Rating: 
Summary: Mostly great
Review: The Earth has been taken over by the Vugs and humanity is reduced to gambling for money, property, and marriages. Players who are good at the Game (which is some wierd combination of poker and monopoly) get the chance to reproduce and live in the lap of luxury. The story follows the usual PKD lines (if the word usual can ever truly be applied to him!). We have paranoia, astral teleportation, strange aliens, pre-cogs -trying to cheat in the Game- and a whole lot of sarcastic humour.There are also the usual PKD failings, lack of characterization and long bits of non-plot-related ramblings. Of course, anyone who is familiar with his work will know that these are not reasons to avoid the book. He more than makes up for any deficiency by sheer genius and imagination. But the main reason to read this book comes toward the end (so I won't spoil it by telling you all about it) where you, the reader, can see how the vugs view the humans. I think this is the best piece of Dick's writing that I have ever read. These few pages are worth the book's price alone. This is early PKD, and I recommend it to any fans out there. It is a fast read, and it gives you plenty to think about. If you are new to this brilliant author, I would start somewhere else, though. Perhaps with some of his more accessible works, like Ubik or The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch.
Rating:
Summary: Mostly great
Review: The Earth has been taken over by the Vugs and humanity is reduced to gambling for money, property, and marriages. Players who are good at the Game (which is some wierd combination of poker and monopoly) get the chance to reproduce and live in the lap of luxury. The story follows the usual PKD lines (if the word usual can ever truly be applied to him!). We have paranoia, astral teleportation, strange aliens, pre-cogs -trying to cheat in the Game- and a whole lot of sarcastic humour. There are also the usual PKD failings, lack of characterization and long bits of non-plot-related ramblings. Of course, anyone who is familiar with his work will know that these are not reasons to avoid the book. He more than makes up for any deficiency by sheer genius and imagination. But the main reason to read this book comes toward the end (so I won't spoil it by telling you all about it) where you, the reader, can see how the vugs view the humans. I think this is the best piece of Dick's writing that I have ever read. These few pages are worth the book's price alone. This is early PKD, and I recommend it to any fans out there. It is a fast read, and it gives you plenty to think about. If you are new to this brilliant author, I would start somewhere else, though. Perhaps with some of his more accessible works, like Ubik or The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch.
Rating:
Summary: Avoid this one if you're subject to paranoia
Review: The Game-Players of Titan appeared around the same time as William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch, and it reminds me very much of Burroughs' book, minus the confrontational sexual and language content. Both stories involve international/interplanetary mind-control conspiracies and the use of mind/body-altering drugs. Neither book would constitute good therapy for anyone suffering from paranoia. As a matter of fact, if your grasp on concensus reality is weak, I would avoid either of these books as well as just about anything else written by Philip K. Dick. As art, The Game-Players has what seems to me a flawed structure, and a few of the main characters seem to have very little reason to be in the story. I was disappointed by the ending because, rather than resolve anything, it seemed to reset everything back to the status quo. Back to square one, so to speak. Which, come to think of it, is probably the only logical way to end a story about a board game (albeit a cosmic board game). Keep in mind: At the beginning of the book, characters are cursing the Red Chinese for a disaster which almost wipes out the human race. By the end of the book, they're trying to hold out against the conspiracy of an ostensibly alien organization called the "Wa Pei Nan". In this respect, the book comes off like a very paranoid Cold War conspiracy thriller written by heavily drugged CIA and FBI operatives in the months before the Kennedy assassination.
Rating:
Summary: Avoid this one if you're subject to paranoia
Review: The Game-Players of Titan appeared around the same time as William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch, and it reminds me very much of Burroughs' book, minus the confrontational sexual and language content. Both stories involve international/interplanetary mind-control conspiracies and the use of mind/body-altering drugs. Neither book would constitute good therapy for anyone suffering from paranoia. As a matter of fact, if your grasp on concensus reality is weak, I would avoid either of these books as well as just about anything else written by Philip K. Dick. As art, The Game-Players has what seems to me a flawed structure, and a few of the main characters seem to have very little reason to be in the story. I was disappointed by the ending because, rather than resolve anything, it seemed to reset everything back to the status quo. Back to square one, so to speak. Which, come to think of it, is probably the only logical way to end a story about a board game (albeit a cosmic board game). Keep in mind: At the beginning of the book, characters are cursing the Red Chinese for a disaster which almost wipes out the human race. By the end of the book, they're trying to hold out against the conspiracy of an ostensibly alien organization called the "Wa Pei Nan". In this respect, the book comes off like a very paranoid Cold War conspiracy thriller written by heavily drugged CIA and FBI operatives in the months before the Kennedy assassination.
Rating: 
Summary: Another neglected PKD gem
Review: There are certainly seven, and maybe a dozen, books that have rightfully made PKD's reputation (THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE, MARTIAN TIME-SLIP, THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH, DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP, UBIK, A SCANNER DARKLY, VALIS, and to a slightly lesser extent, EYE IN THE SKY, TIME OUT OF JOINT, CONFESSIONS OF A CRAP ARTIST, DR. BLOODMONEY, and THE TRANSMIGRATION OF TIMOTHY ARCHER). But many of the others are nearly as fine. This is one of those, a wild, out-of-control, often very funny exercise in paranoia that reads like a warm-up for THE THREE STIGMATA. And it has a moment near the end -- when our hero sees our planet from the enemy alien's point of view -- which is perhaps the clearest and most powerful statement of one of Dick's central themes, the subjective nature of perception (and hence reality). Having your world-view challenged has seldom been so much fun.
Rating:
Summary: Best PKD book and one of the few great classics of Sci-fi
Review: This book has it all: the usual PKD's theme about the nature of reality and the human perception of it and the fragility of the human mind, plot twists that keep you from putting the book down, interesting characters and character interaction -everything that shuold be in a great book can be found in "The Game-Players of Titan." If you are new to PKD, I suggest you start with this book or "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich." Both are must-reads.
Rating:
Summary: Favorate PKD novel
Review: This book is a great deal of fun. I have enjoyed all of the books I have read by him. The Game-Players of Titan is multi-layered, on the surface it is quite humerous, dig deeper and you find some thought provoking ideas. Also, it ages well, reading it again you find things that you missed. While some might disagree with me, I also feel that this is an exelant book to introduce teenagers to SF, if they haven't discovered it yet.
Rating:
Summary: Oh.. my... GOOOOD!!!!!!!
Review: This review is for people that know P.K.D. It's not about the plot ,because plotwize ,it's typical; Paranoid protagonist ,reality-distorting drugs ,telepaths ,pre-cogs ,unexpected plot-twists ,and the usual unusual originality. What makes this book stand out ,EVEN in P.K.D's portfolio is the excellent balance: The protagonist is very well-drawn ,as well as his surroundings in a paranoid-enaugh way yet somehow the book is NOT too dark and gloom. It's a trait that I cannot explain easily. But if you've read more than one P.K.D book ,you know what i'm reffering to. Earth ,described through the subjective reality of the protagonist ,is in a bad shape ,yet ,in all ,the FEEL is'nt pessimist. In that aspect ,the book reminds me of "our friends from frolix 8". I think you'll agree with me ,that when finishing a P.K.D book ,you can't really put the finger on what made it SO good ,in this case ,I think Have come close ,not to what makes it Excellent in itself ,but to what makes it better than others. If it was possible ,i'd give it 10 stars.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT BEGINNING AND END
Review: This was not the first PKD book that I read, but it is the one responsible for making me go to second-hand bookstores and buying up every PKD book in sight. How can you possibly resist a book that starts off with a guy having a heated argument with his car? The car says that the guy is too drunk to drive. If there's one thing I like about PKD, the guy is WEIRD! This is definitely not for people who like blazing action, alien invaders, pulsed plasma rifles in the 40 watt range. A PKD book is like what you would expect to find in a Mars library in the year 3000 after we've colonized it. Anyway, this particular book is about telepathic aliens and a group of humans who have a passion for card-playing. The game is called bluff--sorta like BS. Anyway, if you're wondering how it's played, here's what I gathered from READING THE BOOK. Some people (ahem!) say that "PKD didn't describe the game." Okay. You have a straight track consisting of a large number of squares--like a sidewalk. You pick a face-down card from the pile. The object is to get to the end without overshooting or undershooting. First one there wins. Let's say you draw a 10, but you need a 12 in order to win. You can legally move 10, or you can BLUFF, move 12 and hope nobody catches you. Of course, the aliens are telepathic. So how are the humans supposed to win? Read it and find out. Sure, the middle was a little lagging, but the ending MORE than made up for that. Overall a great book, even if it isn't one of PKD's best.
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