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Philip K. Dick – Time Out of Joint | Review

Title: Time Out of Joint

Author: Philip K. Dick

Type: Fiction

Page Count: 192

Rating: 3.5/5

This book presents itself as one thing but is something very different. What we actually have is something a little bit like The Truman Show in which the protagonist slowly starts to realise that there’s something shady going on behind the scenes and his reality is being manipulated.

For me, I found that it the reading experience was a little jarring, because it kept feeling as though reality was fine and then suddenly it was nuts and then it was back to all just fine again. Maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention, but if that’s the case then it’s arguably the book’s fault anyway.

I just think that some of Dick’s other work was more engaging, and this just sort of felt as though he was rehashing old territory. Part of that might be because Dick has influenced a ton of people, and it’s not really his fault if this felt familiar because it’s been copied a bunch of times. It was still pretty good and worth reading, though.

Learn more about Time Out of Joint.

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Philip K. Dick – Our Friends From Frolix 8 | Review

Title: Our Friends From Frolix 8

Author: Philip K. Dick

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 222

Rating: 9/10

Philip K. Dick – Our Friends From Frolix 8

This book is one of those weird books that starts out by feeling completely alien to you, and yet by the end of it, you’re thoroughly immersed in the fantastic, futuristic world that it portrays. Of course, Dick is the master of science fiction, and so it’s unsurprising that he’s able to build a world as compelling as the one that’s featured in Frolix 8.

Loosely speaking, I’d describe this as a sort of futuristic, nihilistic 1984 – it has many of the same hallmarks in that it’s a dystopian novel with an all-powerful government, only in this case it’s populated by people with psychic abilities and/or extraordinary levels of intellect. We follow a number of different characters as they await the return of an exiled rebel, who’s made contact with an alien race and who plots to free the Old Men, the proletariat, from the tyranny of the current system.

It’s a fantastic book and it’s a lot of fun, and even though you do need to concentrate from time to time so that you know what the hell is going on, that’s no bad thing. There are also plenty of action sequences, and there’s never a dull moment. Recommended!