Customer Reviews

Lies, Inc.

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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.

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."

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.

Before we get into the text here, it's worth taking a moment to point out that this novel had probably the most disorganized publication history of any of Philip K. Dick's work. That's saying something.

It started out as a novella for Amazing-Fantastic Magazine. Ace Books commissioned PKD to expand it to a novel, but didn't like the expansion material, so they reprinted the original novella in book form. Some years later, Berkeley Press wanted to publish the expanded novel, but some of the new material had been lost. PKD prepared to write some replacement pages and rework the piece, but died before he got through, alas, so Berkeley published what it had, gaps and all. Gollancz in England published it again with new connective material written by John Sladek. Finally, PKD's literary executor found the missing pages, reworked the piece again, gave it to Vintage Books, and here it is. Whew.

Let's face it, folks - with that kind of chaos surrounding this title, it would be foolish to expect a finished, polished work, and indeed that's not what we have here. The thing is confused and confusing, awkward and misshapen in spots. It lurches from scene to scene, from theme to theme, changes plotlines at least three separate times, and leaves some important questions unanswered. But it's PKD. Which is also saying something.

Rachmael ben Appelbaum, we learn, has got some serious problems. His business, a large interstellar shipping firm, can't compete anymore - another company, Trails of Hoffman, owns teleportation technology. It can get people and goods quickly to the only viable human colony of another star, a place called Whale's Mouth. It looks awfully good to the people of miserable, overcrowded Earth. Rachmael's business is in the tank and his major creditor is all over him. Looks like he's finished, except that for some odd reason, the teleportation technology only allows for one-way trips - no one can come back. So as our story begins, Rachmael has decided to take his last remaining interstellar ship on an 18-year voyage to Whale's Mouth and see what's really going on there. He needs protection from his creditors while preparing for the journey, and that's where Lies, Inc., Earth's largest private security firm, comes in.

Anyone familiar with PKD's work knows that things are not going to progress in the expected ways from this point onwards. We are not going to get a huge space battle between Rachmael's ship, the Omphalos, and his enemy's ships. We are not going to follow him on board and read all about how the voyage plays out. We're not even going to watch him land at Whale's Mouth and learn the truth. What are we going to get? Well, that's a good question.

If the story continued in the expected manner, it would be a little-guy-fights-the-system tale or something like that. Nope. About a third of the way through it turns into another of PKD's patented treatises on the unreliability of our reality perceptions. Then, hey presto, there are aliens all over the place, of a particularly disgusting variety, not to mention a precisely accurate oracle in book form that predicts dialogue, emotion, and even the narration to accompany it all. Finally, Rachmael gets his act together, heads off to rescue the girl, and suddenly the story is over.

Now look, no one ever said a story has to follow any rules, especially in science fiction, but how many loose ends can you tolerate? PKD sets up murderous confrontations and never resolves them, he introduces important characters and plot points well over two-thirds of the way through, he has people and things in two or three places at once for no reason at all. Come on, already.

If this was anyone other than PKD I'd say that makes "Lies, Inc." a lousy mess. Even with PKD at the wheel, the thing still runs off the road. On the other hand, despite the errors in logic and organization, it makes a kind of sense, if only because of the main character's point of view. Rachmael ben Appelbaum finds himself at the receiving end of enormous, worldwide agencies from the very start and never really gets a handle on the conflict's true nature - you expect a story about this guy to wrap itself up neatly? What are you, nuts?

No doubt PKD would have polished up the story's roughest edges, given time. The fact that we lost him beforehand is no reason to ignore "Lies, Inc." - it's just a shame that he didn't get his chance to work out some of these ideas. You don't get a coherent plot or a shapely narrative, but you do get a lot of other good stuff.

How about creditor balloons that hover over people day and night screaming about what deadbeats they are, for instance? Or time travel, drugs and wireless telephony used as weapons of war? Or a hallucinogen that produces the same delusion in everyone who takes it - does that mean the delusion is the true reality? (Check out PKD's novella "Faith of Our Fathers" for a cleaner examination of that one.)

You even get some weighty linguistic games. The hero's name is Rachmael ben Appelbaum ("God's mercy, son of the apple tree" in Hebrew and Yiddish); he's up against UN Secretary General Horst Bertold ("bright ruler of the forest" in German), not to mention Trails of Hoffman CEO Theodoric Ferry ("ruler of the people and transporter" in German and English). And his love interest is named Freya, after the Norse goddess of love. No wonder his ship is called Omphalos, Greek for "navel" - with all that going on, I'd want to climb back into the womb, too.

So "Lies, Inc." doesn't quite work, largely because its author died too soon. Hardly a tragedy, but plenty sad enough.

Benshlomo says, Could have been a contender.

I am a huge fan of Philip K. Dick (PKD). I purchased "Lies, Inc." because I did not recognize the title, and I thought I was buying a novel previously unknown to me.

By page 2 of this novel (Lies, Inc.), I realized that I was reading "The Unteleported Man," a novel I previously read back in 1972. When I got to Chapter 8 of "Lies, Inc." it suddenly turned into an acid-head-in-wonderland writing experiment (which was obviously, by my recollection, not part of "The Unteleported Man."). A few chapters later, I put "Lies, Inc." aside and then re-read "The Unteleported Man" (as printed in the 1972 Ace Double, along with "Dr. Futurity"). After completing that, I returned to and finished "Lies, Inc."

"The Unteleported Man" is rather good. I would rate it four out of five stars. The problem with "Lies, Inc." is this: Philip K. Dick did not complete it. "Lies, Inc." was pasted together after his death by folks who thought they understood his intentions. In the process, they really screwed it up. The editorial history of "Lies, Inc." is explained in the novel's afterward, has been repeated in reviews here, and can also be found on the PKD website.

In short, a stand-alone novelette of some 100 pages has been pasted between pages 72 and 172 of "Lies, Inc.," with most of the text from "The Unteleported Man" occurring before and after these pages. This new section is essentially one big acid trip (if you like that sort of thing). While this inserted novelette uses character names from "The Unteleported Man," there is very little connection between the two sections. In fact, the added material essentially ruins "The Unteleported Man." Also, in the process of merging these two sections, gross problems were introduced at the first transition (not described here to avoid a spoiler). I am sure, PKD (if he had lived) would have fixed these problems.

I would have preferred to have "The Unteleported Man" re-printed as originally published, with the second novelette included as a stand alone entity at the end. Shame on publishers and editors who try to make a buck by vitiating the works of dead artists.

If you have not previously read "The Unteleported Man," I would recommend that you find and read a copy of THAT novel and skip "Lies, Inc."

i really don't want to give away too much in respect for all those who haven't read the book yet. just this: written between WWII and the german reunion in '89, the story confronts the reader with a very frightening and amazingly visionary view of a possible future world. i personally found it most fascinating, including its weird detour into psychedelic paraworlds.

the only negative aspect i feel i should mention here are the annoyingly numerous grammatical and spelling mistakes whenever dialogs or narrative is in german language - as a native speaker, i really got tired of stumbling over them, and i think it's a pity the editor - vintage books - didn't have a translator check the foreign language in the story for the sake of its overall quality and credibility ... given the fact that this is not the first edition of the story, and there is an existing german translation for cross-checking!

other than that, it's a great and very consuming book.

I am a lifelong PKD fan, but this is just awful. Two different and incomplete versions of the story that Dick started to develop are just pasted together in a totally incoherent way. On top of that, one of the story developments is at best mediocre and the other is worse. I don't understand how anyone can give this a good review. I would love to know how the person who edited this atrocity ever got to be an editor for a major publishing house.

is not a finished work. When authors leave something unpublished there is usually a good reason. According to the 'editor' of this volume, PDK published the beginning and the end of this book as a single, long short-story. Then he wrote an extension to go in the middle, but abandoned it. This extra section was 'discovered' more recently by the editor and stuck in place (or not) by him. As a result, although there are several solid PDK moments, the patched-together format is incomprehensible. A main character has two totally different story lines, and though that is not unusual for this author, he would tell you why. But this was not sent out into the world by the author, and therefore is not his. I guess publishing it is fine for hardened fans, but it's certainly not great for attracting new readers.

In the early 21st century, Earth has become overcrowded and has begun to look toward space as a potential new home. Only one habitable planet has been found -- Whale's Mouth -- and it's said to be a paradise. Rachmael ben Applebaum's company has developed a spaceship that will take settlers there, but the trip takes 18 years. Just as business is about to begin, it's undercut by Trails of Hoffman, Inc., a company who has developed a new teleporting technology that will get settlers to Whale's Mouth in only 15 minutes. The only catch is that it's a one-way trip -- once you leave, you can't come back. Ben Applebaum, whose company has been financially devastated by this new technology, discovers that the videos of happy settlers have been faked and thinks there's something nefarious going on at Whale's Mouth. After all, Trails of Hoffman is run by Germans, and their eugenic ideas have not been forgotten. Ben Applebaum also believes that the United Nations, also led by Germans, might be in league with Trails of Hoffman. With the help of a company called Lies, Inc., ben Applebaum sets out on the 36-year round-trip to investigate and inform the world about what's happening in Whale's Mouth.

Lies, Inc. is the most inaccessible PKD work I've ever read. It actually starts off well -- I loved the premise and couldn't wait to find out what was going on at Whale's Mouth. (Except that I still have no idea what was up with the rat in ben Applebaum's head.) But just as ben Applebaum sets out, things get really weird. Too weird. In the middle of the novel, ben Applebaum gets hit by an LSD-coated dart and most of the rest of the story is one big time-warped acid trip for him and for the reader. There's talk about paraworlds, hypnagogic experiences, paranoia, bad psychotherapy, and the illusion of reality. None of this is new for a PKD story, but this time the reader has no idea where or when the characters are. The plot jumps around in time and space and is so disorienting that the reader doesn't know what's going on. I think perhaps that if I read it a few more times, I could make more sense of it, but I really don't want to.

Suddenly at nearly the end of Lies, Inc., things get back on track. At that point, I said to myself, "This feels like someone dropped a huge acid sequence into the middle of a novella." After a few minutes of investigation on the internet, I found an afterword by PKD's literary executor, Paul Williams, explaining that that's exactly what happened. Lies, Inc. is an expansion of Philip K. Dick's novella The Unteleported Man. The huge awful chunk in the middle (you can tell exactly where it begins and ends) is an addition to the novel that was originally rejected (with very good reason) by Don Wollheim at Ace. It gets complicated after that, but basically it was added back in after Dick's death and patched up a bit by SF author John Sladek. The result is that a really cool novella was turned into something quite unreadable. I can recommend it only to PKD completists who want to know how weird it can get. To others, I suggest reading The Unteleported Man instead.

I listened to Lies, Inc. on audio. Brilliance Audio has just produced several old PKD works, and I'm excited about that! This one was read by Luke Daniels, who is fast becoming one of my favorite readers. His narration actually made the acid trip bearable -- it's probably the only reason I didn't quit Lies, Inc.

Of all the sci-fi novels by cult author Philip K. Dick, "The Unteleported Man"--in its later, expanded version known as "Lies, Inc."--has the most complicated publishing history. Those who are interested in the minutiae of this nearly 40-year saga are advised to seek out Paul Williams' afterword in the currently available Vintage edition. In a nutshell, let's just say that "The Unteleported Man" first saw the light of day in the December '64 issue of "Fantastic" magazine and then in one of those cute little "Ace doubles" in 1966. It wasn't until 1983 that the expanded edition appeared, incorporating 100 pages (around 30,000 words) of Dick's manuscript that had been previously rejected by Ace editor Don Wollheim, but with some missing sections still. The Vintage edition now in print reinstates Dick's original vision of the book...or, at least, as much as he could arrange before his untimely death in 1982. The result is one of Dick's most challenging books, those extra 100 pages (pages 73 - 173 in the Vintage edition) having served as a bone of contention among Dick's fans for years now.

In the novel, we meet a young man with the unusual name of Rachmael ben Applebaum. His family's interplanetary shipping business has recently been made obsolete by the one-way teleportation device of the outfit whimsically known as Trails of Hoffman, Ltd. With this new device, colonists can make the 18-year journey to the distant planet of Whale's Mouth in a mere 15 seconds. The only catch: They can't return the same way. Rachmael, suspicious of just what might be going on on Whale's Mouth, decides to venture there the old-fashioned way, proposing to make the 18-year trip by himself. But what he finds when he ultimately DOES reach the colony world certainly pulls the interstellar rug out from under him...and the reader! Those 100 pages of Whale's Mouth material, absent from the original novella, comprise some of Dick's most way-out speculations on the nature of objective reality; as brilliant as they are hopelessly frustrating, they represent Dick at his most extreme. Incorporating a very hallucinogenic LSD trip, hypnotically induced "para worlds" AND a time-warping device, this section is somewhat difficult (to put it mildly!) to get a handle on, and can almost be seen as one big psychedelic red herring. Skipping those 100 pages (in other words, jumping from page 73 to 173) and reading just the original short novel may be more satisfying for many readers, but even read this way, some mind-warping dilemmas spring up as regards time paradoxes. I have read "Lies, Inc." twice now and continue to be baffled by it. The Byzantine plottings of the two warring factions and the significance of the initial computer snafu on page 3 remain elusive to this reader. I can almost barely put the darn thing together in my head, but please don't ask me to explain it out loud. Let's just say that Dick fans who thought the plottings of "The Simulacra" and "The Penultimate Truth" to be complex, and those who thought the drug-induced reality bending of "The Game-Players of Titan" and, especially, "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch" to be a bit headache inducing, are really going to be in for some tough sledding here!

But perhaps I am being a bit too harsh. Although I do agree with British critic David Pringle when he calls the novel one of Dick's "least satisfactory books," and with Dick biographer Lawrence Sutin when he says that the novel is "damn weird," I still maintain that even a failure of a novel from P.K. Dick is more fascinating and readable than a "success" by many others. "Lies, Inc.," though ultimately largely incomprehensible, remains eminently readable and entertaining. It exhibits the influence of the then hugely popular spy craze, features an excellent acid trip depiction, contains what might be the first use of the word "psychotronic" (sorry, Michael Weldon!) and foresees the unification of Germany a good 25 years before the actual event. (If only Dick's prediction of a Federation of Semitic Peoples could come to pass!) And yet...is it a mistake on Dick's part that on page 85, the "white-oak blonde" is referred to as Gretch (Borbman), and then on page 92, she becomes Sheila Quam? Or is this just another cerebrum-twisting aspect of the acid trip in the para world undergoing a time warp? Take two Excedrin, read the novel and get back to me....