Some of the stories in this collection are every bit as good as the ones in the other books. Tales such as "The Pre-Persons," "Your Appointment Will Be Yesterday" and "The Electric Ant" are among his better stories. There are also stories that would eventually become novels like Counter-Clock World, Dr. Bloodmoney and The Divine Invasion. Then there are the previously unpublished works...which are strictly for PKD completists; there is good reason these were not published.

His later short stories, like his later novels (Valis, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer) are often permeated with the theological and hallucinogenic qualities that also dominated Dick's life. These later stories are dominated more by ideas than by good writing; compare the title story to the similarly themed Waterspider in Volume 4 and you'll see the earlier story is far better.

Overall this book rates a weak four stars, although the whole set rates a full five stars. Even if a bit disappointing compared with the previous books, this still has enough quality to be well worth reading.

If subverting reader expectations were a goal in itself, this would surely be a very successful novel. This reviewer felt almost as though Dick was playing a joke on his readers by setting them up to expect first one standard science fiction twist (mind control), and then another (alien invaders), but never delivering on any of them, and instead leaving us (in the end) with a fairly common tale of marital infidelity and emotional loss. More likely this book is just an example of a genre writer trying to stretch out and try something different, even (dare we say it?) something serious. Dick may be trying to define a generational sea change that was taking place in America, with young people growing up oblivious to the hang-ups (and value structures) that controlled the lives of their elders. But while this novel has a few interesting features, some of which lie within the province of science fiction (i.e., the remote control car, and the bubble), they aren't nearly enough to carry the book as a whole. In fact they might actually put off those (few) readers who would otherwise be likely to appreciate this book as a novel of mid-20th Century manners, or whatever. In any case, whether it's because it tries to be too many things at once, or because the disparate elements never really gel, this book fails to do more than occasionally entertain, and much of it's pretty depressing at that.

All right, so the plot is hollow, the characters brittle, and the writing style pedestrian. But the essence of things to come in PKD's career is here. WJM is vastly superior to earlier works like Solar Lottery and The Cosmic Puppets. It is still in print, even after 40+ years.

WJM doesn't really deserve 4 stars, maybe 3.5. I like it partially because most people hate it, and I think it deserves more credit than it is afforded.

"The World Jones Made" is one of those disturbing looks at the future that makes you sit up and take note. Despite the fact that it was first published in 1956, there is very little to suggest that Dick was writing with any less view of the future than any of today's most gifted writers. It's no wonder that this man has been considered one of our century's great authors, considering the impact his work has had on the field of speculative fiction. In this novel, we see a dark world that is just as possible in our future as it was in the fifties. Imagine a repressive society that derives its laws from "Relativism," the idea that no one belief is more valid than another. Along comes a man with absolute knowledge of the future, for a space of one year from the current moment, who sets out to "free" humanity and give them purpose. This story will make you consider the price of knowledge and its misuse, however well-intentioned. It will also make you contemplate fate vs. self-determination and their implications. Just one warning: don't take anything for granted, because Dick will show you that you're wrong as soon as you try it.

Dick is definitely one of the all-time great SF writers (and he's arguably one of the few geniuses to have worked in the field). Approx 6-10 of his books are classics; however, Dick also wrote a lot of just plain awful books (esp. in the 1950s); and due to his growing popularity, some of these books are actually being brought back into print (e.g., the Man Who Japed, World Jones Made). Luckily Counter-Clock world (1966) isn't one of them; however, this is one of Dick's lesser works. It's a short, mildy amusing read, but the ideas in it are frankly underdeveloped and unconvincing. Race relations also are thankfully much better than depicted in this rather quaint and obsolete "clunker" of a book. Save your money and get this from the library; or better yet, read something better (and similar) like Ubik.

The concept itself is interesting. A world when times move backwards. When the deads are 'revived' from the grave, being sold as a property to anyone who would bid the highest.
And when the one who's coming back to life is a religious figure, interesting things can happen.

There are two kinds of sci-fi books: one that is written by a scientist and one written by a non-scientist. This book is the latter. Sci-fi Books written by scientist contains the actual correct science or science of what would be possible in the future. While non-scientist writers tends to use science as basis and props for futuristic situation, emphasizing more on (perhaps) psychological and philosophical issues.

This book puts forward some interesting religion and philosophical issues such as how a person who live in the period where times move backwards reacts to the mind that move forwards. However, a reader with a scientific background might be put off by the some of the logic and science in this book, that are rather inconsistent and incorrect at times.

Take the example of this: [A person in a coffin in a grave just woke up]
" 'Get air down to me!' he tried to yell, but since there is no longer air he could not breathe; he was suffocating. `Hurry!' he called, but his call became soundless in the absence of air; he lay compressed, crushed, by an enormous vacuum; the pressure grew until, silently, his ribs broke. He felt that, too, his bones one by one snapping."

Overall it's an enjoyable book if you somehow can disregard the incorrectness of the science behind it.

(Rated at 5 because he's my favorite author and way better than any other sc-fi out there)...

Later in the 21st century, the world population can decide to be cryogenized in order to quit for a while a society dealing with an endemic unemployment. Those who choose this solution are stocked in piles waiting for a better day. In the meantime, Jim Briskin, the black candidate to the U.S. presidential election, needs desperately new political ideas to gather votes. Incidentally, a little hole that has appeared in a translator seems to lead into a new world and could be the long-awaited solution to the cryogenized people problem.

Well, one recognizes in CRACK IN SPACE some of Dick's themes as the emergence of an unknown world that defies the intelligence of politicians and scientists. But don't forget that a "new world" in Philip K. Dick's terminology is not a world that suddenly appears light years away from the Earth, it's rather a world that is close to us, so close in fact that this world often exists in the mind of the characters only.

In short, if you want to make an agreeable trip through Philip K. Dick's main obsessions, you may enjoy CRACK IN SPACE but if you still don't know this writer , try UBIK or BLADE RUNNER first.

A book for Dick's fans only.

Obviously written by a fan of PKD's work and personality, Bishop writes a book that is funny and imaginative, while mimicking, in a form of tribute, the style of PKD.

While the actual delivery of the story lacks the power of PKD's writing, there are many funny moments and tidbits of PKD for fans to enjoy. Bishop employs the multiple narrative technique and the breakdown of commonplace reality that fans of PKD expected with each novel.

The ending is quite satisfying, with a respectful nod to PKD's contribution to our "koinos cosmos." A must-read for any true PKD fan.

Philip Dick and his novels are subjects of discussion among the characters. PKD himself appears in the story ("Horsy Stout"), as he does in his own novels RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH and VALIS; although here he's more in the background.

Most of the novel retains the eerie, bleak, surreal edge that you can find in many PKD novels. I didn't like the ending quite as much as the first 90% of the story; but I can say that many of the PKD novels tend to disintegrate toward the end as well (e.g., DO ANDROIDS DREAM and PALMER ELDRITCH). But the ending to this one is harder to take seriously. And the whole thing's a bit too long (340 pages), considering that most of the PKD novels run to about 200 pages and never exceed 300 (not his science fiction).

On the whole, it's an entertaining psuedo-Dick novel. I haven't read anything else by Michael Bishop, but he certainly has done competent work with this story, I think.

This sounds unkind, but perhaps this was a charity act like the oft-chronicled donation of ideas by Robert Heinlein.

I won't reiterate the plot except to note that in this post-holocaust world of mutants and cyborgs, the man who gave the bomb order, instead of being vilified, is deified. It is he who is the Deus Irae.

There's a fair amount of theological banter that was probably the fruit of the authors' conversations, such as this passage where the Deus Irae himself (in disguise) is talking. "I see. Aquinas cleaned up the Greeks for you, so Plato is okay. Hell, you even baptized Aristotle's bones, for that matter, once you found a use for his thoughts. Take away the Greek logicians and the Jewish mystics and you wouldn't have much left."

I'm sure that the gut-wrenching, stomach-turning parts were Dick's brainchild, while the lyrical human-interaction passages were written by Zelazny. But somehow it all bakes into a cake, is witty and entertaining, and even has a happy ending - sort of.

You may like it; you may hate it, but it's NOT a pot boiler and it IS well written.

pamhan99@aol.com

This ia another post-apocolyptic distopia with a few 'straight' (unmutated) humans left among various mutational forms ('bugs', 'runners', 'rollers' etc.). Dick's penchant for radioactively evolved animals (intelligent worms and dung-beetles who talk in American Slang) is in full force, as well as his signature distrust/fascination with large institutions and mechanisms. There are three scenes with old broken-down automated factories that are chilling and (in the latter cases) hysterically funny!

The hero is a 'phoce', a man with no arms or legs (phoce means something like 'dophin-like') who is (by way of military surplus extensors) a religious painter who is sent on a pilgramage of sorts to find the 'deus irae' (angry god), which is seen by his church to be the man who 'pushed the button' and started WW3. An agent from the almost defunct Christian Church is sent to foil the nearly helpless phoce, because the church fears that if the angry god church captures the deus iraes visage, their ascendancy over Christiantity will be complete. It's an insane and funny/sad prospect all around. Like so many Dick books, it contains a plot that is completely unbelievable, even absurd in extremis and yet still has a strangely truthful resonance.

This book is an easy and enjoyable read. I don't put it in the same league as the best Dick classics like Man in the High Castle, Ubik, Dr. Bloodmoney, but it's a CLOSE 2nd. And like those books, the same themes, pathos and humor, paranoia and blazingly creative intellect are all there. And like those, the same 'magic realism' of Borges, Marquez etc. is also in evidence.

The story has a great premise. WW III has come, and the populace is driven underground to work as slave labour for the war effort. But after fifteen years the folks underground are being pushed to the limit and the truth comes out about what is happening on the surface ... and it isn't what they thought (of course). PKD does a fine job with the overall plotting and his observations of human greed for power and how the media can distort reality are brilliant. But sadly, PKD clutters up the story with too much techno verbage and confusing banter between the characters.

Bottom line: intriguing, diverting, but often times confusing. For PKD fans only.

So THE PENULTIMATE TRUTH is more a political book than a science-fiction novel although one can find some good sci-fi ideas in it like for instance the ever changing aspect of Lantano resulting from a default of his time machine. But this idea and a few others are not deeply developed in THE PENULTIMATE TRUTH by Philip K. Dick. One feels that he was more concerned by the accurate paintings of his political archetypes. There are nonetheless superb moments in this book, in particular the last pages which denounce the manipulations people like you and me must, alas, expect from our authorities.

In short, THE PENULTIMATE TRUTH is not an essential book for the common reader but will certainly please Philip K. Dick fans.

I liked it.

In the afterward you learn that PKD has an inconsistency in this book, which is why it is confusing at times. First he's trying to say one thing, then a hundred pages later he changes his mind and is trying to say something else. This book is not really a page turner, and only hardcore PKD fans should read it.

In THE ZAP GUN, the main theme is political and has already been treated the year before in THE PENULTIMATE TRUTH : humanity is clearly separated in two fractions, people who know the Truth and people who don't know it. If you happen to know it, you will be extracted from the common masses and belong to the ruling class. Another themes treated are a treacherous alien invasion, Empathy that will maybe save the world and cause the alien to depart, tragic romances and pharmaceutics. In fact, nothing very new for the PKD faithful fan. But remember ! an under-average book from Philip K. Dick is still better than the majority of today SF production and always offers 4 or 5 hours of sheer intellectual pleasure.

A book for ultra-hard PKD fans. Like me.

That's why I read The Zap Gun -- to complete my assignment. Otherwise, it's not really worth the read. While there are some good moments and some interested MacGuffins, the story itself is weak. The characters are far more two-dimensional than usual. The ending is so predictable as to be tiresome.

I enjoyed seeing some allusions to previous works -- there are several wub-references, for example. This is certainly not essential Dick. I'm glad it's in print, but I wouldn't recommend it to the casual reader.

I have read near all of his novels, and the extended version of this book (not the short 1965 edition) is one of the best novels he ever wrote.