Phillip K Dick

[JitterbugPerfume]

I just bought:

The Eye of the Sybil

The Minority Report

Time out of Joint

and

Ubik

Where do I start?

He was recommended to me years ago by our beloved Kheph , but the only one I have read is A Scanner Darkly

I loved it -----what a WILD ride!!

[Duer 157099]

1. I've started with Valis

Haven't read any of those others, but have seen the films based on them (loved the films).

So far I really like his writing!

[endarkenment]

2. Ubik was good.

Actually all of his stuff is good as far as I remember. Ubik stands out as an old college friend had a dorm cat she named ubik in Ubik's honor and ubik came home with me a couple of times over breaks.

[phaseolus]

3. Anywhere...? Just read 'em all

My own personal favorite - The Transmigration of Timothy Archer - never seems to get any love for some reason.

[eppur_se_muova]

4. When all else fails, read in chronological order.

Sometimes you can "watch" an author develop that way.

[Old and In the Way]

5. I liked Time Out of Joint....

Probably 30 years since I read it, but his ideas never get out-of-date.

[JitterbugPerfume]

6. thanks ---to all of you!

I can hardly wait to dig in!

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

7. I loved The Man in the High Castle, personally. (nt)

[Phredicles]

8. I love alternate history stories, and that's certainly THE classic of the genre.

Deservedly so; the world he creates is vivid and plausible.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

9. He's simply fantastic at creating alternate realities.

Truly a genius. I love all of his work, really.

[hedgehog]

10. What amazes me about Philip K. Dick as with so many other

"Golden Age" science fiction writers is that he missed the biggest social change of all; the change in the status of women.

[Orrex]

12. That's true, but...

I'd wager that PKD has more female characters named "Pat" than any other author, so that must count for something.

He was married five times, so I'd say that his understanding of women may have been limited. Additionally, his only first-person female character in a novel (Angel in The Transmigration of Timothy Archer) is IMO largely unconvincing, even though he expressed his pride at the realism he brought to her character.

Many of the Golden Age S/F authors were of the "hard" science fiction variety, meaning that they used the "hard" sciences as springboards for their plots. Fewer authors from that era used the "soft" sciences (PKD among them), so it's possible that the change just didn't occur to them. More's the pity, really.

[hedgehog]

13. Azimoc and Clarke, among others, are so often praised for their foresight

that it is worthwhile noting that they had their blind spots.

[Orrex]

14. Absolutely--and I'm particularly glad that you mentioned those two!

I've read a ton of Clarke, and much of his writing suffers from a disastrous lack of effective. characterization, as though he'd gotten so hung up on the particulars of orbital trajectories that he'd totally forgotten how real people really interact. Women are given the short end of the deal, to be sure, but it's really an extension of his poor characterizations.

Regarding Asimov, I've only read the Foundation trilogy and a few dozen short stories, and I agree that he likewise dropped the ball re: the the changing status of women. He likewise suffers from shallow characterization, and IMO he's one of the main reasons that S/F is often dismissed as being "all plot-driven."

[pitohui]

18. since his stories were really set in 50s and 60s there wasn't so much change in status to mention

dick started as a conventional novelist who then switched to the cloak of science fiction in order to sell his work

if you look at his work as a comment on life in suburbia in the 50s and 60s then you will get a lot further than if you think it's really about life on mars

true "futurists" such as asimov, clarke etc. may have more to answer for since they were trying to look at futures, keep in mind with dick that much of his work was based on the life he really lived and drug experiences/visions he really had (and mentally healthy women had really no part of that life)

[artemisia1]

20. Heinlein did...

Robert Heinlein, despite other, forgivable, flaws, DID - both to women's rights and civil rights for African-Americans.

[JitterbugPerfume]

11. I am in the middle of Ubik

and it is crazy , wild and outrageous!

I love it.

[Crocodile Hunter]

15. I like Valis

Very interesting - it was semi-autobiographical, wasn't it?

[pitohui]

19. yes, valis was semi-autobiographic, almost all of his work was actually EOM

,

[Fire Walk With Me]

16. I've read five or six of his books, and all were great.

Dive in, as the others have said!

[pitohui]

17. of those four by far the best is ubik

the other three you picked up are in my opinion are only for completists, dick can be very visual and some of his ideas that make fine movies like minority report are not so hot as stories

other than ubik and a scanner darkly, the good stuff would include:
man in the high castle
the three stigmata of palmer eldritch
valis
radio free albemuth (covers some of the same material as valis, maybe more accessible,
and fun for political junkies who followed the nixon years also)
the martian time-slip

all of his stories are collected, many of these are great stories of the cold war era that really capture a mood, such as the christmas story "foster, you're dead"

i'll think of others later, he was quite prolific