The Minority Report

The Minority Report

3.76 of 5 stars 3.76  ·  rating details  ·  5,036 ratings  ·  234 reviews
In the world of The Minority Report, Commissioner John Anderton is the one to thank for the lack of crime. He is the originator of the Precrime System, which uses "precogs"--people with the power to see into the future--to identify criminals before they can do any harm. Unfortunately for Anderton, his precogs perceive him as the next criminal. But Anderton knows he has nev...more
Hardcover, 112 pages
Published May 14th 2002 by Pantheon (first published January 1956)
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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. DickRedshirts by John ScalziSnow Crash by Neal StephensonThe Martian Chronicles by Ray BradburyRingworld by Larry Niven
Sword and Laser Sci-Fi list
27th out of 257 books — 683 voters
Shrek! by William SteigJurassic Park by Michael CrichtonForrest Gump by Winston GroomThe Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. TolkienPeter Pan by J.M. Barrie
I Haven't Read It But I've Seen the Movie
21st out of 171 books — 168 voters


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Wendi
May 22, 2008 Wendi rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Tina
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Conor
This is actually a collection of nine short stories by Dick. It's a fun read, and even though I generally don't like collections of short stories, there was sufficent variety to keep me interested. There's a bit of a drag towards the end of the collection in some stories like "What the dead men say," but I liked the book and I would be willing to read more by him.
Jamie
Since this book is comprised of many short stories by Dick, I'll review each of the ones I read. I'll base my rating upon the general consensus of Dick's work rather than an individual story.

Minority Report: This short story was pretty good. I saw how the story was the underlying idea for the movie, but I have to say that I enjoyed the story in the movie more than this smaller version of it. Since this is the first short story I've read by Dick, I have to say that I like the way he writes and t...more
James McCormick
This story is difficult to review. On many levels, I really enjoyed it, despite its flaws.

1) It got right what the movie got incredibly wrong.

Namely, that in any story with a character knowing the future (specifically his own) there needs to be the feeling of inevitability. That all events are unavoidable, even when actively avoided. If the outcome foretold is to come true in the story, then the protagonist needs to do everything in his power to make sure it doesn't happen.

And the easiest way t...more
Corey Pung
It’s safe to say that most science fiction fans, myself included, would consider The Minority Report to be one of the best SF films of the 21st century so far. Hardly a year goes by where I don’t watch Spielberg’s sleak vision of the dystopian future, yet I have some caveats with the movie adaptation, namely that it’s a bit too long, too puffed up, and overly complicated rather than complex at times (there’s a big difference). The book version of The Minority Report, as I just found out, has non...more
Stephen
Technology wise, this story and "Paycheck" (also by PKD) are very similar. If you read this one, you might want to read Paycheck for contrast.

Writing is clean and accessible. In typical PKD fashion, the characters don't have a great deal of backstory, and are not that emotional in general. The strength of this book is not so much even the plot, but the idea.

The idea is simple... Oh, you should stop reading right now if you don't like spoilers at all. Seriously, go read the story, you can do so...more
Trekscribbler
MINORITY REPORT, the inspiration for the latest Spielberg film, is perhaps one of Philip K. Dick's most accessible pieces of short fiction, and it's given the big blockbuster treatment here that it (arguably) deserves ... hardcover format with a clever sideways printing scheme resembling that of a traditional detective's notepad.
However, despite the popularity (or not) of the film, this item is really intended for Dick's hardcore fans. Those people drawn to it for the film might be disappointed...more
Brandy
Thanks to John Anderton's development of the Precrime division, violent crime has been almost completely eradicated. A team of three precognitives sits hooked up to machines all day, with their visions analyzed and translated into reports of upcoming crimes, so that the would-be perpetrators can be arrested before they have a chance to kill. Anderton is showing his new assistant around the Precrime division when he picks up a new batch of cards--and is shocked to find his name at the top. Convin...more
Colby Pryor
Minority Report by Phillip K. Dick is about a future where all violent crime has been abolished thanks to the advancement of Precog technology. Precogs are mutants with the ability to see one week into the future, and are at the center of the technology. The story focuses on a police commissioner, known as Anderton, who receives a premonition from the Precogs that he will kill someone in one week. Now the race is on to find out if Anderton will kill a man or if this is just an elaborate setup f...more
John
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Brian
I am in perpetual awe of Philip K. Dick. He explores issues of identity and choice with such probing intensity, his inventiveness granting insights that would not be available though a framework other than science fiction. He does it better than anyone else, and "The Minority Report" is one of the finest demonstrations of Mr. Dick's powers.

Those who enjoyed the film adaptation owe it to themselves to sit down with the "The Minority Report". Just as the characters in Dick's tale grapple with alt...more
Amy
I have never seen the movie starring Tom Cruise, so my first exposure to this story is Philip K. Dick's story. I see that this thing was first published in 1956, right at the end of Stalin's reign of terror in the Soviet Union, and right during McCarthyism in the United States. Maybe I have communism on the brain (I did just recently finish Agent 6), but to me Minority Report read like a book born right out of this era and right out of these events. This sounded to me like a cautionary tale, war...more
April
I wasn't all that interested when reading this actually. I guess after having seen Spielbergs adaptation I expected there to be more to the plot and more depth to the characters (bravo Spielberg, by the way, for creating so much around what this book offers.) Minority Report is one of my favourite movies so I thought it'd be pretty hard to read something a little similar yet entirely different; two stars goes towards actually setting up the plot though. The idea of Precrime and the harrowing fau...more
Rebekah
The Minority Report (the movie) is one of my favorites. It draws me in with its high-tech world, fast-paced plot, and ethical dilemmas. Thanks to some Goodreads reviewers, I knew not to expect the print and paper version to be the same. Nonetheless, I couldn't help comparing it to the movie, and I found myself disappointed with the book. The book's characters are flat; at no point in the story, except for the car crash scene, did I feel any excitement or shock or, really, anything at all. But mo...more
Octavia
This story went by a lot faster than I thought it would. It was simply interesting. The world we once knew where murders and other crime occurred on a daily basis does not exist in this world Philip K. Dick created. PreCrime has made it impossible for those who want to commit murder or other crime to do so. There are three precognitive minds buried deep within police headquarters. It would be hard to imagine that anything could wrong. Until Anderton's own name comes up as one of the next crimina...more
Tom
The Minority Report shares about two things (aside from its title) with the movie: the main character's name (not his position in the police, or his actual current place in life, just his name), and the fact that his police station has 3 precogs predicting crime. Of course, in the story, every police station has their own 3, and violent crimes have been eliminated from society.

This one is a mind bender by the end. The report in question sets up a series of events that leaves the reader wondering...more
Lachlan Smith
This is a brilliant short story, that is an example of how human (or in this case human/mutant) error can have dire consequences.
John Anderton is the police commissioner, specifically working in the "Precrime" unit. "Precrime" is a system in which mutants predict crimes a week before they occur, allowing the police to arrest the perpetrator before they even commit the crime. The mutants produce cards that tell them who is the murderer and who is the victim - John Anderton knows the system inside...more
Jonty
I realy liked this book... Normaly books that teachers give to us are realy bad and boring and you have to write essays on them but this book was realy enjoyable and even when we did have to write an essay on it i didn't realy mind. Imposter was also a good short story included in this book.
Michael
Though the story was different to the movie, I still had the problem were I kept seeing Anderton as Tom Cruise and that didn’t help the enjoyment of this book. But thanks to the mastery writing of Philip K Dick, I did manage to get past this small issue and enjoy the book. Like the movie, the book explores the issues of identity and free will, but to a lesser extent it explores the issue prophecies; if you are told you will do something in the future, do you end up doing it (even if you never ha...more
Jorge Candeias
- Hasty
- Dick's typical convoluted storylines tend to work much better in novel length
- Portuguese edition wholly opportunistic. Come on: only one short story with a huge font to make it seem larger?! That is not the way to do it.
- Still, Dick's talent is there
Dave
I'm often drawn in by books that became movies. I suspect you've seen the movie. I had. I like to explore what warranted making a film and then what changes ensued in so doing. Usually, I prefer the book and its added depth of character. In this case, it actually didn't work so well.

The concepts and the foundation for an amazing chase thriller is there, but I didn't buy the various character motivations. Or rather, I didn't know what was suspicion and what was truth. At first I figured the ambig...more
Laura Haggart
The collection is fantastic, but the story that stood out most to me is The Minority Report. I enjoyed absolutely everything about this story. Such an interesting work of science fiction. The fact that Dick can dream up the elaborate plot and all the details and then go beyond that to put it into beautiful writing astounds me.

The story was pretty dense, but I'm not a huge science fiction reader. There were parts I had to read a few times through to understand, but I was glad I did. Some books yo...more
Grant
This was my first time to read a work by Philip K. Dick. I have seen the movies Paycheck and the Adjustment Bureau but I have never read any of his works. I loved both of those movies and was always wanting to read anything by him because he was so creative. I like how the story plays out and why it is called Minority Report.

I find it interesting that he choose 3 to be the number of precogs rather than some larger amount. Since this is science fiction, this story obviously takes place sometime i...more
Jule
Das Hörbuch beinhaltet zwei Kurzgeschichten von Philip K. Dick.

"Der Minderheiten-Bericht" (Orig.: The Minority Report)
"Variante Zwei" (Orig.: Second Variety)

Mir haben Beide sehr gefallen. Darum 5 Punkte :) .
Lon
Less character-driven and viscerally intense than the movie, but doesn't disappoint. Fascinating exploration of free will and self-fulfilling (or self-negating) prophecies. The three "pre-cogs", it turns out, perceive different future. When Anderton learns of one "time-path", his self-directed fate changes, thereby opening up a 2nd time-path, which in turn opens a third, etc. If you dig Stephen Hawking's Brief History of Time--not because you grasp time-space continuum paradoxes, but because you...more
Shannon Barry
I originally picked up this book because I found it for $1 at Half Price Books in Fremont and had seen, and loved, the movie. The story line here is different enough though with interesting morals being presented in a short period of time.
This was a quick read on my lunch break. Many people complained about the style of the book. It reads up to down and you flip it like a detective's notebook or report ... "The Minority Report." I found it quite appealing though as it helped bring me into the wo...more
Mina Villalobos
Entertaining enough, this short story deals with more mentally/physically ailed people who can see the future (a bit like the schizoids in Martian Time Slip) but this time a whole policing system has been built around the idea of being able to predict crime and thus incarcerate would-be criminals before they commit the deed. Prophetic future, how much of it is self fulfilling and how much is preordained and paranoia. Entertaining, but nowhere as charming as other of his stories.

The audiobook ve...more
Marie Cheng Yu
I should explain my rating - the concept and thinking behind the writing, esp. considering this was written in 1956 - is spot on and very cool; even better than the movie that pushed me to read this original short story. That being said, there is not much emotional connect, or background, or depth, to the characters, which is slightly disappointing. That being said I'm told this is one of the more easy to read and accessible stories by Philip K Dick, and is certainly worth the read.

If you're re...more
Alison
John Anderton is the commissioner of the pre-crime unit, which, like other government departments, uses psychic "idiots" to see the future. People who are seen committing crimes — from felony to murder — are brought in and contained before they can do the deed. On the day when Anderton's new assistant, whom Anderton is training to take over the department eventually, arrives, Anderton's own name shows up on a punch card as the murderer of a guy he doesn't even know.
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Paul
I'm conflicted about the presentation of the story. Part of me loves that this was a quick and easy read without any unnecessary fluff. It was short and to the point, only mentioning what was absolutely important. Very efficient. But the other part of wished for some more substance, more background, more anything to better engage with the characters and the different situations. Conversations and some events felt very unrealistic and unnatural because they appeared more like brief summaries. Ove...more
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The Minority Report
The Minority Report (Paperback)
Minority Report (Hardcover)
The Minority Report (ebook)
Relatório Minoritário (Paperback)

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Philip K. Dick was born in Chicago in 1928 and lived most of his life in California. He briefly attended the University of California, but dropped out before completing any classes. In 1952, he began writing professionally and proceeded to write numerous novels and short-story collections. He won the Hugo Award for the best novel in 1962 for The Man in the High Castle and the John W. Campbell Memo...more
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