Rating: 
Summary: The truth about...
Review: A story that is based on a lie which is intended to control the worlds population. No this is not 1984, however it does try to cover the same topic. Some of the characters have jobs that would easly reconized in todays society, specifically that of the Yance-man, who's sole job is to continue the lie. These lies are transmitted to the millions of people who have been living underground thirteen years after the war ended. Though the story is good it suffers from a weak antagonist and some confusion with the appearence and existance of another character. Yet even these flaws can not hide the fact that this book is as relevent today as it was during the hight of the cold war.
Rating:
Summary: The truth about...
Review: A story that is based on a lie which is intended to control the worlds population. No this is not 1984, however it does try to cover the same topic. Some of the characters have jobs that would easly reconized in todays society, specifically that of the Yance-man, who's sole job is to continue the lie. These lies are transmitted to the millions of people who have been living underground thirteen years after the war ended. Though the story is good it suffers from a weak antagonist and some confusion with the appearence and existance of another character. Yet even these flaws can not hide the fact that this book is as relevent today as it was during the hight of the cold war.
Rating:
Summary: Woolly Dick
Review: Better-than-average Dick, wild and woolly, packed with too many ideas that never add up, but with enough originality to fuel 10 novels
Rating:
Summary: Not Dick at his best.
Review: First star: While reading this, I couldn't help but wonder if this is where James Cameron got the idea for the Terminator movies. Notice how the robot assassins can change shape when you read this. Second star: A pretty interesting storyline, enough to make you pick it up and start reading it. Third star: The afterward was pretty good. In the afterward you learn that PKD has an inconsistency in this book, which is why it is confusing at times. First he's trying to say one thing, then a hundred pages later he changes his mind and is trying to say something else. This book is not really a page turner, and only hardcore PKD fans should read it.
Rating: 
Summary: Enlightening liberation
Review: I am frankly surprised that this book is so little understood. I will grant at the outset that the writing itself is not very distinguished for sophisticated literary palettes--but its greatness lies in the ideas that it casts into the tireless tropes of speculative fiction. To begin with, he spins a cognitive framework of a world in perpetual war, waged by robots above the surface of the earth which has become too ravaged by radioactivity to support human life. Humans are reduced to living underground in "tanks", subterranean factories whose economy depends upon the constant repair of damaged robot warriors from the surface. The only source of information about this grim cognitive framework pipes in through the Television tube, where a Dear Great Leader sits behind the imposing desk of authority, surrounded by the symbols of state. He prattles about the sacrificies made by the millions surviving in the tanks, he talks about the struggles to build a free society on the surface, the despicable nature of the enemy, the threat to liberty, and so on and so forth. You get the picture. You have heard it yourself on the nightly news for years and years. So the crisis comes when the chief mechanic for the tank grows desperately ill. Death is certain unless they can obtain an artificial organ transplant. How can they do that? They have no power, no initiatives available in this regard. If he dies, they will fall behind in their quota, their food rations will be cut, the lives of the entire tank are at stake. So in a desperate state they decide to send one of their own to the surface on a quest for an artificial organ. When he makes his way to the surface, he fears instant incineration from the death dealing warrior robots--instead, imagine his surprise as he discovers that the entire planet is a beautiful sunlit garden, inhabited not by fierce warrior robots and smoking ruins, but instead a privileged leisure class served by the robots in luxury, devoting their time to spinning little fearful fictions for the slaves laboring down below... Recognise this world? You're living in it. For you are either a Yance man--one who writes speeches for the Dear Great Leader--that is to say a wise guy--or a subterranean slave--a know nothing. Which one are you? Dick's story takes Plato's parable of the Cave and cloaks it in a futuristic scenario. He brings the mystical ideas of the neo-platonists to life. He creates a metaphor for the secret teachings of the Gnostic Christians. He hints that one of the liberating figures of the story, a native American time traveller, may be the second coming of Christ, and implys that Christ may have been a time traveller himself. These are the grandest notions of bondage by ignorance vs liberation through knowledge, the salvation and healing available through simple practical truths. The story demonstrates clearly the workings of the "Authoritarian Mind", using fear, mystification, mythification,and reification to control the common man in his inherent ignorance-- and contrasts them with historical figures of liberation, who combated ignorance with knowledge and enlightenment. The title, and the story, begs the question, never answered...since it purports to reveal the Penultimate Truth, what is the revelation of the Ultimate Truth?
Rating: 
Summary: better than it is often given credit for in critical review
Review: I do not understand why this novel fell from grace. In the body of Dick's novels it is more intense and varied than most. I remember immediately liking it when I first read it in the 1970s - in fact it probably went a long way to starting my life-long love of PKD's works. The idea of someone burying artefacts to make it look like Earth once had alien invaders - well, visitors anyway - is so intriguing. And with PKD's novels you never quite know if there won't actually be a twist in which alien invaders - visitors, I mean - turn up. But PKD has a different surprising twist in store for us! Perhsps this is what disappointed some reviewers - they felt a bit let down by there not actually being any invaders. But for me it is the levels of reality that are of interest - the reality of life in the tanks, the reality of life above - and how these realities are perceived by both populations. Joseph Adams is the archetypal PKD underman, but there is more variety in the other characters than often appears in PKD novels - especially David Lantano, but also Verne Lindblom. For this novel I recommend ignoring the critics and their nitpicking about grammar which never offended me in the slightest. Go ahead and read - I think you will enjoy it.
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Summary: fantastic premise, intriguing moments...but incomprehensible
Review: Philip K. Dick (PKD) certainly wrote a lot of very original science fiction novels and short stories. Unfortunately much of works is decidedly uneven. 'The Pentultimate Truth' is not one of PKD's better works, but it does have its moments. The story has a great premise. WW III has come, and the populace is driven underground to work as slave labour for the war effort. But after fifteen years the folks underground are being pushed to the limit and the truth comes out about what is happening on the surface ... and it isn't what they thought (of course). PKD does a fine job with the overall plotting and his observations of human greed for power and how the media can distort reality are brilliant. But sadly, PKD clutters up the story with too much techno verbage and confusing banter between the characters. Bottom line: intriguing, diverting, but often times confusing. For PKD fans only.
Rating:
Summary: fantastic premise, intriguing moments...but incomprehensible
Review: Philip K. Dick (PKD) certainly wrote a lot of very original science fiction novels and short stories. Unfortunately much of works is decidedly uneven. 'The Pentultimate Truth' is not one of PKD's better works, but it does have its moments. The story has a great premise. WW III has come, and the populace is driven underground to work as slave labour for the war effort. But after fifteen years the folks underground are being pushed to the limit and the truth comes out about what is happening on the surface ... and it isn't what they thought (of course). PKD does a fine job with the overall plotting and his observations of human greed for power and how the media can distort reality are brilliant. But sadly, PKD clutters up the story with too much techno verbage and confusing banter between the characters. Bottom line: intriguing, diverting, but often times confusing. For PKD fans only.
Rating:
Summary: SF NOVELS OPUS ELEVEN
Review: THE PENULTIMATE TRUTH is a variation of a theme already treated by Philip K. Dick in some of his former books : the struggle for power. Each of the main characters of the PENULTIMATE TRUTH symbolizes a political force. Runcible has the power that wealth can give, Stanton Brose can reign thanks to his absolute control over an army of robots, the passive Adams would belong nowadays to a leftist government and, at last, the Cherokee born Lantano does have the paradoxal task to impersonate the fascist political solution. So THE PENULTIMATE TRUTH is more a political book than a science-fiction novel although one can find some good sci-fi ideas in it like for instance the ever changing aspect of Lantano resulting from a default of his time machine. But this idea and a few others are not deeply developed in THE PENULTIMATE TRUTH by Philip K. Dick. One feels that he was more concerned by the accurate paintings of his political archetypes. There are nonetheless superb moments in this book, in particular the last pages which denounce the manipulations people like you and me must, alas, expect from our authorities. In short, THE PENULTIMATE TRUTH is not an essential book for the common reader but will certainly please Philip K. Dick fans. I liked it.
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Summary: Do you recognize this novels world?
Review: This is a world were the majority of people spend their time unknowingly serving the rich who lead lives of affluent decadence. The commoners leader is a vision that doesn't actually exist and represents a minority that cares nothing for them.
This is our world right now, and I must give P K Dick the credit he deserves for predicting this future. I love PK Dick and this is one of his most relevant works for today's society.
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