Solar lottery

The Solar Lottery (1955) is one of Philip K. Dick's earliest works and first published novel, and it already contains both his signature authorial style and the themes and artistic techniques that made him famous in the following decades.

Imagine a quasi-feudal world of the future, where the socio-political system is subject to a random generator to prevent tyranny and corruption. The principle of the lottery is to ensure the variability of power and equal chances for everyone to receive it. In this world, everyone lives in the hope that a random draw will choose him as the most important person in the solar system. But anyone can also become the chosen assassin, who is destined to eliminate the leader, and be drawn into a game that cannot be fully understood. Is the lottery really random? Or maybe someone simply benefits from diverting the attention of the population from those in whose hands the real power is? "The Sunshine Lottery" (1955) is one of Philip K. Dick's earliest works and first published novel, and it already contains both his signature authorial style and the themes and artistic techniques that made him famous in the following decades.