The Game-Players of Titan

Name: The Game-Players of Titan
Brand: Recorded Books
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4 (3 reviews)
Author: Philip K. Dick
ISBN: 9798894864136

Author: Philip K. Dick

Narrator: Edoardo Ballerini

Unabridged: 6 hr 9 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 06/12/2025

Categories: Fiction, Science Fiction

Synopsis

Years ago, Earth and Titan fought a war and Earth lost. The planet was irradiated and most of the surviving population is sterile. The few survivors play an intricate and unending game called Bluff at the behest of the slug-like aliens who rule the planet. At stake in the game are two very important commodities: land and spouses. Pete Garden just lost his wife and Berkeley, California, but he has a plan to win them back. That is, if he isn’t derailed by aliens, psychic traitors, or his new wife.The Game-Players of Titan is both satire and adventure, examining the ties that bind people together and the maddening peccadilloes of bureaucracy, whether the bureaucrats are humans or alien slugs.

About Philip K. Dick

Over a writing career that spanned three decades, PHILIP K. DICK (1928–1982) published 36 science fiction novels and 121 short stories in which he explored the essence of what makes man human and the dangers of centralized power. Toward the end of his life, his work turned to deeply personal, metaphysical questions concerning the nature of God. Eleven novels and short stories have been adapted to film, notably Blade Runner (based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), Total Recall, Minority Report, and A Scanner Darkly, as well as television's The Man in the High Castle. The recipient of critical acclaim and numerous awards throughout his career, including the Hugo and John W. Campbell awards, Dick was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2005, and between 2007 and 2009, the Library of America published a selection of his novels in three volumes. His work has been translated into more than twenty-five languages.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Glenn on June 22, 2021

Power to the people! Unfortunately, in Philip K. Dick's 1962 novel The Game-Players of Titan, we're two hundred years into the future, the people are the entire human race and humans have anything but power – in the aftermath of Hinkle radiation and losing a war with the Titanians aka vugs from Plan......more

Goodreads review by mark on February 10, 2025

hello, my new favorite Dick! this one has all of the author's usual strengths and none of his occasional weaknesses. ♚ the plot is dense dense dense but the pace is fast fast fast which means the whole thing feels light light light despite all of the many moving parts and ideas being thrown around, a......more

Goodreads review by Bradley on January 27, 2018

The first time I read this was years ago and I remember thinking how wild it was to have so many of PKD's normal theme soup all in one place. You know... simulacra, psi, suicide, drugs, intrigue, murder, aliens, altered realities, dark fate for humanity, etc... but I didn't remember this novel being......more

Goodreads review by Jamie on January 27, 2021

A potent and amusing brew of many of PKDs favorite themes, e.g. paranoia, conspiracy, depression, hallucinatory drugs, psi, and really weird aliens with seemingly insidious intentions posing as humans. On top of this luck plays a central role, as embodied in the strange monopoly/poker like game call......more

Goodreads review by P.E. on May 04, 2020

In the aftermath of an inter-species war somewhere around the 22th century, Terrans and Vugs settled on a military 'Concordate', stating the rules which both species have to obey from then on. Take one of these rules : As Vugs frown on plain causality, now your life as a Terran is determined by how y......more