Rating “Cyberfilms” (Part 2)

Part 2 of my Cyberfilms story review features two well-known authors and a big movie adaptation. Read part 1 of the series for more information on the book and these reviews. I had originally planned to post four reviews, but when I realized how long each of them had become, I decided to split up the post. As before, be aware that story spoilers might be lurking ahead!

Sandkings (George R. R. Martin)
1979
Score: A

This story was turned into an Outer Limits episode of the same name, written by Melinda M. Snodgrass, directed by Stuart Gillard and starring Beau Bridges, Helen Shaver and Dylan Bridges.

I wasn’t sure what to expect of this story, but ended up really liking Sandkings! It starts off a bit wonky, with a Mos Eisley style alien bazaar that conjures up a pulp sci-fi universe that I usually can’t buy into. But Sandking’s strength lies in its characters, not the environment.

When millionaire Simon Kress returns from a long business trip, he discovers that most of his exotic pets have died because of a lack of food – the piranhas cannibalized each other, and his ‘shambler’ devoured the carrion hawk. Somewhat miffed, Kress sets out to find repacement pets at the local market. After a lengthy, unsatisfying search, Kress is finally introduced to a novel species: the ‘Sandkings’, a race of insect-like creatures that build castles, wage wars against each other, and even worship their owner.

Kress is instantly hooked, and has a big glass tank with four Sandking hives installed in his house. But the initial amusement and entertainment (Kress has weekly parties where his friends bid on the outcome of the ever more cruel matches) turns into a major disaster when the impatient Kress starts seriously mistreating his Sandkings and helps to set the stage for their escape. You’ve never seen a pest problem like this one!
When the story is over Kress, desparate to get his Sandking investation under control, has killed (or caused the death of) several people, lost his house, and is close to insanity. Will things ever go back to normal? And what are the Sandkings? If you’re interested, Wikipedia has a complete summery of the story.

What makes Sandkings work is the well-written protagonist. Under his slick and charming exterior, Simon Kress is an unscrupulous and cruel asshole. Yet Sandkings maintains a constant duality in the reader’s response to Kress’ actions. Initially, it’s easy to be repelled by Kress – and when all hell starts breaking loose, we are happy to see him get what he’s had coming to him. But soon we can also sympathize with his struggle. Ultimately, it is not the Sandkings who destroy Kress, it’s his choices and his actions that cause the situation to spiral out of control.

As with the previous stories, I haven’t seen the screen adaptation of Sandkings and can’t speak to its faithfulness. What makes the story work for me is George R. R. Martin’s focus on Simon Kress. The story is all about him, and he is played straight, without an apology for his actions. That creates a very strong connection between the reader and protagonist – I might not like the guy, but I’ll certainly have an opinion on him! And I might even sympathize with his struggle.
Reading descriptions of the movie, it sounds like the screenwriters added a family, and took Kress’ downfall into “mad scientist becomes too obsessed with his work” territory. This definitely sounds like a different direction from the short story. It might be viable, but isn’t necessarily in the spirit of George R. R. Martin’s story. Not sure if I’ll ever watch the TV episode to find out. But I’ll definitely remember the story!

We Can Remember It For You Wholesale (Phillip K. Dick)
1966
Score: B

This story turned into Total Recall, written by <too many people to list>, directed by Paul Verhoeven, and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Michael Ironside and Sharon Stone.

“He awoke – and wanted Mars. The valleys, he thought. What would it be like to trudge among them?” If that sounds a lot like Total Recall to you, I agree. We Can Remember It For You Wholesale is the first part of Total Recall. All the elements are here: Douglas Quail, a regular Joe Schmoe, who harbors recurring dreams of trabelling to Mars with his wife; Rekal Incorporated, which Quail resorts to to purchase a fake memory of his trip to Mars (the package even includes a number of fake artifacts from the trip); the violent release of Quail’s real, repressed memories of actually having been a secret agent on Mars; agents trying to hunt down Quail now that he has blown his own cover. There’s even an implant in Quail’s brain that allows the agency to track him and communicate with him, and an automated cab service that drives Quail around town.

Various details and names are slightly different (“Quail” instead of “Quaid”, for example), but it’s all there. The main differences between story and movie are two-fold: Quail/Quaid’s character comes off distinctly differently, and in the story, we never actually visit Mars.

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Quail, as described in the story, doesn’t exactly conjure images of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s bodybuilder physique. He is much more of an average Joe, who works an office job. And that has a profound effect on the story – let’s be honest, nobody believed Quaid’s civil life at the beginning of Total Recall. It felt like a farce from the moment that we met him (and also hugely undermined the supposed ambiguity of whether Quaid’s trip to Mars was real or a dream – with Schwarzenegger, of course it was real!). Quail, as described in We Can Remember It… would have come across much more believable in this regard (but the “is it a dream?” ambiguity doesn’t exist in the story, the issue is played straight). If you delve into the development history of Total Recall, you will find it littered with drafts that stayed much closer to Dick’s vision – until Schwarzenegger eventually got attached.

The second difference is that We Can Remember It For You Wholesale ends where the second half of Total Recall starts. The story never revisits Mars – Quail regains his Mars memories (he carried out an assassination), is hunted, and eventually turns himself in. He is given assurances that the agency won’t kill him, but will give him a new harmless memory pattern instead, which will allow him to go on with his life. The implant of the second memory pattern provides a neat and fun little ending twist, which doesn’t appear in the movie. But we have to give credit to the screenwriters for creating the Mars story for the movie, and neatly weaving it back into who Quaid is/was. I always thought that that part worked well in the movie.

We Can Remember It For Your Wholesale is fun to read, although Dick’s writing style isn’t quite to my taste. I would think that the subject matter that the story explores was quite visionary for the time. The story’s tone is more grounded, and it feels more tongue-in-cheek than the movie, as evidenced by the twist at the end. We Can Remember It… wasn’t my most pleasant reading experience of the book, but it’s another Phillip K Dick classic that I’m glad to have finally read. I might have to delve into Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? sometime in the future.

This is it for today. Look for the part 3 of this series tomorrow, featuring John Varley’s “Air Raid” and  Clive Barker’s “The Forbidden”.