A Scanner Darkly

Rating:
Summary: We're all being controlled by lasers from space!
Review: This is Philip K's hyper-paranoia book. Of course, all of his books to some degree rely heavily on knowing the difference between "reality" and the totally subjective; but only in A Scanner Darkly do the two fluctuate so. Our main character(s)' reality switches before our eyes. In this book, you can see the brilliance that eventually lead to Philip K's madness, but you can also see his glaring insight into people and his terrific sense of humor. The first 150 pages of this book had me laughing out loud in a way I haven't done since Catch 22. The only fault of A Scanner Darkly may actually be intentional. As the life of Bob Arctor disintigrates into incomprehensibility, so does the book. You can tell Philip K. has something important to say in the last two chapters, but it's difficult to tell on a single reading what it may be. My suggestion: only read this book if you are willing to re-read the end and willing to spend the next year reading everything else PKD wrote. The man is just worth it.

Rating:
Summary: Frighteningly real, yet what is real?
Review: Though this is PK Dick's own avowed favourite, it is not my own... However, this painful work is like a trip into our own consciousness, our own shifting realities.

Rating:
Summary: Very Deep!
Review: I too thought the book was boring on the first read through. I read it again and now I am contemplating a third time. A Scanner Darkly is an amazing look at drug addiction and the war on drugs. One theme that I see in this story: The 'War On Drugs' is perpetuated by the establishment (Government), at the expense of the addicts, for the benefiit of the Government. This is perfectly clear when the ending is analyzed. That is, this book points a critical finger at our governments handling of the 'drug problem.'

Rating:
Summary: !excellent!
Review: Philip K Dick was the first science-fiction author who forced me to reconsider my conception of reality. The book A Scanner Darkly was such a great read that I would pigeonhole friends while we were passing a bowl and read aloud to them passages during my stoner years, living in a studio apartment w/ two other guys & no job... I read that damn book fifty or more times, highlighted important passages, and gave away several copies. The same can be said for Radio Free Albumeth, which I found a little bit more readable than VALIS, albeit similar subject matter. I credit my minor schitzophrenic break directly to PKD, during the year of which I read PKD, & only PKD. His earlier science-fiction, then his exegisis, then on to his short stories... he was as important to my imagination as he was to my religious studies. Not too many authors can pull that off.

Rating:
Summary: not a novel, a documentary
Review: Actually this is a fairly accurate portrayal of living in Costa Mesa in the mid-1970s.

Rating:
Summary: Lovers of Life
Review: As the author says in his note, he is the novel. In fact, Philip Kindred Dick writes in ordinary language, about the inujstly punished lovers of life, through dramatic situations, exposing them in a comic style. With all his soul he expresses his regret for the hipocrisis of the installed system, twisting thw already twisted reality. Undoubdtly the book of my life. Very intense, funny, and very, very serious, and above all, extremily intimist. I take off my hat.

Rating:
Summary: Better Dead than Fred
Review: The title is a reference to a new testament passage which goes something like.. Once I saw as a child sees (clearly) but now I see as through a glass darkly. Narc agent Bob Arctor watches the underground world he is supposed to police through scanners but as his own drug addiction becomes progressively more disorientating his grasp on the reality he is observing begins to slip. Add to this a group of impossible doper housemates, an illusive girlfriend, endless police bureaucracy and a bizarre assignment to observe himself, Bob faces a truly harrowing battle to keep hold of the facts and his sanity. Dick lifts our expectations in a genre blessed with few genuine literary talents. The drug addled dialogue is 100% authentic and thus the humour and pathos is all the more resonant. For me PKD best work.

Rating:
Summary: 5 stars for dick fans, but still a great book for its genre
Review: PKD fans will probably find this book to be one of his top ten, i still think it ranks just below Do Androids.. and Time out of Joint but right above Ubik and Flow My Tears.. the particular thing about A Scanner Darkly is that it is a book that you will either love or detest, it's more literate than Burroughs and says something completely different, i think most will find that the Book's back of the cover description falls far short of what the contents of the book is actually about and what the plot/style trully holds for the reader. If you like Dick's Grittier, more Realistic, Personal and Alienating works, you will love this book, if you just want weird sci-fi, it will fall short.

Rating:
Summary: Scanner Darkly: a trip into the duality of man.
Review: Philip K. Dick's seminal novel of drug abuse and the nature of man is a commanding and at times hilarious examination of narcotics subculture. Police officer Fred is living a double life as both vice detective and slacker/drug dealer Bob Arctor. Philip Dick examines the double side to the soul as Fred and Arctor, one in the same, lose each other as their common life spins out of conrol at the hands of the mythical drug, substance D.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing...
Review: I just finished reading "A Scanner Darkly", which is the first book I have read of Philip K. Dick. After reading it, it has become my favorite book I have EVER read. It's a truely amazing piece of writing. I am still thinking about all of the issues it presents. Also, by reading just one book of his I can easily tell right now that PKD will become my favorite author. Now the hard part is which book I should chose to read. It took me 2 days to finally decide to have "A Scanner Darkly" be my first PKD novel I read.