A Maze of Death by Philip K. Dick

I just finished this book. Liked it a lot, so much it is now my favourite PKD (I've read Ubik, Do androis, and the 3 Stigmata). I might change my mind later, who knows, but the impact it's had on me won't change. It's a story of colonisation. It got me hooked on the third page when it introduced religious themes, particularly a character reading this from a religious book: "God is not supernatural. His existence was the first and most natural mode of being to form itself." The story is not about religion, but religion is part of some sort of guiding principle the characters follow or believe in. That, and the final twist, which transforms the story in a different kind of story and leaves you having existential thoughts.

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick.

An interesting and weird read. The synopsis reads: “In the overcrowded world and cramped space colonies of the late 21st century, tedium can be endured through the use of the drug Can-D, which enables the user to inhabit a shared illusory world. When industrialist Palmer Eldritch returns from an interstellar trip, he brings with him a new drug, Chew-Z, which is far more potent than Can-D, but threatens to plunge the world into a permanent state of drugged illusion controlled by the mysterious Eldritch.” Palmer Eldritch is the centre of attention of the story but in fact he is not the protagonist. He is a mystery because of his motivations and his nature. The book follows the life and tribulations of Barney Mayerson, a pre-fash consultant or a precog (someone who can see the future) and his boss Leo Bulero. Bulero owns a company which distributes virtual landscapes and in the background distributes Can-D. When Eldritch arrives with Chew-Z they try to eliminate the competition. 

 The book is divided in 2 parts. The first part introduces Mayerson, Bulero and Roni Fugate (Mayerson’s assistant), the legal product they sell and the Can-D problematic around the space colonies. This part reads like a normal novel. The second part starts when one of the characters consumes Chew-Z. Then life turns into a mixture of delusions and reality. From then on the reader doesn’t know what is happening under the influence of the drug and what not. What takes place under a simulation and what is real. It is under these circumstances that Eldritch comes to the surface. We don’t know if he is human, an alien or a god. Towards the end, the topics of religion and gods gain prominence with some characters questioning their existence in a world where there is no hope without a drug.

I first learned about this novel when I read How We Became Posthuman… by Katherine Hayles. Hayles writes about Dick’s novel (p178) in connection with the concept of the Schizoid Android (an unfeeling female) a kind of prototype for a posthuman and compares Roni Fugate to Rachel the android in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The schizoid android appears in several of Dick's books as a woman with black hair. Apparently Dick based his schizoid creations on his emotionally cold, detached mother.

The Minority Report by Philip K Dick (4🌟)

A short story by the Master if Science Fiction. Included in an anthology Brave New Worlds edited by John Joseph Adams.

A world were crimes can be e predicted and punished before they are committed. Excellent read. My favourite so far in this anthology.

Ubik - Philip K. Dick (4.2 🌟)

Esta es una novela de ciencia ficción/terror/fumada loca que me dejó pensando por días. De entrada les digo que me gustó mucho, tanto como ¿Sueñan los androides con ovejas eléctricas? Ambas tratan muchos temas filosóficos. En este caso destaco, la naturaleza de la vida, realidad subjetiva vs realidad objetiva, qué es y dónde está dios.

Tenemos un mundo en donde hay psíquicos tratando de tomar provecho de sus habilidades, por ejemplo, telepatas leyendo la mente de la gente sin su consentimiento. También tenemos una fuerza opositora de anti-psíquicos que usan sus poderes mentales para cancelar los de los psíquicos. Existen compañías, "prudence organizations", que tienen anti-psíquicos en su staff y que ofrecen sus servicios a organizaciones o gente con poder y dinero. En este mundo también la gente muere por etapas. Es decir, al morir uno puede ser conectado a una máquina que lo hace permanecer en una estado de "half life". Parientes y gente querida puede visitar y conversar con alguien en half life por un tiempo dado hasta que esa media vida se extingue.

La historia comienza cuando Joe Chip, un técnico de una prudence organization, encuentra a una chica, Pat Conley, con poderes extraordinarios, alguien que puede alterar el pasado. Joe se la presenta a su jefe, Glen Runciter, quien acaba de recibir un contrato para anular el trabajo de psíquicos en la luna. Runciter, está teniendo problemas financieros en su compañía y necesita contratos grandes. Es más, sólo unos días antes había visitado a su esposa, en half life, para consultarle sobre estrategias de negocios. Con estos antecedentes Runciter no duda en armar un equipo de anti-psíquicos, incluyendo a Conley, y se embarca a la luna. Estando allá arriba ocurre un atentado que causa varias muertes. Y es así como empieza un misterio en el que no se sabe que ha pasado realmente. ¿quién está muerto y quien no lo está? ¿o acaso la Conley ha estado jugando con el pasado? En la búsqueda de respuestas, aparece un producto llamado Ubik que puede ser usado para salvarles la vida a los sobrevivientes. Y ahí lo dejo... lean este libro y enterense de que es Ubik.

Mi edición es un paperback (224p), parte de la colección SF Masterworks de Gollancz.