Rating: Summary: Can-D vs. Chew-Z: Transubstantiation and Hallucination Review: Far off on inhospitable planetary colonies, volunteers "chosen" by the UN make their lives bearable by chewing a drug called Can-D, which temporarily transports them into the life of the doll Perky Pat. The drug becomes a kind of religion, with fanatic users arguing that they really are transported into Perky Pat's world and that the experience constitutes a kind of Holy communion. Meanwhile, Palmer Eldritch returns from his ten year journey bearing a new kind of drug-- Chew-Z-- a competitor to Can-D. He claims that while Can-D promises a new life Chew-Z can actually provide it. However, there seem to be more than a few catches...A book that deals with Dick's perennial obsessions-- God, the nature of reality, and the experience of the Holy. The ending gets a little too tangled for this to be one of his best works.
Rating: Summary: Great, But... Review: I've read around 25 of PKD's novels, this one twice. What bothers me about this is though the story is strong, the characters vivid, the theme bursting forth on every page of the novel, I tend to think that it isn't as clear or direct as "Time out of Joint' or 'Eye In The Sky', 'Ubik,' or even lesser known works such as 'Our Friends From Frolix 8.' Nonetheless it is a grea story but just too much for me. I'll have to read it again, I guess.
Rating: Summary: religious masterpiece Review: This novel has a religious basis. People have refered to this as an 'LSD', or 'wildly disorientating' novel, but that is simply not the case. I guess many people don't really understand what PKD is getting at. This book deals with God and Satan, as well as the phenomenon of the wine into blood thing, ontology etc. I'm not qualified to discuss these issues, but it must be said that they were of profound importance to PKD. As a SF novel, 3 Stigmata is absolutely brilliant. The ideas in this book are enough to ensure its brilliance alone; like Perky Pat and Can-D (which I felt was sheer genius on PKD's part), the hovels on Mars, the extreme temperatures on Earth (although this gets little attention as the book progresses), E-therapy, and of course Palmer Eldritch himself and Chew-Z. The time-travelling as a result of Chew-Z provides some of the best moments in the book, and the ending, where Barney and Palmer Eldritch merge into one... well, this defies words. If anything is flawed in this book I believe it is the characterisation. In PKD's best books you feel strong empathy for the characters, good and bad (a prime example of this is Ubik.) Aside from Palmer Eldritch himself, who is a brilliant character, the chars. are not PKD's best. Barney, Leo, Roni, Emily are half the people Glen Runciter and Joe Chip are. This is not my favourite PKD novel, but that is due to the subject material, not the execution of the novel. '3 Stigmata' is the first really religious PKD novel, and it stands as a precursor to later works such as 'Valis' and the 'Divine Invasion.'
Rating: Summary: Amazing Review: This was the first book by Dick that I have read, I am reading more! , but it just about blew me away. The whole story is just amazing. He spends lots of time setting up the characters which gives that extra insight to how they may feel and see things. The whole way I was guessing an outcome of the ending, but there was no way I could look that deep. He drags you through many realizations and keeps you thinking and guessing the whole time. WONDERFUL ending. This is a must read book.
Rating: Summary: I really do love PKD... Review: ...but I honestly don't think this is one of his stronger works. In all truth, a lot of the surreal, subjective- reality business here felt almost like a parody of Dick's usual territory. ("Here are some characters. Their reality keeps shifting, and they never know what is and is not true. Watch them bumble around confusedly"). It seemed kinda...routine. Mind you, an average PKD novel is still brilliant by anyone else's standards, but compared to opuses like Do Androids Dream... and UBIK, I feel The Three Stigmata is a bit lacking.
Rating: Summary: The scariest, truest, fiction book out there. Review: When I finished this book I sat there for about five minutes just thinking about how true this book was. The drug, Chew-Z, which the story is about is an amplification of every psychedelic drug out there. The scene were Leo bullero is on Chew-Z is so much like being on mushrooms that it was scary. After I read this book I quit mind altering drugs such as mushrooms. It is a great book even if you are not a PKD fan. The book is a huge alegory of the current drug market and the people who buy the drugs. It shows how once you get on a psychedelic drug it stays with you for a long time. I recomend this book to everyone.
Rating: Summary: Dazzling, extroardinarily textured Review: It's "about" nearly everything, (but mostly the eucharist, guilt, drugs, reality, virtual reality, entropy, redemption and the very human hope that Happiness (or God) can be found in a syringe, bottle or pill). In the hands of any other writer this book would simply collapse under its own weight, but Dick makes it seem light, and quite entertaining. I kept returning to this novel as the implications of each idea began to grow in my mind.
Rating: Summary: Philip K. Dick has overed himself Review: A marvellous book by Philip K. Dick again. I've read some other books he's written, but this I think is the best. I'd say this is a perfect book. And I didn't highly overate!
Rating: Summary: I WAS TRANSLATED Review: Another fantasitical tour de force. Once again, Dick questions our conceptions of metaphysics and epistemology in great Dickean style. When reading Dick's best works, your perceptions are altered, and Palmer Eldritch definitely alters your perceptions.
Rating: Summary: hmm... Review: I have to admit, this is not my favorite Dick novel. It deals with a familiar theme--the nature of reality--but here it seems so overdone as to be almost a parody. It's not bad, but it didn't grip me as much as most. You gotta love the "Barbie and Ken" scenes, though...
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