What is Philip K Dick's best book, and why is it UBIK? It's also his comfiest

What is Philip K Dick's best book, and why is it UBIK? It's also his comfiest.

A Scanner Darkly.

It's so well-written. I like the movie and even that isn't half as good as the book.

Flow My Tears is a close second.

bump

A Scanner Darkly is great, and second the movie is actually alright.

I read Ubik recently and I think it was my least favourite PKD I've read. It was still great though.

Definitely all about The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch though. The book is a cosmic mind-fuck, really dark, and the perky-pat can-d chew-z are a testament to PKD's fantastic imagination. Creepy book. My personal favourite.

I agree. Of Dick's books that I've read, Palmer Eldritch is my favorite though Scanner Darkly and UBIK are not far behind.

ubik......simbly....ubik

I've read Ubik, Three Stigmata, and Man in the High Castle and found them all of the same caliber.


What are some of Dick's better lesser-known works? In every discussion of him, people mention everything itt plus a handful of others like Flow my Tears and Valis. But the man wrote dozens of novels, not to mention all those short stories. How are those?

Eye In The Sky is really fun.

I'm dying to read Ubik but I heard it was one of his more inaccessible if you hadn't been introduced to his works before. Is this true? What's the best place to start with PKD? I have Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep, The Penultimate Truth, Valis - are these a good starting place?

U131

His short stories are all excellent.

I've only read Ubik. I don't understand how it could be inaccessible since the themes are obvious enough and the prose is nothing complex.

Fair enough, user. I'll dive straight in then.

>ubik
>comfy

I feel like an idiot for not seeing the twist and when it hit me, it fucking hit me. It's good but definitely not a comfy book.

Ubik isn't inaccessible. It was the third Dick novel I read after Do Androids and Three Stigmata and I had no problem with it. You can start with it if you want, I don't see a reason why not. I'd recommend to read at least five or six novels by him before you start VALIS. It'll be more fun when you're better familiar with Dick.

Alright, sounds like pretty good advice. Thanks, user

>dick
>well-written
No. His writing is mediocre at best, often a lot worse than that. People read dick for his ideas.

Haven't read Ubik yet
Androids is great though. Pretty different from the movie and while I think Blade Runner is a better movie than DADoES is a novel it's still a superb book and a must read if you like the film.

Filip f fick is amazing at crafting syntax

>His writing is mediocre at best
Just because he doesn't propound away with big philosophical terms or flowery poetics doesn't mean he's a bad prose writer, which even if that were true is the lamest criticism you could deliver, especially of 70s paperback science fiction. Are you expecting Melville or something? Dick writes about robots and drug addicts. Anyway, here's a passage from "The Divine Invasion:"

>He restored a certain measure of time--and saw Elias Tate come and go about the room, enter and leave; he saw accretional layers laminated together in sequence along the linear time axis. The Hepplewhite cupboard remained for a short series of layers; it held its passive or off or ret mode, and then it was whisked over ints its active or on or motion mode and joined the permanent world of the phylogons, participating now in all those of its class that had come before. In his projected world brain the Hepplewhite cabinet, and its bone china pieces, became incorporated into true reality forever. It would now undergo no more changes, and no one would see it but he. It was, to everyone else, in the past.

Fuck you.

>"The pain, so unexpected and undeserved, had for some reason cleared away the cobwebs. I realized I didn’t hate the cabinet door, I hated my life… My house, my family, my backyard, my power mower. Nothing would ever change; nothing new could ever be expected. It had to end, and it did. Now in the dark world where I dwell, ugly things, and surprising things, and sometimes little wondrous things, spill out in me constantly, and I can count on nothing."

I wouldn't say it's mediocre at best but the guy desperately needed an editor. He very often sat down at his typewriter hopped up on speed and the resulting text was sold and slapped directly into scifi rags.

He's a great author and Palmer Eldritch is my favorite of his books but it has probably the single most awkward sentence I've ever read in a novel. He compares a woman's orgasm to a frog being electrocuted or something, I'll post it when I get to the book.

I recently read Eye in the Sky and thought it was great. Idk if I've ever been disappointed by a PKD book except for pic related. Even his obscure stuff is riveting.

meant to post a Man in the High Castle edit

Always feel completely lost when I start a new PKD book as he drops you in often with zero context. I realised after reading a few that concepts carry over across books, which help to know. I started with VALIS which I loved, particularly the way it's framed. Also read The Simulacra, The Penultimate Truth and Ubik which are all great. I've got Do Androids... to read next. I think his prose can be deceptively good, it's quite understated.

I just read Valis. Man i understand how some might like it but damn this book just jumped around too much. Needless to say i couldnt stand it. He makes esoteric references to the plot lines that drove me crazy.

In a way i liked it. It made me feel like PKD, unsure, questioning everything and unsure of who or what i am. But this book was way too much. The beginning was great, but the middle of it just lost me, so many stretching assumptions.

Why did you like this book?