As a long-time sci-fan but someone relatively new to Philip K. Dick's work, this collection turned out to be a good place to start. The twelve stories, which are the jumping-off points for episodes of the Electric Dreams TV show, showcase Dick's strengths : crafting tight, suspenseful sci-fi stories; making speculative and otherworldly environments relatable by populating them with relatable characters; and delivering cautionary messages with a note of hope. Each story has an accompanying introduction by the writer who adapted it for the TV show, which provides some interesting perspective on how PKD's work still influences media creators today.

Many of Dick's Cold War-era dystopian imaginings feel relevant in 2021, involving themes of social division, mass surveillance, and marketing that can be beamed directly into your brain. However, one thing that didn't age well was the way PKD writes about women. He seemed to be able to imagine the possibility of worlds where humans interact with aliens and robots, but not the possibility of women who aren't housewives. His physical descriptions of women are also hilarious, with several mentions of "fluttering" or "trembling" breasts, as if intense emotion makes them jiggle spontaneously and independently of the rest of our bodies. Luckily the rest of the writing is so good that you can mostly laugh and roll your eyes and move on.