Rating: 
Summary: Great book, philisophical intense, well written!
Review: This book is astounding, a mad search for humanity and a mans insanity. Written like no other book I have read, a must for Sci Fi fans. The book incorporates philosophy and religious mysticism into a science fiction novel, based on PKD's personal religious experience that haunted him the rest of his days. This book will make you think hard about the reality we inhabit and pose new questions you have never thought of before.
Rating:
Summary: a true mind shock
Review: If you went thru the 60's and are interested in alternate theories for the nature and meaning of God you should partake in this rollercoaster ride.Parts are still a total mystery to me, but what a ride. You will either absolutely love this or scurry back to traditional views real quick.
Rating: 
Summary: Dick's ultimately too-personal work.
Review: I have become, in the last few years, a great fan of Philip K. Dick. I find his unconventionally stuctured stories to be both refreshingly honest and thought-provoking. Valis exhibits the most extreme examples of both of these traits in any of Dick's works that I have read. It is an incredibly personal work. The emotion that Dick felt as he was writing is almost palpable. As well, the philosophies that Dick struggles with are wonderfully surreal, especially since they appear to be completely truthful statements from Dick's personal religious journey. Ultimately, however, I feel that the intensely personal nature of the book is to its detriment. Dick struggled to reconcile his Valis experience with his philosophy and was often bewildered. Readers, learning about them second-hand, will be even more confused. I feel that unless you are willing to read this book several times and perhaps do an in-depth study of Dick's life, this book will end up leaving you feeling somewhat shortchanged.
Rating:
Summary: THIS WORK WILL NEVER BE EQUALLED
Review: NO OTHER AUTHOR CAN FILL THE PAGES OF A BOOK WITH RAW HUMANITY BETTER THAN THIS MAN AND I DOUBT ANY EVER WILL. UNDOUBTEDLY THE BEST OF DICK'S WORK BESIDE MAYBE RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH. DON'T BELIEVE IT IF ANYONE TELLS YOU PARTS DON'T MAKE SENSE OR ENDS ARE LEFT LOOSE. THIS IS LIKE SAYING CONCIOUSNESS SHOULD HAVE A DECISIVE TRACKABLE PLOT LINE. IT SIMPLY ISN'T SO. THE FIRST THREE PARAGRAPHS OF THE BOOK INTRANCE AND INSTANTLY DEMAND ATTENTION IN THIER SCOPE OF HONEST HUMAN EMOTION. WE FOLLOW HORSELOVER THROUGH HIS OWN STREAMS OF CONCIOUSNESS THAT AT TIMES ARE SO GENUINELY REAL THAT ONE FEELS LIKE THEY ARE INVADING SOMEBODY'S PRIVATE PLACE IN SPACE. THE BOOK ISN'T SCIENCE FICTION IT'S A TESTIMONY TO THE HUMAN STRUGGLE (THAT MOST HUMANS SEEM OBLIVIOUS TO AND WOULD GO MAD IF THOUGHT TO LONG ON) TO MAKE SENSE OF THE TRUE PURPOSE OF ANYTHING WE DO. IT'S HARDER TO DESCRIBE WHAT IT IS THAN WHAT IT ISN'T. IT ISN'T THE RAVINGS OF A PARANOID (THOUGH HE WAS), OR THE DISJOINTED THOUGHTS OF A NEO-HIPPIE, NEW AGE WRITER DRIBBLED ACROSS PAGES WITHOUT REASON, IT IS A CRAFTED SLICE OF OUR LOST HUMANITY IN A MODERN WORLD. IT IS A WORK TO BE DEVOURED AND REREAD FOR EACH TIME BRINGS NEW INSIGHTS. DON'T WRITE IT OFF AS RAVINGS BUT INSTEAD LET IT SOAK IN AND I'M POSITIVE IT WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU. PHILIP K. DICK IS THE MOST UNDERAPPRECIATED MODERN WRITER OF OUR TIME. PEOPLE WANT FLUFF AND LINEAR PLOTS WITH A BEGINNING AND AN END. THIS BOOK IS NEITHER, IT'S A JOURNEY THAT YOU SHOULD NEVER STOP TAKING AND IS (IN MY BIASED OPINION) THE BEST EXAMPLE EVER OF THE HIEGHTS THE ART OF WRITING CAN REACH TO ILLUSTRATE THE HUMAN CONDITION.
Rating:
Summary: An autobiographical study of the descent into madness
Review: When I first read this book I had no idea what it was about, what the author was trying to say, or even if there was any objective meaning to it at all. Like a virus, though, the imagery and ideas somehow embedded themselves into my mind and reemurged many years later after the book was completely forgotten. Upon rediscovering the book, I was in awe at how much of it had been encorporated into my world view. It is essentially a record of Dick's struggle to make sense out of a "real life" experience. The experience itself did not drive him mad, but his efforts at understanding it did. At the end, I believe that he finally came to accept that some things are beyond understanding. Tread not lightly into this book because, when finished, you will not be who you are now.
Rating:
Summary: Vast Artificial something or another
Review: This is, without a doubt one of the weirdest books I have ever read. I enjoyed it tremendously and, at times, there were passages that were almost beauftiful in their strangness. Everyone else has said just about everything I could about it, but I just thought I'd throw in a little more praise for it. BTW the cover up there ^^^ makes realy great wall paper, try it.
Rating: 
Summary: Valis means rolling pin, stupid!
Review: VALIS is one of my favorite books ever, although its language is not exactly fluid even to someone who's reread it a number of times. It has a lot of loose ends. The narrator has a split pesonality, which Christ heals, but only temporarily. Philip K Dick is possessed by the idea of secret information. He believes the Gnostics knew the truth, which is our real situation, but that the information was rooted out and had to go underground for almost 2000 years. Philip K. Dick the author/narrator calls it strange that Jung should find the idea of a hidden god notorious. In PKD's case, if there were no hidden god, he'd have to create one, but he's never quite sure if that's what he's already done or not. It makes for some neurotic reading, but the general conclusions PKD makes about his mystical experience seem sound: god speaks in the humble voice of that fly on your window pane, not in the booming asexual voice of the Han emperor. He says we must be alert to our surroundings, watchful. He projects his dillema regarding the diety onto humanity in general and wonders outloud if perhaps we aren't the saviour who needs saving ourselves. Towards the end of his life PKD came to see the biosphere as the living body of God, and the next saviour as "green."
Whatever the style and merits of his final meisterwerk, the questions he raises therein are surely worth the reader's attention.
Strange that no one has raised the etymology of VALIS (as far as I know). The word seems to be a real word in the IE family of languages. The word should mean a round object used for rolling, like modern Lithuanian "volas," but also it has the connotation of will, akin in meaning perhaps to German "schaft," see Latvian "velu" "I wish" and "volvo" in Latin. In short, the word meant something like "magic wand" I guess. Remote control may be more like it.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: The best Dick book I've read! Far superior to it's sequels The Divine Invasion< and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, (although all three are excellent books). It's a "must read" for any Dick fan. The book gives a perspective on insantiy, schitzophrenia in particular, that leaves you feeling as though you had experianced the condition first hand. And along the way it dissasembles everything you ever thought about God, reality, and humanity and puts it back together in a new light. The theories may be a bit off the wall, but they leave you thinking.
The highest reccomendation for VALIS!
CIAO...
--Terrapin .....Oh, and have a dictionary on hand...:)
Rating:
Summary: An intimate journey in and out and in of insanity
Review:
We begin with a sardonic account of Horselover Fat's descent into insanity, interleaved with a hearty dose of
philosophy and theology. Abruptly, the flavor changes as we
are thrust into the world of VALIS, our futuristic savior, and we realize that Fat is not crazy after all! Finally, just as we begin to understand VALIS, we again became occluded and leave the ambivilant ending with a vague sense of awe.
This novel, with its tendency to overindulge in new-ageish
digressions, is not as powerful as Dick's earier work, A Scanner Darkly. But in many ways VALIS is a more intimate
reflection of the author, especially in a few touching scenes involving dreams of his father and baptism of his son. In this sense, it is reminiscent of Zen and the Art
of Motorcycle Maintenence.
Philip K. Dick was both the pragmatic realist and the
fanciful, hopeful seeker of deeper truths. This dualism is a persistent theme that Dick celebrates in VALIS and throughout his work, that a person has two opposing sides within himself, tugging on the rope which is his mind.
Rating:
Summary: A necessity for lovers of truth
Review: Philip K. Dick's Valis is one of the most important works of literature ever created. It has changed my life and that of so many others. The first 50-60 pages are indeed disorienting but is life not every bit as confusing
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