The Father-thing
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The Father-thing is a 1954 science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick. The story, written from a child's point of view, concerns the replacement of a boy's father by a replicated version. Only the child sees the difference and has to recruit other children to help him reveal the truth. The story is typical of Dick's short stories of the period, and also reminiscent of some of the short fiction of Ray Bradbury.
The premise was widely used in fiction of the time, but remains an interesting and entertaining one. Works like The Thing and, most famously Invasion of the Body Snatchers, especially popular in the 1950´s, expressed the fear that people are not what they seem to be. Dick's story is typically more personal because it is not about the invasion of a community, but of a family.
The Father-thing (or Second Variety and Other Stories ISBN 0-8065-1226-1) is also the UK title of the third collected volume of Dick's short stories.
[edit] External link
- The Father-thing publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
The Cookie Lady · Stability · Roog · Project: Earth · Expendable (short story) · The Little Movement · The Preserving Machine · The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford · Beyond Lies the Wub · The Gun (short story) · The Skull (short story) · The Defenders · Mr. Spaceship · Piper In The Woods · The Infinities · The Indefatigable Frog · The Variable Man · The Crystal Crypt · The Builder · Meddler · Paycheck · Out In The Garden · The Great C · The King Of The Elves · Colony (short story) · Prize Ship · Nanny (short story) · Beyond the Door · Second Variety · Jon's World · The Cosmic Poachers · Some Kinds of Life · Progeny · Martians Come In Clouds · The Commuter · The World She Wanted · A Surface Raid · The Trouble with Bubbles · A Present for Pat · Breakfast at Twilight · Of Withered Apples · The Hood Maker · Human Is · The Impossible Planet (short story) · Adjustment Team · Impostor · James P. Crow · Planet For Transients · Small Town · Souvenir · Survey Team · Vulcan's Hammer · Prominent Author · Fair Game · The Hanging Stranger · The Eyes Have It · Time Pawn · The Golden Man · The Turning Wheel · The Last of the Masters · The Father-thing · Strange Eden · A Glass of Darkness · Tony and the Beetles · Null-O · Exhibit Piece · To Serve the Master · The Crawlers · Sales Pitch · Shell Game · Upon the Dull Earth · Foster, You're Dead! · Pay for the Printer · War Veteran · The Chromium Fence · Misadjustment · A World of Talent · Psi-man Heal My Child! · Service Call · Autofac · Captive Market · The Mold of Yancy · Minority Report · The Unreconstructed M · Recall Mechanism · Explorers We · War Game · If There Were No Benny Cemoli · Novelty Act · Waterspider · What the Dead Men Say · Orpheus with Clay Feet · Stand-by (short story) · The Days of Perky Pat · What'll We Do With Ragland Park? · Oh, to be a Blobel! · All We Marsmen · The War with the Fnools · Cantata 140 · A Game of Unchance · The Little Black Box · Precious Artifact · The Unteleported Man · Retreat Syndrome · Project Plowshare · Faith of our Fathers · We Can Remember It For You Wholesale · Holy Quarrel · Your Appointment Will Be Yesterday · Return Match · Not By Its Cover · The Story To End All Stories · The Electric Ant · A. Lincoln, Simulacrum · Cadbury, the Beaver Who Lacked · The Different Stages Of Love · A Little Something For Us Tempunauts · The Pre-persons · The Eye of The Sibyl · The Exit Door Leads In · Chains Of Air, Web Of Aethyr · Strange Memories Of Death · I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon · Rautavaara's Case · Fawn, Look Back · The Alien Mind · The Day Mr. Computer Fell Out Of Its Tree · Goodbye, Vincent · 11-17-80 · The Name of the Game is Death
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