"his writing style and characters are pretty plain and not that compelling on their own" Dick is a champion of the underdog everyman. His protagonists tend to

"his writing style and characters are pretty plain and not that compelling on their own" Dick is a champion of the underdog everyman. His protagonists tend to be humble repairmen and other "losers" in the lower stratum of society... I find those characters very human and relatable. The other type of Dick protagonists are those who think they're on top of the world, until their world turns upside-down and so they get to experience being dragged through the mud.... usually finding out that what they thought was a perfect world was broken, hostile, and sometimes even evil. His writing style is direct and economical. I really don't have a problem with it.