“An escapist adventure which feeds our resentment for our own self-destructive nature.”

Completists of PKD will enjoy this relatively simple tale with its whodunnit twists and its foundational  tracklaying for hundreds of stories after it, a prime virtue of Dick’s work: he got there first.

Still, pulp fiction is pulp fiction, and this is not really an exception. This is pure adventure along with a too-heavy-handed warning to the war-mongers and tech-makers out there: lest our own war machines turn against us . . . !

So enter it with this in mind. Early 1950s Cold War fears, the final soldiers on Earth still battling away, but now with automated robots which swarm the enemy, a distant military industrial complex directing/ignoring the realities. And then, a message suggests a truce may be at hand. But for what reason?  The short adventure follows, complete with tough men, strong & beautiful women, innocent children, a world of ash, and our hero making crucial decisions.

An escapist adventure which feeds our resentment for our own self-destructive nature.