Condition: Acceptable. Please see the images for more information.
Blurb:
Vulcan's Hammer: "Objective, unbiased and hyper-rational, the Vulcan 3 should have been the perfect ruler. The omnipotent computer dictates policy that is in the best interests of all citizens — or at least, that is the idea. But when the machine, whose rule evolved out of chaos and war, begins to lose control of the “Healer” movement of religious fanatics and the mysterious force behind their rebellion, all hell breaks loose."
The Skynappers: "When Ivan Wright stepped out of his mountain cabin, rifle in hand, to investigate the sound of a strange helicopter, he stepped right into the middle of a galactic crisis.
For the crew of that odd aircraft were not men such as he'd ever seen before - and when he tried to oppose them, he found himself hurled uncontrollably into oblivion.
He awoke to find himself considered as a kidnapped barbarian from a backward planet in a galaxy of advanced civilizations - yet one who somehow held in his own hands the key to all their futures!"
One Great Internet Review with interesting notes:
"Vulcan's Hammer: From my understanding (based on the Wikipedia Bibliography) this was written in 1953 and was PKD's first scifi novel. It is a good story about a future when a computer rules the world. I don't know if this was a common story-type but it predates Asimov's first "Multivac" story by two years. And that the "Vulcan 3" AI in this story becomes sentient, makes it predate Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by thirteen years.
It is a competently written 50's 'yarn' by a young man who was just getting started in a career that within a decade, he would be known of as a master of the genre."