5 ms·

I've read 45 of all 49 PKD novels on the Wikipedia page. It was a goal I set about 7 years ago. I tried to read the books in order, but had trouble finding some

by sbf501 4y ago

I've read 45 of all 49 PKD novels on the Wikipedia page. It was a goal I set about 7 years ago. I tried to read the books in order, but had trouble finding some. His style goes from Twilight Zone / Amazing Stories, do thought-provoking alternate reality, to alternate people, to alternate "reality" which is different than what I said earlier. There is "alternate reality" where we are in a different timeline, or aliens, or different technology, and then there is reality that is just bent and distorted psychologically (VALIS, Palmer Eldritch, Martian Time Slip, ...). There's a big blob of boring books in the middle, in my opinion, like "We Can Build You", "The Crack in Space", and "Now Wait for Last Year". But what I've found most fascinating is watching his progression (descent) into darker and darker work. It was also a weird experience reading so much from one author, because after 5 books you start to see significant similarity and I wonder if that is why the middle part got so boring to me.

js2 4y ago
Any favorites you'd like to call out and why those were your favorite? Did you also read his short story collections?
- sbf501 4y ago
  See my reply to a similar peer Q.
Eisenstein 4y ago
Which are your favorites? Do you have one that you would consider to be the magnum opus? If I had to pick one of them I would pick Ubik.
- sbf501 4y ago
  The "standards" are my favorites. There were a few outliers that I didn't expect. I'm predisposed to like anything "time travel": "Martian Time Slip" and it's analysis of autism (sci-fi autism) was a subtle body horror; so Dr. Futurity (reminds me of interactive fiction time-travel puzzles), The World Jones Made (more precog trying to change the future and having "prescience" aka Dune), Time Out of Joint (kinda like The Truman Show or "Time Enough for Love" by Albert Finney), and Counter Clock World about time moving backwards and the religious cults it spawns (just plain nutty, not perfect, but a fun concept to toy with). He has a recurring theme in some books where the idea of the first Martian settlers from Earth being abandoned-working class drug-addicts is pops up several times, and I think that is one hell of a way to look at it compared to all the other stories about Mars. The idea that they are all failed farmers and sit around taking government-issued mind-altering drugs and playing board games where they become the characters to deal with suburban boredom is just bonkers (Three Stigmata of Palmer E., Martian Time Slip [poverty on mars] and a few others). "Ubik" is really top-tier though. There's a reason that the standards are called "standards". :)
NikolaNovak 4y ago
A few of us in the old country read about ~50 of Agatha Christie's 84 fiction books together in our mid-teens (there was reasons/context:). They were definitely "more of the same", but Agatha has the kind of stylistic English language that made the process itself enjoyable; it's like going on a bike ride, you don't have to see spectacular new sights to just enjoy the journey. My preference is SF though, but it's because it's the ideas that are the draw for me; if the ideas start repeating themselves, or even themes, it becomes a lot harder to read a lot faster.
- wrp 4y ago
  > ...it's the ideas that are the draw for me; if the ideas start repeating themselves...it becomes a lot harder to read a lot faster. I read for the ideas, too. It's typical for me to discover a wonderful book, search out everything from that author, only to observe the ideas becoming repetitive over a long output. Even Terry Pratchett felt very samey to me after a dozen books. High-output writing seems to be inevitably uniform in outlook. You can easily change the setting of your plot, but it's a lot harder to alter your philosophical view.
gmuslera 4y ago
There is a 5-volume anthology of his short stories by publication order. You can see how is themes evolved or changed with time, and it should be a good reading along his books (also, in publication or writing order) for that reason. Not all stories there are great, but I think he did better in the short stories arena. Most of the movies based on his work were based on short stories, after all.

by sbf501 4y ago

js2 4y ago

Any favorites you'd like to call out and why those were your favorite? Did you also read his short story collections?

sbf501 4y ago
See my reply to a similar peer Q.

Eisenstein 4y ago

Which are your favorites? Do you have one that you would consider to be the magnum opus? If I had to pick one of them I would pick Ubik.

sbf501 4y ago
The "standards" are my favorites. There were a few outliers that I didn't expect. I'm predisposed to like anything "time travel": "Martian Time Slip" and it's analysis of autism (sci-fi autism) was a subtle body horror; so Dr. Futurity (reminds me of interactive fiction time-travel puzzles), The World Jones Made (more precog trying to change the future and having "prescience" aka Dune), Time Out of Joint (kinda like The Truman Show or "Time Enough for Love" by Albert Finney), and Counter Clock World about time moving backwards and the religious cults it spawns (just plain nutty, not perfect, but a fun concept to toy with). He has a recurring theme in some books where the idea of the first Martian settlers from Earth being abandoned-working class drug-addicts is pops up several times, and I think that is one hell of a way to look at it compared to all the other stories about Mars. The idea that they are all failed farmers and sit around taking government-issued mind-altering drugs and playing board games where they become the characters to deal with suburban boredom is just bonkers (Three Stigmata of Palmer E., Martian Time Slip [poverty on mars] and a few others). "Ubik" is really top-tier though. There's a reason that the standards are called "standards". :)

NikolaNovak 4y ago

A few of us in the old country read about ~50 of Agatha Christie's 84 fiction books together in our mid-teens (there was reasons/context:). They were definitely "more of the same", but Agatha has the kind of stylistic English language that made the process itself enjoyable; it's like going on a bike ride, you don't have to see spectacular new sights to just enjoy the journey. My preference is SF though, but it's because it's the ideas that are the draw for me; if the ideas start repeating themselves, or even themes, it becomes a lot harder to read a lot faster.

wrp 4y ago
> ...it's the ideas that are the draw for me; if the ideas start repeating themselves...it becomes a lot harder to read a lot faster. I read for the ideas, too. It's typical for me to discover a wonderful book, search out everything from that author, only to observe the ideas becoming repetitive over a long output. Even Terry Pratchett felt very samey to me after a dozen books. High-output writing seems to be inevitably uniform in outlook. You can easily change the setting of your plot, but it's a lot harder to alter your philosophical view.

gmuslera 4y ago

There is a 5-volume anthology of his short stories by publication order. You can see how is themes evolved or changed with time, and it should be a good reading along his books (also, in publication or writing order) for that reason. Not all stories there are great, but I think he did better in the short stories arena. Most of the movies based on his work were based on short stories, after all.