Philip K Dick suggestions

[AshRa]

I've just started reading Philip K Dick this year - began with Valis trilogy and have just finished "Five Great Novels" collection - Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch / Martian Time-Slip / Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep / Ubik / A Scanner Darkly. There's about 100 more to get through (can't wait!) - anybody got any favourites that I can look for next?

Thanks!
Ash

[carlos]

"the man in the high castle" is my favorite

maybe i should describe it a bit: it's one of his early books- a very carefully written alternate history (germany/japan won ww2) that i find very haunting. the book is a bit different for dick (not as breathless, if that makes any sense) but just as memorable.

[xero]

second that - 'man in the high castle' is awesome. First one I read - 'time out of joint' still strikes me as one of the best

[luka]

you've read all the best ones already! i didn't like man in the high castle. i lie valis and ubik best. time out of joints alright.

[AshRa]

I forgot to mention that I read Man In The High Castle too! I've also been reading an anthology with the beginning of a sequel too High Castle and a load of Exegesis entries. I hope i've not really got through all the best ones - I might have to re-read them!

[xero]

you've read all the best ones already! i didn't like man in the high castle. i lie valis and ubik best. time out of joints alright.

valis & ubik are pretty intense (the result of dick's full on 'mental illness'?) but I still like the more straightforward (relatively speaking only) sci fi stuff he wrote earlier on - they're packed full of ideas that are still being recycled by people these days

[blissblogger]

i think the Man in the High Castle is by far the best
although it's the least speedfreak Gnostic and the one with the most conventional literary qualities -- unlike many of the others reads like it wasn't written in a weekend

[francesco]

... uhm, since you have read Man in High Castle/Ubik/A Scanner Darkly/Valis and the others you mentioned you really have just read the essential of P.K.Dick. A good other choice could be "Confession of a Crap artist", the best of his non SF book; "Do android dreams of electric sheep" or "Counter Clock World" are nice, if not as good as his best work, or you could try "Eye in the Sky" as one of his first work or give a chanche to the very bizzarre "the unteleported man/lies inc.". Or better try for some of his short stories, they are collected in 3 or 4 volumes, there are some pearl in there, like my eternal favorite: "the electric ant".
A very interesting book to read is Lawrence Sutin biography of PK Dick; Sutin is not a great writer, but the life of Dick is (expeciailly after the 60's) awesome if a much bit depressing. You will discover that A Scanner Darkly and Valis are actually a some sort of autobiography!!!

francesco

[carlos]

A very interesting book to read is Lawrence Sutin biography of PK Dick

yes i concur- this book (titled "divine invasions") is a really interesting read

and other titles i remember enjoying:

"dr bloodmoney"
"flow my tears, the policeman said"
"the divine invasion"

[LRJP!]

I’ve got a soft spot for We Can Build You and Galactic Pot Healer (though according to Divine Invasions the man himself didn’t rate GPH).

I saw that Five Great Novels collection in a bookshop a while ago and was kind of put off; I’ve kind of liked sifting through them for the moments of greatness for years – one really weird one, one really good one, one fairly dull one with a great premise… I think they should’ve done Five Novels of Intermittent Quality; much more Dickian

[MBM]

And some of the short story collections are worth a flick thru. V. high pulp content mostly but some genuinely nasty stuff in there (e.g. The Father-Thing)

[jd_]

I second "Confessions Of A Crap Artist". That was the first one of his I ever read and it's awesome. Still probably my favorite. The girl in it's brutal, I don't think she's named Pris, but she's definitely from the same harsh mold. Is "Now Wait For Next Year" the one where a guy tries to track down his wife who's addicted to a time travel drug? I'm not sure of the name but that was a good one too.

[luka]

i just read the three stigmata of palmer eldritch and the penultimate truth. both of them are good, i enjoyed the latter more, it didn't hurt my brain so much.

[cortempond]

I'm a massive PKD fan, have collected most of his books. Can't wait to see what Linklater does with Scanner Darkly - it's a tough book to bring to film, but hell, they were able to make Blade Runner out of Androids.

The masterpieces of course are Ubik, Scanner Darkly, Three Stigmata and Man In The High Castle. As an earlier poster noted, Counter Clock World is great.

All made when he was wacked out on massive amounts of speed.

I would recommend Flow My Tears The Policeman Said, Now Wait For Last Year, Game Players of Titan and Dr. Bloodmoney as other great books of his to read.

Not a fan of Valis or Divine Invasions - to much metaphysics.

Don't forget about his short stories. Minority Report, Total Recall, Screamers were made based on his short stories.

[owen]

'flow my tears the policeman said' seconded, despite its dreadful title