From the Bookshelf of Philip K Dick…

The Simulacra

Philip K. Dick

Start date: September 1, 2012

Finish date: September 25, 2012

Discussion: Group Reads

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What Members Thought

Sep 02, 2012 Gabriel rated it it was ok

[Read for the PKD groupread]

I like Philip K. Dick's works. I have always enjoyed the short stories more than his longer works. The longer the piece, the more likely things were going to fizzle and either he'd put an anti-climatic/nonsensical end (which, from what I feel, is where I stand with The Man In The High Castle) or the ideas he had would just be too big for the work.

Of course, for someone with the output that Dick had, it's expected that he would have a great deal of muck to shift throug [Read for the PKD groupread]

I like Philip K. Dick's works. I have always enjoyed the short stories more than his longer works. The longer the piece, the more likely things were going to fizzle and either he'd put an anti-climatic/nonsensical end (which, from what I feel, is where I stand with The Man In The High Castle) or the ideas he had would just be too big for the work.

Of course, for someone with the output that Dick had, it's expected that he would have a great deal of muck to shift through. This is one of those books. But it didn't need to be.

We have a world created with many interesting aspects. Simulacra are robotic replacements of people and creatures used to make life less lonely when immigrating. The Earth seems to be under a giant dictatorship/presidential rule and to escape we have the dreams of Mars (a point of dreaming for Dick in so many of his works and the movies that were inspired by his work). To visit the first lady, people hone their skills at performance. Apartment buildings are ruled with an iron fist (think of HOA structures ... it really isn't that much of a stretch, especially after reading Some of My Best Friends Are Black and hearing about Suburban society when it first started) and kept from integrating with other apartment buildings. Ads can take the form of small robots that sneak their way into your car and buzz around you like a fly. Emotions can be manipulated with creatures. Sounds can be recorded by creatures. There are telekinetic piano players.

And on top of this lays Paranoia. It is so thick, one can barely read through a chapter without feeling just a tad unsure of anything themselves.

So this all sets up a cool setting where a basic plot - many characters search for famed pianist Richard Kongrosian for personal reasons - can take place. The unfortunate thing is that the different characters, though searching for the same thing and involved in other arcs of the plots, rarely intersect with each other. Keeping everyone separated, Dick then throws the reader with little scenes that shift so fast that (only at times) we get brain-whiplash. Some characters disappear for 50 pages at a time (and the book isn't that big to begin with) and their subplots and the aspects of the world they deal with get lost in the shuffle.

This is Dick at his most infuriating. The world created is awesome. The ideas are interesting. But nothing gets developed or brought together. Promises are made of intertwining plots and they are never brought to fruition. So sad. ...more

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May 22, 2009 Simon rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sf, sf-masterworks

When you start reading this book, it can be quite confusing as there are numerous POV's and a huge cast of characters to get your head around. There is no main protagonist, merely a group of disperate characters who's stories loosly intertwine around each other to tell the complete story.

Set in a future that is moderately distopian, weakly authoritarian and mildly post-apocalyptic. A mind boggling array of themes are explored from the psycological (paranoia, hypochondria, mind-control) through s ...more

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Jun 24, 2008 Themistocles rated it liked it

Shelves: scifi, p-k-dick

Though published a couple of years *after* the Man in the High Castle, this one reads like a book from Dick's write-to-eat era. Not that it's not enjoyable, mind you, but it seems rather simple and hurried. ...more

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