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Volume I: The King of the Elves
- Narrated by: Kate Rudd
- Length: 20 hrs and 9 mins
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Volume I: The King of the Elves
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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expanded from the previous Collected Stories set to incorporate new story notes, and two added tales, one previously unpublished, and one uncollected.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.
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What listeners say about Volume I: The King of the Elves
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 30-09-22
Unbearable performance.
As much as I love the authors work, the three monotone voices of the narrator is frankly inconceivable to listen to for seventeen hours.
Skip this first collection until (if we're lucky) it gets re-recorded.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Aleksejs Skorodumovs
- 12-03-23
Awesome
Some people write that it's impossible to listen to, but I find it ok. So there's no reason to miss this volume. Very good series 👍
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Timothy S.
- 08-07-20
Mixed bag of short stories
I struggled to listen to many of the stories in this collection as the topics were often bizarre and self inconsistent. Space explorers lacking basic common sense and a military commander worried about undressing to save her life???? The narrator's sometimes robotic voice did not help in these cases.
However, there are some stand out gems imo and my favourite was "The Variable Man" which gives some clues about the greatness Philip K Dick achieves in his later stories.
If you are new to Philip K Dick, I suggest listening to one of his later works rather than this collection as an introduction to his writing. If you have read a few of PKD's stories already, I'd recommend this collection as a good representation of his early work.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mr. S. Rafferty
- 10-07-19
No gaps
The stories are great and on the whole, the performance was good. the bit I struggled with was the lack of gap between individual stories. At the end of one, the title of the next was like the next sentence. A few times I missed the break altogether and just thought the story was taking an odd turn! Needs full concentration I guess.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 27-08-21
Wonderful narration great stories legendary author
Wonderful narration great stories legendary author
The only thing I didn't like was when it was over 😉
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Lobot
- 22-02-23
Superb!
PKD, what an incredible collection.
Well made, well read. Have just purchased rest of series on strength of this one.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- R. Benson
- 06-08-23
Very good book. Excellently read. Poorly arranged
Despite what some other reviewers have said, I found that the narrators performance was excellent. I really don’t recognise their complaints and I wonder if has been revoiced? The stories are very good and reflect the developing talent of the author. The book is however let down badly by the audio edit. There is no gap between the end of one story and the start of the next. This is ludicrous and should be corrected. It spoils what would otherwise be a perfect book. Audible take note please.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Dominic Gill
- 06-06-16
terrible amateurish reading
completely ruins what could have been an excellent production.
who makes these crucial decisions? far too often lack of intelligent quality control on Audible.
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10 people found this helpful