Monday, July 1, 2013
As lots of you probably know, I love Dick. I know how that might sound, but I obviously mean the acclaimed science fiction author Philip K Dick (get your minds out of the gutter!) I remember when I was first introduced to Dick, which was all the way back in freshman year of high school. In my English 9 class, we were reading a bunch of sci-fi/dystopian books/stories, so we read Ayn Rand's Anthem, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, and then Philip K. Dick's short story, Minority Report. In just five pages, Dick painted a beautiful story, with an elaborate world and great characters. I absolutely fell in love with his writing and went out and bought all of his books. I didn't read them all immediately, but eventually (five years later, in college) I finally got around to reading all of his novels, as well as his short stories. I plowed through a lot of different parallel universes, alternate realities, dystopian futures and loved every minute of it. Since he has way more short stories than novels, I thought it would be a good idea to just focus on his novels for this list. So, let me share with you my five favorite novels by my favorite author: Philip K. Dick.
5. Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
I absolutely love a good dystopia. Some of my favorite books involve a really messed up dystopian society (like Lois Lowry’s The Giver.) So you can imagine my fascination with the dystopian society that Dick established in Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. In this future, after a second Civil War, the US is under a dictatorship, that is enforced by the National Guard and US Police Force. I think that the world building is the best part of this book, while the story takes a bit of a backseat (but is still really awesome.) If you like dystopian insanity mixed some cool sci-fi elements, then this is definitely for you.
4. A Scanner Darkly
Bob Arctor is an undercover agent, known as Agent Fred, who assigned to spy on the drug den (read: household) of...Bob Arctor. Yea, that is the most normal thing about this book. The drug of choice of the residents of this house is Substance D (also known as Slow Death, Death, or just D.)
Dick is great at toeing the line between science fiction and just a regular drama. I think that A Scanner Darkly is one of the best examples of that. The novels uses some cool science fiction elements to further the plot, but is very grounded in reality. The most trippy part of the book is his descriptions of what happens when you take Substance D and how f**ked up it really is. This ain't your everyday drug. You've been warned.
3. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter who is tasked with ‘retiring’ six fugitive androids, who are living under assumed identities. That is a very basic description of the book, but I find that the less people know going in, the more they get sucked into the philosophical aspects of the book.
Of course this book is going to be on my list. Even if you don't know this book, you really do. It was adapted into a little movie that you might have heard of called Blade Runner. This was the first of Dick's works to be adapted (sadly posthumously) and really put his work on the map to the general public. The story is very sci-fi and touches on some really cool concepts that, at least for me, will probably become a reality in the future. I mean, when androids are real, how will we know we aren't one? Scary, right?
2. The Man in the High Castle
What would have happened if we had lost World War II? How would our lives be different today? Would we still be around, even? These are the questions that are investigated in Dick’s Hugo Award winning novel, The Man in the High Castle.
This novel is probably the least "science fiction" of all of his works that I read, but is so high concept that you have to admit that it is pretty freaking awesome. While it can, essentially, be described in one sentence, the novel takes you on a ridiculous ride through a world that is run the Japanese, Germans, and Italians. Towards the end of the novel, it gets pretty messed up and self-reflective, so you might want to strap yourselves in. This is an amazingly well written book and showed to me that Dick doesn't write strictly sci-fi, but can make any genre conform to his style.
1. Ubik
Ubik revolves around a team of anti-psychics who are sent to corporate clients who seek security from psychic spies. When a rival company abushses this team, one of the memebers is seriously injured, having to be placed into a sort-of stasis to remain ‘alive.’ After that, all bets are off. Things start going awry, time starts moving backwards, people start ‘hallucinating,’ reality just stops being reality.
I don't even know where to start when talking about this book. It is a real mind f**k of a book. It is almost Inception-esque, if I had to compare it to anything...but it goes way beyond that. The story starts off tame and then really blows out of proportion and I guarantee you won't know what to make of it. The ever changing atmosphere of the book allows for a great opportunity for Dick to showcase his vast writing capabilities, and he really nails it.
Honorable Mentions :
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Edritch - Almost as messed up as Ubik, but not quite as awesome about it. It delves deep into reality vs unreality and has a lot of religious implications throughout the whole novel. 
Dr. Bloodmoney - This is another one of Dick’s novels that’s strength comes from the vast world building. It’s all about a post-apocalyptic world, where a scientist, Dr. Bluthgeld, caused an atmospheric nuclear accident, which led to massive amounts of fallout and mutations. This then led to hostilities with China and the Soviet Union. This is the messed up world that Dr. Bloodmoney created, and he must deal with the results of his mistakes.
The Penultimate Truth - I don’t know why I love this book so much, but I do. I really enjoy the concept of people escaping underground to restart society after some sort of catastrophic nuclear event. The idea that so many people can be tricked into staying underground is probably the coolest part to me. I guess it’s easy to convince someone of something when they think they will die if they try to see if you are telling the truth or not. 
