Rating: 
Summary: Typical late-60s PKD with godlike alien
Review: One of Dick's less ambitious novels, this story is a bit thin compared to the density and dazzling complexity of his books of the early 1960s, and perhaps a bit of weariness with the standard conventions of science fiction is showing. The author seems very casual about controlling the plot and characters; both seem pretty random much of the time. We may not prize this novel as a masterpiece of structure, but it is typical Dick, involving and entertaining. The story is set in a world controlled by superintelligent "New Men" and telepathic "Unusuals," who reign despotically together over the "Old Men," or ordinary unevolved humans. In due course Thors Provini returns to Earth with a "friend" for the Old Men in the form of a telepathic, protoplasmic alien with extraordinary powers. This semi-divine intervention overturns the predictable order of the world and replaces it with a vision of the evolution of consciousness of every living thing on the planet toward some unimaginable fulfillment. In this preoccupation, it is congruent with Dick's other interesting novels of the late 60s such as A Maze of Death and Galactic Pot-Healer.
Rating: 
Summary: Typical PKD--Brilliant
Review: This book has the typical PKD characterizations and plot devices. The 'feel' is similar to The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, with a world that is falling apart waiting for a savior. The savior is indeed returning from space--with mysterious entities from Frolix 8. This in turn is very threatening to the authorities--the social establishment that fears loss of control and power if humanity finds something better than what is offered. The usual drug usage, interpersonal relationships, and bizarre plot twists that make PKD so unique in the science fiction genre are all present in this highly underrated work. Worth the money if you can find it.
Rating:
Summary: someday I think every thing will fly or anyhow trudge or run
Review: this book is excellent and definetily underrated. i felt it is so much better than many PKD "classics" like UBIK or even Martian Time-SLip. To understand the art of PKD is to understand that all his best works deal with the quest for identity of Human and understanding of Absolute. The message of this book is most strongly felt in last pages, when two evil characters are transformed by the mysterious power of "friend from frolix8" and proceed to explain to the reader first the meaning of human life and then the idea of God. The beauty and subtelty of the way in which PKD expresses his complex views on life can be somewhat surrealistic & challenging for general reader ("incomprehensible weirdness" etc), but some people (like me) will just be unable to forget these wonderful passages that emerge from and illuminate PKD's strange stories of Everyman in the evil technocratic world, searching for salvation. Must-read! Also essential: "Do androids dream of electric sheeps?", "Divine invasion", "Three stigmata of Palmer Eldrich" and of course his self-confessed masterpiece "Scanner Darkly".
Rating:
Summary: someday I think every thing will fly or anyhow trudge or run
Review: this book is excellent and definetily underrated. i felt it is so much better than many PKD "classics" like UBIK or even Martian Time-SLip. To understand the art of PKD is to understand that all his best works deal with the quest for identity of Human and understanding of Absolute. The message of this book is most strongly felt in last pages, when two evil characters are transformed by the mysterious power of "friend from frolix8" and proceed to explain to the reader first the meaning of human life and then the idea of God. The beauty and subtelty of the way in which PKD expresses his complex views on life can be somewhat surrealistic & challenging for general reader ("incomprehensible weirdness" etc), but some people (like me) will just be unable to forget these wonderful passages that emerge from and illuminate PKD's strange stories of Everyman in the evil technocratic world, searching for salvation. Must-read! Also essential: "Do androids dream of electric sheeps?", "Divine invasion", "Three stigmata of Palmer Eldrich" and of course his self-confessed masterpiece "Scanner Darkly".
Rating:
Summary: classic dick
Review: This one is fairly classic Philip K. Dick: Fed up man stuck in a rut, with a shrew of wife, get's jarred out of his work-a-day life and things get out of hand. Filled with bizzare "new men" and psychic "unusuals" all paranoid and running scared as a man brings help from the stars to free the "old men". Not his best work, but still fascinating and entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: classic dick
Review: This one is fairly classic Philip K. Dick: Fed up man stuck in a rut, with a shrew of wife, get's jarred out of his work-a-day life and things get out of hand. Filled with bizzare "new men" and psychic "unusuals" all paranoid and running scared as a man brings help from the stars to free the "old men". Not his best work, but still fascinating and entertaining.
| 
