Second Variety
by Philip K. Dickliterary work· published 1953
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"Second Variety" is a science fiction novelette by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in Space Science Fiction magazine, in May 1953, with illustrations by Alex Ebel. Set in a world where a war between the Soviet Union and the United Nations has reduced most of the world to a barren wasteland, the story concerns the discovery, by the few remaining soldiers left, that self-replicating robots originally built to assassinate Soviet agents have gained sentience and are now plotting against both sides. It is one of many stories by Dick examining the implications of nuclear war, particularly after it has destroyed much or all of the planet. The story was adapted into the film Screamers in 1995. The short story "Jon's World", written in 1954, serves as a sequel.
Adaptations (2)
Second Variety has been adapted into 2 films, from 1995 to 2009. The most recent is Screamers: The Hunting (2009).
Screamers1995 · film · 108 min · dir. Christian Duguay · IMDb ↗IMDb6.329%SIRIUS 6B, Year 2078. On a distant mining planet ravaged by a decade of war, scientists have created the perfect weapon: a blade-wielding, self-replicating race of killing devices known as Screamers designed for one purpose only -- to hunt down and destroy all enemy life forms.
Screamers: The Hunting2009 · film · 95 min · dir. Sheldon Wilson · IMDb ↗IMDb4.7A group of humans arrive on Sirius 6-B to investigate an SOS signal sent out from the planet, which has been supposedly deserted since the destruction of the man-made weapons known as "screamers." Once the squad arrives, they find a group of human survivors eking out an existence in an old military outpost.
