Philip K. Dick

[Winslow]

Thats because he is in the school of social science fiction. Authors like him Ballard,Le Guin,Vance etc they dont care for techo elements.

Although he is important precurser for cyberpunk school because he,Bester used videophones,android taxi cars,virtual worlds the like those authors like.

I would be annoyed with lack of techno imagination if his stories wasnt mostly human relation,human condition dramas in SF form. Thats the general fiction world,critics try to take SF authors like him for their own. He didnt write what they sees as SF aka pulp space opera. Lame critics....

Same thing with my other idol SF Jack Vance. He is worse he writes space opera with calling the space ships "space boats". He doesnt mention at all how their technology works. They are just tools to go to new planet,scene.

That's an excellent and helpful response. Thanks.

[Alton]

Thats because he is in the school of social science fiction. Authors like him Ballard,Le Guin,Vance etc they dont care for techo elements.

Although he is important precurser for cyberpunk school because he,Bester used videophones,android taxi cars,virtual worlds the like those authors like.

I would be annoyed with lack of techno imagination if his stories wasnt mostly human relation,human condition dramas in SF form. Thats the general fiction world,critics try to take SF authors like him for their own. He didnt write what they sees as SF aka pulp space opera. Lame critics....

Same thing with my other idol SF Jack Vance. He is worse he writes space opera with calling the space ships "space boats". He doesnt mention at all how their technology works. They are just tools to go to new planet,scene.

Very good breakdown of PKD and other writers who were contemporaries, especially Ballard, one of my favorites.I wonder if Vances Lyoness and subsequent novels in that group will ever get The Game Of Thrones treatment.I have got to get back to that book. I don't remember finishing it for some reason.I believe that one was High Fantasy not SF. Do you see a similar structure in the extended familys that Vances protagonists come from that are also a theme in Dune and Orson Scott Card's Homecoming Group starting with The Memory Of Earth?

[Alton]

Wiki states the fiml was based on a novel of the same name by William Gibson.

Dick died in 1982, before the internet was in use by most of the public.

One of the things that was distracting about Dick was his lack of technical imagination. A lot of the future technology was in terms of his current understanding. For example, reel to reel tapes and vinyl albums often appear in his work.

OOPS, wrong writer, I have even read some Gibson and didn't know there was a story by him by that name.

[Alton]

Glad I included the spoiler tags.

The Man in the High Castle was recommended as a starting point for P.K. Dick reading in the Comm thread RITA's, but it wasn't in the closest local library. It is in my library systems so I'll check it out soon.

One of the limitations of my posting and writing ability to critique without sounding like I didn't enjoy it. I did enjoy it. I guess I went in with high expectations and they weren't met.

Some of the other novels I read were excellent, and I'll write about them sometime this weekend.

That's OK to be critical about aspects of PKD's work.One of the things to remember is that many of these novels were pounded out very quickly one after another for 3 cents a word or less or for miniscule, and I mean miniscule, advances that were paid by SF mags and paperback houses back then.Writers of that era were virtual indentured servants trying to make a living and some of them barely survived into the SF explosion of the late 60's. Under those conditions not everything was going to be top drawer although many of them were trying and did do their best work, ironically. It must have been the pressure.That was the way business was done at the time similar to the comics scene.I think some of the drifting plotlines may have been an aspect of the nature of Martian Time Slips theme of scattered realities. The one PKD book I was never too crazy about was UBIK.To me it was PKD later in his career in recycling mode.

[Libaax]

Glad I included the spoiler tags.

The Man in the High Castle was recommended as a starting point for P.K. Dick reading in the Comm thread RITA's, but it wasn't in the closest local library. It is in my library systems so I'll check it out soon.

One of the limitations of my posting and writing ability to critique without sounding like I didn't enjoy it. I did enjoy it. I guess I went in with high expectations and they weren't met.

Some of the other novels I read were excellent, and I'll write about them sometime this weekend.

You did right Winslow going in with high expectations because PKD is important writer who has written many quality books and some not as great.

I always expect alot from him and i can enjoy the low level,mid level books of his but they make respect me more books like The Man in the High Castle, The Three Stigmata of Dr.Palmer Elderitch, Now Wait for Last Year, Flow My Tears The Policeman said, Dr.Bloodmoney.

Those are the best i have read so far. I have read 10 books of him and have many left. He was so prolific that it doesnt matter if half of the other books are not that great. Im actually surprised he could write so often,so many books and still have them be acclaimed,rated.

Can i ask which are the other 4 PKD books you have read? The Man in the High Castle is the perfect book to read of him to read first that comm thread was right. It is not his usual style,calmer than his other but his writing is in top form.

[Winslow]

Can i ask which are the other 4 PKD books you have read?

Looks like we have some overlap. I read the following four:

Dr. Bloodmoney or How we got along after the bomb, Now wait for last year, Flow my tears, the policeman said and Scanner darkly

If I had to rate my enjoyment of the novels, it would be:

1. Flow my Tears the Policeman Said
2. Now Wait for Last Year
3. Dr. Bloodmoney
4. Scanner Darkly

Scanner was an excellent novel, just depressing. Of course, it was supposed to be depressing.