New Books and The Science Fiction Novel - Philip K. Dick

Rain, rain go away, come again another day... :0) Yup, it's raining again. I'm afraid that's all that I have to say about that today.

Yesterday, a couple of books arrived in the mail. I'll update those for you and continue with my look at the Sci-Fi novel. My author today is Philip K. Dick, an author that I find myself going back to every now and then. He is one of the unique writers of Science Fiction and well worth checking out. 

New Books

1. The Casebook of the Black Widowers by Isaac Asimov (The Black Widowers #3 / 1980). I've enjoyed two of the books in this series. It's a most enjoyable collection of short stories, so far.









"Once a month the Black Widowers club meets to enjoy good food, fine wine, convivial company - and to entertain a guest.

Each month the guest provides them with a conundrum - a mystery which has so far proved completely baffling.

And so the Black Widowers set to work on the problem - aided and abetted by Henry, their perspicacious waiter, whose powers of deduction never fail to astonish..."

b. A Nail Through the Heart by Timothy Hallinan (Poke Rafferty #1). This is a new series for me.

"Poke Rafferty was writing offbeat travel guides for the young and terminally bored when Bangkok stole his heart. Now the American expat is assembling a new family with Rose, the former go-go dancer he wants to marry, and Miaow, the tiny, streetwise urchin he wants to adopt.

But trouble in the guise of good intentions comes calling just when everything is beginning to work out. Poke agrees to take in Superman, Miaow's troubled and terrifying friend from the gutter. Then he agrees to help locate a distraught Aussie woman's missing uncle and accepts a generous payment to find a blackmailing thief.

No longer gliding carelessly across the surface of a culture he doesn't really understand, suddenly Poke is plodding through dark and unfamiliar terrain—and everything and everyone he loves is in terrible danger."

The Science Fiction Novel - Philip K. Dick

Philip K.Dick

Philip Kindred Dick was an American Science Fiction writer who was born in Chicago Illinois in 1928 and who died in Santa Ana California in 1982. I was first introduced to his unique style in a Science Fiction novel course I took at University of Toronto. I think the first book I read of his was The Man in the High Castle (now a popular TV series). This was one of 44 novels written by Dick along with along with approximately 120 short stories. His brand of Sci-Fi featured alternate realities, authoritarian governments, altered states of consciousness. He utilized drug abuse, mental illness, transcendental experiences as themes in his books.

I have found some of his books hard to assimilate but others have been excellent and have grabbed me intensely. His ideas were fantastic and his story telling creative. Dick began publishing novels in 1951 at the age of 22. He found little commercial success until 1962 with his alternate reality story, The Man in the High Castle. 

A variety of movies and also TV series have been created based on his books; Blade Runner is based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Minority Report based on the short story of the same name, A Scanner Darkly based on the novel of the same name, etc. 

Over the years I've read 10 of Dick's books and I've still got another on my bookshelf. I will continue to explore this unique author. I'll highlight a few of his books for you.

1. The Man in the High Castle (1962). 











"It is America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. The few Jews who still survive hide under assumed names. In San Francisco, the I Ching is as common as the Yellow Pages. All because some 20 years earlier the United States lost a war—and is now occupied by Nazi Germany and Japan.

This harrowing, Hugo Award-winning novel is the work that established Philip K. Dick as an innovator in science fiction while breaking the barrier between science fiction and the serious novel of ideas. In it Dick offers a haunting vision of history as a nightmare from which it may just be possible to wake." 

My review - 

"One of my all-time favourite SciFi stories. I've read many times; the first time while at university back 74ish. Great concept, got me interested in the I Ching. So much to it.

Update 08 Feb 2013

Read this for the third or fourth time this past week. As good as ever. It's a story that passes the test of time. Such an interesting concept. It's the first alternate history type story that I ever read. It's an alternate history within an alternate history. The basic premise is that Japan and Germany win WWII and have split up the USA and the rest of the world. However throughout the story is another book within this book which tells the story as if the US and Britain had won the war and the issues this causes. There is so much more to this story; culture, religion, art, love. Highly recommended. (5 stars)"

2. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968).

"I've seen the movie based on the book, that being Blade Runner, many times and always enjoy. For some reason, even though I find Philip K. Dick a fascinating science fiction writer, I've not picked up Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? before. It might be one of those things about not wanting to ruin the movie by reading the book, or something like that. Anyway, a couple of years back, I saw a new edition at one of my favorite book stores in Victoria and picked up a copy. And this year it was chosen for me as one of my Challenge reads. And for that I'm glad.

The story follows the basic plot line of the movie. Rick Dekkard is a bounty hunter for the San Francisco PD, paid to hunt down and 'retire' escaped androids. The story is set in a future where the world was almost by a World War. Many people have emigrated to the Moon and Mars and other planets. Few remain behind. Some, known as chicken heads, don't have the mental abilities to emigrate, due to the effects of the dust from the World War. Others just don't want to.

A group of androids, the Nexus 6 version, escape from Mars and come to San Francisco. Dekkard is given the assignment to find and retire them after his partner is almost killed by one. So that is the gist of the story.

Other elements only hinted at in the movie play much bigger roles in the book. The desire to have 'real' pets as most animals were killed in the world. People keep them on their roof tops. Dekkard is only able to afford an electric sheep and craves a real animal as he hopes it will help his marriage. Yes, he is married in the book. The other main character, John Isidore, a chicken head, works for a company that builds and repairs electric animals. There is also the interesting dichotomy between the Buster Friendly TV program that blasts out all day long on TV and also radio and Mercerism, an emotional linkage between millions of people.

All in all it's a unique story, quite fascinating. Dick can leave you feeling cold with his stories, I find, but as the story progresses and comes to the end, it did provide an emotional satisfaction. Well worth reading if you've not explored the Science Fiction of Philip K. Dick. (4 stars)"

3. Dr. Bloodmoney or How We Got Along After the Bomb (1965).

"Seven years after the day of the bombs, Point Reyes was luckier than most places. Its people were reasonably normal -- except for the girl with her twin brother growing inside her, and talking to her. Their barter economy was working. Their resident genius could fix almost anything that broke down But they didn't know they were harbouring the one man who almost everyone left alive wanted killed?"

My review - 

"Excellent story. I couldn't remember it at all from when I read it back in the late 70's or so. It's a post-nuclear disaster type story. Well-written, interesting, a real page-turner. So many interesting concepts; the different mutations, how people trying to get on after the disaster. Nice Philip K. Dick twists. I found I couldn't put it down at the end and wanted to see how things were resolved. Excellent story. (4 stars)"

4. Time Out of Joint (1959).

"I've read quite a few of Philip K. Dick's books over the past many years. He is one of the unique Science Fiction writers, definitely taking a different perspective on his subject. Time Out of Joint is one of his earlier efforts, written in 1958. You can see many of the themes that crop in his works; alternate realities especially play a major role in this and the other books I've read previously.

Ragle Gumm lives in a small town in Wyoming, living with his sister and her husband. He makes his living solving a mathematical contest that the local paper puts out each day. As time moves along, he and his family become more and more aware that things aren't quite what they seem. They find an old yellow pages and magazines. The phone book contains numbers that don't work and seem to indicate that they might be being monitored by some outside agency. The magazines show famous people, but people they don't know. Are the neighbours watching them. Why does the man from the newspaper drop in on Ragle?

We get tidbits from other people around Ragle, very suspicious things happening in this town. Ragle moves to discover what is really taking place and what he finds out makes for a fascinating story. Philip Dick never disappoints but he can confuse and leave you hanging... Interesting story from him and well worth trying to get a feel for his work and ideas. (4 stars)"

e. Martian Time-Slip (1964). The is the book I have on my shelf.

"Mars. As a desolate place, forgotten by Earth. Isolated homesteaders huddle along the lines of the great canals, in thrall to Arnie Kott and his plumbing union, which controls the vital water supply. Kott's manipulations poison the lives of those he draws to him: his mistress Doreen; Jack Bohlen, the schizoid repairman she comes to love; Manfred, an autistic child plagued with memories of a terrifying future; even the poor native Bleekmen of Mars."

As a matter of interest, I have also read the following of Dick's books - The Unteleported Man (1967 / 3 stars), The Crack in Space (1966 / 4 stars), The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965 / 3 stars), Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said (1974 / 3 stars), A Maze of Death (1970 / 4 stars), & A Scanner Darkly (1977 / 3 stars)

The complete listing of Philip Dick's books is available at this link.

So there you go. We're on the downhill slide for the rest of the week. Enjoy!