Strange Eden by Philip K. Dick Episode #100

Philip K. Dick | September 16, 2023

Strange Eden by Philip K. Dick Episode #100
Philip K. Dick

STRANGE EDEN

Episode #100 · Written by Philip K. Dick · Narrated by Scott Miller

A survey mission lands on a lush, untouched world—but what seems like paradise is already claimed by an ancient and impossibly advanced presence. One man refuses to leave, and the price of staying is far stranger than death.

On the surface, Strange Eden begins like a classic exploration tale: a survey ship lands on an untouched world, the air is clean, the forests are endless, the water is blue enough to hurt your eyes, and nothing seems dangerous. Captain Johnson wants to leave. Brent wants to explore. But the moment Brent finds a trail, then animals that show no fear, and then—impossibly—a marble home in the middle of a wild planet, the story pivots from planetary adventure into something far more intimate… and unsettling.

Inside that house waits a woman who speaks Terran perfectly, knows Brent’s name, and has lived for more than 11,000 years. She belongs to a race scattered across the universe, nearly immortal, capable of reshaping matter, thought, and evolution. They have visited Earth many times, and their appearances are the foundation of humanity’s oldest myths of gods, angels, and miracles. To her, Brent is not a threat—he is a curiosity, a brief visitor from a species still climbing out of its primitive stage.

Brent is tempted not by fear, but by desire, wonder, ego, and the promise of something beyond the limits of human life. And the woman makes the rules clear: stay with her, and you will no longer remain human. Evolution will happen instantly, not over millennia. You will become a preview of the future of your species—alone, changed, and unable to return. For some, immortality is a gift. For others, it is a trap disguised as paradise.

This is Philip K. Dick at his finest—no lasers, no battles, no empires—just a brilliant collision of philosophy, temptation, alien psychology, and the question he returned to throughout his career: What does it mean to be human when confronted with something greater?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) wrote 44 novels and more than 120 short stories, and more films have been adapted from his work than any other sci-fi author. His writing influenced cyberpunk, dystopian fiction, AI ethics, post-reality literature, and nearly every strand of modern speculative storytelling. If you’ve seen Blade Runner, Total Recall, The Adjustment Bureau, Minority Report, or Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle, you’ve already stepped into his worlds.

Strange Eden isn’t just a story—it’s a conversation with the future, wrapped in a tale that begins like a jungle adventure and ends as a myth about evolution, desire, and the danger of meeting your gods face to face.

LISTEN TO THE STORY

Listen to Strange Eden by Philip K. Dick — a vintage science fiction tale of forbidden evolution and ancient power on a paradise world that was never meant for humans.