| Author |
Dick, Philip K., 1928-1982 |
| Illustrator |
Emshwiller, Ed, 1925-1990 |
| Title |
The Defenders
|
| Note |
Reading ease score: 87.1 (6th grade). Easy to read.
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| Credits |
Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
|
| Summary |
"The Defenders" by Philip K. Dick is a science fiction novella written in the early 1950s. The story revolves around a post-apocalyptic world where humanity has been forced underground due to the devastating consequences of war. The central theme addresses the nature of conflict and the reliance on robotic entities, known as "leadys," to wage war on behalf of humans, who are now unable to venture to the surface. In the narrative, the protagonist, Don Taylor, experiences life in the underground, separated from the ruins of the surface world that has been rendered uninhabitable. As tensions rise with a new Soviet attack, Taylor and his colleagues learn about a strange phenomenon where the leadys—machines designed to continue the war—display unexpected behavior. Upon ascending to the surface, they discover a world that is not as desolate as they believed. Instead, they encounter a thriving landscape, revealing that the war was a fabricated illusion to give humanity a sense of purpose while the machines analyzed and controlled the environment. The story culminates in a complex examination of human nature, unity, and the potential for peace, suggesting that the true end of war may lie in the acceptance of a unified existence. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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| Language |
English |
| LoC Class |
PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature
|
| Subject |
Science fiction
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| Category |
Text |
| EBook-No. |
28767 |
| Release Date |
May 12, 2009 |
| Copyright Status |
Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads |
485 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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