I ’ve always loved Philip K. Dick ’s unretentive fiction for the jolt of concentrated weirdness it provides . One of his good stories is on-line for free , plus there are three Kelley Eskridge tales for your perusing .
At first glance , Dick ’s 1954 story “ The Father Thing ” is a stock Riffian on the Invasion Of The Body Snatchers musical theme of exotic bug creature replacing man . ( Another , earlier classic along alike lines , Robert Heinlein ’s The Puppet Masters , isalso availableas a devoid on-line read . )
What jell “ The Father Thing ” apart is its more intimate , Twilight Zone - esque caliber . The exotic doppelgangers are a home encroachment , not a planetary invasion . They only want to exchange one individual menage — start with the father , then make a motion on to the mother and finally the son . The Logos , Charles , is the only one who realizes that anything is wrong , and he promptly earn that he wo n’t be able-bodied to convince any adults to believe him . alternatively , he goes to the neighbourhood kids , who believe him instantly without even questioning . That ’s my favorite part of the story — the direction in which the neighbour kids are just like , “ Sure , your dad ’s been replaced with an alien . It sucks when that come about . ”
Of course , it ’s all a metaphor for coming - of - long time shit and sense alienate from your parent and realizing that you and your peers belong to a different world than the older generation . But it ’s also a courteous Lucy in the sky with diamonds of Dickian paranoia , especially as the story engender creepier and creepier .
Meanwhile , I praised Kelley Eskridge ’s story solicitation Dangerous Space a while back , and three stories from it are online . All three stories clear consider with the paper of art and artificiality . And the dangers and challenge involved in trying to reach an authentic artistic vox in a world of shapeshifters , emotional broadcast technology and dystopian graphics lords . And two of the stories , “ And Salome Danced ” and “ Dangerous Space(PDF ) , ” feature the same protagonist , the genderless manufacturer / film director named Mars . The third , “ Strings , ” features a violnist who dares to improvise in a world that ’s rejected spontenaeity in medicine .
All these story are well deserving spending a Sunday afternoon indication , with a mug of tea . And there ’s enough more at the link . [ viaFree Speculative Fiction Online ]
“ The Father Thing”-inspired photo byDemcanulty .
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