Rating: 
Summary: Good not his best bet darned good
Review: Most of the other reviewers have mentioned everything I have to say. So the only comment I going to make is that everyone including the synopsis seems to have overlooked one of the central themes of the books. Imagine a place where you knew God existed and that he loved you. I don't mean a place where people have intense faith but somewhere where there is incontrivertible proof that God is real, if you ask him for help there is a good chane he will answer. Now imagine that suddenly your trapped on an isolated world, with a murder and God is nowhere to be found. In addition to that primary theme the book features a lot of good twists and turns, including the now sadly some what cliched ending. However no matter you have to give Dick credit for taking the above situation and then shocking you with an ending that turns that to far more hopeless.
Rating: 
Summary: A truly remarkable work of sci-fi
Review: Phil Dick is an American original in this genre, but so amazingly ahead of his time that you can't believe the date of the publication of this, his finest work (perhaps UBIK is better, but who knows...). BLADERUNNER was based upon one of his lesser concepts, but the guys in LA who make this into a movie will be onto a winner, provided that they preserve the concept-bending, metaphysical core of the novel. It is a visually triumphant piece of writing, with a fascinating, fast-paced, intriguing theme. The Mentufacturer, and the Form-Destroyer, and Demak-O are iconic themes: haunting, brilliantly elaborated, and profoundly engaging. One of the US's greatest sci-fi novelists, this is amongst his very best books. Don't miss it!
Rating: 
Summary: Sadly, this is average for a Dick novel
Review: Philip K. Dick is best known for being the mind behind the novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", better known to most as the cult sci-fi film "Blade Runner". Dick is a master of expressing paranoia and delusion, frequently within a science fiction setting, although it is the ideas that take center stage, rather than the "science" of it all. In a Philip K. Dick novel, things are never what they appear to be at first glance. "A Maze of Death" fits right in with other Dick novels I've read, and as usual his explorations of paranoid thinking take center stage. As the back cover synopsis suggests, the characters here find themselves on the strange planet of Delmak-O, brought together through means not of their own choosing. While on the oddly deserted world, they find themselves packed together in a semi-modern encampment, surroundings not unlike what the characters in John Carpenter's "The Thing" lived in. Fact is, the plot follows in much the same way as "The Thing"; these people are being killed left and right, and nobody is beyond suspicion. Another element Dick introduces here are far-future ideas concerning God and theology. Imagine taking some of the far-out ideas in today's theological studies, yet implementing those ideas as PART OF accepted beliefs in God. The Bible re-written, essentially... right down to the names of the divine characters involved. Combining this with firm evidence that the divine walk among us, the idea that prayers are answered on a frequent basis, and you have the basis for a LOT of interesting twists and turns, particularly when it's in the capable hands of Dick. As the story progresses, however, this novel does not deliver what it promises. I had a hard time picturing Dick's ideas, which is unusual in my experience with him. This story seemed rushed a bit, and the theological ideas could have (and should have) been fleshed more thoroughly. Dick's skills with paranoid minds within a situation ripe with paranoia are well done, but compared to his other novels, this one is very flat and by-the-numbers. The proverbial rug is pulled out from under the reader near the end of "A Maze of Death", and I enjoyed that payoff quite a bit... but the abrupt changes in the plot leave earlier plot devices unsolved. I am giving this novel 3-½ stars, which I've translated to 3 for Amazon reviewing purposes. I didn't want to round "up", since in this case I won't recommend this novel to the novice Dick reader. Get "A Scanner Darkly" instead if you're new to the author. Oh, and one more thing: to those reviewers who have decided to review this book from the perspective of the characters at the END of the novel, shame on you. Please, in future, refrain from RUINING the surprise endings of a book! How you can justify starting your review by giving away what's "really" going on in "A Maze of Death" goes beyond "spoiler" in my book. Shame on you!
Rating:
Summary: This one's good! Short but with amazing insight!
Review: Realistic characters (all human this time), genuine suspense, a strange and oddly familiar view of religion and a really well handled twist at the end - for those reasons A Maze of Death is one of my favorite Philip K. Dick novels. It's a short book, but packs in a lot of insight about perceptions, the shifting nature of reality (of course), human interactions, paranoia and hopeless cases. I notice that the tone here is more dismal than Philip K. Dick usually offers, but (as always with his stories) reading it is an eye-opening and memorable experience. While many authors have expanded on themes in this story, written in 1970, I don't think that anyone's improved on his presentation of them. Read it with your mind open to all possibilities.
Rating:
Summary: Twisted and original
Review: See where Hollywood got the idea for "The 13th Floor." This book, and "Ubik" more or less created the genre of psychedelic science fiction. It is one of his most cohesive books, among the most genuinely paranoid, and very much predates Jack Chalker's recent (good) Wonderland trilogy. These are some of his better characters, all trapped on a pathetic planet and trying to figure out what is going on before they die. Now, with all the Hollywood copycats, the ending might seem clichéd. But remember, that he was in that genre first and "Maze of Death" is still champion. Personally, Dick inspired me. I know of no one else who so masterfully writes of that strange domain where psychology, philosophy, theology, and mythology intersect.
Rating:
Summary: A MAZE OF DEATH: HAUNTED-HAUNTING
Review: There is a two-fold problem with writing a review of this fabulous novel: first, it is literally impossible to give detailed analysis of it without giving away things that really need to remain unknown for the reader to get the most impact from a first reading; second, I personally have very deep feelings about this book that might be difficult to express coherently without such a detailed analysis. But because of my love for this unjustly lesser known and appreciated Dick novel, I am going to cast some rational caution aside, write what I feel at the risk of some incoherence:
For me A MAZE OF DEATH is both a haunted and haunting novel: the book itself, the very object, seems to hold, or is held by, a mysterious, dizzying depth and it imprints this character deeply onto the reader. Haunted and haunting. You will perhaps understand what I mean when you finish reading the last page.
It's a novel with what we call a 'surprise' or a 'twist', but it is so much more than merely clever. With its casual, even banal, surface it draws the unknowing reader into a maze
(amazing) that leads to the most deliberately neglected and yet the most fundamental and profound of all human problems: the ego's struggle to find a transcending means of overcoming its seemingly endless, insane, fear-rooted conflicts with other ego's at the same time that it is trying to find a permanent sense of meaning for itself in the face of its own inevitable death which only increases its fear and tends to induce an excess of fantasy which in turn increases the difficulty of relating to other ego's. Existence as a darkly flaming whirligig that can, no matter how many of its own layers it burns away, only trace and retrace its own limited, circular condition. A maze of death called life that the most advanced technology can not essentially change but only turn like a kaleidoscope and create fantastic patterns that still just come back down to the same few tormenting colors and elements. A very dark vision. And yet the novel burns with brilliance and leaves a brilliance in the reader in the very midst of that darkness. Is there not, seriously, a truly positive quality is such clarity and depth of vision however dark its appearance? Another Dick paradox.
This novel is one of the reasons why Philip K. Dick must be considered the most important of all sci-fi writers and more than just a sci-fi writer.
My task here is not to tell you the content of the novel, but to help you decide to read it or not. I sincerely hope that you will. I highly recommend it without hesitation to Dick beginners and journeymen.
Rating:
Summary: "Not Dick's best, or worst."
Review: This dizzy book never really takes off, like classic Dick; it reminds me of the stories I used to dream up as a small child: adventure after adventure after adventure, stock cardboard characters, without any overriding plan or scope, and with no set course except the enjoyment of spinning tales. Hey, the man couldn't create "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?" every time out, could he
Rating:
Summary: A classic PKD book
Review: This is a classic PKD book, full of religion, philosophy, questions about the nature of reality, etc, all tied together in the form of an entertainment. In this book, we see a small group of people struggling against the slow disintegration of their common reality and attempting to understand what is happening. A hint of just how wrong things are can be had from the list of chapter headings at the start of the book that, increasingly, bear little relation to the actual chapter contents. With the total collapse of their reality at the end, we begin to understand some of what Dick is saying about how we all construct reality around us. In typical Dickian fashion, the nice "pat ending" that "explains" all that has gone before as a shared, created illusion is exploded with an ending similar to that of "Ubik", when an element of the illusion appears to help one of the people escape from this level of "reality". This is not a boo! k for someone who likes their SF to have coherent explanations for everything that happens, or who likes to have most questions answered by the end of the story. (But, then, if you want that sort of story, why would you be reading PKD?) If you like to be challenged to think, however, this is an excellent book.
Rating:
Summary: CLUE in space
Review: This is definitely in my top ten list of PKD's best. Here's the basic storyline: An odd group of people find themselves on a planet called Delmak-O. Just as they're about find out what they're there for, the satellite that's supposed to tell them does something strange, leaving them in the dark. Now, clueless as to their reason for being here, they try and find a way to regain communication. But then something else happens. Slowly, they start dying off, and no one knows who is killing who. It sorta reminded me of the movie CLUE. At first you might think that this is just a murder-mystery in space. WRONG. The ending was EXTREMELY unpredictable, but EXTREMELY brilliant. This story could only have come from one of SF's masters, PKD. There are a lot of characters to keep track of, but his character development is good enough that you can tell who's who most of the time. I can't believe that this book didn't win an award or something, it's really great. If you find it, read it and enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Stupendous
Review: This is the fastest paced Dick I have read. Some people may think the ending is 'trick' but I found it absoloutley delightful. A masterpiece of 'human' sci-fi.
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