Customer Reviews

Solar Lottery

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In 1955 Philip K. Dick was a prolific and moderately successful writer of SF short stories, but I seriously doubt that anyone really paid attention when "Solar Lottery" hit the shelves that year. They should have. It was one of the opening moves in the game that eventually tore the SF world wide open.

There were plenty of notable exceptions, of course, but early SF largely concerned itself with great men of tremendous vision and extraordinary ability who got in there and solved problems - the kind of man Robert Heinlein liked to write about. PKD was among those later writers who noticed that most people in the real world aren't like that, and wrote stories about them instead. "Solar Lottery" lacks his later interest in what makes something real (although it does include a conspiracy in which a man with no real personality drives a whole crew of telepaths crazy), but in Ted Benteley it contains an early example of his interest in regular guys.

As is often the case with PKD, Ted Benteley finds himself in a classic SF plot turned inside out. In this case, the classic SF plot in question comes almost directly from a true genre classic, "The World of Null-A" by A.E. van Vogt. In both novels, a man tries to make his way in the world by gambling his future on the game that forms whatever government exists around him, only to find that someone is cheating. Van Vogt's protagonist is a typical post-World War II SF superman; PKD's is a talented but endlessly ticked off functionary who spends most of the novel trying to figure out what's going on.

Everything in his world depends on the random activity of an atomic device that determines the fates of millions - a lottery indeed, with one man at the head of it. What's more, for most people, the best fate they can hope for is to bind themselves in servitude to someone of a higher social position, if any such person will take them. Merit, ability and hard work count for nothing here, and there's no way up or out except by random chance for Benteley or for almost anyone else. If most early genre SF was about men of vision and courage saving the world by their own efforts, "Solar Lottery" was that SF's polar opposite.

Benteley is not as strong a hero as later PKD characters would be, partly because of his aforementioned nasty temper. He's got plenty to be annoyed about - he gets a chance for escape at the novel's beginning and misses it because someone misleads him at a critical moment. Nevertheless, dwelling in the mind of a character who's always complaining about something can wear on one pretty quickly.

Indeed, it's no easy task to sympathize with any of these characters. In addition to their unpleasant traits - uncontrollable rage, treachery, lust for power, cowardice - these people switch attitudes so quickly it can make you dizzy. The coward, for example, suddenly acquires a titanium backbone when the men who want to kill him actually show up. Of course, PKD wrote "Solar Lottery" at a time when SF novels had to end at about 180 pages by the decree of the age's major publisher, so he probably did not have space to develop his characters more fully, but it's a flaw nevertheless.

The same can be said for the novel's plot elements - there are so many seemingly unrelated ones that the central story loses its focus a good deal of the time. PKD was always among our least disciplined writers, and in addition to "Solar Lottery's" conspiracies and betrayals we also get telepaths, robotics, space travel and hints of nuclear catastrophe thrown in. When we read a longer novel, these kinds of details can add a lot to the richness of the writer's world - in 180 pages it can give you indigestion if you read it too fast.

That overstuffed quality robs "Solar Lottery" of a good bit of its velocity. I mentioned A.E. van Vogt - his take on this kind of story never lost energy for a second. His stories picked up speed from the very first word and never stopped any longer than dreams do. PKD missed out on that, but where he tops van Vogt is in the strength of his underlying theme. "Solar Lottery," for all its speed bumps, eventually makes you stop and think about what it takes to maintain one's integrity in a corrupt world. Benteley spends a good deal of time complaining about the lack of decency all around him, and his carping can get old, but isn't that a particularly important thing to complain about? And isn't it satisfying to see the protagonist of any novel, even a cheap genre piece, stand up and shake a fist at the thieves and the traitors no matter how much pressure they put on him? Isn't that the kind of person you aim to be?

Oh yeah, people should have paid attention when "Solar Lottery" came out. After all, it's about a regular person with no special powers or gifts, thwarting a great evil through the strength of his convictions alone. After this, even Superman and his overpumped muscles looked a bit silly.

Benshlomo says, Sometimes it's enough to just tell the truth.

First novel of Philip K. Dick, the 1955 SOLAR LOTTERY has very well stood the test of time and provides a peculiar pleasure to the sci-fi amateur or the PKD fan. In the mid-fifties, Dick had already written dozens of first rate novelettes and developed a certain number of themes one will encounter in his novels.

In the year 2203, a new political philosophy rules the world ; to avoid dictatorship, scientists have proposed that the world leader should be chosen by the hazard. So, an atomic kind of clock moves at random and decides who will be the next master. This ideal form of democracy presents advantages but also danger. The world leader is protected by telepaths whose role is to stop and kill those who want to murder him.

The action of SOLAR LOTTERY begins when Reese Verrick, the leader in charge, has just been evicted from his charge by a sudden move of the atomic clock. He wants his job back and sends an android to kill the new Master. This last idea lets Philip K. Dick develop one of his favorite themes ; the android is controlled by a dozen men who enter its mind at random and so are going to fool the poor telepaths. One of SOLAR LOTTERY heroes is Benteley, chosen with a few others to control the android and Dick plays masterfully with objective and subjective points of view when Benteley is "in" or "out" the mind of the android.

SOLAR LOTTERY, apart of the pleasure to discover an already great PKD in his first novel, presents accurate theories about politics, morals or sociology. Furthermore, you can also consider the novel as a subtle variation of Isaac Asimov's FONDATION.

A book deserving to be rediscovered.

Dick's first published novel, Solar Lottery (1955) is impressive and original. It was much influenced by several famous sf novels--A. E. van Vogt's complexly plotted World of Null-A, Kurt Vonnegut's dystopian black comedy Player Piano, and Alfred Bester's pyrotechnic novel of telepathic police The Demolished Man. Solar Lottery is not unworthy of being mentioned in their company. It is not quite a typical Dick novel: it lacks the humor of the later works, as well as the theme of reality breakdown, but it is quite effective on its own terms. Dick foresaw a world where all power is concentrated in the hands of the government and private corporations. A great quiz game which decides the leader, but it is rigged against the powerless. Furthermore, the system, with its built-in structure of killing its own leaders, decrees that nothing lasts or should last. In its dark, complex picture of power relationships, this novel is totally relevant today.

Since this was Dick's first novel, it is lowered in value to his great ones. In fact, I did not even read it until I had read the good reviews on Amazon and realized that I had been skipping a very exciting, fast-paced novel. I am giving it 5 stars just on the chance that others may have followed my faulty line of reasoning. Solar Lottery CAN indeed be read in a couple of days, and it is well worth your time. I was reminded of Ludlum's "Bourne" novels and of course A.E. van Vogt. It is a bit slow at first, but once it gets cooking, the chase to the end makes for some gripping hours of entertainment. Yes, all of the later Dickian elements come into play -- even identity -- although the protagonist thinks he is aware of the real situation. Don't skip it!

One of Phillip K. Dick's lesser read books, Solar Lottery is an interesing genre piece, but not much more than that. The book is full of alegorical/metaphorical content that works fairly well, but this short novel lacks the punch of his later work. For someone just discovering PDK, this book might serve as a good foundation, but compared to Valis this is small time. Still, better than most SF and certainly not a bad read. If you have a spare couple of days it is worth it to pick this book up. Especially engaging is Benteley's quest to find somewhere he can work that is not corrupt and his disappointment to find that neither the public nor private sectors can live up to his idealism.

A nice short little novel that you can read in 2 days time. Not perfect. I'm not a huge sci-fi buff, and there were parts of it that bugged me, mainly the way it seemed very 1950's (when it was written) even though it's set in the year 2203. For example, women still have a fairly subserviant role to men, everyone smokes (even on airplanes) and drinks scotch at work. Nice to know that in the future we'll be able to smoke and drink scotch in the office! None of the characters are ever fully fleshed out (though Dick seems obsessed with describing all the female character's breasts) and their behavior is sometimes unnatural and unexpected, but overall an entertaining book with a nice little twist at the end.

This book is an amazing study on human psychology and the basis of any culture with political structure. This book covers the aspects of politics, sociology, science, technology, and human development. The basis of Mr.Dick's ideology for a community based on intelligence and technology are astounding. The story follows a very detailed and easy to entreat plot. Once you start you simply can't stop thinking of how the characters and situations relate to our own society and government. A must read for any fans of Orwell or Bradbury. Worth the time to pick it up and start with page one.

In this imaginative political thriller, Dick shows us a world where leadership is determined entirely by lottery. A mid-level functionary named Benteley yearns to make a difference in this world, but finds nothing but corruption everywhere. After signing up to serve the recently ousted leader (known as the Quizmaster) Benteley finds himself part of an ingenious plot to assassinate the new in-coming leader. The key to this plan is an artificial person named "Pellig" who can be controlled by remote intelligences and so confound the telepaths who protect the new leader. Cartwright is the new Quizmaster, who has a couple of tricks up his sleeve, as well. Foremost is his devotion to John Preston, who led a quasi-religious movement that believes in the Flame Disc - the system's possibly mythical 10th planet. Will Pellig get past the cadre of telepaths who protect Cartwright? And which side will Benteley be on when push comes to shove? And will Cartwright survive long enough for his expedition to reach the Flame Disc? The outer space elements seem kind of out of place in this story - no doubt they were a concession to a target audience who wanted science fiction, not political philosophy. But this is an engrossing page-turner well worth reading.

Philip K. Dick's first novel, "Solar Lottery" was published in May of 1955. It is a relatively short novel, at around 190 pages, but it is not short on ideas or concepts. The reader is faced with a society in the year 2203 where the highest political position (Quizmaster) is chosen by a lottery which is supposed to give each person an equal chance at the position. That is coupled with sanctioning assassins which are chosen by convention to kill the Quizmaster. Another key to the society is the oaths which one gives and receives to and from people, and to organizations.

There are two significant storylines, the first is centered on Ted Benteley, a man released from his job due to some unexplained fires decides to get a position working directly for the Directorate and the Quizmaster, Reece Verrick. What he doesn't realize is that Reece has lost his position and that a new Quizmaster, Leon Cartwright, has been selected. Reece is now concerned with choosing an assassin to eliminate the new Quizmaster and regain power. The second storyline is that of Leon Cartwright, a member of the Preston Society, a kind of cult which is seeking the Flame Disc, a planet at the edge of our solar system which Preston wrote about.

The blending of the two storylines is handled in a rather odd fashion. The book focuses almost entirely on the first storyline for an extended period after introducing the second storyline in the second chapter. The reader knows the second storyline is important, but it doesn't develop until much later. In addition to the two storylines, there are quite a number of concepts dealt with in this novel. There are the Telepathic Corps who guard the Quizmaster, and the development of the special assassin to deal with Leon Cartwright. The society as a whole generates a lot of questions as well, but these are only touched on slightly.

Overall the telling of this story feels a bit clumsy, but it is still worth reading. Dick's society robs people of their individuality and their ambition, and the Prestonites are treated as cranks and oddballs, largely because they still display these attributes. This is far from Dick's best work, but as his first published novel it holds interest for those who enjoy his writings.

What I like most about Philip K Dick (arguably one of my favorite authors) is the message behind the story -- social and political commentaries, even outright warnings about things like totalitarianism, religious cults, the aftermath of nuclear holocaust, and especially technology leading social structure and dynamics in rather odd directions. Most of Dick's writings are prescient and timeless.

Solar Lottery (I think this was Dick's first full-length novel) clearly shows Dick is learning the craft in moving from SF short story writer to novelist. If anyone has read any of the interview type books, Dick was really not making anything close to a livable income off of SF writing and felt pressured to crank out stories at a prolific rate (one of Dick's colleagues supposed that the stress of producing at anything close to producing a livable income was one of the major factors in Dick's early death).

Solar Lottery is a story about a rather bizarre form of government that has evolved where a "spin-the-bottle" process is used to select the leader of the solar system, and then assassins are selected by the same process to try to liquidate the new leader. I won't spoil the story. It's good, but not, as I said, Dick's best effort. Dick improved over time like fine wine (sorry) and produced much finer and better written classics like 'The Penultimate Truth', 'The Man in the High Castle', 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep', 'Flow My Tears the Policeman Said', 'Valis', 'The Divine Invasion', 'The Transmigration of Timothy Archer'. Still, if you're a rabid PKD fan (like me), go ahead and get this one. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.