Eye in the Sky : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Deconstructing the physical world
Review: The first few pages of the book set the tone: since Marsha Hamilton challenges the 'reality' as considered by the official authorities (she seems to have ties with communists), she is deemed 'dangerous'. Meanwhile, the main ideas behind the plot clearly make 'Eye in the Sky' a variation on Plato's allegory of the cave: after an explosion at the Belmont bevatron, eight people are knocked uncounscious; as each person slowly regains consciousness, they all experience his/her world of opinions and preconceptions. The first is the fanatical, manichean world of an old soldier. The eight characters are akin to Plato's prisoners, both physically (they lie down in the bevatron, numb and motionless) and mentally (they go through successive worlds of unstable appearances). But most of them are prisoners who hope to free themselves from their chains: although some don't mind these subjective worlds at first, they frequently acknowledge the urgent need to wake up and escape this unpredictable cycle. Reading the book, some might come to the conclusion that Dick's point of view is relativist, and that 'reality' seems to take the form of our varying perceptions and thus can't be pinpointed in absolute terms, but I'd argue that he's not satisfied with such an easy way out. Some of the characters certainly aren't: after escaping these subjective worlds of fantasms, they aren't perfectly comfortable with the physical world either and want to change it. In the end, Dick doesn't provide definitive answers as to what reality is, but by challenging preconceived - and mainly physical - notions of reality, this book acts as a detoxifying antidote; the exact same way he described his own work in his Exegesis.

Rating:
Summary: As good as it gets
Review: The point of the novel, like so much of PKD's work, is centered on the issue of what is Real and what is perception. This is one that has a "science" concept at the front of the novel that is quickly dispatched(the beam machine is just an effect, and PKD shows it as such) but the story is about how each of us is in our own little perceptual world, defined more by who we really are than anything else.

Rating:
Summary: As good as it gets
Review: The point of the novel, like so much of PKD's work, is centered on the issue of what is Real and what is perception. This is one that has a "science" concept at the front of the novel that is quickly dispatched(the beam machine is just an effect, and PKD shows it as such) but the story is about how each of us is in our own little perceptual world, defined more by who we really are than anything else.

Rating:
Summary: Touches the timeless question of what is reality
Review: This book is one of Dick's best, period and I have almost all of them. I bought it years ago and bought The Three Stigmata at the same time. They are two of my most treaured originals. Eye in the Sky is essential PK Dick. GET THIS ONE!

Rating:
Summary: Dick at his best!
Review: This book is one of Dick's best, period and I have almost all of them. I bought it years ago and bought The Three Stigmata at the same time. They are two of my most treaured originals. Eye in the Sky is essential PK Dick. GET THIS ONE!