As an alternative, the Kindle eBook is available now and can be read on any device with the free Kindle app. Want to listen? Try Audible.
<Embed>
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Flip to back Flip to front
Listen Playing... Paused   You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

Follow the Author

Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.


A Scanner Darkly Paperback – December 3, 1991

4.5 out of 5 stars 1,175 ratings

Price
New from Used from
Kindle
Hardcover
$299.00
Paperback, December 3, 1991
$6.96
$25.45 $2.96

Inspire a love of reading with Amazon Book Box for Kids
Discover delightful children's books with Amazon Book Box, a subscription that delivers new books every 1, 2, or 3 months — new Amazon Book Box Prime customers receive 15% off your first box. Learn more.

Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
    Apple
  • Android
    Android
  • Windows Phone
    Windows Phone
  • Click here to download from Amazon appstore
    Android

To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number.

kcpAppSendButton

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Mind- and reality-bending drugs factor again and again in Philip K. Dick's hugely influential SF stories. A Scanner Darkly cuts closest to the bone, drawing on Dick's own experience with illicit chemicals and on his many friends who died from drug abuse. Nevertheless, it's blackly farcical, full of comic-surreal conversations between people whose synapses are partly fried, sudden flights of paranoid logic, and bad trips like the one whose victim spends a subjective eternity having all his sins read to him, in shifts, by compound-eyed aliens. (It takes 11,000 years of this to reach the time when as a boy he discovered masturbation.) The antihero Bob Arctor is forced by his double life into warring double personalities: as futuristic narcotics agent "Fred," face blurred by a high-tech scrambler, he must spy on and entrap suspected drug dealer Bob Arctor. His disintegration under the influence of the insidious Substance D is genuine tragicomedy. For Arctor there's no way off the addict's downward escalator, but what awaits at the bottom is a kind of redemption--there are more wheels within wheels than we suspected, and his life is not entirely wasted. --David Langford, Amazon.co.uk

From Publishers Weekly

America in the near future has lost the war against drugs. Though the government tries to protect the upper class, the system is infested with undercover cops like Fred, who regularly ingests the popular Substance D as part of his ruse. The drug has caused Fred to develop a split personality, of which he is not aware; his alter ego is Bob, a drug dealer. Fred's superiors then set up a hidden holographic camera in his home as part of a sting operation against Bob. Though he appears on camera as Bob, none of Fred's co-workers catch on: since Fred, like all undercover police, wears a scramble suit that constantly changes his appearance, his colleagues don't know what he looks like. The camera in Fred/Bob's apartment reveals that Bob's intimates regularly betray one another for the chance to score more drugs. Even Donna, a young dealer whom Bob/Fred loves, prefers the drug to human contact. Originally published in 1977, the out-of-print novel comes frighteningly close to capturing the U.S. in 1991, in terms of the drug crisis and the relationships between the sexes. But the unrelenting scenes among the addicts make it a grueling read.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Always the perfect gift

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; Reprint edition (December 3, 1991)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0679736654
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0679736653
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.5 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.17 x 0.72 x 7.99 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 out of 5 stars 1,175 ratings

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
1,175 global ratings
How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2018
Verified Purchase
25 people found this helpful
Report abuse
Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2018
Verified Purchase
10 people found this helpful
Report abuse
Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2018
Verified Purchase
14 people found this helpful
Report abuse
Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2016
Verified Purchase
14 people found this helpful
Report abuse
Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2021
Verified Purchase
One person found this helpful
Report abuse

Top reviews from other countries

Kindle Customer
1.0 out of 5 stars Not for me
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 2, 2019
Verified Purchase
6 people found this helpful
Report abuse
Matt van Staden
1.0 out of 5 stars Difficult to understand
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 7, 2018
Verified Purchase
7 people found this helpful
Report abuse
Syriat
5.0 out of 5 stars Inspired
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 19, 2012
Verified Purchase
9 people found this helpful
Report abuse
Herefordrob
5.0 out of 5 stars My thoughts
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 6, 2021
Verified Purchase
Ben
5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite PKD work
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 23, 2014
Verified Purchase
6 people found this helpful
Report abuse