Dick, Philip

• The Man in the High Castle (7)

  • This is an alternate history novel, a fictional account of the post-WWII United States after its defeat by Germany and Japan. Unlike Turtledove's novels that describe events from the top-down in his WWII alternate history, Dick makes only passing reference to larger events and instead concentrates on the minor concerns of a few characters who are mostly not important in the larger scheme of things. The real point of this novel, I think, is not so much in the plot (which, to be honest, doesn't have an awful lot going for it) but rather the setting.

    Reading this book is like watching an existentialist play in which what the characters are saying and doing isn't so significant as all the changes in the scenery that happen around them and (occasionally) how they react to that. Anyway, it is certainly different than your typical hackwork fiction/fantasy, but it wasn't just *great*. A solid 7. I look forward to reading some of Dick's other works to see what happens when he manages to put a compelling plot and a compelling setting in the same novel.

• Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said (7)

  • A speculative fiction novel set in the near future. This one revolves around a popular TV show host (Jason Taverner) who essentially loses all proof of his identity (including everyone's memory of him), which is very dangerous in this militantly fascist, id-checkpoint-at-every-corner vision of America. In an effort to get help, Taverner recruits members of the id black market and eventually even higher-ups among the police who take an interest in his case.

    As with most Dick novels, I gather, the plot and characters are mainly vehicles to explore an interesting worldview, rather than the worldview being window-dressing to a conventional plot, as in most speculative fiction. This can work wonders when the worldview is compelling (like, say, Simmons' Hyperion novels, Asimov's robot novels or Halperin's novels about the impact of cryogenics or a truth machine on society). I wasn't really swept away (I'm a victim of having my expectations built up too much, I think).

    I shouldn't really dismiss the characters as mere vehicles, though. They do change, react and evolve in the book, and I got to know Taverner well enough that I appreciated this and was interested in what happened to him. The other major characters (such as police general Buckman) weren't fleshed out enough for me to be shocked, surprised or otherwise really affected by their choices and behavior. I can understand why this book is groundbreaking and a classic for its time, but it doesn't hold up over time with the kind of greatness I expected based on recommendations (as opposed to Tolkien's timeless stuff, which is probably an unfair comparison for almost any author).

First, I have several P. K. Dick books on my "to buy" list, but he's kinda hard to find in used bookstores (my first angle of approach). I wasn't really aware of Dick's works until well after I started this reviews page, if you can believe that (that's part of WHY I started this page, so I could be made aware of great authors I've missed), but I do look for his stuff fairly diligently, and I will begin to review more of his books sometime in the near future, depending upon when fortune smiles upon me and lets me find several of the books that have been recommended to me.

I promise. Meanwhile, if you want to know more about some of Dick's greatest books, just browse the mailbag to find several recommendations.

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