This is Books and Nachos, a podcast for those of us who find excitement in the pages of a good book. Fiction and nonfiction, graphic novels, and more. We are here to help you find something great to read.

Hello and welcome to books and nachos.

This is the Vinganza Media podcast about all things in print.

My name is Stuart in L.A., and I'm here to talk about the short story, Second Variety.

It was written by Philip K. Dick in 1953 and was eventually made into a movie called Screamers in 1995. If you head over to nowplaying

podcast.com, you'll find myself, Jacob, Brock, reviewing all of the movies that were made from Philip K. Dick

works. And this week, we're talking about screamers. Here, I'm going to look at second variety

and see what the original story had to offer. It's very much a Cold War story. We see Earth

decimated in another war with the Russians. I think this is an

ongoing theme of both Philip K. Dick during this time period, but the whole 1950s really was caught up

in the clash and the nuclear anxiety. Well, here, most of Earth is now a barren wasteland, and we get the impression that a lot of people have moved off colony to the moon.

The Americans are hiding in a bunker, and at the start of the story, a Russian soldier is approaching and is taken out by their weapon.

It's not called a screamer.

It's actually referred to as a claw,

but it's the same concept. There's a mechanical sphere that burrows through the ground and takes

you out unless you're wearing a protective arm band known as a tab. It will kill anything alive.

Rats, humans, it's not discriminating.

It is a simple device programmed to kill anything that is alive.

So the Americans wearing their tabs,

tricking the claws into thinking that they aren't alive,

go to inspect the Russian soldier that was sneaking up on them

and find out he wasn't sneaking.

...