A PKD novel with a happy ending! Amazing! Yet it still contains the authenticity I love in PKD's novels. As a true Jesus freak, a believer in Jesus ChA PKD novel with a happy ending! Amazing! Yet it still contains the authenticity I love in PKD's novels. As a true Jesus freak, a believer in Jesus Christ as the risen savior of the world, true God and true man, this book was a stranger than usual read, even for me and PKD. There is enough here in this book, that I would re-read it and enjoy it. It has PKD speculating what it would really be like for God to become man...a baby...a young boy. It has PKD speculating about a folk artist who would popularize her songs using the lyrics of a medieval ballad writer. It has PKD exploring how alternate realities could actually work in Christian (or, at least, religious) theology. I know it's science fiction (or more fantasy, really, as PKD would be glad to admit, or speculative fiction, as his peer Harlan Ellison would call it), but I still have to wonder how much of this did PKD believe? How much was speculation to him and how much reality that he saw as an enlightenment or a vision, given to him by the pink light in 1974 that he mentions in his non-fiction.
If you are still reading this review and have never read any PKD, don't read this first. At least read VALIS before this one, not because there really is a true VALIS trilogy, but VALIS at least contains some semblance of SF that is more traditional and understandable to those who have not before ventured into the world of PKD. I read VALIS years ago, when I first fell in love with PKD's fiction. I knew I thought like his characters did, but I did not know someone actually published books with characters who thought like his did. I connected with PKD's fiction in some sort of cosmic way in 1982, and that connection has only grown stronger and weirder and more meaningful.
This is a bit of a sad read for me too. I have only two more SF novels to read by PKD, and then I am done. I will finish up his short stories and then his non-SF fiction novels. Anyway, holding back tears, I go onward to read THE TRANSMIGRATION OF TIMOTHY ARCHER and then RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH....more
This book is so good, it makes me a little less sad that PKD died so soon, in 1982. He says it all with this one. It's a perfect PKD. This is his crafThis book is so good, it makes me a little less sad that PKD died so soon, in 1982. He says it all with this one. It's a perfect PKD. This is his craft, his expression of his soul, perfected. It asks and answers all the PKD questions. What makes us human? Is there more to this material world? What is the nature of reality? I still prefer A SCANNER DARKLY as my favorite PKD because it touches me more personally than RFA, but it is just as complete an expression of PKD....more
Until this book, everything I read by Lewis was perfect. He has dazzled me with his genius. This is a well meaning stumble of a book. Lewis does not eUntil this book, everything I read by Lewis was perfect. He has dazzled me with his genius. This is a well meaning stumble of a book. Lewis does not effectively answer his own thesis. Or if he does, he adds little to what I already knew. Why does pain exist? Because God gave us free will. True, but this book does not add enough to this answer to make the whole thing worth reading. Here are the two best quotes.
"When we want to be something other than the thing God wants us to be, we must be wanting what, in fact, will not make us happy." C.S. Lewis, THE PROBLEM OF PAIN p. 46
"Why else were individuals created, but that God, loving all infinitely, should love each other differently?" C.S. Lewis, THE PROBLEM OF PAIN p. 154...more
I finally read it. I read Heinlein and Clarke as a youth. I never read Asimov. I find it strange that Asimov is somewhere between the two as far as thI finally read it. I read Heinlein and Clarke as a youth. I never read Asimov. I find it strange that Asimov is somewhere between the two as far as the substance of his thoughts go. I prefer the two poles to this average of the two. Heinlein gives the nitty gritty of how technology affects humanity as individuals. Clarke gives the nitty gritty of how it affects all of humanity, in a broad spectrum. The Foundation trilogy bounces between the two. We get sweeps of historical narrative in exposition that covers hundreds of years in a handful of pages, then pages and pages of a single philosophical discussion that takes place in 15 minutes. Asimov is a short story writer who wrote novels as if they were interconnected short stories--not really novels. I enjoyed this, but despite it not really ending the story he set up, I am not going to read any of the sequels. I'd rather finish reading all the Heinlein, Clarke, and Dick that I haven't read....more
The bulk of this narrative is dialogue. Characters talk about things. Not much happens "on stage." Things of galactic importance happen, but mostly "oThe bulk of this narrative is dialogue. Characters talk about things. Not much happens "on stage." Things of galactic importance happen, but mostly "off stage." I am fine with this. I want an epic, sweeping, thoughtful tale of galactic empire, and the only way to get that in 227 pages is to have loads of summary with sprinkles of details. This is only my second novel by Asimov. I have put off reading this series for years. Now that NO MAN'S SKY is imminent, I figured it was a good time to read the series. I will probably read the trilogy plus FOUNDATION'S EDGE and then stop. I am hoping after the trilogy or at least the fourth book that the story will feel complete....more
Not enough PKD comes through. I like Zelazny's LORD OF LIGHT, but this collaboration is like subtracting the qualities of these writers from each otheNot enough PKD comes through. I like Zelazny's LORD OF LIGHT, but this collaboration is like subtracting the qualities of these writers from each other rather than adding them. There are some moments of interest, but it's too fractured and diffused to work....more
And so ends a nearly eight year journey. I began reading this ten volume collection in 2009, in sync with the war that began seventy years earlier in And so ends a nearly eight year journey. I began reading this ten volume collection in 2009, in sync with the war that began seventy years earlier in 1939. It gave me the same perspective on the war that someone then would have had and did it with the same pace. Such a long, big conflict. So many stories. I'm glad I started this task, but I'm even more glad to end it....more
The idea is good. The execution of it is dull. Half the book is a decent Holmes short story, but stretched out to half a novel. Then the other half ofThe idea is good. The execution of it is dull. Half the book is a decent Holmes short story, but stretched out to half a novel. Then the other half of this novel is a dull as dish water tale of a secret society terrifying a small American town. Again, another short story stretched to half a novel....more
At first I was wary of this novel. It started out like one of the lesser PKD novels, but about halfway through it found its place in the better ones. At first I was wary of this novel. It started out like one of the lesser PKD novels, but about halfway through it found its place in the better ones. It meanders without much direction, or obvious direction at first, but eventually PKD pulled it off. His character Joe's story about the spider trapped in the bottom of the teacup, the spider that goes ahead and spins a web in hopes of capturing a fly even though it should know its hopeless--this little moment of time in Joe's life in his past encapsulates PKD's entire view of humanity and his own existence. I enjoyed this book because I was continually surprised by what PKD came up with. His description of the Glimmung is not just fantastically vague--it's impossible. It defies description. Like most of my favorite PKD moments, it's crazy, but not so crazy that I cannot understand it at all. It doesn't make any more sense than anything in the real world does. It's just out of my grasp, which is why I love PKD. His thoughts surprise me, and yet they seem to have the same nature as my own internal thoughts. My favorite quotation from the book is when Joe asks, "'How does one dress for polyencephalic fusion?'" (p. 135)...more
Similar in some ways, but better in all ways, compared to FORREST GUMP. The fictional main character meets historical people and shapes the world at cSimilar in some ways, but better in all ways, compared to FORREST GUMP. The fictional main character meets historical people and shapes the world at critical junctures. The main character is one my favorite characters ever. He only gets angry once in the whole book, which is amazing considering the events in which he is involved. The book is genuinely witty and deep, without becoming pretentious, much like it's protagonists.
I laughed out loud at this book more than any other fiction book I have read. My favorite part is when the main character and Herbert Einstein (the fictional and ironically idiotic brother of Albert) escape their imprisonment. The entire scene is a hilarious Rube Goldberg series of unfortunate (for everyone but the escaping pair) events.
Pay close attention to the cat the main character owns later in the book, a cat named Molotov (named after the cocktail, not the Russian leader). The cat serves as a funny, enlightening avatar for the main character....more