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Summary: "Jones" Is Every Bit as Possible Now as it Was in the '50s.
Review: "The World Jones Made" is one of those disturbing looks at the future that makes you sit up and take note. Despite the fact that it was first published in 1956, there is very little to suggest that Dick was writing with any less view of the future than any of today's most gifted writers. It's no wonder that this man has been considered one of our century's great authors, considering the impact his work has had on the field of speculative fiction. In this novel, we see a dark world that is just as possible in our future as it was in the fifties. Imagine a repressive society that derives its laws from "Relativism," the idea that no one belief is more valid than another. Along comes a man with absolute knowledge of the future, for a space of one year from the current moment, who sets out to "free" humanity and give them purpose. This story will make you consider the price of knowledge and its misuse, however well-intentioned. It will also make you contemplate fate vs. self-determination and their implications. Just one warning: don't take anything for granted, because Dick will show you that you're wrong as soon as you try it.
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Summary: Unusual atmosphere for a PKD novel
Review: As the previous reviewers have pointed out, this is early Dick and not as interesting (or as well-written) as his later work. What is unusual is the strand of fatalism in this novel; What Floyd Jones sees, one year ahead, is what happens. In other PKD novels, man always makes his own destiny, or if he comes against a force he cannot prevail against (Joe Chip vs. death in Ubik or Jack Bohlen vs. entropy in Marian Time-Slip) he at least "goes out" with dignity and humanity intact. This is ultimately what makes PKD an excellent writer of SF; he concentrates on the personal battles of the characters instead of some man vs. alien cliche. Here, however, Cussick (and everyone else) is merely a puppet. Yes, he does battle with Jones and his dictatorship, but how can it really be a victory in a world where predistination exists, if your every move was forseen? Only a hint of the work PKD would soon produce.
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Summary: a brief history of the world Jones made
Review: I must disagree with those who say this is an immature creation of PKD. Although a disjointed read in places (and his better stuff tends to be), conceptually it is one of his best. Structurally, it is fantastic: there are at least 4 microcosms in this book (including our solar system), each of which is planned out by someone or something, each recapitulating the other levels of the novel. And despite the planning, and in Jones' case, the actual foreknowing of events, one of the major premises of the story is the same as in other PKD novels: the inherent meaningfulness of human striving, for good or for ill.
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Summary: greatest story ever told!
Review: i wish i was no longer alive....
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Summary: 1956!
Review: Okay, this isn't later PKD. There is no twist and fold of reality, no astral trip. But that doesn't make it any less worthwhile for reading. Behind all of PKD's themes and devices stands a unique and reflective view of HUMANITY - The World Jones Made is no different. 1956 - PKD predicts Political Correctness, named Relativism. This is right on the heels of WWII and Hitler, whom the characters in the novel are prone to refer to. After another 'Great War', the citizens of Earth aim to prevent further genocides by installing a government with strict adherence to relativist principles. Enter Floyd Jones, Hitler-alike in vision, only he can see one year into the future as well. PKD generates great ambiguity over which is the lesser of evils - there is no clearcut utopia here. Floyd Jones isn't quite as well developed or grand in scope as Palmer Eldritch, PKD's later manipulative antagonist, but he is interesting and his vision is nicely done. I don't think his futuresight amounts to 'hogwash' - it is very Oedipal and grounded in the idea of fate. Recommended.
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Summary: Precognitive vision
Review: One of Dick's early novels, The World Jones Made (1956) has well-realized characters and psychological complexity, but lacks a coherent plot focus. Without the reality breakdowns, multi-focal viewpoints, robots, and time paradoxes of Dick's later pyrotechnic creations, it ranks as a minor work in the PKD canon but is interesting for what it tries to do, showing a blackly ironic rise and fall of a man called Jones. Jones, whose character is based on Hitler, is a "precog" who can see the future, and builds up a mass movement to oppose the prevailing state ideology of Relativism. The Jews' role here is played by the Drifters, a harmless race of amoeba-like aliens, who represent the universe Jones wants to conquer. Jones is opposed by Cussick, the policeman, who is the voice of conventional, commonsense reality. But Jones is like Cussick's alter ego, and the two men's lives are entwined in complex and surprising ways. The psychology of the policeman and the unhappy marriage of the protagonist are elements to be found in a number of Dick's later books. Here there is a somewhat contrived positive ending, but what impresses is Dick's precognitive vision, which has been shown time and again in the years since the 50s to be right on the mark politically, sociologically, and philosophically.
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Summary: Deserves more credit.
Review: People are generally harsh in consigning 'The World Jones Made' to stand beside truly awful novels like 'Dr. Futurity' and 'Vulcan's Hammer.' This novel is better than that. WJM is an early novel, and it is, as Patricia Warrick says, 'rough in parts.' Despite this it is full of excellent ideas, like the genetically engineered Venusians (no one knew what Venus was really like in 1956), the 'drifters' and the use of relativism for a world government. There are some pulpy ideas, like Jones' ability to see one year into the future, but PKD even manages to put a new spin on this, showing Jones' agony at experiencing the first year of his death in the last year of his life. All right, so the plot is hollow, the characters brittle, and the writing style pedestrian. But the essence of things to come in PKD's career is here. WJM is vastly superior to earlier works like Solar Lottery and The Cosmic Puppets. It is still in print, even after 40+ years. WJM doesn't really deserve 4 stars, maybe 3.5. I like it partially because most people hate it, and I think it deserves more credit than it is afforded.
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Summary: The rise and rise of Phillip K Dick
Review: The other reviews of the book cover the plot and microcosms of The world Jones made, so I have little to add there. I am surprised that many of Dick's "Fans" view this as a "lesser work" I guess Mozart had a few "lesser works" as well eh?
This was actually my first Phillip K Dick novel, I had heard a lot about him, particularly in relation to his connection with Gnosticism and was surprised to find "the world Jones made" in my local book store. Not yet having had the opportunity to delve into the world of Dick as I would like to, I can only judge this book stand-alone without the rest of Dick's catalogue.
I started the book on Sunday morning and didn't put it down until I was finished, a hurried lunch in between. I would describe it as a real page-turner. If some of my the world's leading sc-fi authors had Dick's idea it would have been made into a 3000page trilogy, instead Dick fleshes away the pap of his contemporaries and gives us an emminently readble and thought provoking novel. Highly recommended.
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Summary: great
Review: the title was one of the best considering its content. once jones realizes what his gift holds, then the world prepares for what he sees, never influencing the now, but creating the future
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Summary: Science-fiction, Existentialism and Beat Generation.
Review: The World that Jones Made is an early book in PKD huge production. In its frame there are resonances from Sartre and Kerouac. From the first, the deep and frightful knowledge of human acts futility: everything is written and immutable. From the second the angst that pursue many intellectuals in the late Fifties.
PKD constructs a disheveled post catastrophe world that imposes its fearful traits upon the reader. On this background the story of Jones, a foreseer that evolves from a fortuneteller to a religious messianic leader, is seen from the eyes of Cussick, a security agent that tries to stop him. Cussick represents the new establishment: the Relativists. They are trying to create a new utopia, but as many other utopist of the real world they are molding an universe without freedom and creativity. The answer that PKD gives to this is nihilism.
A dark yet captivating novel from a great writer that is trying his own mettle.
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