It may just be that these stories are from an older period of Dick's writing than the novels I have read and his prose is even clunkier, but the style bothers me more than it used to. He also really hammers his themes such that it's a lot to take all of this in at once because it covers the same ground over and over, and there is very little pleasure to be gained from the work beyond the ideas and 50s misogyny so virulent you have to laugh at it. There are themes I associate as typical of his work - what makes us human? robots evolving to the point humans are rendered irrelevant, mistaken identity, but also a focus on the ecological impact of humans on their environment and the inherently destructive trajectory of humanity that's really fascinating. That's the part I didn't expect, so much. While apocalypse via nuclear destruction seemed most plausible to Dick at the time, now it's simply an environmental apocalypse that we've brought upon ourself, but the end outcome is the same. Survey Team hits particularly hard as it involves a team sent to investigate the plausibility of human life existing on Mars after Earth's resources have been completely destroyed - a situation that is basically ripped right out of the newspapers today.

Favourite stories: Behind the Door, Second Variety, Progeny (divorce-core faildad), The Commuter, The Trouble with Bubbles, Human Is, Imposter, Survey Team, Prominent Author