Fair Game by Philip K. Dick.

Philip K. Dick. is one of my favorite authors. I've been writing short stories for Steem Fiction with a handful of other amazing authors, so I figured I'd pick up a few different short story books so that I could see some of the different writing styles from my favorites.

I should probably tell you that I've read almost everything by Phillip K. Dick.

Some of his books are amazing, and some of them are simply pretty good.

Even the ones that are only pretty good have an extremely well articulated writing style.

The other day I picked up a book that I haven't read of his called....

Wikipedia.com

The Philip K. Dick Reader.

I've read some of these short stories too. This particular one is the first story in the book.

Fair Game.

Right away I am at ease by his quickly integrated story style. By that I mean that he immediately makes you feel comfortable with his characters.

He doesn't try to do too much with his story. He mostly focuses on one thing, and he makes that thing perfect.

Fair game is a particularly short story coming in at only 13 pages.

One day a scientist sees an eye outside his window watching him. A giant disembodied eye. He tells some of his friends about the eye, and everyone believes him.

You might say something about suspension of disbelief, but you have to understand we're talking about a 13 page story here. There is no time to try to introduce various reasons for them to believe him.

It doesn't matter anyway because it works.

The main character, Professor Anthony Douglas, spends the majority of the story running away from what he's finally decided is something like a God, or a creature from a different dimension.

In the end it seems that he may be right. I don't want to give away what happened, but I will say that the general sentiment is that the ending could have been a lot better.

I have to agree simply because it's too short, and it could definitely have been expanded into a few more pages.

Having said that, this is a particularly well written story.

I think you will enjoy it.