The Unteleported Man

infobox Book |
name = The Unteleported Man
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Cover of first edition (paperback)
author = Philip K. Dick
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Science fiction novel
publisher = Ace Books
release_date = 1966
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages = 100 pp
isbn = NA
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"The Unteleported Man" (later republished in an expanded form as "Lies, Inc.") is a 1966 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick, first published as a short story in 1964.

Plot summary

A new teleportation technology makes travel by spaceship redundant. A new colony, Whale's Mouth, is destination for forty million colonists, but it is a one way journey - no teleportation back to Earth is possible. The only way to return is by spaceship, an 18-year journey.

Rachmael ben Applebaum, whose spaceship business has been ruined by teleportation, decides to make the journey to Whale's Mouth in his own ship, "Omphalos". Driven by visions that the utopian vision may be false, he chooses to make the trip in case a colonist may decide to return. Powerful figures oppose his journey.

"Lies, Inc.", the expanded version of "The Unteleported Man", includes about 100 pages of new material. These new chapters focus on a drug trip that Rachmeal goes through after being hit by an LSD tipped dart. The new material begins and ends with the phrase "Acrid smoke billowed about him."

Publishing history

This particular book has an unusual publishing history compared to other novels by Dick. The story originally appeared in "Fantastic" Magazine in 1964. The story rights were then bought by Ace Books but Dick's subsequent revisions to bring the manuscript up to novel-length were rejected and the original story was published in 1966. Its first novel publication was as one half of Ace Double G-602, bound dos-à-dos with "The Mind Monsters" by Howard L. Cory.

In 1983, the full 80,000-word story was to be published by Berkley Books, with Dick revising the material (some pages of the manuscript were missing, leading to continuity problems), however Dick died before the revision was complete (PKD died in March 1982). The original story was published, with Dick's revisions and additional material to replace the lost pages, in 1984 as "Lies, Inc.".

External links

* [http://www.philipkdick.com/works_novels_liesinc.html Official PKDick website review]
* [http://pkdickbooks.com/SFnovels/Unteleported_man.html "The Unteleported Man/Lies, Inc." cover art gallery]