Martian Time-Slip / Philip K. Dick

Martian Time-Slip
by Philip K. Dick
science fiction

copyright 1964
read in May 2013

rated 6/10: read to pass the time

This is the second "great novel" in a massive volume of PKD stories. (PKD stories ?! Well, it doesn't sound quite right to say, Dick stories...)

Stigmata was confusing but fun... I think. Time-Slip is not quite as confusing, not quite as much fun.

Life on Mars has, it seems, improved slightly. Stigmata offered a hopeless life of scrabbling to survive, of using drugs to escape the reality of a harsh, dry, dusty environment. Time-Slip offers a harsh world where all the minor evils of Earth have been transferred to the new planet.

Still, the hero gets on with his life.

It's all a bit... everyday. Helicopters rather than cars. Water via canals rather than by pipe. An indigenous population forced to the lowest rung of society as they gradually die out. And mental illness as the norm. Just minor changes from life as we know it.

The science in most SF is "hard" science. In the days when psychiatry was a new but developing science, Dick used it as the central theme for his story. A "soft"science but good science fiction !

And in those days before science pooh-poohed the idea, Dick allows the mind to control reality.

Okay, it takes a while to get there, but I think that's what happened...

After spending most of the book getting there, we finally discover that the autistic boy is able -- through the power of his mind -- to control reality. And to control time. The discovery was a bit abrupt, perhaps I just missed some of the clues along the way.

The bad guy tries to change time and gains nothing. The hero gets a mystic token which he never uses, he learns some valuable personal lessons and survives, otherwise unscathed. The autistic boy pops up inexplicably so that we know that he, at least, has achieved what he wanted from his mental abilities.

A confusing ending, but happy.

A readable book, but not great.

I enjoyed it, but will probably not read the remaining three "great novels" in this PKD omnibus.

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Problems ? Solved

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch / Philip K Dick

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
by Philip K Dick

science fiction

copyright 1964
read in May 2013

rated 7 out of 10: well worth reading

Warning: possible spoiler ahead ! Only a "possible" spoiler ? Yes... I don't know if I really know what happened...

First, I checked my understanding of "stigmata". Check. Then related that to the book. Check. So here is what happens:

The man who has god-like powers in the hallucinatory worlds is not God. He has been taken over -- or possibly replaced by -- the god-like being who lives in deep space, the being that may, in the past, have been mistaken for God. The existence or otherwise of a real God is not a part of this story.

The hallucinatory worlds exist only for the hallucinator. Each person dreams of their own world. Every other person in their world is imaginary. Except for the man who has been taken over by the God-like being from outer space.

Except -- another exception -- when the hallucinator imagines that they have moved into the future. The hallucination of the future is real. (It is a real... possible... future.) The people in the hallucination of the future are real. Although they -- the real people in the imagined futures -- may be taken over by the man who has been taken over by the God-like being from outer space.

Are you with me so far ?!

Enough !

This is an enjoyable book... if a bit challenging to understand ! Easy to read, difficult to follow. Satisfying, though my own satisfaction may be based entirely on misconceptions of what it all means...

Better yet, the style of the book has not dated... The predictions may be way off but that does not affect my reading enjoyment... Which I particularly notice because I have recently read some Heinlein.

Heinlein is horribly dated. His scientific predictions may be better but his characters -- and their attitudes -- are, well, possibly believable and maybe acceptable to narrow-minded readers of fifty years ago.

I find Dick's characters to be much more believable. Okay, not realistic ! But believable. And very hard to dislike...

Sure, the Stigmata characters are self-centered. Some are willing to abandon others to protect themselves. They are open to bribery and corruption. But they are all children, and how could you dislike children !?

No, not really children. They are all child-like in their approach to life. There is no underlying cruelty, no innate evil. They just look after themselves. And are sorry when that causes problems for other people.

The characters mean well. They are just realistic when it comes to matters of self-interest. Realistic and self-centered ! Oh, and very analytical.

When it comes to character motivations, Dick fails the test of show versus tell. The characters are constantly "telling" us their motivations -- through self-analysis -- rather than "showing" through their actions.

Which just goes to show that an author can break the rules and still write a good story.

Stigmata is a good story. Still readable, still enjoyable -- still confusing -- many years after it was written.

I have a book containing four more Dick novels. I hope the rest are just as enjoyable.

I just hope that I am better able to understand what happens... :-)

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Problems ? Solved

Do androids dream of electric sheep? / Philip K. Dick

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

category: science fiction, author:

Philip K. Dick

original copyright 1968,
read in September 2011 (and before, in Feb 05)

Agamedes' opinion: 5 out of 10

Sadly dated.

Or, perhaps, it's just me...

In 1968 -- when Androids was written -- perhaps I would have agreed with Dick, that the world was going downhill fast. That nuclear war, lifelike androids and interplanetary migration were just around the corner. That by 1992 emotional control and telepathic empathy would be implemented and automated. By 1992!

Perhaps it is just me. Perhaps I have changed.

As I started to read Androids I thought, What a gloomy world. What an extreme case of all that is bad overcoming all that is... well... better. I seem to have a less negative view of the future of humanity.

Not a positive view. Just, less negative.