Tag Archives: philip k. dick

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Book Review: UBIK by Philip K. Dick

Ubik by Phil K DickIn a time when cryo-technology allows the recently deceased to maintain brain activity for years in cold storage, successful businessman Glen Runciter consults with his late wife, Ella, who has been dead for over two decades. Glen and Ella manage a company that employs a team of anti-telepaths with a unique ability to seek out and neutralize telepaths who pose a danger to society.

Many of the best telepaths work for Ray Hollis, Runciter’s main competitor. When several of Hollis’s top employees go missing all at once, Runciter fears a plot is afoot and seeks Ella’s advice.

Meanwhile, one of Runciter’s senior recruiters, the perpetually penurious Joe Chip, brings in a new prospect with a unique ability to telepathically travel into the past and alter history. Shortly after, Runciter takes on a high-profile billionaire client who fears telepaths have infiltrated his business on the moon.

Runciter rounds up his entire staff of anti-telepaths for the mission, yet shortly after they arrive on Luna, a bomb explodes, leaving Runciter mortally wounded. Suspecting Hollis, Runciter’s team manages to get him back to their ship and into cold storage. Joe Chip assumes immediate control of the firm and flies directly to a moratorium in Zurich to have Runciter placed into cryo storage so that he can be connected with Ella and made available for consultation.

However, the moratorium is unable to stimulate the necessary brain activity and Runciter is declared dead. Almost immediately, Joe Chip and his team begin experiencing time regression, slowly at first, then accelerating until they end up in 1939. All the while, cryptic messages begin to appear, presumably from Runciter himself. Is the man truly dead, or is this a mind game inflicted by Hollis’s telepaths? How does a mysterious product called Ubik play into this nightmare?

Ubik is one of the most brilliant and exciting stories I’ve ever read and now ranks among my top five favorite SF novels along with Flow My Tears, Said the Policeman, another masterpiece from the unrivaled genius of Philip K. Dick.

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: VALIS by Philip K. Dick

VALIS by Phil K DickIn 1974, a schizophrenic drug addict named Horselover Fat attempts suicide after a close friend succeeds at it. While struggling with guilt over her loss, Horselover is struck by an enigmatic beam of pink light that he attributes to a deity known as Zebra.

Afterwards, he experiences visions of the Roman Empire and gains detailed insight into early gnostic Christianity, which he chronicles in his exegesis. Horselover also credits the light for imparting crucial medical information that saves the life of his son, Christopher. A short time later, however, his wife Beth leaves him, taking Christopher with her.

Through all of this, Horselover’s friends—David, Kevin, and Phil K. Dick—believe that he is insane, until Kevin persuades the group to see an independent science fiction movie called VALIS, playing at a small theatre in town. The film, about an alien satellite called Vast Active Living Intelligence System, contains overt and subliminal messages that correspond to Horselover’s experiences after encountering the pink light. Convinced now that Horselover’s account was legitimate, the four friends take up a quest to contact the filmmakers in the hopes of learning the truth about VALIS and the information it revealed to Horselover.

It is explained at the beginning of the story that Horselover Fat might be Philip K. Dick projecting his inner turmoil into a second personality. Either way, VALIS is one of the most bizarre, engaging, imaginative, and occasionally disturbing novels I’ve ever read and could have been conjured only from the mind of Philip K. Dick.

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: Science Fiction Showcase edited by Mary Kornbluth

Science Fiction Showcase edited by Mary KornbluthA tribute to SF writer C.M. Kornbluth— who died at the age of 34 in 1958—Science Fiction Showcase delivers eleven excellent speculative fiction tales edited by Kornbluth’s wife, Mary Byers. Contributing authors include Ray Bradbury, Damon Knight, Ted Sturgeon, Robert Bloch, Frederik Pohl, Avram Davidson, James Blish, Jack Williamson, Philip K. Dick, Poul Anderson, and Richard Matheson.

With a line-up like that, how could you go wrong? It’s a rare occasion when I enjoy every story in an anthology almost equally, but in this case, they were all brilliant. Were I forced to choose favorites, they would be…

Richard Falk, a fugitive from Earth, steals a space freighter and heads to Mars where an alien transportation device was long ago uncovered. Unable to live in a society brainwashed into complacency by the government, Falk intends to use the device to begin life anew on a distant world. There’s only problem—once you step inside, where you end up is anyone’s guess in “A Ticket to Anywhere” by Damon Knight.

Anderson “Sonny” Trumie grew up poor, practically raised by robots, in a society whose highest priority was to consume. Yet, time passed Sonny by and he failed to share in its enlightenment. He continued to consume, until he was too obese to move without assistance, and to construct robots to help him acquire his own island… and still he wanted more, for Anderson Trumie was “The Man Who Ate the World” by Frederick Pohl.

In “A Work of Art” by James Blish, 19th century German composer Richard Strauss is resurrected in a new body in the year 2161. Repulsed by what he considers the regression of music in this modern age, Strauss sets out to compose an opera based on Christopher Fry’s play, Venus Observed. Although his opera is wildly successful, Strauss comes to realize two awful truths about himself… and his fate.

The orphaned boy of two American explorers must leave his Tibetan upbringing and migrate to Kansas where he is to be raised by his intolerant Christian aunt who, glaring down at him with one eye brown and other a glassy green, will not bear the boy’s heathen faith and philosophy. Yet despite her chastisements and beatings, the boy holds true to his Tibetan teachings while his aunt learns a lesson in cruelty in Jack Williamson’s “The Cold Green Eye.”

“Mantage” by Richard Matheson – Alfred Hitchcock observed that “drama is life with the dull bits cut out,” but what if you were so eager to achieve your goals that you had the option to live your life without those dull bits? Heed the old adage, you can’t live your life in a day—unless you’re award-winning writer Owen Crowley who learns that the gaps between the accolades are just as precious.

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said by Phil K. Dick

Flow My Tears, the Policeman SaidFollowing an attack by a jilted lover, renowned TV variety show host and singer, Jason Taverner, awakens in a cheap motel and soon discovers that he is unknown to the world. Neither his current girlfriend nor his lawyer recognizes him when he calls. Further, all records of his identity have been erased from Earth’s databases.

Rather than panic, Taverner uses his genetically enhanced intellect and survival training to arrange for forged IDs in order to pass through the numerous checkpoints of the police state that developed in the U.S. since the Second Civil War. Otherwise, Taverner risks arrest and sentencing to one of the forced labor camps for the rest of his life.

While on the run, Taverner searches for answers only to become entangled with a host of characters ranging from the eccentric and harmless to the desperate and dangerous—until he is falsely accused of murdering the sister/wife of a Los Angeles police general.

It is easy to see why Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said earned the John W. Campbell award as well as nominations for a Hugo and Nebula. It’s a fast-paced story with a protagonist both capable and mysterious. Taverner is classified as a “Six”—presumably, a sixth generation genetically enhanced human (reminiscent of the Nexus 6 androids in Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?). As usual with Philip K. Dick, the antagonist in the story is not merely a single character, such as the unethical police general or his drug-dealing sibling/spouse. Rather, the enemy is the corrupt state, the totalitarian government, the decaying society.

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said ranks as one of my top five favorite SF novels.

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: The Wizards of Odd edited by Peter Haining

How can you go wrong with a collection of 25 stories that includes heavyweights such as Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Douglas Adams, Ursula K. Le Guin, Terry Pratchett, C.S. Lewis, Fritz Leiber, Phil K. Dick, Brian W. Aldiss, Isaac Asimov, Larry Niven, and more?

To be honest, I only enjoyed about half of them. My favorites include:

“The Twonky” by Henry Kuttner – When Kerry Westerfield’s brand new cabinet radio begins walking around the house dictating Kerry’s  every move, he calls in psychiatrist pal Mike Fitzgerald, but this radio is constructed like no other… and it defends itself against anyone who might pose a threat—with fatal results.

“A Great Deal of Power” by Eric Frank Russell – When military scientists create an android assassin to kill top officials and scientists in the enemy’s ranks, they program its mind with a pure hatred of power… but what will the android do when the enemy is eliminated and those giving the orders become the powerful?

“Doodad” by Ray Bradbury – Running from the mob, Gyp Crowell finds himself in a shop called Thingamabobs, Doodads, Whatchamacallits, Hinkies, Formodaldafrays, Hootenannies, Gadgets, and Doohingies. While there, Gyp finds a device that might help him out of his predicament… in ways he didn’t expect.

“Not By Its Cover” by Philip K. Dick – When a special, translated edition of an ancient Latin book is published with animal hide cover, it is quickly discovered that certain passages in the book have been translated differently that in the paperback version, which leads to an astonishing conclusion about the animal hide covers…

“A Good Knight’s Work” by Robert Bloch – Sir Pallagyn of the Black Keep is hurled forward in time by the legendary Merlin to find the Cappadocian Tabouret in a “house of the past.” First, however, he decides to help a new found friend defeat the local mob boss…

“The Rules of Names” by Ursula K. Le Guin – Mr. Underhill lives a reclusive life in the village, practicing his wizardry with often questionable results… until a pirate named Blackbeard arrives with certain suspicions and accusations against Underhill. In response, the old bumbling sorcerer shows his true colors…

“Mythological Beast” by Stephen Donaldson – Norman is a librarian in an age of ignorance when so many among the population can barely read. Norman has a problem when he notices a horn growing in the middle of his forehead. Shortly after, his entire body begins to change into the shape of a creature than cannot be allowed to exist in a controlled society…

“The Adventure of the Snowing Globe” by F. Antsey – A man stops into a toy shoppe to purchase a present and is drawn to a snow globe containing a miniature castle. After shaking the globe, the man is transported to the real castle, meets a real princess being held prisoner by her cruel, oppressive uncle, and finds himself face to face with a real dragon…

“Zaphod Plays It Safe” by Douglas Adams – Zaphod Beeblebrox is hired by the Safety and Reassurance Administration to retrieve items of secretive nature from a crashed ship in the depths of an alien ocean. Despite Zaphod’s increasing misgivings, the authorities assure him that “it’s all perfectly safe”…

“The Odd Old Bird” by Avram Davidson – When the frivolous Prince Vlox indicates to two royal scientists that his property has been frequently visited by a rare bird, the Emperor’s wizard Eszterhazy requests that the prince capture the bird and have it sent to him. However, there is some confusion on the part of the temporary help when the bird is delivered around the same time as the cook was expecting a chicken…

“The Gnurrs Come from the Voodwork Out” by Reginald Bretnor – Quack inventor Papa Schimmelhorn arrives at the local Secret Weapons Bureau determined to demonstrate how his new invention, which resembles a bassoon, will win the war… in the most unimaginable way!

“Captain Wyxtpthll’s Flying Saucer” by Arthur C. Clarke – A pair of hapless aliens land in England on a mission to find and retrieve an intelligent human specimen only to end up incarcerated by the local police as mental patients… until the town drunk helps them escape!

“There’s A Wolf in My Time Machine” by Larry Niven – A time traveller finds himself in a parallel dimension where mankind evolved from wolves instead of apes.

“2BRO2B” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. – In order for newborns to be permitted to live in a dystopian future under strict population control, someone must volunteer to die. What happens when a married couple is expecting triplets, but could locate only one volunteer?

The Wizards of Odd