing a small farming town, a man from the nearby radioactive science laboratory is sent to investigate and deal with the problem. Philip K. Dick was an American science-fiction novelist, short-story writer and essayist. His first short story, “Beyond Lies the Wub,” was published shortly after his high school graduation. Some of his most famous short stories were adapted for film, including “The Minority Report,” “Paycheck,” “Second Variety” (adapted into the film Screamers) and “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” (adapted into the film Total Recall). HarperCollins brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperCollins short-stories collection to build your digital library.
From the visionary mind of Philip K. Dick, author of sci-fi classics that inspired blockbusters like Blade Runner, Total Recall, and Minority Report, comes Beyond Lies the Wub, a masterful exploration of paranoia, suspense, and mind-bending cosmic revelations. Peterson, a crew member on a spaceship resupplying on Mars, encounters the intriguing wub, an enormous pig-like creature with hidden depths. As they venture off the Martian landscape, the crew realizes that the wub is far more intelligent than they could have ever imagined, possessing telepathic powers and even the potential for mind control. Embark on a journey like no other as conversations unfold between Peterson and the wub about mythology, the epic travels of Odysseus, and the very boundaries of consciousness. Tensions rise as Captain Franco, tormented by paranoia, develops a fearful obsession with the wub; putting the entire crew's safety, loyalties, and understanding of reality at risk. In the tradition of pulp fiction and speculative fiction titans, Dick weaves a suspenseful tale that will keep sci-fi enthusiasts on the edge of their seats. Unearth the true power of the enigmatic wub in this captivating cosmic adventure that explores the thin line between humanity's compassion and destructive tendencies.
Philip K. Dick won the prestigious Hugo Award for best novel of 1963 for "The Man In the High Castle", and in the last year of his life (1982), the film "Blade Runner" was made from his novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep". Here Vol. 3 of the late writer's collected work covers the years 1952-1955 and includes "Second Variety", "Foster, You're Dead", and "The Father-Thing" among many others.
It's unusual to access a child's mind during the magic years of childhood. It's rarer when the child is facing her death. Liza, an ardent child with a deep love of cows and the color purple was diagnosed with leukemia at age four and died two years later in 1996. Liza was an unusually expressive child and her parents, both child psychiatrists, were uniquely oriented to appreciate the richness of a child's mind. Through writing this book, Liza's father strove to reveal the inner world of a child's mind--and a parent's mind--as few other books can. At its center, this is the story of a child's psyche growing and striving to understand all she could of her experience, and of a small family coping with life's biggest challenges. It is a story of love's power to help a family cope and endure despite loss, and to grow, through darkness, back toward a full embrace of life. Through the process, the family emerges transformed, awed by the capacities of this child.
The definitive editions of Philip K. Dick's short stories, containing some of the most defining works in the Science Fiction genre. This stunning new edition of Philip K Dick's work includes the influential 'We Can Remember It For You Wholesale' and 'The Electric Ant', as well as a litany of mind-expanding other works. Work your way through some of the most influential stories from the 20th century, which have had a massive impact on popular culture. 'A great collection, showcasing Dick's evolution' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 'my reason for giving the book a five-star rating has to do with my emotional state I felt when I closed the last page. I feel that I delved into a more extensive realm of PKD's mind by reading this collection' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 'An amazing collection of downright bizarre fiction. So many excellent stories that it would be hard to pick a favorite' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
La realidad de China, este inmenso país asiático que tanto sorprende e incluso inquieta, es muy difícil de entender sin comprender lo que significó el maoísmo y, sobre todo la figura misma de Mao Zedong, que ha sido interpretada hasta ahora a la luz de patrones occidentales que, inevitablemente, dibujan una caricatura del personaje, unas veces como monstruo y otras como héroe, muy alejada del hombre real que fue. La China de hoy es una sociedad aparentemente contradictoria: parece conjugar una forma extrema de occidentalización con la pervivencia de los modelos tradicionales, algo que tiene mucho que ver con la visión que tenía Mao de China: una sociedad ideal unida por un consenso absoluto. Este libro de Philip Short, corresponsal de la BBC en China durante muchos años, es en parte historia de aventuras, en parte historia intelectual y, en parte intriga política. Respaldada por una masa ingente de documentos secretos procedentes de los archivos abiertos en los últimos años del Partido Comunista chino, esta biografía de Mao, que se lee como una novela, de un tirón, nos permite, al fin, comprender en todas sus dimensiones esta figura colosal del siglo xx cuya nombre sigue planeando sobre el siglo xxi.
From the visionary mind of Philip K. Dick, author of acclaimed sci-fi adaptations such as Blade Runner, Total Recall, and Minority Report, comes Beyond the Door, a chilling tale of paranoia, suspense, and the unsettling presence of the supernatural. In this masterful study of deception and obsession, Larry Thomas, a man plagued by jealousy and suspicion, buys a mysterious vintage cuckoo clock for his wife Doris, evoking memories of her childhood. Unbeknownst to Larry, a hidden danger lies dormant within the clock, a force that blurs the lines between reality and fantasy. As Doris reignites a forbidden affair with antique connoisseur Bob Chambers, the cuckoo clock seems to come alive, feeding on Larry's increasing paranoia. Faced with his own unravelling sanity, Larry finds himself locked in a tense battle with the sinister cuckoo dwelling inside the ancient timepiece. Will Larry be able to withstand the presence of the dark force entwined with the clock, or will the cuckoo's menacing grip seal his fate? Delve into the world of Beyond the Door and experience the classic blend of speculative fiction and low fantasy that has solidified Philip K. Dick's reputation as a pioneer in pulp fiction.
Mr. Spaceship" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in Imagination in January 1953, and later in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick. The story is set in the distant future, where humanity is at war with "Yuks", an alien life form which does not use mechanical spaceships nor constructions but instead relies on life forms to power their technology. The war has been going on for a long time and humanity has not been able to come up with a solution against the life-form based ships and mines that the Yuks use. One day a team of researchers led by Philip Kramer decide to build a spaceship which is powered by a human brain and they find the ideal candidate in Kramer's old professor, a dying man who volunteers to donate his brain to the project.
PAYCHECK, originally written as a short story by Philip K. Dick and first published in 1953, centres on an electrician who wakes up to discover his employer has erased his memory of the past two years -- as a security measure. When he tries to collect his paycheck, he finds he has previously signed a release replacing the money with a bag of random objects. Previous film adaptations of Dick's short stories have included the box office smash hits MINORITY REPORT, TOTAL RECALL and BLADE RUNNER, released shortly after Dick died in 1982.
Includes the stories that inspired the movies Total Recall, Screamers, Minority Report, Paycheck, and Next "More than anyone else in the field, Mr. Dick really puts you inside people's minds." --The Wall Street Journal The Philip K. Dick Reader Many thousands of readers consider Philip K. Dick the greatest science fiction mind on any planet. Since his untimely death in 1982, interest in Dick's works has continued to mount, and his reputation has been further enhanced by a growing body of critical attention. The Philip K. Dick Award is now given annually to a distinguished work of science fiction, and the Philip K. Dick Society is devoted to the study and promulgation of his works. Dick won the prestigious Hugo Award for the best novel of 1963 for The Man in the High Castle. In the last year of his life, the film Blade Runner was made from his novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? This collection includes some of Dick's earliest short and medium-length fiction, including We Can Remember It for You Wholesale (the story that inspired the motion picture Total Recall), Second Variety (which inspired the motion picture Screamers), Paycheck, The Minority Report, and twenty more.
Eleven short stories and novellas from 1950s periodicals such as Worlds of Science Fiction, Orbit, and Startling Stories include "Foster, You're Dead," "Prominent Author," "Upon the Dull Earth," and "Adjustment Team.
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