looking for other authors like PKD

[alchemate]

I've read several PKD books and love him as an author. But as the supply of new PKD content runs low, I want to find others authors out there like him. Any suggestions?

 

[johnnyjet]

Of course, there are quite a lot of PKD books and story collections out there. Most are very good. So it might take you a while to get through everything.

And PKD is pretty unique. However, you might try Charles Stross, Chris Moriarty or Rudy Rucker for wild ideas that remind me of PKD. If I think of some others, I'll pass them on.

 

[tylenol4000]

I second Rudy Rucker. But Charles Stross? I beg to differ ;p

I highly recommens AE Van Vogt. His prose and writing style in general is very similar to PKD. He was also apparently a big influence on Mr. Dick. I also recommend John Brunner. Robert Charles Wilson perhaps.

So yea, check those guys out FOR SURE! But also remember, PKD was one of a kind. No one is quite like him, but the authors i mentioned may very well scratch that itch

 

[johnnyjet]

Beg to differ all you want, tylenol4000. (Back to you ;p)

It's great fun to have differences of opinion. However, we both agree that PKD is clearly one of a kind. He is still my all time favorite author.

 

[Terence Park]

He's written plenty. You must be a reading monster. It'd be a mistake (imho) for authors to imitate him. having said that, I can't deny his influence.
Lots of other of great writers about.

 

[BAYLOR]

Limbo by Bernard Wolfe

 

[Andy Mender]

I saw reviews drawing parallels between PKD and William Gibson's Neuromancer. I finished the book recently and although it did not feel like one of PKD's, the main protagonist is as crippled as many of PKD's protagonists. Probably worth checking out .

 

[Caliban]

Read Philip K. Dick is Dead, Alas - by Michael Bishop

 

[tinkerdan]

Definitely a hard person to follow.
I agree that some of Brunner's work is close.
I'd also suggest looking into
L.P. Davies
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00005VG8J/?tag=brite-21

 

[dwsowash]

Arthur C Clarke, Ursula K Le Guin, Ray Bradbury, Lord St. Davids, William Harrison, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Roger Zelazny, Fritz Leiber, and Thomas Disch are a few.

I consider then a subgenre of science fiction called speculative fiction.

 

[dwsowash]

I've read several PKD books and love him as an author. But as the supply of new PKD content runs low, I want to find others authors out there like him. Any suggestions?

Arthur C Clarke, Ursula K Le Guin, Ray Bradbury, Lord St. Davids, William Harrison, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Roger Zelazny, Fritz Leiber, and Thomas Disch are a few.

I consider then a subgenre of science fiction called speculative fiction.

 

[Terence Park]

I've read several PKD books and love him as an author. But as the supply of new PKD content runs low, I want to find others authors out there like him. Any suggestions?

Dick's main period of output was the 50s and 60s. I got onto him in the early 70s and for some time found him little different from other authors - in time I latched onto his different phases. Philip E High's works were not dissimilar, content wise to his early novels. When Dick started writing, few SF authors had the luxury of an agent or a book deal - this was back in the early 50s - so short stories were the way to the market. Much of Dick's early fiction was short and a good selection of what he was up against was collected / edited by Kingsley Amis & Robert Conquest in Spectrum I through to V. These are well worth a read as they give a good idea of where the genre was back then - and don't skip their introductions.
The explosion of New Wave onto the scene emboldened some to experiment. In principle, Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions is an exploration of new writings from existing and new authors at the time and I would recommend it as a taster for what was on offer.
Individual titles that might be worth dipping into:
Michael Moorcock: The Black Corridor (Moorcock sang Dick's praises but imo this is his only work remotely similar)
JG Ballard: The Terminal Beach, The Drought (or anything by Ballard brefore Crash which borders on torture porn)
John Christopher: The World in Winter, Pendulum (underated British writer)
DG Compton: Farewell, Earth's Bliss
Edmund Cooper: The Overman Culture, Sea-horse in the Sky (Cooper is underrated)
Brian Aldiss: Barefoot in the Head, Report on Probability A (Barefoot is of its time, Probability is still unfinished imo)
Samuel R Delany: Dhalgren (I didn't finish this and preferred his inter-galactic stuff tbh)
Mark S Geston: Lords of the Starship
Maybe worth a look: Vincent King, Barry N Malzberg, Keith Roberts, John Sladek and early Ian Watson.

 

[Baquevory]

I think that David Foster Wallace have some similiarities with Phillip K. Dick. His novel Infinite jest presents a world full of advanced technollogy, but the quality of life is very poor in general terms. Also, Foster Wallace's characters presents a sensibility that remainds me to the characters of Do androids dream of electrical sheeps? But the style is completly different, because the point of view in Foster Wallace's narration are very strange and it makes the reading very difficult. In any case, I reccommend so much to read this author.

 

[Fried Egg]

Urslua Le Guin's "The Laithe of Heaven" is generally regarded as her tribute to Philip K. Dick.

Another author who I think explored some similar themes but is stylistically quite different is Christopher Priest.

 

[BAYLOR]

Slan by A E Van Vogt