Simulacra (Sf Masterworks) [Paperback]

Philip K Dick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 9, 2004 | Series: Sf Masterworks

A few years from now the President of the USA will be an android and his entire government a fraud. Everyone in the country is maladjusted. Doesn't seem possible, does it? Welcome to the world of Dr. Superb, the sole remaining psychotherapist. Philip K. Dick tells a story of desperate love, lethal body odour and an attempted fascistic takeover of the USA and shows that there is always another layer of conspiracy beneath the one we see.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Written in the late 1950s and early 1960s, these titles follow Dick's familiar theme that things and people are not quite what and who they seem, basically challenging reality. Though dead for 20 years now, Dick still is hugely popular among sf readers and Blade Runner nuts, so pop for these.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

“Dick . . . has chosen to handle . . . material too nutty to accept, too admonitory to forget, too haunting to abandon.” --The Washington Post

“Dick [was] many authors: a poor man’s Pynchon, an oracular postmodern, a rich product of the changing counterculture.” --The Village Voice



From the Trade Paperback edition. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Gollancz Paperbacks (September 9, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0575074604
• ISBN-13: 978-0575074606
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.7 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,386,860 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Anarchic energy, June 7, 2004

By 

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

This review is from: The Simulacra (Paperback)

This is a grab bag of almost all the themes and character types found in Dick's other novels written in the early 60s. Everything is here: a repressive police state, a ruling elite in conflict with huge cartels, a charismatic cult leader, a fascinating and ruthless woman, time travel, psychic powers, Nazis, androids, emigration to Mars, and mind-manipulating media and simulacra. It shows that the way society appears to be structured is a complete fake, and that media manipulation conceals the real centers of power. Dick crowds more characters and different points of view into the anarchic pages of pages of this novel than in any of his other books. But it does not seem to go anywhere: it is a plunge into the deeper waters of Dick's universe, but without any clear re-emergence into the air. The energy is more frenetic than transformative. Such a tour de force lacks the impact of Dick's major works, though it is a dazzling ride. It's pure PKD.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Prescient!, December 22, 2002

By 

Mac Tonnies (Kansas City, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Simulacra (Paperback)

"The Simulacra" is probably the most convoluted, mystifying--and potentially dangerous--political thriller ever penned. With his trademark ear for dialogue and sensitivity to human foibles, Dick eviscerates authority in all of its guises, revealing levels of curruption and secrecy so vast and complex they transcend the comical. Along with such masterpieces as "Radio Free Albemuth" and "Time Out of Joint," "The Simulacra" is one of Dick's most effective conspiracy yarns, written with irony, insight and humor. As usual, Dick excels at evoking a world where nothing is as it seems and truth is the rarest of commodities. Vintage's reissue of this scathing novel couldn't have come at a better time.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Perverse, Eclectic, But Not Quite A Finished Product, July 11, 2002

By 

miles@riverside (Indio, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Simulacra (Paperback)

The first half of this book introduces a slew of bizarre story situations and ideas, but unfortunately none of them really gets fleshed out to my satisfaction.

The most interesting to me was the composer who feels he's steadily disappearing and converting into a foul smell. I was never completely sure if he was making this all up in his mind or if it was really happening to him. He spends most of his time in the book trying to contact the one remaining psychologist on earth; and the dwindling psychologist problem is another intriguing idea that doesn't seem to go anywhere. Ditto for the Nazi official who's brought forward in time, I forget to what purpose. The same for the Mars-colonization supplier that specializes in lifelike robots that function as your friendly neighbors for those lonely, desolate Martian locations (just a little reminiscent of the "Perky Pat" episode from PALMER ELDTRITCH, although this story never really gets off the Earth). And the papoolas, what was the point there?

Although most of Dick's novels have a lot of humor in them, this one seems to take nothing seriously. It's difficult to get involved with the characters. Everything that happens seems like a joke. The novel has several interesting scenes, but the work as a whole is not one of Dick's better efforts.