β Scribed by Dick, Philip Kindred
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vulcan's Hammer is a 1960 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick.
| Contents * 1Plot introduction * 2Release details * 3References * 4External links |
In 2029 CE, the Earth is run by the Unity organisation after a
devastating world war. Unity runs the planet, controlling humans from
childhood education onwards through the Vulcan series of artificial intelligences, but is fought by the Healer movement.
Unity Director William Barris discovers that the Vulcan 3 computer
has become sentient and is considering drastic action to combat what it
sees as a threat to itself. Vulcan 3 has been kept ignorant about
information related to the Healer revolutionary movement by Managing
Director Jason Dills, who is still loyal to its (also sentient)
predecessor, Vulcan 2. Vulcan 2 fears that it will soon be superseded
by Vulcan 3, and previously established the Healers as a movement to
overthrow its successor.
Dill and Barris begin to suspect one another, as Dill has received a
letter that refers to Barris' previous contact with the Healers, but
Vulcan 2 suffers partial damage in a terrorist attack. It advises Dill
not to inform Vulcan 3 about the existence of the Healers, for fear that
Vulcan 3 will order their mass execution. However, Vulcan 3 has already
noticed the gap in available data about the rebels, and manufactured
killer androids of its own. Barris and Dill resolve their differences
and attack Vulcan 3, resulting in the destruction of the artificial
intelligence, but Dill dies in the attempt. Finally, however, humanity
is free from Unity and its technocratic dictatorship.
The novel is an expansion of a novella that was first printed in Future Science Fiction magazine in 1956.
Vulcan's Hammer was first published as a novel by Ace Books as one half of Ace Double D-457, bound dos-Γ -dos with John Brunner's The Skynappers. It was republished in 2000 by the UK Orion Publishing Group in an omnibus volume containing three of Dick's novels originally published as Ace doubles, the other two being The Man Who Japed and Dr. Futurity.
π SIMILAR VOLUMES
### Review βThe finest American novelist of our time.β β\_Hartford Advocate \_ βDick wasβ¦one of the genuine visionaries that North American fiction has produced in this century.ββSteve Erickson,\_ L.A. Weekly \_βIf thereβs such a thing as a βblack science fiction,β Philip K. Dick is its Pirand
### ### Product Description Objective, unbiased and hyperrational, the Vulcan 3 should have been the perfect ruler. The omnipotent computer dictates policy that is in the best interests of all citizensΠ²Πβor at least, that is the idea. But when the machine, whose rule evolved out of chaos and war,