Philip K. Dick wrote over forty novels, most of them science fiction. Often churning out books with the expectation that the paperback editions would have the shelf life of lettuce and then vanish from the earth never to be read again, he often repeated himself and took huge leaps of absurdity, sometimes for the sake of laughter, sometimes to work himself out of a painted plot corner. Galatic Pot-Healer is one of his lesser novels, a fast read and almost comic book in its imagery and characters. It recycles some names and concepts from earlier works (his children's story "Nick and the Glimmung" comes to mind) and contains some unexplained absurdities, but it shines out from his other lesser works with its deep use of Gnostic theology and metaphysical ideas couched in science fiction narrative.

The Glimmung is a Jabba-The-Hut-like creature, weighing 40,000 pounds, living on a remote planet but being capable of physical projecting himself by unknown means to other planets where he appears to a select group of humans sometimes in the form of an albatross, sometimes in the form of a hoop of fire and a hoop of water intersected with a paisley carpet and a teenage girl's face floating in the middle. This is clearly a comic composite of Zeus and Jehovah with a heavy dash of Judeo-Christian mysticism thrown into the mix. The Glimmung bundles up his small group of artisans from Earth (including Joe Fernwright, the Pot Healer of the title who can restore antique ceremaics) to come to his home planet to raise the ruins of the ancient temple of the Fog-Things, known as Heldscala, from the ocean floor to restore the ancient way and bring peace back to the planet.

The planet itself is controlled by the Kalends, insect-like wraiths who have written a book in changing script that is a pre-recorded history of the planet. The history (the text of the book) keeps changing as people take different courses of action. As soon as Joe reaches the planet, he gets a copy of the book of the Kalends, and reads that the Glimmung will fail in his raising of the temple and that joe himself will take a course of action that will lead to the Glimmung's death.

Much of the novel has the feel of a comic book, but the gnosticism that was so dear to Philip K. Dick shines through. The Glimmung appears in different form to different people and his raising of the temple from the ocean depths directly reflects the artisans (pot healer, engineers, psychokineticists) attempts to actualize the depleted talent of their own lives. The Glimmung tells Joe early on, "There is no life too small." Their Jabba-the-Hut-like God has entered their lives to restore them to themselves. The novel spirals towards a whacked out confrontation with the Black Glimmung who stirs from the ocean depths and the artisans fight their nemesis by mering their minds with that of the Glimmung.

Philip K. Dick was just years away from the writing of his most gnostic works (Valis, Divine Invasions, etc.) and here we can see a science fiction pot boiler having loads of fun with religion, mysticism, metaphysics and gnostic theology. A strange hybrid. An odd novel. But also a fun and quick read.

This is one of PKD's more obscure titles, and in some ways, this status is warranted. Of all Dick's novels, I found Galactic Pot-Healer to be the most unconstrained and it is certainly not for the uninitiated. Even though I've read almost all of his other works, the convoluted plot and the always transient identity of the Glimmung was very confusing. But, as Dick's career attests to, just because it's unconventional doesn't mean it can't be successful in a quirky sort of way. And I think because of this, Pot-Healer is one of Dick's funniest books. I just love the part where Joe is trapped in the box and calls in to the radio talk show, asking where he is. But the focus of the book is a very serious exploration of metaphysical interplay between the Glimmung and his (her?) antithesis the Black Glimmung. Strangely, there was something about Joe's investigation that I found terrifying. Even more than The Game Players of Titan, the paranoia is tangible and omnipresent, and it makes Pot-Healer a very dark book. It is NOT light metaphysical comedy, and Dick never provides the reader with sure footing or any character that can truly be trusted. I recommend checking out a few of the more straightforward PKD books (The Man in the High Castle, Now Wait for Last Year) before reading this, because, though it is one of his shorter works, it can be daunting for someone unacquainted with PKD.

According to the author's biographer, Laurence Sutin, Dick didn't much care for this book. I can't imagine why, except that in his more determinedly resolute moments he may have considered the ending too patly pessimistic. I agree with Sutin's rating: Pot-Healer is a gem. Rarely for Dick, it has only a single point-of-view character, the pot-healer (not mender), stranded in a Stalinist USA of the 2040s, who is somewhat circuitously approached by the Glimmung - a possibly divine, certainly whimsical entity of faraway Plowman's Planet. The Glimmung is putting together a collaborative enterprise of life-forms from around the galaxy in order to raise a sunken cathedral, and along the way our hero meets with some spectacular inconveniences, including his own corpse and a book in which his future (or one of them) is inscribed (possibly), occasionally in language he can understand. This is one of Dick's funniest and most enjoyable books, putting a light touch to many of his favourite issues. It's as packed with energy and invention as any of his more famous works and, perhaps because of the single point of view, feels more focused and coherent than many - and this in spite of the fact that its epic plot and impressive special effects all take place within the space of less than a hundred and eighty pages.

The first half of this book introduces a slew of bizarre story situations and ideas, but unfortunately none of them really gets fleshed out to my satisfaction.

The most interesting to me was the composer who feels he's steadily disappearing and converting into a foul smell. I was never completely sure if he was making this all up in his mind or if it was really happening to him. He spends most of his time in the book trying to contact the one remaining psychologist on earth; and the dwindling psychologist problem is another intriguing idea that doesn't seem to go anywhere. Ditto for the Nazi official who's brought forward in time, I forget to what purpose. The same for the Mars-colonization supplier that specializes in lifelike robots that function as your friendly neighbors for those lonely, desolate Martian locations (just a little reminiscent of the "Perky Pat" episode from PALMER ELDTRITCH, although this story never really gets off the Earth). And the papoolas, what was the point there?

Although most of Dick's novels have a lot of humor in them, this one seems to take nothing seriously. It's difficult to get involved with the characters. Everything that happens seems like a joke. The novel has several interesting scenes, but the work as a whole is not one of Dick's better efforts.

"The Simulacra" is probably the most convoluted, mystifying--and potentially dangerous--political thriller ever penned. With his trademark ear for dialogue and sensitivity to human foibles, Dick eviscerates authority in all of its guises, revealing levels of curruption and secrecy so vast and complex they transcend the comical. Along with such masterpieces as "Radio Free Albemuth" and "Time Out of Joint," "The Simulacra" is one of Dick's most effective conspiracy yarns, written with irony, insight and humor. As usual, Dick excels at evoking a world where nothing is as it seems and truth is the rarest of commodities. Vintage's reissue of this scathing novel couldn't have come at a better time.

OK, I love Phillip K. Dick, even when I don't understand him
Simulacra is one of those books you can read many times and every time explore a new avenue. Dick is one of the rare authors whose works are so complicated, so many tangents, yet always a good story. Science Fiction for the thinking person.

In 1963, Philip K. Dick published only one novel THE GAME-PLAYERS OF TITAN, a novel you will enjoy very much if you are already familiar with Dick's imaginary world or dislike if it's the first novel of PKD you read. Why ? Because Philip K. Dick, in this novel, was more interested in the psychological torments of THE GAME-PLAYERS OF TITAN's main character - Pete Garden - than in giving a solid literary structure to this novel.

In fact, behind every Pete Garden move, you can recognize the shadow of the personal life of PKD. Garden has problems with women, so does PKD, Pete Garden is an expert in pharmacology and drugs, so is PKD. At last, Pete Garden is always oscillating between psychosis and neurosis like Philip K. Dick in the early sixties.

The Titan invaders had already been partly described by PKD in 1957, in THE WORLD JONES MADE. Now these creatures rule the Earth and have brought to the few humans left their hobby, the Game. The story is not very interesting but one of the most important themes treated by Philip K. Dick - the Simulacra - makes a famous first apparition in THE GAME-PLAYERS OF TITAN. Are you for real ? Are you what you seem to be ? Am I what I think I am ? Those questions torture the characters of the novel. For our pleasure.

A CD to.. No! A DVD for.. NO!! A book for those of you who deserve Philip K. Dick.

The Game-Players of Titan appeared around the same time as William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch, and it reminds me very much of Burroughs' book, minus the confrontational sexual and language content. Both stories involve international/interplanetary mind-control conspiracies and the use of mind/body-altering drugs. Neither book would constitute good therapy for anyone suffering from paranoia. As a matter of fact, if your grasp on concensus reality is weak, I would avoid either of these books as well as just about anything else written by Philip K. Dick.

As art, The Game-Players has what seems to me a flawed structure, and a few of the main characters seem to have very little reason to be in the story. I was disappointed by the ending because, rather than resolve anything, it seemed to reset everything back to the status quo. Back to square one, so to speak. Which, come to think of it, is probably the only logical way to end a story about a board game (albeit a cosmic board game).

Keep in mind: At the beginning of the book, characters are cursing the Red Chinese for a disaster which almost wipes out the human race. By the end of the book, they're trying to hold out against the conspiracy of an ostensibly alien organization called the "Wa Pei Nan". In this respect, the book comes off like a very paranoid Cold War conspiracy thriller written by heavily drugged CIA and FBI operatives in the months before the Kennedy assassination.

This book has it all: the usual PKD's theme about the nature of reality and the human perception of it and the fragility of the human mind, plot twists that keep you from putting the book down, interesting characters and character interaction -everything that shuold be in a great book can be found in "The Game-Players of Titan." If you are new to PKD, I suggest you start with this book or "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich." Both are must-reads.

I have to say I am a huge PKD fan, and have read just about all of his books. And before you dismiss this review, know that I read and enjoyed Valis and The Divine Invasion, precursors to this book, the third in the series. But, sadly, this book just was not the vintage Dick classic that Ubik, or A Scanner Darkly was. In fact, I was disgusted with this book, and to date, I have loved every one of Dick's books, even the more obscure ones (Galactic Pot Healer). Though Ubik and my personal favorite Now Wait For Last Year had a strong, cohesive plot littered with welcome digressions and departures, I can't help thinking that Transmigration was just one long digression lacking any sort of structure, and without the strong and interesting characters in Dick's other books. With a slew of obscure references to various operas, epic poems, and other pieces of the impotent intellectual vangaurd, it seemed Dick was trying to prove to us his cultural superiority and sophistication. And that is not the Philip K. Dick I know and admire. I suppose if you feel compelled to read everything that Dick has written, then read this, but do yourself a favor and borrow it because it is not a book that you will want to re-read.

Although considered part of the Valis Trilogy, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer stands on it's own. Unlike the first two books, this book is highly readable and the prose is excellent. It actually reads quite smoothly, though the issues concerned within are just profound as in the first two books. Towards the end of his career, Philip K. Dick focused highly on theological issues in his fiction, and this might be the apex of that writing. Few writers could have pulled this book off; few, indeed, would have even tried. Unlike most PKD books, and certainly the first two of Valis, continually shift their realities and gradually reveal shocking plot twists... this book does not. The plot is coherent, the message is clear. It's a shame that Dick died just as he was writing at his most lucid. He will be missed. Read this book.

I have read the other reviews of this book and, quite frankly, they all missed the point of this book. To start with it is written from the female perspective, which is not an easy task for a man, and yet PKD pulls it off briliantly. This is not a book about Dick trying to run his snobbery down our throats but an insightful and emotionally touching perspective of a man pursuing truth, with a zeal that leads to his death, as viewed by another party (female). Indeed, its very core reflects the Bible's condemnation of pride proceeding the fall, mixed with the emotional tenderness that Mary must have felt when she witnessed her sons death from pursuing his ideals. Dick began an introspective search for a meaning of God after his encounter with Valis, continued the journey, in The Divine Invasion, with a discussion of the modern God of the New Testament versus the ancient gods that existed before humans adapted monotheism, finishing with Transmigration. Don't pass this book over because you will miss Dick's best writing before he died. I also recommend Eye in the Sky and Clans of the Alphane Moon as two more of PKD's brilliance and humor.

This was not one of Phil's greatest books. Virtually all of his Science Fiction and at least 1 "mundane" novel deserve more stars that this. (I use the term "mundane" in the usage of S.F. fandom to refer something without any S.F. elements. Nothing Phil did or thought was "mundane" in the more typical usage of the word.)

However, I gave it 4 stars because of the considerable importance of the DHG in one of the sub-texts that runs through almost all of Phil's work: Who is human and who is android and what does it mean to be human?

For part 2 of this review, please read my review under Open Your Eyes (Abre Los Ojos) DVD edition.

DHG is of biographical interest to us hardcore PKD fans, and I doubt it would mean much to those who are not familiar with his life. This book covers an interesting and gloomy period (circa. 1970) of PKD's life, and deals with people and events that are given little attention in that seminal biography, Sutin's Divine Invasions. As the above reviewer has noted, the material forms what would later be A Scanner Darkly. The book itself (esp. the cover art) is very tasteful, and the book is quite rare, so it is one for collectors. PKD one said that his poetry was terrible, and the poem in this book is living proof of that:-)

The two major essays in this book, "The Android and the Machine" and "Man, Android, and Machine" are also in the more complete "Shifting Realities of PKD" so I would recommend that book over this one for those reasons, but for those of us who have to have them all...

This collection of correspondence, along with some lectures by Phillip K Dick, published after his death, tell a very interesting and disturbing story of the man. A lot of ideas from his letters can be found in the novel "A Scanner Darkly" This is worthwhile reading both to learn about a world most of us barely knew existed, and because it will make us contemplate our own lives.

My review is brief to match this book. And that is not necessarily a bad thing. I have read all of PKD's novel and short stories and another person's views are always of interest to me. But I suspect that a reader who does not know PKD's work well may find this book more confusing than stimulating. I would also have liked more of the short stories to have been discussed - some of the great stories not yet made into movies, plays or operas.

And finally, in a critical analysis like this I would have liked some explanation of how Mr Butler determined his ratings, and I would also have liked some considered opinion as to why PKD has such a great following that far exceeds, apparently in number and reputation, such other SF stalwarts as Simak, van Vogt, Asimov and Heinlein. And does PKD have a reputation outside SF that these other authors do not?

I am what could be defined as a PKD scholar, and I think this small book is very useful as a reference. While writing my articles and essays I often use it. And I recommend it to those who have just read 1-2 novels by Phil Dick and wish to know more, and would like some advice about what should be read next by the same author. Andy's reviews are fair and the plot summaries won't spoil your reading. And there is a wealth of useful info to boot. Very high price/quality ration, in my humble opinion. Recommended.

An excellent introduction to the complex world of Philip K. Dick, filled with insight and synopsis galore, it gives a quick and in-depth look into each of the works of this Chicago born genius. Mr.Butler has given us the perfect introductory book to Philip K. Dick, with a quick to the point review of a truely facinating career. It points the way to further reading. The book is clear evidence that Philip K. is one of the most important authors in American SF. This book is a must have for any reader of Dick, novice or expert.

The main ideas of VULCAN'S HAMMER, the second of the two Philip K. Dick books published in 1960 - the first one being the already forgotten DR. FUTURITY -, can be found in a 1956 novelette presented in Satellite n° 20. Such borrowings were then common, authors developing a novelette to the length of a novel even years after the first publication. A.E. Van Vogt and Isaac Isamov for instance used this innocent literary trick in numerous occasions.

VULCAN'S HAMMER reminded me of another PKD novel, also published in 1956, THE WORLD JONES MADE. In the two novels, the established government is threatened by a democratic revolution. Father Fields, the leader of the " Healers ", must fight not only the Nomenklatura of the sole ruling party but also the Vulcan computers to which a trusting world has left years before the entire responsibility in political matters. Soon Vulcan III will defend itself against those who want its death by producing little "hammers" that kill, observe and communicate with a Vulcan deeply hidden in the ground. One could consider these hammers as the first cellulars ever mentioned in a literary text.

Some of the novels Philip K. Dick has published in the late fifties-early sixties period stand very well the test of time thanks to the originality of the themes treated - as in EYE IN THE SKY - but others like VULCAN'S HAMMER are very dated. The idea of a fight between computers and humans for supremacy is not, in my opinion, the most original idea found in a sci-fi book.

Nevertheless, if you can find a copy of VULCAN'S HAMMER, don't hesitate to buy it because a book that is not read is a dead book and Philip K. Dick deserves to stay alive in our libraries.

A book for PKD ultra-fans only.

In the world of 'Vulcan's Hammer', humans have apparently given up on their political power. They are under the authority of Vulcan III, a massive underground computer that ended war, unemployment and poverty years ago. Two human factions are set against each other: the Union, led by many high-profile directors including William Barris, and the 'Healers', a rebellious group seemingly led by a mysterious figure named Father Fields. Many questions are submitted daily to Vulcan III, but the machine has not yet said a word about the group; people are quick to blame head-director Jason Dill, the only one allowed to submit such questions. In addition to the powerful Vulcan III, there's also the older Vulcan II, which is destroyed but still reveals crucial insights about the Healers and Vulcan III when some of its remains are reconstructed. The 'Union versus Healers' opposition can be multiplied by at least three, because there is some discord a) in the Union itself, b) in the Healers movement, and, most interestingly, c) between the machines. Both of the Vulcan computers play as big a role as the humans, and often seem just as 'alive' as they are. The entire work can be seen as an ongoing mind game, sometimes between men, sometimes between man and machine, sometimes between the machines themselves; it is a lot more substantial than its dismal reputation would lead the unsuspecting reader to believe.

One of the joys of reading PKD is the complexity of his novels. In VULCAN'S HAMMER the world is governed by a super computer that believes it is threatened by earlier versions of itself, (fun stuff here), and feels threatened by an anti-computer movement called "The Healers". There are no cut-and-dry good guys/bad guys in this novel, creating more twists and turns than a roller coaster. Look hard for this one. You won't be disappointed.

After reading a string of mostly top-notch PKD novels I was expecting the same from this but my expectations were only half-met. I don't like writing negative reviews (haven't written one until now) but I thought this book needed a second opinion.
'The Ganymede Takeover' is interesting and varied enough to get to the end without losing interest, but Phillip K Dick produces much better results on his own. Something seemed a little off with this novel to me and I think the two authors probably said "Hey, let's write a novel together" rather than "I've got this great idea for I novel, I need your help with this one".
If you're on a mission to read the entire Phillip K. Dick catalog I'd put this a long way down on the list, there are better PKD books out there to be read.

Hello. My name is Albert Godphrey and I love Phillip K. Dick. Dick uses basic writing techniques for this book, yet something about it grasps me. He really gets deep inside the human mind and shows why we act the way we do. He shows that some people will never give up and they will do whatever they need to survive, yet it also shows the meek and the weak. This book is also humorus. I was cracking up when Dick made Percy X, the leader of a rebellion from an alien invasion of earth, used the mind machine to imagine killer girl scouts tearing apart the alien troops. Then he imagined killer boy scouts. Then the boy scouts raped the girl scouts! That was classic. The amount of time he put into this book is so obvious! He uses futuristic devises that we have now! Phillip K. Dick is amazing. My hands were literaly glued to this book. I couldn't put it down, I didn't sleep for 2 1/2 days because I was reading this. I really am glad that I met Phillip K. Dick before he died. I remember we listended to the clasical music together while we discussed his books. He was ingenius. The day he died, i cried. It was a sad day for science fiction lovers, for they lost the king... DAMMIT!!!! Not Elvis!!!!

In my continuing effort to read all of Dick's work, I picked up the finally-reprinted Our Friends from Frolix 8 this week. What a disappointment!

I really like Dick's writing, and I have even enjoyed some of his less than stellar novels, like The Zap Gun or Clans of the Alphane Moon. This one, though, just doesn't do much for me. It's got a decent premise and some decent (but predictably Dickian) characters, but it just doesn't pull it all together and produce.

The climax was too long in coming and, once it came, was a let down. For the most part, I'm just glad to have finished it.

In the body of PKD's works this is not a masterpiece, but neither is it insignificant. My review is based on rereading the Ace book edition of 1970, a paperback plagued by misprints. Mostly these don't matter but I struggle to make any sense of the third paragraph of page 140 - perhaps someone else can resolve it for me. I was also a bit confused about New Men - sometimes they seemed to be marked by huge heads, but at other times their identity as New Men was obscure as in the case of Thors Provoni, the returning astronaut bringing, well, was it God - our friend from Frolix 8. But then another character (it had to be Nick) was involved in this dialogue:
'God is dead,' Nick said. 'They found his carcass in 2019. Floating out in space near Alpha.'
'They found the remains of an organism advanced several thousand times over what we are,' Charley said. 'And it evidently could create habitable worlds and populate them with living organisms, derived from itself. But that doesn't prove it was God.'
'I think it was God.'

Of course Thors is the name of a god, albeit a Norse one and he is supposed to be bringing salvation for Old Men (and Under Men, the underground resistance) against New Men and Unusuals. But nothing is simple in the worlds of PKD. The ending is magical as characters entwine in unexpected interactions, the last few pages seem to go on forever - there is so much potential and I kept wondering how can I be so close to the end of the novel - so much could still happen, and what does happen is so unexpected - like Beethoven introducing a new theme to the last movement of the fifth just before the symphony ends - opening further possibilities. Of course, just like life, things are rarely resolved and even if one thread of life does resolve, it can only do so in the presence of an infinite variety of other ongoing threads.

This one is fairly classic Philip K. Dick: Fed up man stuck in a rut, with a shrew of wife, get's jarred out of his work-a-day life and things get out of hand. Filled with bizzare "new men" and psychic "unusuals" all paranoid and running scared as a man brings help from the stars to free the "old men". Not his best work, but still fascinating and entertaining.

In 1955 Philip K. Dick was a prolific and moderately successful writer of SF short stories, but I seriously doubt that anyone really paid attention when "Solar Lottery" hit the shelves that year. They should have. It was one of the opening moves in the game that eventually tore the SF world wide open.

There were plenty of notable exceptions, of course, but early SF largely concerned itself with great men of tremendous vision and extraordinary ability who got in there and solved problems - the kind of man Robert Heinlein liked to write about. PKD was among those later writers who noticed that most people in the real world aren't like that, and wrote stories about them instead. "Solar Lottery" lacks his later interest in what makes something real (although it does include a conspiracy in which a man with no real personality drives a whole crew of telepaths crazy), but in Ted Benteley it contains an early example of his interest in regular guys.

As is often the case with PKD, Ted Benteley finds himself in a classic SF plot turned inside out. In this case, the classic SF plot in question comes almost directly from a true genre classic, "The World of Null-A" by A.E. van Vogt. In both novels, a man tries to make his way in the world by gambling his future on the game that forms whatever government exists around him, only to find that someone is cheating. Van Vogt's protagonist is a typical post-World War II SF superman; PKD's is a talented but endlessly ticked off functionary who spends most of the novel trying to figure out what's going on.

Everything in his world depends on the random activity of an atomic device that determines the fates of millions - a lottery indeed, with one man at the head of it. What's more, for most people, the best fate they can hope for is to bind themselves in servitude to someone of a higher social position, if any such person will take them. Merit, ability and hard work count for nothing here, and there's no way up or out except by random chance for Benteley or for almost anyone else. If most early genre SF was about men of vision and courage saving the world by their own efforts, "Solar Lottery" was that SF's polar opposite.

Benteley is not as strong a hero as later PKD characters would be, partly because of his aforementioned nasty temper. He's got plenty to be annoyed about - he gets a chance for escape at the novel's beginning and misses it because someone misleads him at a critical moment. Nevertheless, dwelling in the mind of a character who's always complaining about something can wear on one pretty quickly.

Indeed, it's no easy task to sympathize with any of these characters. In addition to their unpleasant traits - uncontrollable rage, treachery, lust for power, cowardice - these people switch attitudes so quickly it can make you dizzy. The coward, for example, suddenly acquires a titanium backbone when the men who want to kill him actually show up. Of course, PKD wrote "Solar Lottery" at a time when SF novels had to end at about 180 pages by the decree of the age's major publisher, so he probably did not have space to develop his characters more fully, but it's a flaw nevertheless.

The same can be said for the novel's plot elements - there are so many seemingly unrelated ones that the central story loses its focus a good deal of the time. PKD was always among our least disciplined writers, and in addition to "Solar Lottery's" conspiracies and betrayals we also get telepaths, robotics, space travel and hints of nuclear catastrophe thrown in. When we read a longer novel, these kinds of details can add a lot to the richness of the writer's world - in 180 pages it can give you indigestion if you read it too fast.

That overstuffed quality robs "Solar Lottery" of a good bit of its velocity. I mentioned A.E. van Vogt - his take on this kind of story never lost energy for a second. His stories picked up speed from the very first word and never stopped any longer than dreams do. PKD missed out on that, but where he tops van Vogt is in the strength of his underlying theme. "Solar Lottery," for all its speed bumps, eventually makes you stop and think about what it takes to maintain one's integrity in a corrupt world. Benteley spends a good deal of time complaining about the lack of decency all around him, and his carping can get old, but isn't that a particularly important thing to complain about? And isn't it satisfying to see the protagonist of any novel, even a cheap genre piece, stand up and shake a fist at the thieves and the traitors no matter how much pressure they put on him? Isn't that the kind of person you aim to be?

Oh yeah, people should have paid attention when "Solar Lottery" came out. After all, it's about a regular person with no special powers or gifts, thwarting a great evil through the strength of his convictions alone. After this, even Superman and his overpumped muscles looked a bit silly.

Benshlomo says, Sometimes it's enough to just tell the truth.

One of Phillip K. Dick's lesser read books, Solar Lottery is an interesing genre piece, but not much more than that. The book is full of alegorical/metaphorical content that works fairly well, but this short novel lacks the punch of his later work. For someone just discovering PDK, this book might serve as a good foundation, but compared to Valis this is small time. Still, better than most SF and certainly not a bad read. If you have a spare couple of days it is worth it to pick this book up. Especially engaging is Benteley's quest to find somewhere he can work that is not corrupt and his disappointment to find that neither the public nor private sectors can live up to his idealism.

A nice short little novel that you can read in 2 days time. Not perfect. I'm not a huge sci-fi buff, and there were parts of it that bugged me, mainly the way it seemed very 1950's (when it was written) even though it's set in the year 2203. For example, women still have a fairly subserviant role to men, everyone smokes (even on airplanes) and drinks scotch at work. Nice to know that in the future we'll be able to smoke and drink scotch in the office! None of the characters are ever fully fleshed out (though Dick seems obsessed with describing all the female character's breasts) and their behavior is sometimes unnatural and unexpected, but overall an entertaining book with a nice little twist at the end.