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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
It's the time of global nuclear war.
A good bunch of the world's population lives in underground "ant tanks", working on the production of leadies (robots) to keep on waging war on the ground. They get their newscasts showing and telling how this and that city has been protobombed to molecules by the evil adversaries, then they get told that their production quotas have been upped. Only the build leadies exit the tanks, for outside is radiation, evil diseases, war, and the enemy leadies.
The spoilerish part:
On the outside the war has actually been over for years, and the world is run by yancemen (named after the people who operate the Talbot Yance (and his Soviet counterpart) simulacrum, the supreme leader of the world. The yancemen use the robots to build their mansions and to improve their own lives.
Of course there's internal strife, power struggles and whatnot. Things wouldn't be human otherwise.
A good bunch of things are familiar from Philip K. Dick's other works, such as the robots, simulacra, precog abilities, humans [briefly] inhabiting the solar system, a post-nuclear war world, and the dystopian overall feeling. Some things are very outdated, like many of the details of the technical wonders and the whole scary-evil communist hegemony ruling half of the humankind. Still, great story and I really enjoyed his world-building and characters.
A good bunch of the world's population lives in underground "ant tanks", working on the production of leadies (robots) to keep on waging war on the ground. They get their newscasts showing and telling how this and that city has been protobombed to molecules by the evil adversaries, then they get told that their production quotas have been upped. Only the build leadies exit the tanks, for outside is radiation, evil diseases, war, and the enemy leadies.
The spoilerish part:
On the outside the war has actually been over for years, and the world is run by yancemen (named after the people who operate the Talbot Yance (and his Soviet counterpart) simulacrum, the supreme leader of the world. The yancemen use the robots to build their mansions and to improve their own lives.
Of course there's internal strife, power struggles and whatnot. Things wouldn't be human otherwise.
A good bunch of things are familiar from Philip K. Dick's other works, such as the robots, simulacra, precog abilities, humans [briefly] inhabiting the solar system, a post-nuclear war world, and the dystopian overall feeling. Some things are very outdated, like many of the details of the technical wonders and the whole scary-evil communist hegemony ruling half of the humankind. Still, great story and I really enjoyed his world-building and characters.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-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
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
2.5 stars really. Had some good ideas but it was a bit clumsy and the time travel stuff was a pretty stupid twist.
I overall liked this book... There were parts that I didn't fully understand, PDK used some language/slang/terms I didn't get, and there were parts that basically bored me. I really really liked the concept of this book (somewhat Matrix-esque, finding out you & everyone you know are living in a world that's a huge lie), but it just didn't grasp me as much as I hoped it would. Perhaps I hyped it too much on my own? Who knows.
I would recommend this people, it still was a good book and had a surprise ending for me.
I would recommend this people, it still was a good book and had a surprise ending for me.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Straight-forward, woefully-so according to some, but still highly original science fiction from Philip K. Dick.
Most of humanity is stuck living deep underground, hiding from radiation and horrific diseases, producing new leadies for a war that never seems to cease.
A tiny elite live above trying to maintain an impossible compromise, all the while conspiring against one another, feints within feints, until the truth is almost impossible to see.
I don't have much to say on this one, it seems typical of Dick's work and had its own tinges of horror, especially with Brose, that made up for the lack of the truly bizarre.
Most of humanity is stuck living deep underground, hiding from radiation and horrific diseases, producing new leadies for a war that never seems to cease.
A tiny elite live above trying to maintain an impossible compromise, all the while conspiring against one another, feints within feints, until the truth is almost impossible to see.
I don't have much to say on this one, it seems typical of Dick's work and had its own tinges of horror, especially with Brose, that made up for the lack of the truly bizarre.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
