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anneliehyatt's review against another edition
5.0
A brilliant and touching book about mental illness. I’ll never read something like this ever again.
nicofic's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
readingonfogo's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
strangledfruit's review against another edition
4.0
Just like the modern and also excellent Three Body Problem, Dick is able to spin a terrifying story out of a text that’s mostly philosophical digressions and word games. Also really gets to the oft-underrated humorous character of his oeuvre without sacrificing its heady meta concept.
arctor59's review against another edition
5.0
PKD plays jump rope with the line between Madness and Genius.
jonmhansen's review against another edition
4.0
Wow, this was trippy. Even more so when you consider how autobiographical it's supposed to be. There's less of an ending than it just ends, but still.
david_agranoff's review against another edition
4.0
The first half is so auto biographical that this re-reading I was totally unable to see it as a fiction narrative the blurred lines between realities and the most science fictional elements get better in the second half. If you want my thoughts listen to the Dickheads podcast with special guest David Gill...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwAHMXFioBQ&t=3892s
https://soundcloud.com/dickheadspodcast/episode-46-valis-special-guest-david-gill?si=8e3111c6e7bb471e8037660b8b9b7591&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwAHMXFioBQ&t=3892s
https://soundcloud.com/dickheadspodcast/episode-46-valis-special-guest-david-gill?si=8e3111c6e7bb471e8037660b8b9b7591&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
mparker546's review against another edition
4.0
This is an exceptionally trippy novel by the master of the unusual story. I have read this volume several times and I get new depths to the meaning behind it every time.
bolognio108's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
roach's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Insane people - psychologically defined, not legally defined - are not in touch with reality. Horselover Fat is insane; therefore he is not in touch with reality.
Philip K. Dick was good at marrying lively scifi with thought-provoking philosophical themes, as in Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep for example. Dick was also good at frying his brain with drugs and using his experiences in his later writing, like VALIS, the semi-autobiographical novel that processes Dick's very real encounter with what he believed to be a sort-off divine entity. In 1974, he was struck by a wisdom-filled pink beam, began having hallucinations, and started writing an 8000+ page exegesis, a sort of journal about his newfound insights about the world.
It seems that part of him knew that all of that was madness. In VALIS he creates a story that includes himself as a character as well as an alter-ego called Horselover Fat who experiences the exact same things that Dick did in real-life. And that is the setup for what feels like Dick's journey of self-reflection where fiction and the author's real life constantly blur together.
VALIS is a fully harebrained experience. It's light on actual plot but spends lots of time letting the character(s) discuss all their out-of-this-world ideas and wisdoms. It combines so many religious, spiritual, philosophical, and technological ideas into chaotic ramblings, page after page, that it can feel like the book is frying the reader's brain just like the pink beam did to main character Horselover Fat. It might be a complete mess of overwhelming information, but that might just be the point and it does end up being rather captivating. It's challenging but also funny at points, and while it throws so many difficult and crazed concepts at you about God and the world, Dick seems to be aware of how all of it sounds and makes that a point as well.
I don't know if VALIS is very good as a novel in itself, but it is absolutely fascinating as the result of the author processing his own strange experiences that took over his life in a way.
Graphic: Suicide attempt
Moderate: Cancer