The Divine Invasion
by Philip K. Dick
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Now my favorite book in the so-called "Valis Trilogy," The Divine Invasion takes the heady gnostic concepts of Valis and truly presents them in an unabashedly "sci-fi" context - the infant Christ has been reborn on mars to a woman with M.S. after a divine conception, and must be smuggled back onto earth, which is completely under Satan's control via artificial intelligence and totalitarian government. And that's merely the setup for a book that ends up in a completely ...more
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Read in June, 2007
recommends it for:
People on busses.
... Dick can do better. While Valis was an incredible novel that fully explored Dick's enlightenment/mental collapse via a lifelong addiction to uppers and his views of the divine, electronic music and pink lasers, this book seems to be more os a scifi thriller that really fails to go anywhere, despite the fact that it's set on both intergalactic exploration outposts, as well as parts of NY and LA. The climax was weak, the whole concept of the divine as an illegal "alien" being aided b...more
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So far this reminds me a bit more of his older SF novels than his later work. It's certainly a far cry from its prequel Valis. It contains some elements of Ubik as well as Transmigration of Timothy Archer and of course the Gnostic influence which i suspect figures prominently in all the Valis trilogy books. I found the characterization of the political posturing and intrigue between the Church and the Scientific Legate on the Earth of this book to be unconvincing, in fact it prompted me to put t...more
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Read in June, 2007
recommends it for:
only hardcore fans of PKD
I really wanted to like this book, since I enjoyed the ideas and style of Valis. The first half or so is pretty good, but by the second half, all the talking heads get tedious and I started missing the basic humanity that the equally high-concept Valis contains. With this book he seems more interested in conveying his bizarre gnostic mythology, which is all well and good, but ideas alone do not make good fiction. The previous book is as much a mess, but it's a lot more engaging on the human l...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in April, 2008
I really enjoyed this one. P K Dick plunders Judaeo-Christian mythology for all it is worth to seed his usual brand of screwball cosmological predicaments. It really struck me how the tenants of Judaism and Christianity sat so well with Dick's signature pulp novel reality-bending proclivities. Of course it's obvious which one inspired the other but giving them both equal weight actually enhanced them both for me. It would be a much greater pleasure for me to live in a Christian society if...more
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Read in January, 1999
recommended to Steve by:
the Vast Active Living Intelligence System didrecommends it for: Dickheads, Gnostics, Romantics, readers of the 5% of science fiction that is superior
Let's say that you tried to read PKD's VALIS and found it impenetrable and full of cryptic Gnostic revelations that meant nothing to you. In The Divine Invasion, Dick plays with the same ideas in a more traditional science fiction framework. It reads almost like a fairy tale. It's easy to understand and offers what I think is the best introduction to PKD's gnostic revelations. Start here for the best understanding of the Vast Active Living Intelligence System.
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Read in January, 2008
I felt this book was only a glimpse of the story - a teaser. It ended too soon and on a knife's edge and the climax was most unsatisfying. Multitudinous religions and philosophies were all logjammed into the same storyline, which was both humorous, cornfusing, and educational all at the same time. I am sucker for the space stuff and the philosophy stuff so overall I really enjoyed this read, though it was mos def an obscure Dick effort.
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Read in June, 2008
What utter crap. The first 100 pages or so of the book were somewhat coherent while the last 140 were nearly unreadable. This is a book about how God manages to reincarnate himself again through a new virgin birth. And then Philip K. Dick goes off the crazy end and starts writing in his sleep or something. Kudos to those who loved this book and thought it was great ... but were you high when you were freaking reading it?
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Philip Dick writes a story where God is exiled to another planet and has to sneak back through customs to try to redeem the world. Can get a little too much at times, with all the bible verse, but overall, and interesting subject. I want to read "Valis", which I hear is of similar subject matter (though more based on Dick's visions and transcendental religious experiences) but a stronger piece of work.
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Read in December, 2007
the Valis trilogy, inspired by a transcendent experience from the author, is filled with secret and wonder. I loved it. I think it presents a deeply religious concept in a new and exciting way. Inoffensive and interesting, this book is a must read for the sci-fi lover who appreciates complicated humor, space age love stories, and deeply emotional themes of sex, love, marriage, faith, hope, and darkness.
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i love how this veers back and forth from didactic to hilarious, and from cosmological to absurdly quotidian. valis was like that too. i hope all of his stuff is. he's basically writing part of a theological treatise with each book (um, of the two i've read), but still has a ton of sympathy for his characters. this isn't as spooky and earnest and urgent as valis, but still.
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Read in August, 2008
the internal battle for reality, the good vs. the evil, the light vs. the dark, children vs. goats -
its a throwdown for all of humanity. its intergalactic and its terrifying, its your soul and its winner take all. Sunday, sunday, sunday - BE THERE!!!
its a throwdown for all of humanity. its intergalactic and its terrifying, its your soul and its winner take all. Sunday, sunday, sunday - BE THERE!!!
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recommends it for:
everyone
Part of a trilogy in which PKD tries to explain in a fictional format the mystical visions that overwhelmed him in the late sixties/early seventies.
Imagine that you are god. Everything that you have brought into existence has been conquered by evil. How do you restore all of creation and reconnect with humanity? Start planning an invasion...
Imagine that you are god. Everything that you have brought into existence has been conquered by evil. How do you restore all of creation and reconnect with humanity? Start planning an invasion...
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Since i first enjoyed this book i have re-read it three times. i am sure that i will read it many more times in years to come, it being one of the most beautiful stories from one of the more beautifully warped minds to ever write an SF novel.
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Read in May, 2008
I really like Dick's work in general, but I felt like this one dragged a bit. I see from the other reviews that it's part of a trillogy, maybe I needed more context but I found the book conceptually interesting but executionally ho-hum.
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Science fiction as only someone who is nearly psychotic could write. Actually, only the setting is mildly science fictional, the story seemed to be more about religion than anything else. A clusterfuck of a novel if you think about it.
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What if God--or a being called Yah--were alive and in exile on a distant planet? How could a second coming succeed against the high technology and finely tuned rationalized evil of the modern police state?
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Read in January, 2003
A continuation of the theme put forth in Valis, albeit a separate dimension. The messiah is an amnesiac child and wisdom is a flippant materialist of a young woman. And the authorities are after them both.
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Read in January, 2006
This is a thought provoking book that should be read immediately after reading The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. The two novels share similar themes, but approach the subject from different angles.
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Read in March, 2007
I suppose I'm missing something by reading this before Radio Free Albemuth and VALIS, considering it is a similarly theme "sequel" of a sort of both those books.
Anyway, it was all right.
Anyway, it was all right.
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