So I have read The collected stories of Philip K. Dick. Vol. 1 : the King of the Elves [1947-1952] which includes Paycheck which had been made into a similarly titled Hollywood movie. I very much enjoyed the collection which did have some mixture between Star Trek-like stories about spaceships, stories about fascism and stories regarding the exploration of effects of technology other than space travel.
Clearly Dick had been concerned regarding the rise of fascism during World War II as a number of the stories reflected elements of history much like the novel Man in the High Castle. At this time, the totalitarian regime in the Soviet Union was starting to rise to power but I don't think that the level of deprivation of human rights was yet completely evident. I expect that later volumes will play on the totalitarian themes more strongly.
If you consider the predictions about technology that Dick made, comparing it to what has happened in the roughly 60 years since the writing adds a layer of interest to reading this book. For some things, technology ended up going in very different and unforeseeable directions. The spaceship stuff is still very much science fiction. But some of the musings on robots are very relevant given that we are just on the cusp of self-driving cars and other similar AI enhanced systems.
Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who generally enjoys science fiction.
