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the_ook_worm 's review for:
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
by Philip K. Dick
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.