Vulcan's Hammer

Name: Vulcan's Hammer
Brand: Recorded Books
Availability: InStock
Author: Philip K. Dick
ISBN: 9798894864884

Author: Philip K. Dick

Narrator: John Skelley

Unabridged: 5 hr 27 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 02/17/2026

Categories: Fiction, Science Fiction

Synopsis

After the twentieth century’s devastating series of wars, the world’s governments banded together into one globe-spanning entity, committed to peace at all costs. Ensuring that peace is the Vulcan supercomputer, responsible for all major decisions. But some people don’t like being taken out of the equation. And others resent the idea that the Vulcan is taking the place of God. As the world grows ever closer to all-out war, one functionary frantically tries to prevent it. But the Vulcan computer has its own plans, plans that might not include humanity at all.

About Philip K. Dick

Over a writing career that spanned three decades, PHILIP K. DICK (1928–1982) published 36 science fiction novels and 121 short stories in which he explored the essence of what makes man human and the dangers of centralized power. Toward the end of his life, his work turned to deeply personal, metaphysical questions concerning the nature of God. Eleven novels and short stories have been adapted to film, notably Blade Runner (based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), Total Recall, Minority Report, and A Scanner Darkly, as well as television's The Man in the High Castle. The recipient of critical acclaim and numerous awards throughout his career, including the Hugo and John W. Campbell awards, Dick was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2005, and between 2007 and 2009, the Library of America published a selection of his novels in three volumes. His work has been translated into more than twenty-five languages.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Tim on June 12, 2020

This is my sixth Philip K. Dick experience... except, well, it's not. You see, I always call each of his books an experience because that is what they are, or at least that is what they should be. He packs so much into such short books (I don't think he wrote a single book over 280 pages, but I coul......more

Goodreads review by Susan on November 27, 2020

I’ve been reading PKD in chronological order and Vulcan’s Hammer was next on my list. The previous book, Dr. Futurity, was a disappointment and Vulcan’s Hammer was not much better. I believe this will be the end of my chronological reading. My next PKD will be one of the celebrated novels from later......more

Goodreads review by David on April 03, 2025

My 23rd PKD novel. In the back of 'Divine Invasions' - Lawrence Sutin's bio of Philip K. Dick - the biographer lists every PKD title, gives a synopsis of the ones he didn't highlight in his text, and then uses a rating system of 1 to 10 for each book. Sutin gives 'VH' a 1. Ouch! There are two possibi......more

Goodreads review by Jamie on March 15, 2024

I found this remarkably focused and straightforward for PKD, without his usual barrage of mind and reality bending tropes. Still, an entertaining, pulpy dystopian story, rich with intrigue and action, and remarkably relevant, if not foreboding, with the emergence of AI today.......more

Goodreads review by Chloe on March 04, 2010

There are few things better for me during the gloomy overcast months of winter than a good genre fiction bender. On those days when the sky seems especially oppressive, there is nothing I like more than tucking into a bit of escapist reading and forgetting that the world at large even exists outside......more