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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
This book failed to fulfill my expectations. I hoped it would be better but it wasn't. I'd say it was about as good as Confessions of a Crap Artist, which wasn't very good.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
After reading a bunch of PKD short stories before, it was enlightening to finally read one of his novels. There are few better "Ideas men" than PKD... A term he coined in this book by the way. His stories pose some of science fictions best "what if" scenarios, and that's probably why Hollywood is currently in love with him (Blade Runner, Adjustment Bureau, Next, Screamers, A Scanner Darkly, Paycheck, Minority Report And Total Recall are only half the movies made from his stories). Having said that, while he gets 10 out of 10 for concepts and plots, he doesn't always deserve top marks for story telling, dialogue and character development.
The Penultimate Truth is another dystopian yarn and is typically chock full of ideas and a clever plot. What if humanity was forced below ground to survive a nuclear war on the Earth's surface, but the whole thing ended many years ago and was being kept up as a sham with those below none the wiser? How was the lie perpetuated? And why, and who gains? Plot twists abound, and it's an engaging read. Without offering too many spoilers, he predicts voice recognition computers, CGI, and even The Transformers even though this was written 51 years ago.
One major flaw in this novel is PKD's penchant for drip feeding details about the technology and terminology he is describing. Normally that slow reveal exposition might be subtle storytelling but when understanding what the objects and processes he is talking about is crucial to understanding the novel, it just stalls comprehension and slows the reading.
Since some of his tech predictions have been superseded you can get bogged down in his prediction skills, but his themes ... Of trusting bureaucracy, the abuse of power, believing everything we are told and the heavy use of spin by governments in assembling a narrative... Are compelling and have echoes of 1984.
The ending is frustrating and the last chapter seemed as if the author wasn't entirely sure how to wrap it up (or Stephen King Syndrome as I prefer to call it). The time shift elements seemed unnecessary and I sufficiently explained and the conclusion left a lot of questions that weren't simply clever points to ponder. I'd prefer to give it a 3.5 star rating due to some of those flaws but if I have to choose between 3 and 4, I'll go with 4 for sheer invention and story cleverness.
The Penultimate Truth is another dystopian yarn and is typically chock full of ideas and a clever plot. What if humanity was forced below ground to survive a nuclear war on the Earth's surface, but the whole thing ended many years ago and was being kept up as a sham with those below none the wiser? How was the lie perpetuated? And why, and who gains? Plot twists abound, and it's an engaging read. Without offering too many spoilers, he predicts voice recognition computers, CGI, and even The Transformers even though this was written 51 years ago.
One major flaw in this novel is PKD's penchant for drip feeding details about the technology and terminology he is describing. Normally that slow reveal exposition might be subtle storytelling but when understanding what the objects and processes he is talking about is crucial to understanding the novel, it just stalls comprehension and slows the reading.
Since some of his tech predictions have been superseded you can get bogged down in his prediction skills, but his themes ... Of trusting bureaucracy, the abuse of power, believing everything we are told and the heavy use of spin by governments in assembling a narrative... Are compelling and have echoes of 1984.
The ending is frustrating and the last chapter seemed as if the author wasn't entirely sure how to wrap it up (or Stephen King Syndrome as I prefer to call it). The time shift elements seemed unnecessary and I sufficiently explained and the conclusion left a lot of questions that weren't simply clever points to ponder. I'd prefer to give it a 3.5 star rating due to some of those flaws but if I have to choose between 3 and 4, I'll go with 4 for sheer invention and story cleverness.
I've dog-eared a bunch of the pages to write my thoughts on this, and maybe I will, but I was pretty underwhelmed by the ending (except for the last sentence, which I liked). Not PKD's best.
World War 3 is in full force and most of the population is forced to live underground to avoid a horrible death from radiation and all sorts of other weapons. Or are they?
Written in 1964, The Penultimate Truth is a shockingly relevant book considering recent events. It deals with themes such as abuse of authority, dictatorship and the now infamous concept of "fake news". If someone without knowledge of who Philip K. Dick was would read this today I am quite confident that he would be convinced that it was written within the last 5 years. Especially in the final chapters the similarities with our own struggles are overwhelming.
In other places Dick explores morality and loyalty and the responsibilities which come with being a leader. The characters are rather uni-dimensional but they are there to represent a certain typology of human (the despot, the simple man, the idealist, the pragmatic and so on) and serve the plot and nothing more. A lot of the more technical details of what is going on are purposefully left unspecified which I think is the correct decision since a lot of technical details would have taken away from the core of the story.
In a bubble I feel this wouldn't probably be one of the top rated Dick books however I think in our current world climate this has the potential of being a very relevant book. And to be completely honest, Dick is slowly becoming one of my favorite SF authors.
Written in 1964, The Penultimate Truth is a shockingly relevant book considering recent events. It deals with themes such as abuse of authority, dictatorship and the now infamous concept of "fake news". If someone without knowledge of who Philip K. Dick was would read this today I am quite confident that he would be convinced that it was written within the last 5 years. Especially in the final chapters the similarities with our own struggles are overwhelming.
In other places Dick explores morality and loyalty and the responsibilities which come with being a leader. The characters are rather uni-dimensional but they are there to represent a certain typology of human (the despot, the simple man, the idealist, the pragmatic and so on) and serve the plot and nothing more. A lot of the more technical details of what is going on are purposefully left unspecified which I think is the correct decision since a lot of technical details would have taken away from the core of the story.
In a bubble I feel this wouldn't probably be one of the top rated Dick books however I think in our current world climate this has the potential of being a very relevant book. And to be completely honest, Dick is slowly becoming one of my favorite SF authors.
PKD's Post nuke dystopia is about class, labor and manufacturing of consent. With more robots and fake people than Chomsky would ever have done. There are some weird story threads that come out of and go nowhere but this is great political PKD. Check out our Dickheads episode about it:
https://soundcloud.com/dickheadspodcast/episode-22-the-penultimate-truth
https://soundcloud.com/dickheadspodcast/episode-22-the-penultimate-truth