Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
I mean, after all; you have to consider we’re only made out of dust. That’s admittedly not much to go on and we shouldn’t forget that. But even considering, I mean it’s a sort of bad beginning, we’re not doing too bad. So I personally have faith that even in this lousy situation we’re faced with we can make it. You get me?
Synopsis: Terra is burning up and the UN is drafting people to move to colonies on the other planets around Sol. Life on our neighboring planets is miserable and those unlucky enough to get chosen rely on Can-D to break up the monotony, a drug that lets them control a doll in a miniature world made up of products provided by Perky Pat Layouts, which just so happens to be the same company that produces Can-D. But when Palmer Eldritch returns from the forbidden Prox system bringing with him a new product, Chew-Z, the boat gets well and truly rocked.
Thoughts: This was my second PKD book, after reading 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep?' several months ago, and it's certainly invigorated me to read more of PKD's work (in fact I have two more of his books already loaded on my Kindle, ready to go). As you might expect, this is a pretty wild read but I found it easier to get into it than I expected to and once you're in, you're in.
What drew me to this particular book initially was the premise and that's really what drives the whole novel. That's not to say that the characters aren't good or interesting, but it's really the plot and the ideas behind the book that make it stand-out. The book mainly focuses on Leo Bulero (owner of PP Layouts) and Barney Mayerson (an employee of Bulero who can see into the future to see what'll be fashionable) but there's a slew of side characters of varying importance too, and Palmer Eldritch himself of course.
One of my favorite aspects of the book was actually the world-building that mostly takes place in the first ~quarter of the book. This version of Earth (Terra as it's called in the novel) is a fascinating hellscape and the colonies are as well, just in their own way. I had no trouble at all imaging the depressing little hovels that the colonists lived in and could hardly blame them for wanting an escape. The beginning of the book does have a fair bit of technobabble, but the important stuff is either explained or becomes clear with context and some of it is just added flavor.
I do have two small criticisms. Firstly, the book feels much longer than its relatively short ~230 pages. I think this is partly due to it having fairly long chapters. My other issue was that the ending (I'm talking last couple of pages) didn't quite work for me. I understood what PKD was going for but it certainly wasn't my favorite part of the book.
Synopsis: Terra is burning up and the UN is drafting people to move to colonies on the other planets around Sol. Life on our neighboring planets is miserable and those unlucky enough to get chosen rely on Can-D to break up the monotony, a drug that lets them control a doll in a miniature world made up of products provided by Perky Pat Layouts, which just so happens to be the same company that produces Can-D. But when Palmer Eldritch returns from the forbidden Prox system bringing with him a new product, Chew-Z, the boat gets well and truly rocked.
Thoughts: This was my second PKD book, after reading 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep?' several months ago, and it's certainly invigorated me to read more of PKD's work (in fact I have two more of his books already loaded on my Kindle, ready to go). As you might expect, this is a pretty wild read but I found it easier to get into it than I expected to and once you're in, you're in.
What drew me to this particular book initially was the premise and that's really what drives the whole novel. That's not to say that the characters aren't good or interesting, but it's really the plot and the ideas behind the book that make it stand-out. The book mainly focuses on Leo Bulero (owner of PP Layouts) and Barney Mayerson (an employee of Bulero who can see into the future to see what'll be fashionable) but there's a slew of side characters of varying importance too, and Palmer Eldritch himself of course.
One of my favorite aspects of the book was actually the world-building that mostly takes place in the first ~quarter of the book. This version of Earth (Terra as it's called in the novel) is a fascinating hellscape and the colonies are as well, just in their own way. I had no trouble at all imaging the depressing little hovels that the colonists lived in and could hardly blame them for wanting an escape. The beginning of the book does have a fair bit of technobabble, but the important stuff is either explained or becomes clear with context and some of it is just added flavor.
I do have two small criticisms. Firstly, the book feels much longer than its relatively short ~230 pages. I think this is partly due to it having fairly long chapters. My other issue was that the ending (I'm talking last couple of pages) didn't quite work for me. I understood what PKD was going for but it certainly wasn't my favorite part of the book.
Wow. This book became mind boggling for me. What is reality, ultimately? Who can define it? Do dreams and fantasy (and drug taking) alter reality? (Not just your reality, but the reality that stitches together the fabric of the universe?) What is real? Are you? Is God? I'll definitely have to reread this one. It became so convoluted and trippy at the end that I lost the fraying strand that I was following. Wow.
PKD's books aren't just (often) about psychoactives... reading them produces an experience not unlike being on a psychoactive! There are aspects of Palmer Eldritch that might be off-putting to a modern sci-fi reader--the assault of names, the completely unreasonable physics, the misogyny. But if you're willing to give him a chance (and accept him as a product of his times), then they can open up new vistas in your mind.
I remember reading this book twenty years ago, with the vivid recollection of seeing the group of martian colonists, sitting slumped around a doll-house, synchronizing their souls while under the experience of Can-D. It's an incredibly imaginative take on psychedelics--attainment of true group-mind, fantastical escape from boredom. Dick gives us this and then almost immediately snatches it away, as they bicker with each other's spirits on just how to manipulate their "minned" little avatars. And then he offers the next vista of soul-expansion--Chew-Z and its next-level reincarnation experiences.
It's easy to forget the details of a PKD story as they careen so quickly towards resolution. This one is no different, and once you start to question the narrative perspective, you can't help but race towards the end--when will he release us from this confusing back-and-forth?! In this way, The Three Stigmata is nearly relentless... it's only in the final pages that you begin to see things settle, surprisingly, as a meditation on God itself.
Certainly worth a read and eventually a re-read. PKD's creativity is just off the charts. Some of the innovations described are just now being realized in our world (he literally predicts Stable Diffusion's ability to generate novel images "in the style of", just like his characters request a funny, animated rendition of "The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius"!) And before the idea of global warming was mainstreamed, we see characters scurry out of the scorching noon sun. Yes, this novel feels like a grotesque skeleton with few of the details or characters realistically fleshed-out. But sometimes it's the big ideas that really matter.
Spoiler
I remember reading this book twenty years ago, with the vivid recollection of seeing the group of martian colonists, sitting slumped around a doll-house, synchronizing their souls while under the experience of Can-D. It's an incredibly imaginative take on psychedelics--attainment of true group-mind, fantastical escape from boredom. Dick gives us this and then almost immediately snatches it away, as they bicker with each other's spirits on just how to manipulate their "minned" little avatars. And then he offers the next vista of soul-expansion--Chew-Z and its next-level reincarnation experiences.
It's easy to forget the details of a PKD story as they careen so quickly towards resolution. This one is no different, and once you start to question the narrative perspective, you can't help but race towards the end--when will he release us from this confusing back-and-forth?! In this way, The Three Stigmata is nearly relentless... it's only in the final pages that you begin to see things settle, surprisingly, as a meditation on God itself.
Certainly worth a read and eventually a re-read. PKD's creativity is just off the charts. Some of the innovations described are just now being realized in our world (he literally predicts Stable Diffusion's ability to generate novel images "in the style of", just like his characters request a funny, animated rendition of "The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius"!) And before the idea of global warming was mainstreamed, we see characters scurry out of the scorching noon sun. Yes, this novel feels like a grotesque skeleton with few of the details or characters realistically fleshed-out. But sometimes it's the big ideas that really matter.
Mind blowing, unreal, goosebumps, disbelief!
An amazing book overall. Plants some very cool seeds early on, drags a little in the middle then towards the end it becomes ridiculously good. The mixing of religion, space, reality and drugs was very well done, I kept having to take a minute just to process what I was reading.
The exploration of individuality and perception of individuals versus groups, different consciousnesses sharing bodies, sharing spiritual experiences, or not sharing normal reality was very interesting.
The idea that if you go out into space far enough, you'll meet God? The idea that someone did, and the realisation of what God actually was?! Wild.
And lots of more light hearted, scoff/laugh moments, nice characters. Some emotional/touching moments too.
Very tempting to reread. I wasn't ready.
An amazing book overall. Plants some very cool seeds early on, drags a little in the middle then towards the end it becomes ridiculously good. The mixing of religion, space, reality and drugs was very well done, I kept having to take a minute just to process what I was reading.
The exploration of individuality and perception of individuals versus groups, different consciousnesses sharing bodies, sharing spiritual experiences, or not sharing normal reality was very interesting.
The idea that if you go out into space far enough, you'll meet God? The idea that someone did, and the realisation of what God actually was?! Wild.
And lots of more light hearted, scoff/laugh moments, nice characters. Some emotional/touching moments too.
Very tempting to reread. I wasn't ready.
3.5 stars really! It would have been a 4 if I was less confused by it lol. Very interesting to read, but very ambiguous which isn’t always my fav, but enjoyable to read and discuss with friends! Wish it had a movie based on it like some of PKD’s other short stories!
challenging
dark
reflective
fast-paced
Pacing was strange, couldn't keep track of anything that was happening like halfway through the book. I wanted to like it and I'll probably pick up other books by Philip K Dick given his influence in culture, but eh.
After reading Ubik and the Minority Report short stories by Dick, this book did not meet the monstrous high standard I was expecting. Saying this, it did capture my imagination in a far greater way. It was tricky getting into this book as the characters aren't that original… until you meet Palmer Eldritch and the brilliant conscious mind Phil exploded with via pen to paper in this mind boggling and brilliantly explored religious experience. I would recommend this to any Dick or Science Fiction fans but to those wanting to get into either of those I would go for something else that’s a little that more immediately gripping.
Another excellent book from Philip K. Dick. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is a book about uncertainty. It takes the branching possibilities of circumstance present in his previous book The Man in the High Castle and both blows them up and bends them backward.
Eldritch is a story centered around a psychic character named Barney Mayerson. He uses his precognitive ability to try and divine the future, but still only finds himself able to play the odds. He does this to make money for his employer, a toy manufacturer and drug kingpin whose Barbie-like toys have become central to the experience of a hallucinogenic drug that makes life bearable for people living on hardscrabble off-world colonies. Barney's precognition takes up considerable space in the beginning of the book before seemingly falling by the wayside, only to come back into play in the book's final, deeply disquieting moments.
Dick bends the idea backward and turns Eldritch into a novel about sci-fi futurism, and how no matter how perceptive he and his compatriots might be (and to be blear he's quite perceptive, Eldritch takes place in a world where climate change is rendering the planet inhabitable and oligarchs duel for the role of supplying the opiate of the masses), the future isn't going to go the way they think. Horror can become triumph, which in turn can become a whole new horror show. Nothing ever ends, nor is it ever set in stone.
Dick's peculiar style is played up more comedically here than in The Man in the High Castle, and you can really see some of the absurd humor that would inspire later works like Southland Tales. I also wonder if this book was an influence on Damon Lindelof's Watchmen television series. Dick's vision of oligarchs in a declining world, vying against each other with horrific "utopian" visions for the future against each other seems about as big an influence on Lindelof's show as the original Watchmen comic
Eldritch is a story centered around a psychic character named Barney Mayerson. He uses his precognitive ability to try and divine the future, but still only finds himself able to play the odds. He does this to make money for his employer, a toy manufacturer and drug kingpin whose Barbie-like toys have become central to the experience of a hallucinogenic drug that makes life bearable for people living on hardscrabble off-world colonies. Barney's precognition takes up considerable space in the beginning of the book before seemingly falling by the wayside, only to come back into play in the book's final, deeply disquieting moments.
Dick bends the idea backward and turns Eldritch into a novel about sci-fi futurism, and how no matter how perceptive he and his compatriots might be (and to be blear he's quite perceptive, Eldritch takes place in a world where climate change is rendering the planet inhabitable and oligarchs duel for the role of supplying the opiate of the masses), the future isn't going to go the way they think. Horror can become triumph, which in turn can become a whole new horror show. Nothing ever ends, nor is it ever set in stone.
Dick's peculiar style is played up more comedically here than in The Man in the High Castle, and you can really see some of the absurd humor that would inspire later works like Southland Tales. I also wonder if this book was an influence on Damon Lindelof's Watchmen television series. Dick's vision of oligarchs in a declining world, vying against each other with horrific "utopian" visions for the future against each other seems about as big an influence on Lindelof's show as the original Watchmen comic