The Skull

Philip Kindred DickProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.7

Word count: 45K words
Chapters: 5

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Skull by Philip K. DickAuthor: Dick, Philip K., 1928-1982,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Oct 14, 2009

Editor's review

"The Skull" is a short science fiction story by Philip K. Dick, compact in length and clear in setup: a character sent to track down a target confronts a skull from the future and gradually discovers a truth behind the mission that overturns his understanding. The work continues Dick's familiar themes of time, identity, and predetermined fate, advancing suspense through concise narrative; the ending's twist is both unexpected and logical, delivering a strong cognitive jolt within a very short span. It works well as an entry sample for Dick's short fiction and suits reading in one sitting on a commute or between classes, followed by a return to earlier passages for foreshadowing. As an early short story, character development is relatively functional, with the emphasis on premise and structure; readers may enjoy it as a neatly crafted thought experiment.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Science fiction readers who want a quick taste of Philip K. Dick's short-story style
Fans of genre fiction who enjoy time paradoxes and identity twists
Readers who need a short story for classroom discussion or book club material
Office workers who want to finish a complete science fiction story in fragmented time

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer lengthy world-building and complex character arcs
Readers sensitive to the functional characterization of early science fiction
Hard science fiction fans expecting strictly self-consistent hard scientific detail

Reading tips

Try to read it in one sitting, avoiding interruptions, to preserve the impact of the ending's twist.
After finishing, revisit the opening passages and note the foreshadowing and hints the author planted.
Read it alongside other Dick short stories to observe the themes and structures he returns to.
After reading, try retelling the story's temporal logic in your own words to check whether your understanding is complete.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

How long is this story, and how long does it take to read?

It is a short story of modest length; readers with general English reading ability can usually finish it in one or two sittings. It is best to set aside an uninterrupted stretch for concentrated reading so you can fully experience the narrative's progression and the effect of the ending's twist.

Will not having read other works by Dick affect my understanding?

No. This is a standalone short story that does not depend on the plot or setup of other works. If his themes interest you afterward, you can seek out other short stories or novels for comparison, which will make it easier to see the issues he repeatedly explores.

What kind of setup does the ending's twist involve?

The story revolves around a skull from the future, and the twist involves a dislocation between time and identity perception, a time-paradox setup Dick often wrote. The specific plot should not be revealed in advance; read the original first, then revisit earlier foreshadowing to appreciate the structural echoes.

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About the author

Philip Kindred Dick Author · American · 1928–1982

Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) was an American science fiction writer, born in Chicago in 1928 and died in 1982. Over his career he wrote more than forty novels and over a hundred short stories, including The Man in the High Castle, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and Ubik, and is regarded as one of the pioneers of cyberpunk literature. The collection here holds thirteen of his works, among them the short stories The Variable Man, The Defenders, Second Variety, Beyond Lies the Wub, Beyond the Door, The Crystal Crypt, The Hanging Stranger, and Mr. Spaceship. His writing often explores the boundary between reality and illusion, identity, consumer society, and technological alienation, in a cool, suspenseful style that begins in ordinary settings and gradually reveals the unreliability of the world, exerting a lasting influence on later science fiction and popular culture.