Vulcan's hammer (1960)

The Crack in Space

Philip K. Dick

1966 · 190 pages · 1 review

Others: Negative

The first seven chapters of Philip K. Dick's The Crack in Space were first published as Cantata-140 in Fantasy and Science Fiction (07/1964). Cantata-140 was expanded from the short story Stand-By (Amazing 10/1963). The Gollancz 2003 edition of Cantata-140 is the text of The Crack in Space, not the novella published in 1964.

The Man Who Japed

Philip K. Dick

1956 · 172 pages · 1 review

Others: Positive

The Man Who Japed is a science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in 1956. Although one of Dick's lesser-known novels, it features several of the ideas and themes that recur throughout his later works. The "jape[s]" or practical jokes of the novel begin with a statue's unconventional decapitation. The Man Who Japed was first published by Ace Books as one half of Ace Double D-193, bound dos-à-dos with The Space Born by E. C. Tubb.

The flame alphabet

Ben Marcus

2012 · 289 pages · 1 review

Others: Negative

Marcus creates a chilling world where the speech of children is killing their parents. After being forced to leave their daughter Esther to fend for herself, Sam and Claire end up at a government lab intent on creating non-lethal speech. But when Sam discovers the truth about what's going on there, he realizes reuniting with his daughter is the only way to keep his sanity.

The Reefs of Earth

R. A. Lafferty

1968 · 164 pages · 2 reviews

Others: Positive

A PLAGUE OF DEMONS —that's what the people of Lost Haven called the six children (seven, if you counted Bad John) of the Dulanty family. They looked like normal Earth children... except when they flicked their ears like animals, or made their eyes glow with a green fire... and if you looked at them sideways they did look strangely like nightmarish gargoyles. The truth these children are Pucas, aliens from a strange planet. And they have taken it upon themselves to reduce the world to a population of six (seven, if you counted Bad John). Wishing will make it so, for by making up an appropriate death-rhyme, they can destroy their victims. These frightening, far-out kids take a black delight in destroying their neighbors, and the Earth people are defenseless against them....

Moderan

David R. Bunch

1971 · 240 pages · 3 reviews

Others: Leaning positive

Camp Concentration

Thomas M. Disch

1968 · 177 pages · 1 review

Others: Positive

In this chillingly plausible work of speculative fiction, Thomas M. Disch imagines an alternate 1970s in which America has declared war on the rest of the world and much of its own citizenry and is willing to use any weapon to assure victory. Louis Sacchetti, a poet imprisoned for draft resistance, is delivered to a secret facility called Camp Archimedes, where he is the unwilling witness to the army's conscienceless experiments in “intelligence maximization.” In the experiment, Prisoners are given Pallidine, a drug derived from the syphilis spirochete, and their mental abilities quickly rise to the level of genius. Unfortunately, a side effect of Pallidine is death.