Lies, Inc. [Hardcover]

Philip K. Dick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1984

Shortly before his death, Philip K. Dick expanded his novella The Unteleported Man into Lies, Inc., a hallucinatory novel that explores Dicks hallmark themes of conspiracy, totalitarianism, and the thin line between illusion and reality.

When catastrophic overpopulation threatens Earth, a company begins offering teleportation to Whales Mouth, an allegedly pristine new home for migrs. The only catch is that the trip is one way. But when one man discovers that the images of happy settlers have been faked, he sets out on an eighteen-year trip to see if anyone wants to come back.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Dick was...one of the genuine visionaries that North American fiction has produced in this century." --LA Weekly

"If there's such a thing as 'black science fiction,' Philip K. Dick is its Pirandello, its Beckett and its Pinter." --Harlan Ellison --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

A masterwork by Philip K. Dick, this is the final, expanded version of the novellla The Unteleported Man, which Dick worked on shortly before his death. In Lies, Inc., fans of the science fiction legend will immediately recognize his hallmark themes of life in a security state, conspiracy, and the blurring of reality and illusion. This publication marks its first complete appearance in the United States.

In this wry, paranoid vision of the future, overpopulation has turned cities into cramed industrial anthills. For those sick of this dystopian reality, one corporation, Trails of Hoffman, Inc., promises an alternative: Take a teleport to Whale's Mouth, a colonized planet billed as the supreme paradise. The only catch is that you can never comeback. When a neurotic man named Rachmael ben Applebaum discovers that the promotional films of happy crowds cheering their newfound existence on Whale's Mouth are faked, he decides to pilot a scapeship on the eighteen-year journey there to see if anyone wants to return. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Gollancz; Revised edition (June 1, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0575034491
• ISBN-13: 978-0575034495
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,848,766 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bye objective reality, June 5, 2004

By 

Doug Mackey (Fairfield, IA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lies, Inc.: A Novel (Paperback)

The first half of this novel was originally published in book form in 1966 under the title The Unteleported Man. Dick expanded the novel, and its presently published form as Lies, Inc. (2004 edition), represents his intentions for its final form. The first half was a fairly routine political intrigue set in a world where much of Earth's population is emigrating via teleportation to a distant planet. The second half has only a tenuous relationship to what proceeded it and is the most bizarre piece of writing that Dick ever produced. It is an account of what happens to the main character when he gets hit by an LSD dart: he experiences a series of psychedelic "paraworlds," or different classes of hallucinated realities experienced in altered states of consciousness. This second half spins so far out of both the author's and the reader's control that the sense of objective reality dissolves altogether. We are immersed in total insanity. So it becomes a trip in a very real sense-but forget about any satisfaction from the artistic unity or structure. There isn't any.

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A strong but baffling effort by Dick, April 20, 2004

By 

Eric San Juan (Brick, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Lies, Inc.: A Novel (Paperback)

Philip K. Dick's "Lies, Inc.," now published in its complete form for the first time after making the rounds as "The Unteleported Man," is a baffling book combining Dick's penchant for creating well-realized alternate timelines, his frequently expressed cynical views of a bleak future, and a foray into a delusional, drug-induced (?) world that will leave readers scratching their head for some time.

Like most of Dick's works, the back cover blurb barely scratches the surface of what we can expect. Sure, all of the facts are true enough, but as readers familiar with Dick know, all is not as it seems.

In fact, "all is not as it seems" is a major, all-consuming theme in Lies, Inc. It is the theme that drives the narrative forward, setting in motion a chain of events - some of them wholly unreal - that leads us to an unusual conclusion. And just as the main character questions the reality presented to him, when done reading the book, some readers may wonder just how much of what they read was as it appeared.

Roughly halfway to two-thirds of the way through Lies, Inc., the story takes an abrupt left turn, delving into a world of paranoia, drugs, hallucinations, alien creatures and alternate worlds. It is a perplexing turn, written in a hazy, meandering manner. And just as suddenly we are plunged back into the story as we left it, the narrative not missing a beat. The nature of the diversion - what it means to the narrative, what events were actually taking place and which were delusions, whether any of it really happened at all, and what the POINT was - is puzzling, because Dick provides us with no answers. Whether that is a strength or a weakness depends on your tolerance for having unanswered questions dangled before you.

By the end we circle back to the main narrative, nary a mention of the drug-induced diversion, and we finish the story. Baffling, but wholly satisfying as a read.

Taken as a whole, Dick has certainly given us better, but when Lies, Inc. shines, it does so brightly. It is a worthy read for any fan of his work, though newer readers might be inclined to start with a more accessible book, such as "The Man Who Japed" and "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep."

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars TO TELEPORT OR NOT TO TELEPORT?, February 3, 2005

By 

Worldreels (MANKATO, MN) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Lies, Inc.: A Novel (Paperback)

LIES, INC. was thoroughly distorted by the screwy editing. Despite the declaration in the last paragraph of the AFTERWORD by Paul Williams, the insertion of 100 pages into the middle of Dick's novella, THE UNTELEPORTED MAN, couldn't be the way PKD intended. It makes no sense as published. The reader should skip from page 73 to page 173 and, thus, read one coherent story. Then, as Williams fails to suggest, read the 100 page insertion (P 73 to P 172) as a second novella. It is two books in one. Yes, there are overlapping characters in both books, but it just doesn't fly as published. Each story has a different plot.

The broken up 100 pages of THE UNTELEPORTED MAN tells the story of ben Applebaum attempting an 18 year journey to the planet, Whalesmouth, in a regular old space ship. Applebaum wants to prove that the one way teleporting is a phony, German scheme to start up a military force that could one day conquer earth. The other inserted 100 pages tells the story of the same character being teleported to Whalesmouth, then shot up with a drastic hallucinogenic. The LSD visions open up the possibility of inhabiting several gruesome paraworlds. The theme there was to fit in or die. There really is no coherent plot flow connecting the two stories. The naive attempt to combine them amounted to an unforgivable distortion of both. Someone must speak out for the deceased Dick.