I started reading his books not too long ago and I really like him. It sucks how modern day sci-fi has succumbed to the woke monster but I’m really enjoying discovering authors from the past. I knew about movies based on his books but never took the time to read his work. I’m currently reading a scanner darkly and have read an anthology of short stories, minority report, flow my tears the policeman said, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Heinlein is my favorite Sci fi writer but PKD is rising on my list.
Can anyone recommend any other books of his? Or like him?
Never really got into Heinlein or Dick, even though their derivative films are peak cinema. Herbert was always my favorite scifi, followed by Asimov.
I’m actually reading Dune after the book I’m reading now. Also bought the next two Dune books.
They decrease in quality the further you go. He's no Tolkien, but Dune is an absolute masterwork.
That's an understatement.
I finally finished Chapter House Dune (book 6) a couple of weeks ago after picking at it for nearly a year. I swear, Herbert just wrote the last two books so he could give clinical sounding descriptions of his characters having sex. Not to mention the whole bit where the Teg ghola is awakened by Sheena. From the description, she did nothing special, but for some reason she had to train extensively with Murbella for it?
Anyway, from God Emperor on, I found the stories mostly uninteresting and uneventful, and the characters increasingly grating. Also, it gets tiresome that his characters are constantly getting amazing insights from the smallest of details, but as the reader you're left feeling like you must be missing something because these amazing insights seem to come out of nowhere.
Movies were entertaining but really nothing like the books.
Cool. Thanks! Did the 84 movie do it justice? You going to see the new one?
God no. There's a reason it's an Alan Smithee movie. The problem with trying to adapt Dune to the screen is that's it's largely a tale of psychological metamorphosis. Hard to translate. Also what makes the book so damn good.
Messiah is still a good scifi book, but it never really competes with the original.
I like him, but I haven't read a whole lot of his stuff directly. I had a co-worker who was extremely well-read who enjoyed talking at length about any author I wanted to ask him about, and we spent many a lunch on the works of Dick. Apparently he gets very strange in the deeper cuts like some of his journal writings in Exegesis.
I recently bought his journal writings. He had an interesting mind.
I never liked him. Like I appreciate his books and the influence he’s had on the genre, but his stories are just too surreal for me
I recommend reading Ubik, if only because it would never translate well to film.
I found that at a used book sale. Haven’t read it yet. Thanks!
If you haven't already and it's not too obvious, check out Arthur C. Clarke. Hes got a ton of great short stories, some very famous that eventually he fleshed out into novels, and I really enjoyed Rendezvous with Rama and the novel version of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
I’ve read Rama and Space odyssey. Very good.
I haven't read too much of his stuff, but I enjoyed "The Minority Report". One of these days, I'll get around to giving Total Recall a try.
I really liked Ubik. Definitely my favourite of his works.
Do Androids Dream and Minority Report were great.
Personally I wasn't a big fan of A Scanner Darkly, and I really could not get into Valis.
Man in the High Castle and Flow My Tears were okay, but I probably wouldn't re-read them.
I read Valis. Probably a waste of time as I can't remember any of it now, other than that two of the characters are actually both Phillip K Dick himself, and there was a space alien cult. That and most of it was really boring and didn't seem to have a point. I read the whole thing for some reason though. Can't remember why, I must have enjoyed it at least a little to do that. But I don't remember enjoying it at all.
The book is like a fever dream.
Do Androids was very good as the unfocused bits added to the atmosphere, and induced a confusion in the reader that I believe was intentional.
I'll have to read Ubik
I've read just about every noted scifi book ever written. The genre was always full of wokeisms, but they are/were tolerable pre 2010. DM me with exactly what you are after and I'll recommend a handful. I put PKD in the required, but overrated, category next to Vonnegut.
Cool. Thanks. Yea I’d say it was all tolerable before then. I used to buy the the Chico and nebula winners every year but I wouldn’t touch them with a ten foot pole now.
What are you after, I can even recommend newer stuff if you want something modern. As long as you are not as schizo as Theimpossible1 you should be fine.
Strange. Sometimes good strange sometimes so much strange that it's just confusing.
In general, his best works are the ones with a bit of grit to drag the whole thing down and provide something concrete for the characters to interact with. Otherwise I've noticed that his tendency to have multiple plots going on at the same time, and frequent episodes of surrealism makes it hard to keep track of things or figure out the point of the story.
Not that his weirder stuff is objectively bad, he's definitely a talented writer, but I don't get much out of it.
I like him a lot. If you're looking to get into him, I think the best way to get into his writing is to read some of short story collections first. They are the most accessible of his works, because his novels get longer and weirder the older he gets.
Will do. Thanks!
Probably the worst one to start with imo.