LAST UPDATE
12/30/22
Counter-Clock
World by Philip K. Dick, Berkley, 1967
Time
has started to run backward. People are born in the grave and end their
lives by entering a womb. Dick does not really make his premise
sensible. Only important things are reversed. Otherwise people act
perfectly normally. The imminent return of a charismatic religious
figure triggers a multi-way battle to control him and reveals that the
librarians actually run a private army which operates outside the law. I
thought this would have made a nice novelette but it becomes rather
boring at novel length. 12/30/22
The Zap Gun by
Philip K. Dick, Dell, 1966
Aka
Project Plowshare. The world consists of two political entities
who pretend to be at war with one another. Each builds “weapons” whose
design is snatched from another reality by psychics, but the weapons are
bogus and become “obsolete” and are “plowshared,” converted to consumer
good. This arrangement comes under strain when alien satellites begin to
appear in the skies and entire cities disappear as alien slave traders
begin to harvest humanity. But it all works out in the end. Not one of
my favorites – a bit too surreal for my taste. `1/17/22
Dr. Bloodmoney,
or How We Got Along After the Bomb by Philip K. Dick, Ace, 1965
This
is one of Dick’s stranger novels, set shortly before and years after a
nuclear war. There is a paranoid scientist who can literally create
explosions through mental force, a limbless genius with telekinesis, a
young child whose twin brother is a tumor inside her body with whom she
can communicate telepathically and who can transfer his consciousness
into other bodies, the first man meant to go to Mars who has been
trapped orbiting the Earth ever since the war broke out, and several
other quirky characters including a talking dog, a flying squirrel, and
cats that can plan ahead. The title is an obvious allusion to Dr.
Strangelove, or How I Stopped Worrying and Loved the Bomb. 12/22/2
The Ganymede
Takeover by Philip K. Dick & Ray Nelson, Ace, 1967
This
was not a particularly successful collaboration, It feels more like Dick
than Nelson, and resorts to another surreal episode, Dick’s greatest
flaw in my opinion. Worms from Ganymede have conquered all of Earth
except Tennessee, where a group of black partisans are holding out.
There is a crazy psychologist, mysterious weapons that are essentially
magic, secret agents, precognitives, robots that can pass for human, and
other frills, but most of the story involves a small number of
unattractive and not very bright individuals. Both writers have done
much better on their own. 12/20/22
Now Wait for
Last Year by Philip K. Dick, MacFadden, 1966
Earth
discovered that it was a lost colony of Lilistar, which has a superior
culture. This forces them to join the war against the alien reggs and
makes Earth’s government, led by Gino Molinari, a decidedly junior
partner. Slave labor is reinstituted. The chief protagonist is a surgeon
who joins Molinari’s staff and discovers that there is a good deal of
strange activity going on, including sympathetic illnesses, a strange
dead body in stasis, and a simulacrum that gives all of the speeches.
His estranged wife becomes addicted to a drug that actually moves people
forward and backward through time, although sometimes they are alternate
timelines. Dick manages to drag this altogether, but not as successfully
as in some of his other novels. 12/18/22
The Crack in Space
by Philip K. Dick, Ace, 1966
In
an overpopulated future, a malfunctioning teleportation unit opens a
doorway to an alternate Earth. Millions of people who are in suspended
animation are scheduled to be moved to this new living space. But the
other world is inhabited, by descendants of Sinanthropus, and they have
a very different technology which includes the ability to manipulate
time. Dick was somewhat prescient here in that the potential election of
the first black President creates a white supremacist backlash. None of
the characters are admirable. They are either racist, puritanical,
greedy, disloyal, murderous, conniving, or aggressively immoral. Most of
the futures in his novels are dystopian, but the odds favor his being
right. 12/17/22
The Eaters of Light
by Rona Munro, Target, 2022
This
is a Doctor Who adventure in the classic tradition of the show. The
Doctor is back in ancient Scotland trying to figure out what happened to
a Roman legion that disappeared without trace. Before long he is aware
of rumors of a strange and deadly creature roaming the moors. The entity
is not of this earth but actually a visitor from another dimension, and
you can pretty much figure out from that what happened to the Roman
soldiers. Pleasantly told and slightly nostalgic. 12/11/22
The
Three Stigmata of Palmer
Eldritch by Philip K. Dick, MacFadden, 1962
Although
this is generally considered to be one of Dick’s better novels, I have
never really agreed. Too much of it is repetitive surrealism that never
gets resolved, and we do not actually know how the story ends because it
is not possible to tell one reality from another. Palmer Eldritch spent
ten years in an alien star system and returned with a drug that can
allow you to enter a reality of your own creation and where time has no
meaning. Except that Eldritch himself - who might be an agent of the
aliens or an alien in disguise – seems to be present in all of the
realities. And humanity has become so moribund and repressive that it is
hard to care whether or not they are being fooled. 12/9/22
The Penultimate
Truth by Philip K. Dick, Belmont. 1964
Following
a brief nuclear war, a small elite has promulgated the idea that the war
is still raging, so that almost the entire human population remains in
underground shelters for more than a decade. The elite divide the
surface among themselves and use robots to maintain the status quo. But
the situation is getting out of hand, thanks in part to the
interruptions by a time traveler and in part to the inherent instability
of the situation. This is another Dick novel in which the book ends with
part of the story untold. We do not know how the power struggle was
resolved or the fate of the chief villain. 12/6/22
The Simulacra by
Philip K. Dick, Ace, 1964
This
was never one of my favorite Dick novels, partly because it stops rather
than ends. It takes place in a future where Germany has joined the US,
where the government consists of a series of actresses impersonating an
immortal woman, accompanied by robotic husbands, and actually run by a
secret group whose chairman is ostensibly the leader of a revolutionary
movement. The government also has time travel and is trying to convince
Hermann Goering to assassinate Hitler, win the second world war, and
avert the nuclear exchange that followed decades later. There is also a
colony on Mars, a coup attempt, telekinesis and teleportation, and the
re-emergence of Neanderthals. The much varied assortment of plot
elements does not fit together well. 12/2/22
Martian Time-Slip
by Philip K. Dick, Ballantine, 1964
Mars
has been colonized and the various settlements are loosely controlled by
the United Nations. Arnie Kott is head of the plumbers union colony.
Jack Bohlen is a professional repairman. Manfred Steiner is an autistic
boy who can see the future. When the UN shows interest in some
supposedly valueless real estate, various parties contend to purchase
the land first. Kott wants to use Steiner to predict the future and,
later on, to transport him into the past. It is not clear if Steiner can
really do this or just provide convincing visions. The plans fall apart
and Steiner goes off to live with the indigenous Martians. Although low
key, this is a very good novel, among Dick’s very best. 11/29/22
The Visionary
Pageant by Paul Di Filippo, Newcon, 2022
This
novella is set in late 19th Century New England, although not
exactly the one in our reality. Recently all the cats in the area have
begun to disappear and there are cryptic references to Ulthar. Sophronia
Tempest is an assertive female journalist who is more interested in the
leaders of a new self-help cult that has become popular in recent days,
and which appears to be aware of a rift between realities. What happens
after that is strange and entertaining but you’ll have to acquire a copy
to find out because I’m not going to spill the beans. 11/27/26
This Crowded Earth/Ladies'
Day by Robert Bloch, Belmont, 1968
Two
novellas about unpleasant futures. The first, as you might guess from
the title, is about overpopulation. After war becomes impossible,
various methods are employed to control the population, eventually
leading to a medical treatment that keeps everyone less than two feet
tall. The second takes its protagonist 160 years into the future, where
he finds himself in a matriarchal society that mirrors our own. The
author concludes that we might as well let women take charge because
they couldn't do worse than the men. 11/26/22
Clans of
the Alphane Moon by Philip K. Dick, Ace, 1964
During
an interstellar war, a moon that was used as a human psychiatric
hospital was out of touch with Earth for twenty-five years. The seven
major varieties of psychosis eventually coalesced into seven clans, each
with a different group personality. Some of the individuals developed
psi powers of various sorts. Earth tries to re-establish control, but
the clans object, as do various parties human and otherwise. Lots of
amusing characters including a Ganymedean slime mold named Lord Running
Clam. I wasn’t entirely happy with the resolution of the conflict
between the protagonist and his wife, which I thought was forced and
unnatural. 11/22/22
The Unteleported
Man by Philip K. Dick, Ace, 1956
I
always considered this a very minor work and still do. Star travel has
been replaced by teleportation to a colony world, but the catch is it
only works one way. The hero owns a starship and wants to travel to the
world the slow way, but the teleport company makes every effort to stop
him. Clearly there is something wrong with the colony and a private
police agency intends to discover the truth. Eventually the plot is
uncovered – a conscript army is being recruited and return travel is
impossible after all. They get thwarted by the world government, which
is pretty much a dictatorship anyway, so it’s not clear who benefits in
the long run. 11/20/22
The
Game-Players of Titan by
Philip K. Dick, Ace, 1963
Humans
fought a war with the Vugs of Titan, and although neither side
technically won, the Vugs generally administer the Earth, whose
population has dwindled to about a million because of a sterilizing
weapon used by the Chinese in a domestic war. Fortunately, humans have
become extremely long lived. A subset of the population owns most of the
land and they engage in elaborate games with entire cities as the
stakes. The rise of a very successful player and his subsequent murder
begin to alter the status quo. Some of the vugs disguise themselves as
humans and plan our extinction. The climax is a game between humans and
vugs, but there is so much surrealism that it is difficult to follow
what is actually happening. 11/15/22
The Man in
the High Castle by Philip K.Dick, Popular Library, 1962
Dick
jumped in quality by an enormous amount in this, which I still think is
his best book. He dropped the melodramatic, action packed plots for a
quietly chilling story of an alternate world where the Japanese and
Germans won World War II, largely because Roosevelt was assassinated.
The Russians dominate much of the world, and their literal insanity has
risen to a level where even the Japanese are appalled. The story is set
primarily in Japanese controlled California and the characters include a
secret Jew, a Nazi assassin, a dealer in antiquities, a jewelry
designer, a Japanese trade official, and a judo instructor. A novel in
which the Allies won has become very popular and controversial, and the
Japanese influence has led to widespread use of the I Ching. Great
stuff. Fourth time I’ve read it. 11/11/22
Vulcan’s Hammer
by Philip K. Dick, Ace, 1960
Following
a nuclear war, the world is ruled by a supercomputer, Vulcan 3. There
are hints that some information is being filtered out of its data stream
at the direction of the highest placed human. His subordinates have
various reactions to this, but the computer itself has become
semi-sentient and has used its repair facility to create hammer shaped
flying robots to gather the information which it knows has been denied.
This chiefly involves a revolutionary group. The protagonist is caught
between the two sides, unaware that there is a third until the robots
begin attacking people they view as threats. Full scale civil war erupts
before the computer is destroyed. This was one of my favorites in high
school and it’s still pretty good. 11/7/22
Atoms and Evil
by Robert Bloch, Gold Medal, 1962
Another
collection of primarily SF stories. Most are humorous or satirical.
Female robots are sold like used cars. A human brain is the fuel for a
spaceship. The world is all a fake. People murder robots to work off
their aggressions. A professor uses a psychic student to outwit crooked
poker players. An alien has no understanding of metaphors and takes
everything literally. Bloch’s SF is generally inferior to his horror
and suspense, but this is a pretty good selection of his better work in
this genre. 11/5/22
Dr. Futurity
by Philip K. Dick, Ace, 1960
A
shorter version appeared in a magazine as Time Pawn. A doctor
from a near future world is shanghaied into a more distant future where
death is a virtue and the practice of medicine is forbidden. He is sent
to a prison colony on Mars, but never arrives, having been intercepted
by agents of the people who snatched him out of time so that he can
restore to life a man who has been in suspended animation for decades.
There are some mild paradoxes before things resolve themselves and our
hero is restored to his own time. A bit more conventional than Dick’s
other early novels. 11/3/22
The Test Tube Girl
by Raymond Palmer, Armchair, 2022
This
originally appeared in a magazine in 1942 under the name Frank Patton.
It’s very short and set in a future in which the Nazis developed a
weapon that caused sterility throughout the world. Faced with
extinction, humans develop a method of creating viable children outside
the womb. Predictable and rather boring. 11/2/22
The Fires of Pompeii
by James Moran, BBC, 2022
A
Doctor Who novel based on an episode from 2008. The Doctor and friends
are visiting Italy to watch the eruption of Vesuvius when they discover
something very strange. Creatures living inside the volcano have unusual
powers and they are planning something dire for the human race. The
Doctor is almost at his wit's end trying to foil the plot and not alter
history irretrievably, but naturally he perseveres. Competently written
and quite straightforward. Good story. 10/30/22
Time Out of Joint
by Philip K. Dick, Doubleday, 1959
Ragle
Gumm lives in a small town that is clearly peculiar right from the
outset. It’s not long before the reader realizes it is an artificial
environment designed to contain and make use of Gumm, who is obsessed
with a newspaper competition that is actually much more than it seems.
The contradictions begin to bother him when he has some strange
hallucinations (?) and he decides to escape the trap and find out what
the real world is like. The hallucinations are never really explained,
particularly since other people can see them. The plot device of an
innocent appearing contest actually being a major battle plan was
borrowed much later by Orson Scott Card for Ender’s Game.
10/26/22
Dimensions
Unlimited by Berkeley Livingston, Armchair, 2022 (originally
published in 1948)
Another
writer who never quite made it to the paperback market. This novella is
as good as some of the lesser books in that format, and it’s clearly
better than Eando Binder and others, but it’s completely forgettable.
Prominent men have been vanishing, and it turns out they are being
transported to other “dimensions,” although actually they are alternate
worlds, not dimensions. A typically thinly described hero figures out
what is going on and has adventures in multiple worlds.10/26/22
Fear
Today – Gone Tomorrow by Robert Bloch, Award, 1971
This
collection is almost entirely science fiction, which was not really
Bloch’s strength, although “Toy for Juliette” is quite good – a time
traveler kidnaps a mam who turns out to be Jack the Ripper. Aliens
discuss the foibles of humanity. The cure for overpopulation ends up
being even worse. People travel through time for various reasons.
Venusians invade Earth in the form of beautiful women. A couple of real
good stories, a couple of rather bad ones, and the rest are all
entertaining. 10/24/22
Eye in the Sky
by Philip K. Dick, Ace, 1957
One of
my favorites of Dick’s novel. An accident at an experimental station
throws eight people into a shared coma. A succession of world masters
emerge, each shaping the world to their preconceptions – religious
mania, paranoia, political fantasizing, a dislike of sex, etc. The
various characters have to survive in the odd worlds in which they find
themselves, and incapacitate the architect of each reality. This was the
first of his novels to use genuinely surreal imagery, though it is
completely rationalized in this case. I suspect this was great fun to
write and it’s still a real treat to read. 10/23/22
The World Jones
Made by Philip K. Dick, Ace,
1956
Yet
another post-apocalyptic dystopia, this one based on Relativism. All
absolute statements are illegal, although infractions such as saying
“chocolate is the best flavor” are normally tolerated. Jones is a precog
– he knows the future for the next year in detail and insists that it
cannot be altered. He also believes that non-intelligent alien Drifters
which have recently been encountered in the solar system are actually a
threat to humanity. For all of his foreknowledge, Jones is unable to see
the consequences beyond a year and his plans go awry. Rather a
depressing story on many counts.10/20/22
Eversion by
Alastair Reynolds, Titan, 2022
I
have to avoid spoilers on this one. The protagonist is a doctor aboard a
19th Century sailing vessel, or is it a steamship from a generation
later, or a dirigible looking for an entrance to the hollow earth? He
and his fellow crew and passengers are always on the verge of exploring
a bizarre artifact when he is killed and the narrative restarts in
another setting. The explanation was not a complete surprise, but there
are some nice twists and a couple of really haunting scenes. Excellent
and fast moving. 10/19/22
The Dead End Kids
of Space by Frank M. Robinson, Armchair, 2022 (originally
published in 1954) w3219
An
amusing but not particularly memorable novella in which a group of young
wannabe entrepreneurs realize that an unlikely planet is going to become
an important nexus in human interstellar civilization, so they launch a
quiet campaign to take control of the planet ahead of time.
Unfortunately for their plans, they aren’t familiar with the planet’s
culture and soon find out that they have bitten off more than they can
chew. The results are mildly humorous and the story is well written.
10/17/22
Faster Than Light
by Harl Vincent, Armchair, 2022 (originally published in 1932)
A
somewhat convoluted but basically readable novel in which the exhaustion
of natural energy sources causes some people to take an experimental
starship to another solar system in search of a new source. The
impracticality of that is never addressed. They are successful, but this
sets off a power struggle on Earth and the colonized planets which
involves the usual intrigue, double dealing, and mild violence. Not a
classic though readable. 10/14/22
The Man Who Japed
by Philip K. Dick, Ace, 1956
Another
dystopian novel in which a rather repressive society emerges following
an apocalyptic war. The protagonist makes morally correct films for the
government to transmit, but he begins to have blackouts during which he
vandalizes a public monument. Before he realizes the truth, he is
briefly kidnapped to another world by people trying to psychoanalyze
him, is accused of immorality, and uses his promotion to head the
broadcasting department to televise a sarcastic fake documentary which
suggests that the founder of the state was a cannibal. Nicely done,
although it feels very circumscribed, as though most of the world
outside New York does not exist. 10/24/22
The
Best of Sydney F. Bounds
Volume I,
Venture, 2016
A
collecion of not particularly good short stories, although a few of them
at least attempt to rise above pulp level. They involve the escape from
an irradiated Earth, a magically evil painting, a space hero who really
wasn’t, derelict alien spaceships, secret alien observers, and other
standard plot elements. The book includes the complete text of a short
novel that had only appeared in a translated Italian edition, The
Predators. It’s a routine story in which humans are used as
mercenaries by the galactic government, which is fearful of humanity’s
penchant for violence. 10/12/22
The
Best of Sydney F. Bounds
Volume II,
Venture, 2016
Most
of the stories in this volume are quite short – some only four pages
long – and a few of them are horror. Bounds wrote horror increasingly
late in his career. There is also a novel, Star-Trail, published in
Italian in 1977 but never before in English. A journalist investigates a
family that built an interstellar dynasty, and discovers that there is
actually only one man involved. He discovered the secret of immortality
and changes his name every few decades. This was actually the best of
Bounds’ novels, although the bar is pretty low for that
distinction. 10/12/22
Frontier Legion
by Sydney F. Bounds, Venture, 2016 zz72
One
novella and eight short stories, all standard SF adventure themes. The
novella involves a secret mission to Pluto that is complicated when the
protagonist gets amnesia. The other stories, none of them memorable, are
about alien invaders, secret masters of the world, racing spacecraft, a
couple of plague stories, and some mild satire. Bounds was fairly
prolific but never particularly popular so it is a bit surprising that
this publisher has brought so much of his work back into print, although
I’m sure it is print on demand. 10/12/22
Solar Lottery
by Philip K. Dick, Ace, 1955
Dick’s
first published novel is set in a future where games theory and
superstition rule the solar system. The supreme ruler is chosen by a
supposedly random mechanism, but is subject to legal assassination as a
counterbalance. A power struggle during a change at the top is mixed
with a possible first contact with aliens, telepathic bodyguards, and
the creation of an android into which human minds can be transferred. It
was a more ambitious work than most other Ace Double titles but dates
well and features more deeply drawn characters than was common in the
genre at the time. Some of the plot twists in the closing chapters are a
bit of a reach but it is still a quite readable dystopian novel.
10/10/22
The Robot Brains
by Sydney Bounds, McFadden, 1957
Three
dwarves in a traveling carnival are actually malevolent alien geniuses
who plan to take over the world. There is absolutely no reason why they
should have wasted their time in the carnival since they are self
sufficient and can teleport. There are internal contradictions in the
plot, but eventually we learn that the brains are from the future, they
are not robots, and they are trying to change history. Fortunately the
Watchers – never explained – intervene and thwart them. 10/9/22
The Way You Came in
May Not Be Your Best Way Out by Paul Difilippo, Wildside, 2022
The
latest collection of varied and often almost indescribable stories by
this author. There are two novellas, the Lovecraftian "In the Lost City
of Leng" and "Aeota," a surrealistic private detective story in which
the nature of reality is fluid. The short stories include one connected
to "Who Goes There" by John W. Campbell Jr., a Lovecraftian parody, and
others that mix humor, satire, and series subject matter. I had read all
but two of these before and liked them all, and the two new to me were
just as good. The story for the Harlan Ellison memorial collection is
also excellent. 10/6/22
The Waning of a
World by W. Elwyn Backus,
Armchair, 2022 (originally published in 1926)
This
is an early and rather minor interplanetary romance. Two men from Earth
make the first trip to Mars, a dying planet, and find that intelligent
humans inhabit the world, although they live in relatively primitive
conditions. There is a political struggle underway because a would-be
dictator has decided to force the woman who is the last member of the
royal family to marry him, thus giving him the aura of legitimacy. She
resists strenuously but her fate seems sealed until the arrival of the
offworlders throws a wrench into the villain’s planning and provides an
alternate future for the planet. The prose is okay, but dated, and there
are actually a few scenes that work well in developing the other worldly
atmosphere, but the plot is a standard one from historical adventure
stories and is not very interesting. 10/4/22
The Eden Mystery
by Sydney Bounds, Ulversoft, 2009
This
posthumous novel has only appeared in this large print edition insofar
as I can determine. The interstellar human Federation is on the verge of
civil war and a prominent but secretive merchant may be about to use his
influence to affect the outcome. A journalist investigating the family’s
history runs into increasingly serious obstacles. He eventually
discovers the family secret – virtual immortality – and helps to avert
an interstellar war. Dull. 10/4/22
Lords of
Creation by Eando Binder, Belmont, 1966
A
not awful book from the Binder brothers, whose work generally feels like
comic book strips being novelized. The protagonist is in suspended
animation for more than three thousand years and wakes up in a future
where Earth’s climate has radically changed, along with human society.
He tries to find a new place for himself, but is soon involved in issues
he does not understand and which under normal circumstances he would not
be able to influence. The story is trite and predictable but much better
than their usual efforts.
The World Wrecker
by Sydney Bounds, Digit, 1956
A
madman finds a crashed spaceship and adapts its equipment so that he can
walk through walls, generate earthquakes, disintegrate human heads,
neutralize falling bombs, and create a kind of antimatter. He plans to
detonate the last under both poles in order to flood the entire Earth.
Our hero runs into some living aliens – giant crows from Mars! – but
they are forbidden to interfere in human affairs. Except that they do
and help capture the madman, then bundle him off to Mars to be cured of
his insanity. Bad. 10/1/22
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