Philip K Dick favourites?

'Flow my tears, the Policeman said' is certainly the best I have read so far. I find Dick to be a very variable writer, and I struggled to enjoy 'Time out of Joint' and 'The penultimate truth'. I loved 'Do androids dream of electric sheep' though I prefer the film (which - and I could be wrong - seems to have also been a little influenced by 'The space merchants' by Frederik Pohl and CM Kornbluth). 'The Man in the high castle' is also a good read. I have still yet to try 'Dr Bloodmoney', 'A scanner darkly', 'Valis' and 'Ubik' which are on my to-read list.

Of the film adaptations, I enjoyed Total Recall (based on 'We can remember it for you wholesale'?) and Screamers (based on 'Second Variety') though I did not enjoy 'A scanner darkly'. I must read those three and see how they compare to the film adaptations.
 
Jennifer Kirk said:
'Flow my tears, the Policeman said' is certainly the best I have read so far. I find Dick to be a very variable writer, and I struggled to enjoy 'Time out of Joint' and 'The penultimate truth'. I loved 'Do androids dream of electric sheep' though I prefer the film (which - and I could be wrong - seems to have also been a little influenced by 'The space merchants' by Frederik Pohl and CM Kornbluth). 'The Man in the high castle' is also a good read. I have still yet to try 'Dr Bloodmoney', 'A scanner darkly', 'Valis' and 'Ubik' which are on my to-read list.

Of the film adaptations, I enjoyed Total Recall (based on 'We can remember it for you wholesale'?) and Screamers (based on 'Second Variety') though I did not enjoy 'A scanner darkly'.
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As you arer in the UK you may be interersted to know that 'The Man in the high castle' is to made into a BBC series!
 
Jennifer Kirk said:
'Flow my tears, the Policeman said' is certainly the best I have read so far. I find Dick to be a very variable writer, and I struggled to enjoy 'Time out of Joint' and 'The penultimate truth'. I loved 'Do androids dream of electric sheep' though I prefer the film (which - and I could be wrong - seems to have also been a little influenced by 'The space merchants' by Frederik Pohl and CM Kornbluth). 'The Man in the high castle' is also a good read. I have still yet to try 'Dr Bloodmoney', 'A scanner darkly', 'Valis' and 'Ubik' which are on my to-read list.

Of the film adaptations, I enjoyed Total Recall (based on 'We can remember it for you wholesale'?) and Screamers (based on 'Second Variety') though I did not enjoy 'A scanner darkly'. I must read those three and see how they compare to the film adaptations.
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People had pointed out to me that Dick kind of went downhill during the early 70's. I actually liked every novel I've read of his... Except for Man in the High Castle. It was my first experience with PKD and was probably a bit too deep for me to understand at the time.

As for Valis and UBIK. UBIK is up there with Flow My Tears and would probably make a brilliant movie. Valis is, well, bizarre. Though in a good way :)

I also highly recommend PKD's short story collections, which include Second Variety. While a lot of them touch on common PKD theme's, there is quite a lot of variety to be had.
 
Diggler said:
People had pointed out to me that Dick kind of went downhill during the early 70's. I actually liked every novel I've read of his... Except for Man in the High Castle. It was my first experience with PKD and was probably a bit too deep for me to understand at the time.

As for Valis and UBIK. UBIK is up there with Flow My Tears and would probably make a brilliant movie. Valis is, well, bizarre. Though in a good way :)

I also highly recommend PKD's short story collections, which include Second Variety. While a lot of them touch on common PKD theme's, there is quite a lot of variety to be had.
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Of his 70's compositions I've only read Flow My Tears ... (1970) and Radio Free Albemuth (1976), both are absolutely fantastic works. But having just read The Cosmic Puppets (1953) I think his work from the 60's are clearly the most impressive and perhaps the blackest. I would pose that he went from black in the 60s to bleak in the 70s.

As for Ubik as a movie, definitely! I recently watched Cold Souls with Paul Giamatti (hasn't he done a Dick biopic?) and was reminded of aspects of Ubik. Personally I can't get enough of his stuff, but it is bloody hard to come by (yes, I know I should get my Dick fix online).
 
Gully PKD most of his books are in print in UK too. I can choose several publishers even by covers of the book.

60s are his mature stuff but 70s are his more weird,over the top PKD style. Both are great. Only his 50s was the younger,learning PKD.

Many of the fans say his 70s have his best novels Scanner,Flow My Tears etc. I wouldnt say he went downhill when he wrote those novels.
 
Connavar said:
Many of the fans say his 70s have his best novels Scanner,Flow My Tears etc. I wouldnt say he went downhill when he wrote those novels.
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I think this was in regards to A Maze of Death and Our Friends From Frolix 8 which were both released in 1970. While I haven't read Maze, I have heard bad things. Frolix 8, while not being up to the the usual standards, was still an enjoyable read.
 
Diggler said:
I think this was in regards to A Maze of Death and Our Friends From Frolix 8 which were both released in 1970. While I haven't read Maze, I have heard bad things. Frolix 8, while not being up to the the usual standards, was still an enjoyable read.
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Yeah i have read Maze and it still is the only weak story/novel of PKD i have read. Like he forgot to write in his usual strong themes,characters.

Yeah 60s must be his most consistent era, since it was the middle of his career. Just defending 70s novels that was of high quality some of them too.
 
I have to agree Connavar, the 60's would be his golden era of writing. Though in hindsight, I have yet to be disappointing in any of his novels. Even Man In the High Castle, which I didn't really get into, still had characters and a plot that was compelling.
 
I quite liked Maze of Death--it had this desolate other world feel thats fairly unusual for a PKD novel. I also like the sheer thought experiment of a universe where prayer does work, its just that we had to build the right radio antenae.
 
I really enjoyed Ubik - gave me goosepimples.

I also really enjoyed the films Bladerunner and A Scanner Darkly and both are on my to read list!
 
I love (pretty much) everything PKD,
but if I were to list my 'top 5',
I'd go with-

UBIK
Time Out Of Joint
Flow My Tears...
A Scanner Darkly &
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

my favorite of his mainstream novels is
"Puttering About In A Small Land"

(But I still have yet to read "Mary & the Giant" & "The Broken Bubble")
 
I read Ubik last month and I am reading Valis currently. I have never read anything else by Dick. Any recommendations? I really enjoyed Ubik and I am sort of enjoying Valis.
 
If you liked Ubik, maybe try The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch or Martian Time Slip. He wrote them during the sameish period of his writing career and, like Ubik, are very idea-driven, eventful, eye-ball kicking novels.

If your more into Valis, then A Scanner Darkly is not a bad way to go: very near-futurey, thoughtful SF.
 
Finished Flow My Tears ..., the other night. First PKD book. Pretty good story, and I love his writing style (some say it is pedestrian?), but I have to admit the adverbs got a little out of control, and the way he broke up his dialogue with tags was kind of irritating.

Going to read UBIK next.
 
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