As a SF novel, 3 Stigmata is brilliant. The ideas alone are enough to ensure its strength; like Perky Pat and Can-D (which I felt was sheer genius on PKD's part), the hovels on Mars, the extreme temperatures on Earth (although this gets little attention as the book progresses), E-therapy, and of course Palmer Eldritch himself and Chew-Z. The time-travelling as a result of Chew-Z provides some of the best moments in the book, and the ending, where Barney and Palmer Eldritch merge into one... well, this defies words.

People have referred to this as an 'LSD', or 'wildly disorientating' novel, but that is simply not the case. I guess many people don't really understand what PKD is getting at. This book deals with God and Satan, as well as the phenomenon of the wine into blood, ontology etc. I'm not qualified to discuss these issues, but it must be said that they were of profound importance to PKD.

If anything is flawed, I believe it is characterization. In PKD's best books you feel strong empathy for the characters, good and bad (a prime example of this is Ubik.) Aside from Palmer Eldritch himself, who is a brilliant character, others are not PKD's best.

This is not my favourite PKD novel, but that is due to the subject material, not the execution of the novel. '3 Stigmata' is the first really religious PKD novel, and it stands as a precursor to later works such as 'Valis' and the 'Divine Invasion.'