"The Variable Man" is a science fiction novella by American writer Philip K. Dick, which he wrote and sold before he had an agent. It was first published in Space Science Fiction (British), Vol. 2 No. 2, July 1953 and Space Science Fiction, September 1953 with the US publication illustrated by Alex Ebel.Despite the magazine cover dates it is unclear whether the first publication was in the UK or in the United States where magazines tended to be published farther ahead of their cover dates than in the UK. The Variable Man can be found in several collections of Dick's short stories, including The Variable Man and The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford.
Enjoyable short story. SPOILERS AHEAD:
Not entirely believable, since the story's predicated on a random tinkerer from the past being able to solve the far future's biggest technological challenges. Human reactions unreasonable too: the man from the past should have become "the man with one eye in the kingdom of the blind": king, but it always seemed he was barely holding on.
