11/1/15I might have to reread this very soon, because I just watched the movie, and it was fantastic.-----------I'm not sure if I read the same novel as the ones who rated this 4-5 stars. I honestly don't get how to like this novel, aside from the premise.The blurb/synopsis is very ambiguous, yet that's not my problem with this one. Ambiguity doesn't necessarily mean that the novel's going to turn out awful, but rather ambiguity, in most cases, leads to the enjoyment of the reader. In this case,...

Clever and original as always, but he really did rush them sometimes. This quickfire style is fine for sci-fi short stories, as PKD showed us many times with classics like Second Variety. But this could have just done with an extra 30 to 50 more pages of relatively neutral descriptive padding, just to slow the whole thing down a bit and stop me from coming away feeling like every character other than the hero was a kind of 2 dimensionsal useful idiot, simply used as a peg to hold up the rough pr...

My, what an interesting book! Quick read, good plot, interesting but slightly 2 dimensional characters. Not much like the movie, which is just fine. Something I thought was cool - there really isn't a protagonist in this novel. Everyone is out for their own personal gain. Anderton doesn't want to lose his position or Precrime. Witwer wants Anderton's job. Kaplan wants the Army back in control instead of the government. We're set up to think Anderton is the protagonist because he's the one being

This story is difficult to review. On many levels, I really enjoyed it, despite its flaws.1) It got right what the movie got incredibly wrong.Namely, that in any story with a character knowing the future (specifically his own) there needs to be the feeling of inevitability. That all events are unavoidable, even when actively avoided. If the outcome foretold is to come true in the story, then the protagonist needs to do everything in his power to make sure it doesn't happen. And the easiest way t...

“‘[…] To repeat: The Precrime Agency of the Federal Westbloc Government is in the process of locating and neutralizing its former Commissioner, John Allison Anderton, who, through the methodology of the precrime system, is hereby declared a potential murderer and as such forfeits his rights to freedom and all its privileges.’”Even though, generally, it is quite gratifying to know that other people see a lot of potential in ourselves, John Anderton is not too delighted at finding himself labelled...

Read on the WondrousBooks blog. I'd heard so much about Philip K. Dick but this is the first book of his that I actually got to read. In one of my classes he was the main topic too often for me not to find something of his. I kind of expected that the hype would be bigger than the actual greatness of Dick's works. But I'll be the first one to admit my mistake.I actually liked The Minority Report so much, that I chose the movie as my exam topic. The movie and the book are extremely different.

This is only my second PKD story (the first being The Man in the High Castle, which I liked, despite still being pretty sure that I don't know what any of it actually meant), and I think, maybe, that I liked this one, too... But I'm not sure yet, because, well, I had some pretty big issues with it. We shall see how I feel after I blark out all of my thoughts in this review. The premise here is that at some point in the future, society is virtually crime-free thanks to precognitive predictions le...

Wow, this was surprisingly bad. The movie was pretty terrible, so I assumed that the short story had to at least be somewhat better... I was horribly wrong.First of all, this was so fucking boring that I stopped reading TWO PAGES FROM THE END. It was so terribly dull that by the time I got to page 18, the number of fucks I gave had actually dipped into the negative range and I just could not continue.I'd like to keep this short, so I'll list the things that sucked about this story:- 20 pages see...

It's a simple, though original tale, but not complex enough to get a 4 star rating.

The action of The Minority Report is based on the question: What would you do if you were accused of a murder you had not committed … yet? Philip K. Dick’s The Minority Report focuses on a society with virtually no crime; however, people can be guilty of precrime. Precogs predict the future and punishment is meted out before any harm can be done to society. This novella is more developed than PKD short stories I’ve been reading or at least it is more focused. This was a quick read that I enjoye...

I have a bad habit. If I like a movie, I try to find out if it's based on a book and I try to read it. I thought this book will be a good one too. But I think I liked the movie more.

This classic Philip K. Dick tale, first published in Fantastic Universe (January 1956), is a richly rewarding work, at once an absorbing mystery, a nail-biting thriller, an exploration of a plausible social application of of precognitive abilities, a prescient glimpse into the coming surveillance state, a meditation on free will, and a wise assessment of the limits human character—all wrapped up with an honest and satisfying conclusion.Dick’s long short story—almost novella length—is set in a fu...

Between 3 and 4 starsIn the future, there exists a world in which there's no violence as all violent acts are foreseen and stopped before they occur. But what if you are accused of killing a person you've never met for reasons you don't even know? None of this has happened yet, so there's still time to change the course of the future. How would you fight a system you thought was infallible?While I like the writing and find the idea of a dystopic future where precognition is so reliable that it's...

”’You have to be taken in--if Precrime is to survive. You’re thinking of your own safety. But think, for a moment, about the system.’ Leaning over, Lisa stubbed out her cigarette and fumbled in her purse for another. ‘Which means more to you---your own personal safety or the existence of the system?’‘My safety,’ Anderton answered, without hesitation.‘You’re positive?’‘If the system can survive only by imprisoning innocent people, then it deserves to be destroyed. My personal safety is important

3.75 stars for this 1956 SF short story, the inspiration for the 2002 Tom Cruise movie. Commissioner John Anderton is the creator and head of the Precog unit that is responsible for nearly eradicating serious crime. He's nearing retirement (think "bald and fat and old," not sexy guy) and is showing his new assistant, Ed Witwer, around the office. They visit the area where the three precogs - described as gibbering idiots, deformed and retarded monkeys (yes, you can certainly tell this was writte...

I'm not an old, crusty sci-fi fan who read this when it came out in '56. No, I'm a neophyte who only knows about The Minority Report because of the 2002 movie version. It's hard not to associate this solid, yet too short short story with that blockbuster flick starring Tom Cruise......and I'm not even going to try. Why? Because I loved the movie, even though I hate Tom Cruise. Maybe "hate" is too harsh. Let's just say I've never liked him and have only tolerated watching his movies, all the whil...

What I should like to know is why Anderton would have committed murder in the timeline which the first minority report forecasted. All the reasons that Anderton could have committed murders had resulted from prediction itself and there was no way that a prediction could be made without Anderton seeing the card.I think the story really works because no one, who already hasn't committed or is planning to commit a murder, believes him/herself capable of one. Anderton, like most such people, just ca...

China’s security boss planning to use AI to stop crime before it even happens. Meng Jianzhu says data analysis can predict patterns which could stop terror attacks of social unrest before they happen. (The Independent Sept 2017)

What if we can detect crimes before they happen? What if we can arrest criminals before they commit crimes?Anderton is the commissioner and founder of Precrime, the police force that arrests criminals before they have a chance to commit crime. Computers manipulate “gibberish” from three “precogs,” each one seeing into a possible future, and Anderton determines whether a crime will be committed. When two or more “precogs” agree on an outcome, the resulting agreement is a majority report and the p...

5* Oh my god holy shit this is a lot. So in this world people are killed because it is preconceived that they will commit murder. This precognition system is achieved using 3 human robots with the precognition powers to send out reports on a card that the person will eventually murder someone. VERY MINOR SPOILERS I'M JUST EXPLAINING THE LOGIC BEHIND THE ROBOT SYSTEM:Precog (what they call the human robots in the story)The concept of the majority and minority report is explained in the story late...