Customer Reviews

VULCAN'S HAMMER

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

 

 

Vulcan's Hammer is a very conventional early science fiction story about the future of the world dominated by a computer. Naturally the humans catch on that this situation has drawbacks, and a rebellion is launched. But with Vulcan's Hammer the computer doesn't take kindly to any encroachment on its reign.

Unlike the author's later works there aren't any deep-rooted social commentary with Vulcan's Hammer. And this story is completely readable; I believe many Philip K. Dick fans enjoy deciphering his often unintelligible prose. Best of all the story reads as a suspense novel, with the author deftly placing in twists to keep the reader hooked .. and it worked for me.

Bottom line: a fun if somewhat unremarkable read. Recommended.

In the world of `Vulcan's Hammer', humans have apparently given up on their political power. They are under the authority of Vulcan III, a massive underground computer that ended war, unemployment and poverty years ago. Two human factions are set against each other: the Union, led by many high-profile directors including William Barris, and the `Healers', a rebellious group seemingly led by a mysterious figure named Father Fields. Many questions are submitted daily to Vulcan III, but the machine has not yet said a word about the group; people are quick to blame head-director Jason Dill, the only one allowed to submit such questions. In addition to the powerful Vulcan III, there's also the older Vulcan II, which is destroyed but still reveals crucial insights about the Healers and Vulcan III when some of its remains are reconstructed. The `Union versus Healers' opposition can be multiplied by at least three, because there is some discord a) in the Union itself, b) in the Healers movement, and, most interestingly, c) between the machines. Both of the Vulcan computers play as big a role as the humans, and often seem just as `alive' as they are. The entire work can be seen as an ongoing mind game, sometimes between men, sometimes between man and machine, sometimes between the machines themselves; it is a lot more substantial than its dismal reputation would lead the unsuspecting reader to believe.

This minor novel in Dick's oeuvre is the tale of a giant computer, Vulcan 3, to which humanity has acceded absolute power over the fate of the world. Its flying "hammers" are deadly extensions of itself, spying on everybody and killing whomever it perceives as a threat. One needs to be very paranoid indeed to survive against this paranoid machine. Vulcan 3 is not as memorable a character as another killer computer, HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Both, however, are representations of the disembodied intellect becoming self-aware and preempting the unmechanical wisdom of the feelings. Vulcan is a metaphor for the failure of the rational thinking mind to integrate the irrational feeling side of the personality. The result is that the ego is mechanized, or Vulcanized, and the wrath of the fire god is visited upon a self-destructive humanity. These mythic overtones aside, the book is mainly of interest to the Dick afficianado; those new to PKD could more profitably begin with almost any of his other science-fiction novels.

Vulcan's Hammer is one of my favorite PK Dick stories. Supercomputers, human frailty, and worldwide devastation have never been entwined in a more original and engaging fashion than the one articulated in this book.

The late Philip K. Dick was a genius. He wrote 6-8 masterpieces, which should be required reading for anyone with some interest in science fiction.

However, he also wrote some plain awful novels in order to make a living. In general, the books he wrote in the 1950s are his worst with Vulcan's Hammer being his worst published novel ever (in my opinion). The story is flimsy and dull...one of Dick's biographers (Lawrence Sutin) also cites it as probably being his worst book.

I'm only writing this review because I just can't believe the number of positive reviews for this book. If "Man in the High Castle", which is probably Dick's best work, deserves 5 stars... then by that scale, Vulcan's hammer deserves a 0.5.

The fact that this book was even reprinted is a shame...a real waste of paper.

The main ideas of VULCAN'S HAMMER, the second of the two Philip K. Dick books published in 1960 - the first one being the already forgotten DR. FUTURITY -, can be found in a 1956 novelette presented in Satellite n° 20. Such borrowings were then common, authors developing a novelette to the length of a novel even years after the first publication. A.E. Van Vogt and Isaac Isamov for instance used this innocent literary trick in numerous occasions.

VULCAN'S HAMMER reminded me of another PKD novel, also published in 1956, THE WORLD JONES MADE. In the two novels, the established government is threatened by a democratic revolution. Father Fields, the leader of the " Healers ", must fight not only the Nomenklatura of the sole ruling party but also the Vulcan computers to which a trusting world has left years before the entire responsibility in political matters. Soon Vulcan III will defend itself against those who want its death by producing little "hammers" that kill, observe and communicate with a Vulcan deeply hidden in the ground. One could consider these hammers as the first cellulars ever mentioned in a literary text.

Some of the novels Philip K. Dick has published in the late fifties-early sixties period stand very well the test of time thanks to the originality of the themes treated - as in EYE IN THE SKY - but others like VULCAN'S HAMMER are very dated. The idea of a fight between computers and humans for supremacy is not, in my opinion, the most original idea found in a sci-fi book.

Nevertheless, if you can find a copy of VULCAN'S HAMMER, don't hesitate to buy it because a book that is not read is a dead book and Philip K. Dick deserves to stay alive in our libraries.

A book for PKD ultra-fans only.

One of the joys of reading PKD is the complexity of his novels. In VULCAN'S HAMMER the world is governed by a super computer that believes it is threatened by earlier versions of itself, (fun stuff here), and feels threatened by an anti-computer movement called "The Healers". There are no cut-and-dry good guys/bad guys in this novel, creating more twists and turns than a roller coaster. Look hard for this one. You won't be disappointed.

There's a review of Philip K. Dick's work somewhere that calls this the worst of all of his novels. I wouldn't go that far - I have a couple of other candidates - but considering that "Vulcan's Hammer" was the first science fiction novel that PKD wrote, we are not surprised that it's a little weak in spots. Everything takes practice.

The plot concerns an executive, William Barris, in a world where all policy decisions are made by the massive computer Vulcan 3. Of course, a rebellion has sprung up. The novel even kicks off with a politically motivated murder, something of a rarity in early pulp sf. Barris, the protagonist, spends the rest of the story trying to decide whether to fight for the status quo or change sides. Meantime he follows the chain of evidence toward the monster computer, encountering various monsters and weirdos on a path so direct it's practically the Yellow Brick Road.

As is typical in PKD's work, early and late, this plot is nothing new. Rebellions against computer-driven dictatorships can be found all over the place, told from the rebel point of view (George Orwell), the technician point of view (Kurt Vonnegut), and occasionally both (John Brunner). "Vulcan's Hammer" is a rare example of the three-point-of-view story. We hear from Barris, the upper-level executive; from John Dill, the managing director of the entire computer-based government; and from a few of the rebels themselves. Not bad for a 130-page quickie.

Here's another impressive detail; John Dill, the evil villain of the novel's first half, develops in its second half into a sort of tragic figure, one of those "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain" deals. It turns out that he's honestly been doing the best he can, and that the genuine evil resides elsewhere. We all know about the damage that can be done by those whose intentions are good, but considering that "Vulcan's Hammer" was really nothing more than a pulp adventure, even this much depth in a character provokes a certain amount of gratitude.

The same can be said for the leader of the rebels. This is Father Fields, and in an ordinary cheap paperback of the period he would be a saint on Earth, something like Gandhi without the oddball personal life. Not in PKD, even this early; Father Fields is not only a blue-collar working man rather than a mountaintop philosopher, he's also enough of a political pragmatist to accommodate everything up to and including murder in the pursuit of his goals. Lesser authors were content to replace authority they disliked with authority they liked in their fictions. This author was smarter than that from the very beginning of his career.

Yes, all of this is impressive indeed, and furthermore PKD handled his plot with efficient skill. Unfortunately, that skill did not extend to his lead characters. William Barris begins and ends the novel as an independent-minded can-do type that Robert Heinlein would have been proud of, without even a hint of self-doubt or personal development. The primary love interest disappears halfway through and doesn't re-emerge until the very last page, just in time to admire the protagonist with great big googly eyes. For all the care the author takes to describe a genuine change in the political environment of his world, the lack of progress in his people blunts a good bit of his story's impact.

Worst of all, in his first novel, PKD establishes a good, messy, complicated plot with lots of interesting obstacles, both personal and political, and then proceeds to wrap the whole thing up in a nice neat bow that practically screams "And they all lived happily ever after". I don't think I'm spoiling too much by telling you that in the last five pages of "Vulcan's Hammer" the freedom-loving rebels unhesitatingly agree to a compromise with the forces of order. The male and female leads, having exhibited only a moderate and entirely academic interest in each other before, seem about ready to fall into each other's arms. The tragically misguided ogre has met a tragic fate and the minor characters, having served their purpose, have conveniently disappeared so as to leave the stage clear for the traditional ride off into the sunset. Ding-dong, the witch is dead. You've got to be kidding me.

I'm prepared to forgive a good deal in an author's first book of science fiction, particularly if that author then develops into Philip K. Dick, but the weaknesses of "Vulcan's Hammer" remain weaknesses. That may be why the novel failed to sell for several years, giving "Solar Lottery" pride of place as PKD's first published novel. Good thing, too - "Lottery", for all its thefts of classic science fiction notions, is a genuinely original work. "Vulcan's Hammer", though perfectly enjoyable, is not. Don't make it your introduction to science fiction's most original, bizarre, infuriating and mind-blowing master. Read a few other things first.

Then take a picnic, a bottle of red wine, and your favorite person to the park on a spring day, read "Vulcan's Hammer" together, and imagine what it must have been like for Philip K. Dick when he was young, optimistic, clumsy and brilliant. You know what you'll find? That even science fiction can ring a few changes on "The Wizard of Oz".

Benshlomo says, Remember that your sweetheart was young once, too.

Well, it seems to me like this book has a little bit of controversy around it. "Is" it a "true" Philip K. Dick sci-fi masterpiece, or isn't it? I suppose your answer to that question will depend on whether or not you like this book. For me, so far I'm still just dipping my toe into the PKD world. I've read Man in the High Castle, Flow My Tears the Policeman Said, Lies Inc, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and A Scanner Darkly so far. I have to say, I very much enjoyed Vulcan's Hammer.

Yes, it's certainly more conventional than some of the others, but I found plenty to like. I especially liked the thematic device that all of the humans were acting like robots (I suppose except the Healers), and the computers were acting more like living organisms. A bit predictable perhaps on some of the story threads, a bit immature perhaps when compared to later works, but still... highly enjoyable, at least to this reader. I have to say, I certainly prefered it to Valis, which I've attempted and given up on. I found that one just a bit too... obfuscatory, I guess.

If you can keep an open mind, if you like good classic sci-fi, I think Vulcan's Hammer stands up pretty well. If you liked HAL in 2001, then the Vulcan 3 might have some resonance for you. But if you're expecting the full-on Dickian mind-twist, then this book probably will not live up to your expectations, unless you really dig down into it (and even then, it's not the same). But that doesn't mean you can't enjoy it. I did, and it certainly encourages me to continue delving the world of all things Dickian.

1960's Vulcan's Hammer is the third novel Philip K. Dick wrote but his first science fiction entry and the first to be published. This will not surprise anyone who reads it; though clearly the work of a talented writer with significant potential, it is obviously an early piece. Initial readers could hardly have predicted Dick's future greatness. The plot is essentially a pastiche of SF clichés, fully lacking the compellingly surreal originality that became Dick's main asset. This means that, in contrast to many later novels, the story is straight-forward and comes to a conventionally satisfying conclusion. His inimitable prose style had also yet to coalesce, though there is more evidence of it than of future plot strengths; ditto for his unusual dialogue and zany black humor. All this may mean that those who normally dislike Dick's work may be pleasantly surprised, though lack of originality probably prevents this. Fans of his better work will be disappointed if they expect greatness, but the book does touch on many themes - paranoia, governmental corruption and repression, etc. - that were later brilliantly expanded.

All told, excepting non-fans feeling particularly adventurous, only hard-cores should bother. Though enjoyable on a limited scale, Vulcan's almost certainly would have disappeared years ago if not for Dick's well-deserved reputation, and it indeed all but did so before his work's posthumous revival. His seemingly ever-increasing readership will be glad it exists, but it is a very minor part of his canon. Anyone new to Dick should read at least a dozen of his novels and several dozen short stories before this.