lol..i just sent this PM to dmp, and i thought i'd re-post it here...i'm still stunned from reading all this,and i'm getting this missionary zeal to disseminate the stuff:
Dennis, i just re-read Philip K. Dick's entire body of work...and i can only conclude that he must be one of the greatest American writers who ever lived, truly a genius, a unique voice. you should definitely take the plunge, and not let the erroneous label of 'science fiction' writer put you off.
note, his work is highly diverse, although there are common strands binding it together (the subjectivity of reality, and questions of spirituality are addressed in most of his books)...you may come across some lighter, and extremely humorous stuff ("Clans of the Alphane moons" ,"UBIK"[Ubik's a MUST read], "Eye in the Sky"), which i'd recommend as an introduction to his work, and then you can begin to progress to his deeply philosophical stuff ("VALIS", "The Divine invasion" , "The Transmigration of Timothy Archer") which is admittedly difficult at the first try, but nevertheless highly recommended.
here is what i have read in recent weeks, and every single book was worth it imo (better get ready to buy them all, lol):
Clans of the Alphane moons
The Zap Gun
Do Androids dream of electric sheep?
A maze of death
The world Jones made
The three stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
Flow my tears, the policeman said
Eye in the Sky
The penultimate truth
The man in the high castle
Now wait for last year
Our friends from Frolix 8
The game players of Titan
Counter-clock world
A scanner darkly
We can build you
Confessions of a crap artist
Ubik
Martian time-slip
The Galactic pot healer
The divine invasion
VALIS
The transmigration of Timothy Archer
Radio Free Albemuth
The cosmic puppets
Puttering about in a small land
Time out of joint
Dr. Bloodmoney
Vulcan's hammer
as well as a complete collection of his short stories.
there have been several more titles written by Dick, but they are all out of print - you may even find it difficult to get all the titles listed above - it took me over two years to get hold of those. which, btw. is a scandal imo...
Dick's ideas are incredible, and timeless...it is hard to believe most of his books were written in the fifties and sixties....
anyway, you should go ahead and start reading his stuff...i promise you won't regret it. if by chance you don't like the first one, don't give up right away...like all good stuff, this grows on you. |
