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Prize Ship: A Positronic Book
By the Author of Blade Runner. The war had been going on for two Terran months, with no sign of a break. The System Senate's difficult position came from the fact that Ganymede was the jump-off point between the System and its precarious network of colonies at Proxima Centauri. All ships leaving the System for deep-space were launched from the immense space cradles on Ganymede. There were no other cradles. Ganymede had been agreed on as the jump-off point, and the cradles had been constructed there. The Ganymedeans became rich, hauling freight and supplies in their tubby little ships. Over a period of time more and more Gany ships took to the sky, freighters and cruisers and patrol ships. One day this odd fleet landed among the space cradles, killed and imprisoned the Terran and Martian guards, and proclaimed that Ganymede and the cradles were their property.
24 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1954
About the author
Philip K. Dick
1,938 books23.1k followersPhilip Kindred Dick was a prolific American science fiction author whose work has had a lasting impact on literature, cinema, and popular culture. Known for his imaginative narratives and profound philosophical themes, Dick explored the nature of reality, the boundaries of human identity, and the impact of technology and authoritarianism on society. His stories often blurred the line between the real and the artificial, challenging readers to question their perceptions and beliefs.
Raised in California, Dick began writing professionally in the early 1950s, publishing short stories in various science fiction magazines. He quickly developed a distinctive voice within the genre, marked by a fusion of science fiction concepts with deep existential and psychological inquiry. Over his career, he authored 44 novels and more than 100 short stories, many of which have become classics in the field.
Recurring themes in Dick's work include alternate realities, simulations, corporate and government control, mental illness, and the nature of consciousness. His protagonists are frequently everyday individuals—often paranoid, uncertain, or troubled—caught in surreal and often dangerous circumstances that force them to question their environment and themselves. Works such as Ubik, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, and A Scanner Darkly reflect his fascination with perception and altered states of consciousness, often drawing from his own experiences with mental health struggles and drug use.
One of Dick's most influential novels is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which served as the basis for Ridley Scott's iconic film Blade Runner. The novel deals with the distinction between humans and artificial beings and asks profound questions about empathy, identity, and what it means to be alive. Other adaptations of his work include Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, and The Man in the High Castle, each reflecting key elements of his storytelling—uncertain realities, oppressive systems, and the search for truth. These adaptations have introduced his complex ideas to audiences well beyond the traditional readership of science fiction.
In the 1970s, Dick underwent a series of visionary and mystical experiences that had a significant influence on his later writings. He described receiving profound knowledge from an external, possibly divine, source and documented these events extensively in what became known as The Exegesis, a massive and often fragmented journal. These experiences inspired his later novels, most notably the VALIS trilogy, which mixes autobiography, theology, and metaphysics in a narrative that defies conventional structure and genre boundaries.
Throughout his life, Dick faced financial instability, health issues, and periods of personal turmoil, yet he remained a dedicated and relentless writer. Despite limited commercial success during his lifetime, his reputation grew steadily, and he came to be regarded as one of the most original voices in speculative fiction. His work has been celebrated for its ability to fuse philosophical depth with gripping storytelling and has influenced not only science fiction writers but also philosophers, filmmakers, and futurists.
Dick's legacy continues to thrive in both literary and cinematic spheres. The themes he explored remain urgently relevant in the modern world, particularly as technology increasingly intersects with human identity and governance. The Philip K. Dick Award, named in his honor, is presented annually to distinguished works of science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States. His writings have also inspired television series, academic studies, and countless homages across media.
Through his vivid imagination and unflinching inquiry into the nature of existence, Philip K. Dick redefined what science fiction could achieve. His wor
Raised in California, Dick began writing professionally in the early 1950s, publishing short stories in various science fiction magazines. He quickly developed a distinctive voice within the genre, marked by a fusion of science fiction concepts with deep existential and psychological inquiry. Over his career, he authored 44 novels and more than 100 short stories, many of which have become classics in the field.
Recurring themes in Dick's work include alternate realities, simulations, corporate and government control, mental illness, and the nature of consciousness. His protagonists are frequently everyday individuals—often paranoid, uncertain, or troubled—caught in surreal and often dangerous circumstances that force them to question their environment and themselves. Works such as Ubik, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, and A Scanner Darkly reflect his fascination with perception and altered states of consciousness, often drawing from his own experiences with mental health struggles and drug use.
One of Dick's most influential novels is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which served as the basis for Ridley Scott's iconic film Blade Runner. The novel deals with the distinction between humans and artificial beings and asks profound questions about empathy, identity, and what it means to be alive. Other adaptations of his work include Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, and The Man in the High Castle, each reflecting key elements of his storytelling—uncertain realities, oppressive systems, and the search for truth. These adaptations have introduced his complex ideas to audiences well beyond the traditional readership of science fiction.
In the 1970s, Dick underwent a series of visionary and mystical experiences that had a significant influence on his later writings. He described receiving profound knowledge from an external, possibly divine, source and documented these events extensively in what became known as The Exegesis, a massive and often fragmented journal. These experiences inspired his later novels, most notably the VALIS trilogy, which mixes autobiography, theology, and metaphysics in a narrative that defies conventional structure and genre boundaries.
Throughout his life, Dick faced financial instability, health issues, and periods of personal turmoil, yet he remained a dedicated and relentless writer. Despite limited commercial success during his lifetime, his reputation grew steadily, and he came to be regarded as one of the most original voices in speculative fiction. His work has been celebrated for its ability to fuse philosophical depth with gripping storytelling and has influenced not only science fiction writers but also philosophers, filmmakers, and futurists.
Dick's legacy continues to thrive in both literary and cinematic spheres. The themes he explored remain urgently relevant in the modern world, particularly as technology increasingly intersects with human identity and governance. The Philip K. Dick Award, named in his honor, is presented annually to distinguished works of science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States. His writings have also inspired television series, academic studies, and countless homages across media.
Through his vivid imagination and unflinching inquiry into the nature of existence, Philip K. Dick redefined what science fiction could achieve. His wor
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 7, 2019
This short story, first published in Thrilling Wonder Stories (1954), tells of a Terran space crew who, in time of war, capture an experimental Ganymedean ship and decide to take it for a test drive. Soon they find themselves in an Earth-like environment, being shot at with arrows by tiny little men who live in a medieval style castle. They begin to wonder: has this trip taken them to the land of Gulliver’s Travels? Have they journeyed into the mind of Jonathan Swift?
Of course, as is usual in Dick’s fiction, the truth isn’t this crazy. it’s crazier. The resolution, however, is plausible, and the ending satisfying.
This is not one of Dick’s best, but it is still an amusing story.
August 15, 2017
The Future Looms Large
Prize Ship is a not too spectacular short story which, however, becomes more intriguing when you think about it for a while – like rolling a good whisky on your tongue. It is set during a war the inhabitants of our solar system wage against the people from Ganymede, who, if they existed, would also be inhabitants of our solar system, now I come to think of it. The Ganymedians are in a key position with regard to deep space travel and as they know this they want to blackmail everyone else into granting them a larger share of the spoils – but in a way, this is just the background of the story and does not really matter.
Our people prove quite inefficient against the Ganymedian war efforts, and when they finally capture a spaceship from Ganymede, they are eager to test-drive it in order to learn something vital about the enemy’s technology. The crew of volunteers who go on a first trip soon find themselves on a planet inhabited by tiny people clad in medieval armours and shooting arrows at them. One of their first thoughts is that they have become stranded on the shores of Lilliput like Gulliver once had. The only problem being that Gulliver and the Lilliputians were figments of Jonathan Swift’ imagination, or weren’t they? How can they have hit upon a world that only existed in a crusty Irishman’s mind? Or can it be that Swift actually discovered Lilliput and Brobdingnag and worked them into hisfairy tale, social satire? When we finally find out what has really happened, this may probably also help us explain why PKD’s shoes are too big for many another science fiction writer.
What I found a rather funny detail was the constant bickering of two crew members over whether Gulliver’s Travels is a fairy tale or a social satire. It reminded me of how I once vainly tried to convince a lady in a bookshop that she had wrongly shelved David Copperfield in the children’s books section, whereas it should be with the classics. Whatever I said proved water off a duck’s back – even though it was not an abridged but an original version of the Inimitable’s novel – and I sensed that things were about to come to a head if I persisted in pursuing my superior line of argument since the lady’s voice grew somewhat edgy. As a true admirer of Dickens, however, I did not give up but simply started leafing through the book in question, traversing the shop with a pensive air and sitting down somewhere- apparently lost in its perusal. All the while, however, I keenly watched my surroundings and bided my time. When my opponent started dealing with another customer, I waited a bit and then went over to the classics section where I made some room for this everlasting CLASSIC – at the expense of two volumes of Dumas, who may be a classic but not a CLASSIC. So, I really can understand how unnerving it is if someone else fails to appreciate the true merits of a particular book.
Prize Ship is a not too spectacular short story which, however, becomes more intriguing when you think about it for a while – like rolling a good whisky on your tongue. It is set during a war the inhabitants of our solar system wage against the people from Ganymede, who, if they existed, would also be inhabitants of our solar system, now I come to think of it. The Ganymedians are in a key position with regard to deep space travel and as they know this they want to blackmail everyone else into granting them a larger share of the spoils – but in a way, this is just the background of the story and does not really matter.
Our people prove quite inefficient against the Ganymedian war efforts, and when they finally capture a spaceship from Ganymede, they are eager to test-drive it in order to learn something vital about the enemy’s technology. The crew of volunteers who go on a first trip soon find themselves on a planet inhabited by tiny people clad in medieval armours and shooting arrows at them. One of their first thoughts is that they have become stranded on the shores of Lilliput like Gulliver once had. The only problem being that Gulliver and the Lilliputians were figments of Jonathan Swift’ imagination, or weren’t they? How can they have hit upon a world that only existed in a crusty Irishman’s mind? Or can it be that Swift actually discovered Lilliput and Brobdingnag and worked them into his
What I found a rather funny detail was the constant bickering of two crew members over whether Gulliver’s Travels is a fairy tale or a social satire. It reminded me of how I once vainly tried to convince a lady in a bookshop that she had wrongly shelved David Copperfield in the children’s books section, whereas it should be with the classics. Whatever I said proved water off a duck’s back – even though it was not an abridged but an original version of the Inimitable’s novel – and I sensed that things were about to come to a head if I persisted in pursuing my superior line of argument since the lady’s voice grew somewhat edgy. As a true admirer of Dickens, however, I did not give up but simply started leafing through the book in question, traversing the shop with a pensive air and sitting down somewhere- apparently lost in its perusal. All the while, however, I keenly watched my surroundings and bided my time. When my opponent started dealing with another customer, I waited a bit and then went over to the classics section where I made some room for this everlasting CLASSIC – at the expense of two volumes of Dumas, who may be a classic but not a CLASSIC. So, I really can understand how unnerving it is if someone else fails to appreciate the true merits of a particular book.
April 13, 2018
It is really shocking just how many separate ideas PKD had. Almost all of them amazing! Spacemen capture a mysterious new ship that goes "forward" or "backward".
April 10, 2021
Well-written story that makes you think. A ship, a space ship. Or something else. Maybe a child story, or no a social satire. Maybe it's all of that.
December 30, 2023
la nave de gaminedes
sencillo
sencillo
October 7, 2025
scifi, short story, by a master; not his best
April 11, 2026
Entertaining short story
June 15, 2026
A crew captures an alien ship then goes through the first half of Gulliver‘s travels on it because of its propulsion system
August 9, 2026
Only one flaw in a fascinating story... nobody imagines a time-ship... they're called time-machines... or is my thinking just too rigid? 🤣
January 6, 2024
1954 and Dick is already opening the possibility the author “had a sixth sense. Maybe he really was there. Here. In a vision. Maybe he had a vision. They say that he was supposed to have been psychotic, toward the end.”
January 30, 2016
Uhhh.... Where were the women? Why have 4 men? Boooring
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews