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megatza's review against another edition
3.0
An odd read (or listen, in my case), and felt very different than other PKD books I've read in the past. The plot looped a lot, and it wasn't until deep into the book that the different characters met (or at least their plotlines) and I still don't really know how some of the characters' stories end. the politics were a bit hard to follow, too, but also end up being he only thing tying the different plots together. But, interesting enough for a drive to Maryland and back.
ozgur's review against another edition
4.0
PKD sevgim ne kadar yüksek olursa olsun bu kitabı özellikle de finali benim için vasat olarak kalacak.
Sürprizbozan vermeden kitap hakkında şunları söyleyebilirim. Kitap klasik PKD varoluş felsefesi içeriyor. İçerisinde ırkçılık eleştirisi, toplum değerlerinin yorumlanması var.
Fikir özellikle de portal/solucan deliği fikri hikayeye güzel oturmuş ancak biraz daha derinleştirilebilir ve daha yoğun bir bilimkurgu gelişimi görebilirdik.
Kitap sanki bana devam edecekmiş de bir anda yarıda kalmış yazar da hikayeyi apar topar bitirmiş hissi veriyor.
PKD okumalarınıza katabilirsiniz ancak ilk okuma kitabınız olmamalı, yazarın dehasını göremeyeceksiniz bu kitapla.
Çeviri konusunda genel olarak iyi ancak tek bir sorun canımı sıkmıştı, Jim Briskin isimli karakterin aslında ismi James ve bazı noktalarda Jamesi bazen Jimi kullanıyor. İlk farklı kullanımda dipnot düşülebilirdi. Kimin neden Jim’e kısaltığını anlamadım şahsen.
Sürprizbozan vermeden kitap hakkında şunları söyleyebilirim. Kitap klasik PKD varoluş felsefesi içeriyor. İçerisinde ırkçılık eleştirisi, toplum değerlerinin yorumlanması var.
Fikir özellikle de portal/solucan deliği fikri hikayeye güzel oturmuş ancak biraz daha derinleştirilebilir ve daha yoğun bir bilimkurgu gelişimi görebilirdik.
Kitap sanki bana devam edecekmiş de bir anda yarıda kalmış yazar da hikayeyi apar topar bitirmiş hissi veriyor.
PKD okumalarınıza katabilirsiniz ancak ilk okuma kitabınız olmamalı, yazarın dehasını göremeyeceksiniz bu kitapla.
Çeviri konusunda genel olarak iyi ancak tek bir sorun canımı sıkmıştı, Jim Briskin isimli karakterin aslında ismi James ve bazı noktalarda Jamesi bazen Jimi kullanıyor. İlk farklı kullanımda dipnot düşülebilirdi. Kimin neden Jim’e kısaltığını anlamadım şahsen.
merylsalerno's review against another edition
3.0
I feel like this had SO much potential, it was really interesting. But it never got there. The book wound up being much more political than sci-fi. The fact that there was sci-fi stuff in it was almost irrelevant.
piccoline's review against another edition
3.0
So many ideas he has, this PKD fellow. This one's chock full of them again, and many of them provocative and strange. It doesn't quite all coalesce like it sometimes does in his best books (Ubik or Man in the High Castle, e.g.) but it's still definitely worth a look if you dig PKD.
peebee's review against another edition
3.0
There's a reason "Songwriter" is a profession... Sometimes you don't have to run it all the way in for the touchdown.
Great ideas as usual, leaden dialogue and horrible writing, as also usual. A real life Kilgore Trout.
Great ideas as usual, leaden dialogue and horrible writing, as also usual. A real life Kilgore Trout.
alexctelander's review against another edition
4.0
There’s a unique style to Philip K. Dick’s work that can perhaps be called unforgiving: his writing isn’t easy and straightforward; you have to work at it and make sure you keep up, because he’s just going to throw you in the middle of his complex world and drag you along for one crazy ride. The Crack in Space is a perfect example of this, recently released in a minimalist-looking new edition from Mariner Books, where the world is at a distant point in our future and all is not well. While technology has advanced, it seems that humanity has not, as it is a world divided by the color of one’s skin, and now there’s a black man running for president.
In this world, people are able to zap across continents and off planet in record time using “scuttler” tubes, until a lowly maintenance worker discovers a malfunctioning scuttler tube that has a hole leading to an alternate world. He enters this new parallel dimension and is soon killed. As news of this other world spreads, Jim Briskin, who could become the first black president, sees a big opportunity. There are millions of people (mostly non-white) who are in cryopreservation known as “bibs,” looking to be revived when a solution is found to the world’s overpopulation problems. Briskin hopes to use the promise of setting all these bibs free in the new world to help his presidency.
The only problem is that there are some beings on the other side that seem to be a form of our ancestors, Homo erectus, known as Peking Man, who beat out the Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons on this world to become the dominant species, and they aren’t about to let Homo sapiens walk all over them. For a book that is barely two hundred pages long, Dick manages to do an incredible job of revealing a complex world with plenty of unusual and unforgettable characters that will keep any scifi fan hooked until the very last page.
Originally written on February 13, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.
For more reviews and exclusive interviews, go to BookBanter.
In this world, people are able to zap across continents and off planet in record time using “scuttler” tubes, until a lowly maintenance worker discovers a malfunctioning scuttler tube that has a hole leading to an alternate world. He enters this new parallel dimension and is soon killed. As news of this other world spreads, Jim Briskin, who could become the first black president, sees a big opportunity. There are millions of people (mostly non-white) who are in cryopreservation known as “bibs,” looking to be revived when a solution is found to the world’s overpopulation problems. Briskin hopes to use the promise of setting all these bibs free in the new world to help his presidency.
The only problem is that there are some beings on the other side that seem to be a form of our ancestors, Homo erectus, known as Peking Man, who beat out the Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons on this world to become the dominant species, and they aren’t about to let Homo sapiens walk all over them. For a book that is barely two hundred pages long, Dick manages to do an incredible job of revealing a complex world with plenty of unusual and unforgettable characters that will keep any scifi fan hooked until the very last page.
Originally written on February 13, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.
For more reviews and exclusive interviews, go to BookBanter.
mathew's review against another edition
3.0
SF authors are a pessimistic bunch. In 1960s USA, just before the founding of the Black Panther Party, it seemed reasonable to Philip K. Dick that we might eventually see an African-American President — some time around the year 2080.
In other ways, though, this is a strangely relevant and prescient novel. It tells of a world where millions — mostly poor, mostly black — are placed kept in storage in suspended animation because society doesn't know what to do with them. (In the real world, of course, we use prisons for this task.) The lucky few who have jobs and careers travel from place to place via jiffi-scuttlers, hoop-shaped devices which open a wormhole-like portal to their destination. However, a jiffi-scuttler malfunctions, and its portal tube is found to have a tear in it, which leads to what appears to be a parallel earth — one with plenty of space to transport the unwanted defrosted population. There are other issues of relevance which I won't mention in order to avoid spoilers.
I found myself wanting to read more to find out what was actually going on, which puts this a step above most of Dick's 50s novels.
In other ways, though, this is a strangely relevant and prescient novel. It tells of a world where millions — mostly poor, mostly black — are placed kept in storage in suspended animation because society doesn't know what to do with them. (In the real world, of course, we use prisons for this task.) The lucky few who have jobs and careers travel from place to place via jiffi-scuttlers, hoop-shaped devices which open a wormhole-like portal to their destination. However, a jiffi-scuttler malfunctions, and its portal tube is found to have a tear in it, which leads to what appears to be a parallel earth — one with plenty of space to transport the unwanted defrosted population. There are other issues of relevance which I won't mention in order to avoid spoilers.
I found myself wanting to read more to find out what was actually going on, which puts this a step above most of Dick's 50s novels.
gabbyhm's review against another edition
4.0
The Crack in Space posits our world about 2080 (which, at the time it was published, would have been over 100 years in the future): there is severe overpopulation, to the extent that many young people are choosing to be cryogenically frozen until the labor market is better. It's an election year, and there's a black presidential nominee for the first time ever. That nominee, Jim Briskin, is struggling in his campaign until he's tipped off about some major news: there's been a rift discovered to a whole new world...one that looks like it will support human life. Briskin seizes on this development to announce that it will be his platform to thaw out the frozen and give them this world to settle, and his opponent jockeys to match his promises, when it's revealed that the new world is populated after all, but not by people as we know them. Instead it's Peking man that survived. So now what?
That's maybe half the plot of this slim volume (it's about 200 pages long), but it's the main one. First of all, let me say that I'm glad that we beat out Dick's predictions and had our first black president 75 years ahead of schedule. Moving on from that, though, what I really enjoy about reading Dick's work is that he poses interesting, thoughtful questions rooted in an understanding of human nature. As much as we might think that if we discovered a parallel Earth we'd learn from our past and thoughtfully go about exploration and potential colonization, the reality is that in an election year, politicians would be falling all over each other to posture and secure an important position for themselves. If the world's population was so huge that abortion wasn't just widespread but encouraged, that people were freezing themselves in hopes of a better life someday, it would absolutely end up with people getting sent through the door/portal/whatever without much in the way of an actual plan while news cameras flashed and the powers that be congratulated themselves on a job well done. Maybe I'm a little cynical (I was a litigator and now I'm a lobbyist, so that probably comes with the territory), but I feel like Dick gets how people would actually behave instead of how they'd prefer to imagine they would. I found it a quick and enjoyable read which had me pondering alternate realities.
That's maybe half the plot of this slim volume (it's about 200 pages long), but it's the main one. First of all, let me say that I'm glad that we beat out Dick's predictions and had our first black president 75 years ahead of schedule. Moving on from that, though, what I really enjoy about reading Dick's work is that he poses interesting, thoughtful questions rooted in an understanding of human nature. As much as we might think that if we discovered a parallel Earth we'd learn from our past and thoughtfully go about exploration and potential colonization, the reality is that in an election year, politicians would be falling all over each other to posture and secure an important position for themselves. If the world's population was so huge that abortion wasn't just widespread but encouraged, that people were freezing themselves in hopes of a better life someday, it would absolutely end up with people getting sent through the door/portal/whatever without much in the way of an actual plan while news cameras flashed and the powers that be congratulated themselves on a job well done. Maybe I'm a little cynical (I was a litigator and now I'm a lobbyist, so that probably comes with the territory), but I feel like Dick gets how people would actually behave instead of how they'd prefer to imagine they would. I found it a quick and enjoyable read which had me pondering alternate realities.
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