Dr. Bloodmoney

by Philip K. Dick

Seven years after the day of the bombs, Point Reyes was luckier than most places. Its people were reasonably normal -- except for the girl with her twin brother growing inside her, and talking to her. Their barter economy was working. Their resident genius could fix almost anything that broke down. But they didn't know they were harbouring the one man who almost everyone left alive wanted killed.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Post Apocalyptic, Dystopia, Speculative Fiction, Novels, Science Fiction Fantasy

304 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1965

About the author

Philip Kindred Dick was a prolific American science fiction author whose work has had a lasting impact on literature, cinema, and popular culture. Known for his imaginative narratives and profound philosophical themes, Dick explored the nature of reality, the boundaries of human identity, and the impact of technology and authoritarianism on society. His stories often blurred the line between the real and the artificial, challenging readers to question their perceptions and beliefs.
Raised in California, Dick began writing professionally in the early 1950s, publishing short stories in various science fiction magazines. He quickly developed a distinctive voice within the genre, marked by a fusion of science fiction concepts with deep existential and psychological inquiry. Over his career, he authored 44 novels and more than 100 short stories, many of which have become classics in the field.
Recurring themes in Dick's work include alternate realities, simulations, corporate and government control, mental illness, and the nature of consciousness. His protagonists are frequently everyday individuals—often paranoid, uncertain, or troubled—caught in surreal and often dangerous circumstances that force them to question their environment and themselves. Works such as Ubik, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, and A Scanner Darkly reflect his fascination with perception and altered states of consciousness, often drawing from his own experiences with mental health struggles and drug use.
One of Dick’s most influential novels is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which served as the basis for Ridley Scott’s iconic film Blade Runner. The novel deals with the distinction between humans and artificial beings and asks profound questions about empathy, identity, and what it means to be alive. Other adaptations of his work include Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, and The Man in the High Castle, each reflecting key elements of his storytelling—uncertain realities, oppressive systems, and the search for truth. These adaptations have introduced his complex ideas to audiences well beyond the traditional readership of science fiction.
In the 1970s, Dick underwent a series of visionary and mystical experiences that had a significant influence on his later writings. He described receiving profound knowledge from an external, possibly divine, source and documented these events extensively in what became known as The Exegesis, a massive and often fragmented journal. These experiences inspired his later novels, most notably the VALIS trilogy, which mixes autobiography, theology, and metaphysics in a narrative that defies conventional structure and genre boundaries.
Throughout his life, Dick faced financial instability, health issues, and periods of personal turmoil, yet he remained a dedicated and relentless writer. Despite limited commercial success during his lifetime, his reputation grew steadily, and he came to be regarded as one of the most original voices in speculative fiction. His work has been celebrated for its ability to fuse philosophical depth with gripping storytelling and has influenced not only science fiction writers but also philosophers, filmmakers, and futurists.
Dick’s legacy continues to thrive in both literary and cinematic spheres. The themes he explored remain urgently relevant in the modern world, particularly as technology increasingly intersects with human identity and governance. The Philip K. Dick Award, named in his honor, is presented annually to distinguished works of science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States. His writings have also inspired television series, academic studies, and countless homages across media.
Through his vivid imagination and unflinching inquiry into the nature of existence, Philip K. Dick redefined what science fiction could achieve. His work continues to challenge and inspire, offering timeless insights into the human condition a

Reviews

[Glenn Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I'm tired and I want to rest; I want to get out of this and go lie down somewhere, off where it's dark and no one speaks. Forever.”
― Philip K. Dick, Dr. Bloodmoney

If you’ve watched Ex Machina, you know this is a super-slick film of two young men interacting with a beautiful version of AI, a great work of science fiction with such a streamlined, clear-cut, linear, easy-to-follow storyline, at the opposite end of the spectrum from, well, Philip K. Dick. Case in point: PKD’s Dr. Bloodmoney, the CRAZIEST novel I’ve ever read. Here are ten reasons why:

1. Atom Bomb
The setting is the San Francisco Bay Area. No sooner are we introduced to our main characters in the first and second chapters then a series of Hiroshima-size atomic bombs hit. What remains of the human and non-human populations must deal with the devastation , the PKD-style devastation, that is.

2. Man in Space
The US space program shots Walt Dangerfield and his wife up in a rocket to colonize Mars. Bad timing. Immediately after blast-off the bombs hit. But Walt, who has lost his wife and is stuck orbiting Earth, maintains contact; matter of fact, everyone tunes into his hayseed broadcasts to receive updates on global happenings, a weird combination of the nightly news and a version of that old television show Hee Haw.

3. A tiny adult person lives inside Edie Keller
If being a seven-year-old post-nuclear war little girl isn’t tough enough, Edie has tiny brother Bill lodged right inside her, next to her kidney. Bill is a fully matured adult (perhaps the result of nuclear fallout) who can carry on adult conversations with sister Edie.

4. Dr. Bloodmoney
Bruno Bluthgeld aka Jack Tree aka Dr. Bloodmoney is an atomic physicist and paranoid, shape shifter who might very well be responsible for the world-wide nuclear war.

5. Dogs that talk
Dr. Bloodmoney owns a frisky, playful dog who occasionally talks in dog-like growls, a phenomenon accepted by all the survivors as normal and routine after the radioactive fallout.

6. The mutants are coming
San Francisco can be a hazardous place to live with such potentially dangerous creatures as mutant winged weasels flying around and splattering themselves on skyscraper windows or anything or anybody else who might be in their way.

7. Less than appealing diet
Stuart McConchie is an African-American TV salesman who was forced to eat a live rat to survive in the cellar after the bombs hit. Seven years later, Stuart is making his living selling robot-like rat traps. In many ways, if the novel has any foundation in sanity, Stuart is our man.

8. The importance of being a horse
With all the modern, sophisticated technology, one aspect of post-bomb life is less than modern: the main mode of transportation is riding a horse. At one point, Stuart McConchie feels great sadness since he had to leave his horse hitched to a pillar under a San Francisco dock. Big mistake: the San Francisco homeless killed and ate his horse.

9. The danger of taking a job as a teacher
During his job interview, Hal Barnes asks the town’s clearing committee what happened to the last teacher. One of the committee members, an older lady by the name of June Robe, tells Hal matter-of-factly that the clearing committee had to kill him.

10. Thalidomide Boy
I've saved the best for last: Hoppy Harrington is a young man who is a phocomelus, that is, without any hands or legs. Hoppy possesses a wide inventory of psychic powers and mechanical abilities that more than compensate for his physical disabilities. Hoppy appears front-and-center in much of the novel’s action.

PKD is actually able to have all this craziness intertwine to construct a riveting, cohesive story. How in the world does he do it? Obviously the author had one of the most powerful and most creative imaginations in history. Also, from what I understand, PKD was known to use tabs of speed to fuel his psychic rocket ship. Again, the craziest novel I’ve ever read.


“Imagine being sentient but not alive. Seeing and even knowing, but not alive. Just looking out. Recognizing but not being alive. A person can die and still go on. Sometimes what looks out at you from a person's eyes maybe died back in childhood.”
― Philip K. Dick (1928 - 1982) - Judging from the above quote, PKD might still be around!

[Lyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Philip K. Dick's Dr. Bloodmoney Or How We Got Along After the Bomb is a post-nuclear apocalyptic dark comedy taking its title from the popular Stanley Kubrick film Dr. Strangelove.

Though the novel is not related to Kubrick’s movie, the action could occur after the end of Dr. Strangelove as the world copes with life after the bombs fell. It is also vaguely reminiscent of Ayn Rand or, murkily, darkly resembling a John Steinbeck work.

Dr. Bloodmoney represents PKD’s best use of eclectic characterization. The work focuses on a community of people struggling to survive after nuclear war. Set in Berkeley and northern California, the group of characters maintain a semblance of community. Though references to off stage barbarism color the action, PKD provides his readers with a lesson in hope for humanity and, more than just survival, an idea that man as a social and communal animal may even learn to thrive.

Dr. Bloodmoney also introduces readers to one of PKD’s most enduringly complex characters, the thalidomide victim Hoppy Harrington.

Like most of Dick’s work, the novel is a fun pulp fiction on the surface but contains a wealth of philosophical, psychological, and theological references. A close observation will also reveal that the producers of Total Recall may have been influenced by Dr. Bloodmoney in the mutant scenes.

*** 2023 reread -

I have said before, and I think other PKD fans have said similar, that you can divide Dick’s canon into three categories:

The Hugo contenders (and one winner). These are his top tier books, Ubik, Man in the High Castle, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, A Scanner Darkly, etc.

Paying the rent. These are the lower tier efforts. Dick struggled with poverty for most of his adult life and sometimes bills need to be paid and so our Phil took speed and banged away on an old typewriter at 70 words a minute on first drafts to Ace paperbacks and got paid. Not all terrible but also not his best.

The middle books. A prolific writer like Philip K. Dick will win some and lose some and will also hit close to the mark without a bullseye top tier. Many in this category are inconsistent (a ubiquitous problem in his bibliography) as he describes eclectic themes and some good solid SF without winning awards.

I had thought before that Dr. Bloodmoney would fit high on the middle ground but now after rereading I think this should be considered one of his best.

Like many (most?) of his books, there is a lot going on and an observant reader has lots to unpack.

Actually, this metaphor made me think obliquely of John Byrne’s run on Alpha Flight. Marvel’s Canadian supergroup has a character named Shaman who is a Native American mystic who has this bag that he can pull just about anything from, seems empty but he can reach his hand in and pull out pine needles or a stone or whatever. Philip K. Dick doesn’t just have a bag of narrative goodies to sort through, he’s got Shaman’s bag that may be linked to extra dimensional luggage and obscure references.

Anyway.

Ubiquitous elements of PKD’s canon can be found here: isolation, abandonment, surveillance, paranoia, mental illness, drug use, psychic powers, etc.

We also have Hoppy Harrington, a man born without arms or legs, but who makes up for these disabilities with extraordinary telekinetic powers.

Walt Dangerfield, condemned to orbit the Earth forever, but tying the world together with his homely charm and well meaning optimism.

And the eponymous Dr. Bloodmoney, haunted by past sins and suffering from delusions, real and imagined.

And like the best of PKD (of which I now include this 1965 work) this works on many levels. Dick’s eclectic style features metaphor, simile and this may also work as an allegory about power and loss and redemption.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have absolutely no idea how this book lost its fourth star and ended up as a very strong 3. Ironically, in one respect, this was a breakthrough novel for me because something about PKD’s reality-blurring narrative style of addled consciousness really clicked with me for the first time. Now I loved The Man in the High Castle and thought that A Scanner Darkly was both original and very moving. However, my enjoyment of those works occurred despite his confused/warped non-reality format, not particularly because of it. This book may have changed that.

PKD is someone who I have found has a lot to say about the human condition. While on the surface, he can often be harsh and critical in his portrayal of humanity, I’ve always sensed an underlying note of optimism in his work. I think he spent most of his time pessimistically waiting for the world to blow itself up and yet he strongly believed/hoped that humanity would somehow overcome these obstacles of our stupidity and find a way to move forward.

Ultimately, I think he believed in us and this book exemplifies that philosophy.

PLOT SUMMARY:

In a nutty shell, this story traces the lives of a group of people living in the U.S. through the aftermath of a nuclear war. Dick assembled out of his prodigious imagination a wonderful ensemble of off-beat players to portray various aspects of the human reaction to such a catastrophic even. You have:

Dr. Bloodmoney: aka Bruno Bluthgeld, an Oppenheimer-like nuclear physicist who’s universally hated as the scapegoat for mankind’s atomic stupidity. Of course, as a classic PKD character, he is uber paranoid, megalomaniacal and believes that he has magical powers…which may or may not be true.

Hoppy Harrington: A phocomelus (i.e., born with no arms or legs…and yes, I had to look it up) who was constantly discriminated against as a result of his condition and finds himself with strong telekinetic powers in the aftermath of the war and see his chance to climb the power ladder.

Stuart McConchie: An African-American salesman whose natural optimism and contrasting normalcy remain largely the same both pre-war and post-war. Stuart exemplifies the adaptability of the human animal to extreme changes in circumstances and represents PKD’s ultimate optimism.

Walter Dangerfield: On his way to colonize Mars when the bombs went off, Walter ends up stuck in orbit and playing disc jockey for the survivors.

Edie and Bill Keller: A very unusual pair of siblings that I will not say more of here, but stick in my head as memorable PKD characters.

…and another handful whose roles or impact on me don’t feel like they warrant a special intro. But they are there and you should read about them because some of them are very nice.

Written in 1965, the story takes place chronoillogically over about 10 year period beginning in 1981. In typical PKD fashion, the world-building is sketchy and revealed slowly and piece-meal with hints and info nuggets air-dropped in occasionally to add color. At the beginning of the story (pre-kaboom), you have a large segment of the population that suffers from phocomelia and other genetic disorders as a result of both chemical poisoning (e.g. Thalidomide) and a 1974 atmospheric atomic explosion that for which Dr. Bloodmoney became the public scapegoat. In addition, the U.S. is fighting the Soviet Union and Communist China in Cuba and Mars is set to be colonized in the next phase of the space race following the disastrous and deadly Russian colonization of the Moon.

THOUGHTS:

I had to suspend my disbelief quite a bit with this one to be able to accept a massive nuclear exchange in 1981 that would permit communities to begin to rebuild a mere 7 years later. Ditto for the amount of mutation necessary to allow cats and dogs to attain rudimentary sentience in that short period of time. However, this is a very minor quibble. This is PKD and the emphasis is on people, psychology and the human condition.

Take the world-building as you find it and concentrate on the characters. They are quirky, flawed and wonderfully drawn. I really enjoyed the interaction and dialogue between the characters. It seemed both unusual and not what you would expect and yet this somehow gave it more of an air of authenticity. Hard to explain, but it was very interesting, as were the numerous internal monologues of the characters as you try to parse through what is strange reality and what is delusion.

Still, somehow over the last quarter of the book, I seemed to have lost a bit of momentum for the story and I am not sure why that is. I do know that this book, even more so than The Man in the High Castle, which I liked better, has encouraged me to read more of PKD’s work. There is something special in his stories and I want to continue to search until I find it.

What all of the above should tell you is that this novel really deserves its 4th star. If you happen to find it, please let me know.

4.0 3.0 stars. Highly Recommended!!

[Warwick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dr Bloodmoney is one of a number of books that Philip K Dick wrote during 1963, a year in which he basically just sat in his garden shed hammering at his typewriter and snacking his way through industrial quantities of amphetamines. Many of the novels that resulted were generally considered dreck – titles such as A Crack in Space, All His Strange Bureaucracies, The Girl With Some Eyes, Faux Pas on Venus, Autistic Apostasy, Space Hens of Death, Benny Goodman's Gigantic Face, When Martians Spoke German and Eat My Stars!, not all of which I made up. Mercifully, Dick was eventually stopped by a psychotic breakdown (which would later turn up in the imagery, and atmosphere, of The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch).

The indifferent nature of Dick's prose style often contributes, funnily enough, to its charm – or rather, it makes the oddities of his underlying themes seem even more critically important to their creator. There is a nervy, adrenal quality to his writing which lends an air of genuine psychological commitment to what he writes about – nothing seems like a literary conceit, it all seems deadly serious for Dick, however blandly it's put across. The plot of Dr Bloodmoney is all over the place, and yet that Phildickian paranoid terror, that sense of metaphysical instability, apparently cannot be diluted by sloppy structure alone.

The novel's set in Marin Country, Ca., after a global nuclear apocalypse, and it focuses on a small community of survivors rebuilding their lives. As you'd expect, life has become restricted to a small radius, with travel only possible by horse, and items like glass or functioning machinery now rare and valuable. Yet in many ways, Dick's vision of a postnuclear world is a curiously hopeful, even cosy one. There are local committee meetings, impromptu schools, home-made cigarettes and chanterelle-picking trips in the countryside. All of this seems scientifically improbable seven years after hydrogen bombs took out San Francisco, but scientific probability is never the point.

Against this background, a series of striking characters and images serve – almost unconsciously of authorial intent – to unspool any sense of sanity. Up in space, an astronaut has been left stranded in orbit, and now broadcasts lonely messages to the world below. A former physicist has paranoid fantasies that he caused the bombs to drop by the power of his mind (and, this being Philip K Dick, the paranoia is seen to be fully justified: he eventually wills more nuclear explosions and, sure enough, they start to go off). A thalidomide-baby handyman with no limbs wheels himself around on a cart, developing his telekenetic powers and harbouring dreams of taking over the world. A little girl spends her time talking to her ‘brother’ whom everyone assumes is imaginary, but who in fact turns out to be a semi-absorbed sentient parasitic twin living inside her, called Bill; Bill is eventually transported out of his sister's body and is then eaten by an owl, before being regurgitated while shouting exhortations about President Johnson. No, I am not making this up – that is a thing that actually happens in this book!

None of this makes any sense – or indeed could make any sense, in any conceivable context real or fictional. What you're left with is a frankly astonishing series of visual and mental impressions that feel powerful but without any relation to each other. The book has nothing to say about the nuclear threat or the US space programme, and only a little to contribute to postapocalyptic literature; but it does have quite a bit to say about 1960s California, and it has vast amounts to say about the state of Philip K Dick's fragile and fascinating mind.

[mark monday · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dick places his absurdist situations, bleak scenarios, and quirky characters within an almost pastoral post-apocalyptic san francisco-bay area. the setting is primarily a small town in marin, with everyday people slowly trying to rebuild themselves and their world. the writing is typically loose and off-kilter. results are sublime. and very strange, per usual. two oddly endearing yet threatening characters stood out for me amongst the compellingly diverse cast: Hoppy Harrington - cringing, deluded, armless & legless, gifted with increasingly terrifying powers and a very specific plan to take over the world; his nemesis Bill - whiny, yearning, able to speak to the dead, an unborn twin to a self-absorbed 7-year old girl, longing for a release into the larger world. watching these two face off against each other was worth the price of admission - their escalating conflicts are wonderfully amusing and often genuinely thrilling. and yet they are but two pieces in an intriguingly mystifying and often ironic larger puzzle.

this is a book of many minor, human notes; mournful and hopeful in equal measures. a true pleasure to read.

[Krell75 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un solitario abbandonato nello spazio, voce e speranza, una bambina che non è mai sola, un focomelico tuttofare con poteri psichici e per concludere cani parlanti.

Dimenticate le terre desolate di "Ken il Guerriero" o le acide ambientazioni di Fallout, o quelle inquietanti di McCarthy de "La Strada", qui ritroverete esattamente quello che, successivamente, King ha messo su carta nell' "Ombra dello Scorpione", un approfondimento sulle vite di alcuni abitanti di una piccola cittadina di sopravvissuti intenti a risolvere i loro problemi.
Problemi che derivano soprattutto dai poteri particolari che alcuni di loro hanno sviluppato dopo lo scoppio delle bombe.

Se vi è piaciuto il romanzo di King probabilmente vi piacerà anche questo, senza scomodare misticismo e l' uomo nero.
Quello che manca, per me, è una storia capace di coinvolgermi, dopo un inizio promettente si è un po' perso per strada lasciando che la fantasia sfrenata e poco credibile soppiantasse la fantascienza e il dramma umano. Purtroppo, anche se piacevole, non rimarrà nella mia memoria a lungo.

----------------------------------
A loner abandoned in space, voice and hope, a little girl who is never alone, a phocomelic handyman with psychic powers and finally talking dogs.

Forget the desolate lands of "Hokuto no Ken" or the acidic settings of Fallout, or the disturbing ones of McCarthy's "The Road", here you will find exactly what King later put on paper in "The Stand", a insight into the lives of some inhabitants of a small town of survivors intent on solving their problems.
Problems that derive above all from the particular powers that some of them developed after the explosion of the bombs.

If you liked King's novel you will probably like this one too, without mentioning mysticism and the boogeyman.
What is missing, for me, is a story capable of involving me, after a promising start it got a little lost along the way, allowing unbridled and not very believable fantasy to supplant science fiction and human drama. Unfortunately, while enjoyable, it won't stay in my memory for long.

[Darwin8u · Rating 4 out of 5]

"In a way there are no freaks, no abnormalities, except in the statistical sense. This is an unusual situation, but it’s not something to horrify us, actually it ought to make us happy. Life per se is good, and this is one form which life takes. There’s no special pain here, no cruelty or suffering. In fact there is solicitude and tenderness."

- Philip K Dick in Dr. Bloodmoney



What do you call a man with no arms and no legs floating dead (after an atmospheric nuclear accident) in the pool?

Bob.

What do you call a man (a Thalidomide baby) with no arms and no legs who fixes things, has strong powers of psychokinesis (which helps a man with no arms and no legs to fix things), and has survived a nuclear holocaust?

Hoppy Harrington.

What do you call a man with no arms and no legs in a pile of leaves after a near-lethal adventure inside of an owl?

Rustle.

What do you call a conjoined twin brother/sentient fetus/homunculus/tumor baby within his sister's body, who talks to the dead and has been yearning for an independent existence?

Bill Keller.

What do you call a dog with no hind legs and steel balls that chases mutant rats?

Sparky.

What do you call a man who was launched into space to colonize Mars, but ends up trapped in a satellite rotating Earth and somehow ends up becoming an omnipresent disc jockey in orbit?

Walt Dangerfield.

What do you call a man with no arms and no legs no head and no torso?

Dick.

What do you call one of my favorite sic-fi writers who wrote like 45 novels and kinda redefined sic-fi after 1970?

Philip K DICK!!!

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, what a crazy, humorous ride of a novel and because of all that, so readable. Was humor what Philip K. Dick had been aiming for? I don't know. Perhaps not entirely, but among the 40 or so novels he had written, he he did seek humor to fill and define his plots. Here, it seems he was often throwing a spit-wad in the face of the government and their bent on nuclear testing. It's a book that starts seriously and then goes feral with it's characters and their actions after the bombs have exploded. If I were to analyze it on every level, then yeah maybe it's not a 4 star book, but based on pure “enjoyability” it is worthy.

[Apatt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in the (then) near future of 1972, this 1963 novel is PKD's take on the post apocalypse subgenre of sci-fi. For my money Dick did it better than anybody else (as he often did). Grim realistic post apocalypse novels like The Road or Earth Abides are all well but they lack that patented PKD weirdness that makes his books so fascinating and entertaining.

There are actually two nuclear apocalypses in this book, the first one was caused by an accident during a nuclear weapon test, millions of people died or affected by radiation. The second one takes place only a decade later with much more catastrophic results. Besides millions of death most modern technology is destroyed, electricity and motor vehicles are things of the past. Mutated humans and animals are common place. The human mutants often have “funny powers” and the animals have their intelligence greatly enhanced.

Most of Dr. Bloodmoney* is set in the rural town of West Marin which Dick has populated with some very colorful characters. The trouble starts with the eponymous Dr. Bloodmoney, real name Dr. Bruno Bluthgeld. He led the nuclear weapon project in 1971 and is responsible for the error that caused the first nuclear disaster. For most of the book he is living incognito in West Marin as Mr. Jack Tree. Other notable characters include “Hoppy Harrington” the phocomelus** handyman with telekinesis powers, a little girl with a brother embedded inside her body, a man stuck in a satellite orbiting around Earth who becomes the world’s last DJ, weatherman and news reporter, a talking dog etc. Dick’s depiction of a post apocalypse world is refreshingly different, it is not a grim radioactive wasteland setting you get in most books in this subgenre. There is a semi-functioning government, limited commerce, local newspapers and some primitive manufacturing.

The narrative structure of Dr. Bloodmoney is quite usual for PKD, there is no main protagonist, Dick uses the “third person omniscient” style switching points of view many times as he sees fit throughout the book. This helps with the world building though it does make the book a little slow to begin with as you are familiarizing yourself with the characters. Interestingly none of the characters are particularly likeable, this would be a weakness in books by other authors, but in this case I find the characters’ individual foibles kind of hilarious.

Dick’s often criticized simplistic prose style is always oddly appealing to me, as is his often stilted dialogue which suits the bizarreness of his worlds quite well. I don’t know why some literary critics presume to know better than Dick how he should have presented his stories. I love how the storyline is unpredictable form beginning to end with many surprises and bizarre happenings along the way. Given the scenario the book has a surprisingly uplifting, optimistic tone and the eccentric humor made me laugh several times.

It’s a (nuclear) blast, read it!

____________________________________
* The original title was Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along after the Bomb, a tribute to Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

** Armless/legless condition caused by Thalidomide.

[Jayakrishnan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr.Bloodmoney is a disturbing post apocalyptic novel, but also pretty upbeat compared to some of the other Dick novels that I have read. The novel begins with scenes of life after some kind of nuclear war/fallout. Everyone seems to have put the war behind them and seem to be moving on with their daily city life when there are more nuclear explosions, apparently caused by a scientist who was responsible for the first nuclear fallout and now believes the whole world is out to get him.

But once again, the people regroup and form small local communities, who soon begin to compete with each other. The novel moves at a searing pace but there is some good character development for an ensemble of interesting characters - like the black TV seller who simply wants to live a good life, a beautiful and promiscuous woman (who indulges in some panic sex during the second fallout), her small daughter with her own brother growing inside her (a mutation due to the nuclear bombs going off), the phocomelus with special abilities who wants to become world famous, the sinister, paranoid and evil scientist with seemingly magical powers and the elderly space traveler who was on his way to mars but is now stuck in orbit due to the nuclear explosions and becomes a disc jokey for the survivors of the apocalypse.

Through the pretty absurd actions of the characters and unusual interactions between them, Dick touches upon themes like the corrupting nature of power, nostalgia, evil, rural life versus city life and the human spirit. Unlike some other post apocalyptic novels there is no government or some kind of higher authority watching over and controlling the people's lives in Dr.Bloodmoney. But there is self regulation in most of the small communities with the prominent citizens willing to commit murder to maintain law and order. And the disc jockey in space seems to provide some sort of comfort to the survivors of the apocalypse. He is almost like a benevolent god transmitting feel good messages to the survivors. When his health starts to deteriorate, the survivors begin to loose hope and there are frantic efforts to get him help. Was Dick suggesting that a majority of humanity always like to be led and need some kind of distraction to keep them occupied, without which they would go crazy? This is not like a Stephen King novel, in fact it is unlike anything i have read. I did not like or understand all of it, but it is very very intriguing and a pretty easy read. There was an afterword by Dick, in which he wrote that the novel was written during the cold war between the US and Russia when he really believed there would be some kind of nuclear war. I could identify with some of his concerns and fears since I live in India, which could well be the epicenter of some kind of nuclear war in the future.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

I really loved this book. It’s a character study, not an actioner, and less far-out than a lot of Dick novels.

This story reminds me of Theodore Sturgeon with some of the odd phrasing and its occasional dreamlike quality. I noticed this early on, even before the real weirdness kicked in.

Mutated animals and some can speak, engine-free car hulls being towed by horses, various conversations about who sells liquor or cigarettes, etc. The usual things you find in a post-apocalyptic story. Add to this some humans developing superhuman abilities and you have Dr. Bloodmoney.

This is not a horror story about the end of the world, it’s more like a “Cozy Catastrophe” tale. The world getting blowed up in a nuclear war comes and goes, and we settle in with a large cast of characters for the duration.

One thing I’m noticing in my recent reads of Dick novels is his ability to key into the humanity of the characters using only a few well-crafted phrases. This book (and several other Dick novels) have large casts of characters who all seem to have particular likes, dislikes, wants, desires and opinions. This is an under-appreciated aspect of his work; most tend to focus on his general weirdness and I’ve been guilty of this as well.

It seems to me that Dick had mastered character work by this point and maybe that was a reason why his plot ideas became REALLY weird in the second half of his career. It’s something to remember for the next 8-10 PKD novels I’ll be reading this year.

[Paul Sánchez Keighley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first word that comes to mind is “dreamy”.

For a post-apocalyptic novel, the tone of this book is strangely uplifting and buoyant, bordering on feelgood, though slaked with an undercurrent of disquiet and unease. It feels like floating inside someone’s (the author’s) head; the foundations and rules of this world are as flimsy and equivocal as dreams.

The world is sad, strange and beautiful, but the human element is full of candor. I refrain from calling it whimsical because that would imply Dick was having some level of fun, and despite how absolutely silly everything is (from the insecure homunculus to the rat playing the nose-flute), I feel like the author is at all times deadly serious.

It’s not perfect, but it delivers way more than a paranoid drug-fueled vision of a post-nuclear future has any right to claim.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit slow coming together, but when it did this was one of the more outright absurd and outrageous Dick stories.

Essentially a post apocalyptic tale following the lives of several residents and their communities in northern California after a devastating nuclear war. Central characters include "Hoppy" Harrington, a disabled phocomelus repair man with mutant powers of telekinesis, Bill the unborn mutant boy homunculus living inside his sister's body with an ability to transfer his being to other people or animals, and Walt Dangerfield, an astronaut stranded in orbit serving as a kind of human communications relay and DJ for the scattered remnants of Earth's communities.

The story is notable in Dick's cannon of the 1960's and later by the complete absence of mind altering drugs, aliens or god as plot devices. As far as that goes, he was apparently satisfied with the effects of radiation poisoning and mutation resulting from nuclear fallout to shape the story.

When I read a Dick story I usually feel like there's a message he's trying to convey beyond the absurdity of the plot as it appears on the surface. I didn't feel that with Dr. Bloodmoney. I lost all hope of comprehending whatever message or meaning he may have been trying to convey as soon as the sentient mutant rats playing nose flutes showed up. Good fun!

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

I keep hearing how great PKD is, but after 40 years of trying his works intermittently, I'm still not convinced. He's one of the few authors that I think Hollywood helps rather than harms. Nothing about this story was particularly good or compelling. It's post apocalyptic & I can think of half a dozen that did a far better job of it. None of the characters were particularly interesting, the writing was mediocre & my suspension of disbelief was sorely tried at times. The reader was pretty good or I wouldn't have made it through.

[Liviu Szoke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un roman ceva mai atipic de-al lui Philip K. Dick, ale cărui teme precum destrămarea realității sau repercusiunile pe care le poate avea consumul de droguri asupra omului nu se regăsesc aici. În schimb este tratat modul în care-și revin câteva colonii răzlețe de americani în urma unui cataclism atomic. Sumbră, întunecată, dar și cu o rază de speranță în capacitatea omului de-a-și reveni chiar și în urma celor mai înfricoșătoare grozăvii care i se pot întâmpla. Pe cât e de înduioșătoare povestea celui exilat în satelit care le spune povești oamenilor și reușește să-i să le insufle tăria de-a merge mai departe, pe-atât e de terifiantă povestea mutantului telepat care începe să se creadă Dumnezeu. Mai multe, pe FanSF: http://wp.me/pz4D9-2De.

[رزی - Woman, Life, Liberty · Rating 5 out of 5]

عموما ایرادی که به این کتاب وارد می‌کنند اینه که پر از شخصیت‌هاییه که تاثیر خاصی روی روند داستانی نمی‌ذارن و این‌که خیلی ایده‌هاش بیشتر فانتزی و باورناپذیرند تا علمی‌تخیلی.

من دقیقا به خاطر مورد اول بود که کتاب رو دوست داشتم. استانداردش این به نظر میاد که نویسنده پلاتی داشته باشه و بهش بچسبه و چیزهای غیرضروری رو حذف کنه؛ شخصیت‌هایی که تاثیری در داستان ندارند و اتفاقاتی که مهم نیستند و... اما حقیقت اینه که توی زندگی واقعی، توی هیچ داستانی نمی‌شه که چیزهای بی‌اهمیت وجود نداشته باشن و این کتاب هم دقیقا درباره‌ی زندگی‌های عادی مردمه و تغییرها، و من این رو دوست داشتم که با آدم‌های مختلف طرفم که هرکدوم زندگی خودشون رو می‌کنن و کشمکش‌های خودشون رو دارن که به هسته‌ی اصلی ماجرا ربطی نداره چون داستان دقیقا اون انسان‌هان؛ پلات سفت و سختی نیست که بهش خدمت کنن.

شخصیت‌های داستان ممکنه حتی همدیگه رو نبینن ولی باز روی هم تاثیر دارن و زندگی‌های متفاوت و آرک‌های شخصیتی برای خودشون دارن. من این‌ها رو دوست دارم.

حالا بریم سراغ داستان و فضاش.
داستان پسارستاخیزیه، تفاوتش با آثار پسارستاخیزی دیگه اینه که توی «دکتر بلادمانی» کسی دنبال قهرمان‌بازی و کشف رمزهای سری و انقلاب علیه دولت فاسد و... نیست، بلکه مردم دارن به زندگی عادی‌شون ادامه می‌دن و تا تونستن از خرابه‌ها خوشبختی دست و پا کردن. یکی گوسفند می‌چرونه، یکی سیگار می‌سازه، یکی تله موش می‌فروشه. حماسه و سلحشوری و نوجوان‌های تفنگ به دست توی این اثر نیستن، بلکه مردم عادی متفاوت.

انفجار هسته‌ای، باعث شده جهش‌های ژنتیکی پیش بیاد مثلا بعضی حیوانات بتونن مثل انسان‌ها صحبت کنن، بعضی انسان‌ها بتونن قدرت‌های ویژه پیدا کنن و این‌جور چیزها. نکته‌ی که درمورد این کتاب اذیتم کرد هم همین بود، چون جهش‌های ژنتیکی معمولا نقص و بیماری‌اند اما توی این کتاب هرکی جهش داشته یه قدرت پیدا کرده واسه خودش. یکی با دنیای مردگان در ارتباطه و یکی می‌تونه تله‌کینزی کنه. ولم کنین. این اصلا علمی‌تخیلی نیست. کتاب نتونسته تصمیم بگیره سوررئال باشه یا نه.

شخصیت محبوبم هاپی هرینگتون بود، معلولی که داشت توی دنیایی که نادیده‌ش می‌گرفتن و ضعیف می‌دونستنش دست و پا می‌زد تا به جایگاه و مقامی برسه. تلاشش تحسین‌برانگیز بود. هاپی واقعا استعداد داشت و چیزهای دیگه که اگه بگم اسپویل‌اند... اما همین‌طور که داستان جلو می‌ره اون هم تغییر می‌کنه، هاپی کمابیش به مرکز داستان بدل می‌شه و تغییرش طوریه که بتونه احساسم رو از علاقه به بیزاری تبدیل کنه.

‌ با نثر هم در ابتدا ارتباط نمی‌گرفتم و کم‌کم بهش جذب شذم، کلا این کتابیه که باید بهش فرصت داد. هرجا فکر کردید با پلات روبه‌رویید فقط سعی کنید نادیده‌ش بگیرید. این‌جوریا نیست:)) خلاصه این‌که برای منی که بیشتر به شخصیت اهمیت می‌دم تا پلات، کتاب مناسبی بود. کتاب یه آشفته‌بازاری از ایده‌های جورواجوره: انفجار اتمی، جهش‌های ژنتیکی، مردی در فضا، توهم، پیش‌گویی، جابه‌جایی جسم، زنی که بیشتر از موهای سرتون رابطه عاشقانه داره. بقیه‌ی آثار کی دیک رو هم نخوندم و این اولین تجربه‌م بود.

Bonny, you think like a child. You think everything can be obtained if you just want it badly enough. That's magical thinking.

{By the way, Walt Dangerfield, as Shadi always says: GET ON TOP OF ME SIR!}

[Chloe · Rating 5 out of 5]

And so I've made it through the second of the Library of America's Five Novels of the 1960s & 70s none the worse for wear. Dr. Bloodmoney is a classic piece of 60s-style nuclear agitprop. While nearly every Philip K. Dick book that I've yet read can readily be classed as dystopian fiction, I think Dr. Bloodmoney is the work of his that comes closest to living up to the classic post-nuclear armageddon scenario envisioned in Earth Abides or A Canticle For Leibowitz. Still, this is Dick, so there are your super-powered invalids and your paranoid scientists convinced that they telepathically set off all the bombs, but when stood side by side with Dick's paranoid epics like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, this is a very normal-seeming piece of science fiction.

Through a typical swirling cast of characters, Dick has crafted another captivating world in which the reader is again left wondering whether events actually occurred or whether we were all subjected to intense fever dreams and hallucinations. As the bombs drop on Berkeley we are introduced to Hoppy Harrington- a phocomelus (born with no arms or legs) repairman with telekinetic powers and a big ax to grind with humanity, Dr. Bluthgeld/Jack Tree- the nuclear physicist who may or may not have accidentally set off all the world's nuclear armaments with his mental powers (or he's just batshit), Bonny Keller- a housewife with a predilection for extramarital amblings, and her daughter Edie whose young form also carries her brother Bill, a sentient teratoma whose own telekinetic powers may hold the key to saving humanity from Hoppy Harrington's plans for domination. Above them all flies poor lonely Walter Dangerfield, an astronaut who had been set to fly to Mars until the war left him trapped in orbit, circling the globe again and again and beaming down messages and music to the remnants of humanity.

There is very little that is new in this book. The destruction and rebuilding of civilization had been done hundreds of times before Dick made his effort and thousands of times afterward, yet I find myself loving this book in spite of it. I find myself relating to an almost unpleasant degree with a good hunk of the characters, from the cheerily optimistic Stuart McConchie who just wants the world to go back to normal to the power-obsessed Hoppy, who is determined to have the world finally give him his due.

Far and away though, my favorite character is Walter Dangerfield, circling the Earth and beaming down his messages to an audience that assembles in meeting halls in a religious silence and whose very presence provides humankind with hope for a better tomorrow. The religious allegory runs thick through his scenes, but becomes very satisfying when Dangerfield falls ill and humanity is left to wonder what will unite them when his broadcasts finally fall silent in a fine nod to Nietzschean ideas.

As fast a read as every other Dick book, Dr. Bloodmoney would be an exquisite place for a neophyte to test out the author's special brand of paranoia and hallucination, as well as a required read for those completists seeking to make their way through the entirety of Dick's oeuvre. It clearly belongs in the Library of America's collection, which was refreshing after my near miss with Martian Time-Slip, and makes me excited to see what comes next in this thick book.

[Stuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a non-sequitur to say that this is an odd PKD novel, since all his novels are, but this one strikes me as different from his other books. It features an odd collection of characters trying to rebuild their lives in a post-nuclear attack world in Marin County. There are various mutations in humans and animals alike due to radiation exposure, and civilization has been taken back many decades due to the collapse of industrial society.

Unfortunately, the sense of reality-bending and realization that all is not as it seems is lacking here, and despite the interesting cast, the storyline really lacks any strong narrative or focus. Hoppy Harrington is an intriguing exception, an initially harmless and pathetic mutant lacking arms and legs, who slowly develops very powerful abilities and also bears a grudge against normal humanity for earlier mistreatment. However, the ending seemed a bit contrived, and didn't make much sense to me.

This has been my 9th PKD novel this year, but not my favorite. I still think Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, UBIK, Martian Time-Slip and VALIS are much better.

[Vicky Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Are you building more H-bombs but enjoying it less? Has thermonuclear war got you down?"

"Our enemy, Stockstill thought. Who is our enemy... isn't it you, Mr. Tree? Isn't it you sitting here rattling off your paranoid delusions? How did you ever get the high post that you hold? Who is responsible for giving you power over the lives of others- and letting you keep that power even after the fiasco of 1972? You - and they - are surely our enemies."

And who is Mr. Tree, really? Mr. Tree is Dr. Bluthgeld, aka Dr. Bloodmoney, a paranoid and demented megalomaniac who is hell-bent on destroying the world. He has been ranting to the psychologist Dr. Stockstill about his perceived 'enemies'. Let's not get into the plot because you'll want to read that for yourself. But, the book is a post-apocalyptic work of Science Fiction that includes some real characters, such as Richard Nixon as the FBI director. The book was written in 1965, but it is set in 1981 and covers about seven years. Allow me to explain Nixon's presence in the story.

You need to remember that Nixon lost to Kennedy in 1960. He then lost the California gubernatorial race in 1962. I think he was miffed by that, and that's around the time he said, "You won't have old Dick Nixon to kick around anymore" or something like that. Well, he was not giving up that easy. He hovered in the background, throwing a lot of money around at GOP races across the country, basically buying the 1968 nomination. Meanwhile he fomented his 'Southern Strategy' of coded language, using words like "neighborhood schools" instead of "segregation" to stir up the Dixiecrats to change to the Republican party. The South was before that Democratic of course. The Civil Rights Act of 1965 had them pretty riled up. And, Nixon knew how to tap into that racism. This was the point where this book was published. Old "Dick Nixon" was this political ghost in the background that people knew and feared... some of them did. Some welcomed him with open arms, and he would later be president from 1969 to 1974, when he resigned.

So, the book is somewhat satiric and takes a riff off Nixon's reputation as an authoritarian who liked domestic control. All this plays into the novel's themes of paranoia and the surveillance state. Dr. Bloodmoney is some Science guy who has no business in politics, but has been given a hand in the government and made some very bad choices that project Earth into an apocalypse. I got curious about Nixon's "Enemy List" while reading this fascinating book. His list included only about 20 names at first, like high-profile journalists. People he sought out for revenge. But, before long it stretched into the hundreds.

Yes, its hard to tell the difference between Sci-fi and politics sometimes. Dr. Bloodmoney has such themes as paranoia, racism, mocking special needs/ handicaps and what makes a person with a disability 'unnatural.' But, the book is great. I finished this a couple of nights ago so late that I planned to review it the next day, and am just getting around to it. I've been reading several books back to back lately. This one though, kept me up until four in the morning. It is a great read, probably better even than the other PKD books I've read. I recommend this quick classic read highly.

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 2 out of 5]

"The demolition of existence has begun. Everyone present will be spared by special consideration long enough to confess sins and repent if it is sincere."

More like 2.5 stars.
My reaction to this somewhat pedestrian Dick--two words that should never be together, so i thought--can be summed up in this way: This is a decent science fiction novel, but not a very good Philip K. Dick novel.
As a sci-fi story it's sufficient: people wander post-apocalyptic Northern California, especially the greater Bay Area, listen to stories read down to them by an astronaut trapped in orbit when the nuclear holocaust happened, and have identity crises.
As a Dick story, it has a few familiar elements: counter-intuitive characters including a thalidomide "flipper baby" in a robotic exo-suit who is also telekinetic, a seven year old girl with her absorbed twin brother living in her side and communicating with the dead, and the titular paranoid schizophrenic physicist who caused the nuclear holocaust and is hiding out in a commune with his dog Terry.
Sounds promising, but not much happens, much is vague and the story never really goes anywhere. In fact, the characters just kind of mill about awkwardly, like attendees at a mass colonoscopy retreat. Strange things happen, go unquestioned and nothing cohesive and Dickian ever occurs.
This is an early novel, by the prolific Dick's standards, so maybe it's just part of a coterie of small fails?

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

My 22nd PKD novel. 

Ugh. Just... ugh. Start to finish, one of Phil's worst (imo). 

Here's what it feels like happened when he sat down to write this: He wasn't particularly inspired - he hadn't happened upon a strong central idea... but he was in the habit of writing daily so he decided to dive in, maybe thinking, 'Something along the way will spark.' 

It didn't. But he kept the pages going, gathered together a group of characters (none of them all that interesting, not even the marginally interesting ones) and put them through a repetitive, mind-numbing series of non-starter events... until he got to A BIG FINISH (which isn't all that big but, compared to what went before, it is). 

This is one of PKD's titles that's held in higher regard (a Nebula Award nominee?!). But... I can name some of his titles that I think are better than their reputations, so... that's sort of the wonder of PKD: when it comes to how 'good' certain titles are... it's a matter of what strikes the individual. Some titles can be both blessed and cursed - and hit different people differently.

Many readers think that most of what PKD wrote is just plain weird. Sadly, this book isn't weird *enough*. Aside from a few small touches, the tone is fairly realistic - which has made some refer to 'Dr. Bloodmoney' as "accessible".

But, to me, the best thing about it is its title (not including the subordinate title tacked on by Phil's editor in order to create misguided kinship with 'Dr. Strangelove').  

I don't feel like I'm dumping on the guy. It just seems clear that, considering his considerable output... well, they can't all be hits.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dr Bloodmoney [1965] – ★★★1/2

Dr Bloodmoney is a wildly imaginative sci-fi book which is set in distant future after a nuclear disaster left the society with new adaptive technologies, shocking mutations, inverted priorities and the hatred for one person who is deemed responsible for bringing it all about: Dr Bluthgeld (Dr Bloodmoney), a deranged physicist who went into hiding. One person who knows his real identity and location is Bonny Keller, the beautiful wife of a successful school principal, and Stuart McConchie, an unfortunate salesman, may also be starting to guess correctly. Meanwhile, orbiting around Earth is the “voice of wisdom” – Walter Dangerfield, and previously marginalised and ridiculed disabled person Hoppy Harrington sees his fortunes turn with prospects to gain enviable influence in the community. Although this increasingly disturbing tale from Philip K. Dick is an unfocused one with a questionable ending, it is also an enjoyable literary ride into one of a kind “end-of-the-world” chaos filled with colourful characters and a through-provoking satire on the survival of a community in the time of a crisis.

I can never stop being amazed at the sheer ease and confidence with which Philip K. Dick slides into his futuristic, psychedelic world and takes his readers along for a bumpy ride. In very few words, the author somehow manages to conjure up this rich and shockingly believable world and all because he always hits the ground running. Every detail of his world becomes convincing because everything is already there, whether scattered chaotically or placed meticulously, for us discover and marvel at. From Dr Bloodmoney’s first paragraph, we are already on this morning-busy Shattuck Avenue, introduced to a number of the main characters: psychiatrist Dr Stockstill, salesman Stuart McConchie, owner of TV Sales and Service Jim Fergesson, new disabled TV repairman Hoppy Harrington, and of course, Bruno Bluthgeld, the paranoid physicist who so disastrously miscalculated the event of 1972 which precipitated the nuclear fallout (the “E” Day). It is this catastrophe of 1972 which still looms over the lives of the characters, such as the successful couple George and Bonny Keller who run a school. This is also the time when humans have already attempted to send their kind to Mars to live – the Dangerfields, and one of them, Walter Dangerfield, hosts readings of classic books from his satellite orbiting Earth.

The “crux” of the story is rather slow in coming in Dr Bloodmoney, but Dick is a smooth operator in the sci-fi genre and one can hardly notices anything very extraordinary in the plot until one is already in the very midst of all things crazy and unbelievable. It is at this point that the reader is already in the grasp of Dick’s ideas, outrageous and unrelenting, maddening and refreshingly interesting. It is by slowly building up the “craziness” tolerance in a reader by Dick, that we are soon digesting stuff on page 223 that we will not be even thinking about reading on page 5.

The focus of the book becomes the barely-perceivable satire on celebrity-worshipping, consumerism and the mentality of a group confronting a crisis. As the author says in the Afterword: the book is about “human nature and the power [it] wields…the abuses that stem from it”. The pre-war and after-war mentalities and environment become clearly demarcated in the story, and the difference is felt by every character. Businesses change to suit new demands, for example, animal trappers flourish, and liquor and cigarettes start to cost extraordinary sums. While some people struggle to survive, others are making millions out of everyone’s tragedy. Dick wants to showcase the type of madness in a crisis that only humans are capable of, and, in the post-apocalyptic world, social roles also reverse – those who were once at the top find themselves at the very bottom, and marginalised people like Hoppy find themselves in lucrative positions because of their special and useful skills. Even increasingly weak and isolated Dangerfield, a man orbiting Earth in a satellite, becomes a tragic satirised symbol standing for the irrational attachment of the populace to their pride and superiority.

Other elements driving this book forward are the characters who are, for the most part, ordinary or marginalised people caught in extraordinary situations. Most of the characters want their “problems to be automated out of existence” [Dick, 1965: 257], and to escape to a better world. Their existential crisis and apathy are evident in the new and frightening reality: “there was really no such thing as being cured; the “illness” was life itself, and a constant growth…had to continue, or psychic stagnation would result” [Dick, 1965: 27], thinks one character, while another says to himself: “there is nothing…which is “outside” nature; that is a logical impossibility…there are no…abnormalities, except in the statistical sense” [Dick, 1965: 162]. Philip K. Dick has never been a truly great writer, but he knows how to present the psychology of each character and weaves his ideas effectively into the story, juggling each character with ease. It is this multiple-characters’ following, in addition to one peculiar dystopian world, that makes reading Philip K. Dick books like reading no other science-fiction.

The major downside of the book is that, although the futuristic world is interesting, the reader is forced to read chapters and chapters without any prominent “hook” or main interest/focus in sight. On that basis alone, Dr Bloodmoney suffers narratively, especially since it introduces so many characters and minor plot lines, remaining the least focused of all Philip K. Dick creations I have read so far. The ending also feels abrupt, with some major loose ends left hanging and other issues unresolved.

As is the case with so many other books by Philip K. Dick, Dr Bloodmoney is like a crazy dystopian dream you can never quite shake off and which leaves deep impression days after it was dreamt. I cannot say I recommend it for people previously unacquainted with the work of the author, but hard-core fans of Philip K. Dick are certainly bound to find a lot to like here.

[Dvd (#) · Rating 2 out of 5]

13/04/2017 (**)

Diciamo che si conferma il mio giudizio su Dick. E' un autore che, a mio modestissimo parere, viaggia su continui alti e bassi, anche all'interno dello stesso romanzo.
La cosa si accentua in particolare nei romanzi "lunghi" mentre, al contrario, si stempera nei racconti brevi.

Trame aggrovigiliate che poi si dipanano a fatica (e non del tutto), invenzioni narrative mirabolanti a getto continuo che tendono però a complicare ulteriormente il tutto. La limpidezza della prosa poi è a tratti criptica e non propriamente scorrevole. Insomma, sembra quasi che Dick, sul lungo, voglia caricare troppo i suoi romanzi, infarcirli di troppi ingredienti. Alcuni aspetti poi si perdono per strada, altri non si sviluppano, altri addirittura si sviluppano troppo data l'apparente (e sostanziale) secondarietà. Alla fine il risultato è un caleidoscopio in cui c'è di tutto e in cui è facile perdere la visione d'insieme.

Qui la storia è ambientata in un mondo di sopravvissuti dopo che le bombe sono cadute; la civiltà precedente (ovviamente, americana) è stata rasata fino alle fondamenta ma non completamente estinta. I sopravvissuti tirano avanti, rinascono comunità improvvisate, riprende il commercio.
In tutto questo, l'idea migliore di Dick è quella dell'astronauta diretto su Marte e partito nei giorni dell'Apocalisse: bloccato nell'orbita terrestre, senza speranza né di proseguire verso Marte né di tornare sulla Terra (stante il fatto che sul pianeta non esiste più la NASA nè qualcuno in grado di dirigere il suo satellite), l'astronauta diventa una specie di speaker radiofonico spaziale, un crooner che con voce rassicurante fa rivivere il mondo scomparso e girando intorno alla Terra collega i suoi abitanti attraverso la radio. Finirà ipocondriaco nella sua solitudine e poi psicanalizzato (e di questa cosa, non ho capito il senso).

Meno riusciti, o comunque meno brillanti, altri personaggi: l'handicappato con poteri paranormali e bruciante voglia di rivincita sui "normali", che nel nuovo mondo assume sempre più importanza per l'abilità tecnica nel riparare oggetti; la ragazza perennemente insoddisfatta (che la dà a destra e a manca); il commesso viaggiatore nero (che Dick in persona, nella postfazione, dice di preferire rispetto a tutti i suoi altri personaggi - caricandolo di un significato globale che sinceramente mi era completamente sfuggito).
Soprattutto, la figura meno riuscita è quella dello schizofrenico fisico nucleare, il dott. Stranamore che aveva causato l'escalation nucleare, completamente pazzo, affetto da psicosi e manie di persecuzioni.

Evitando di raccontare la complessa trama, aggiungo che il finale m'è sembrato tutt'altro che riuscito (motivo per cui le stelle sono due, e non tre - che sarebbe forse stato il giudizio più giusto per il romanzo nel suo complesso - forse, ripeto).
Purtroppo su Dick continuo a avere un giudizio duplice: grandissimo inventore di storie e scenari fantascientifici straordinari, scrittore non altrettanto grande. Si fa leggere abbastanza con piacere, ma alla fine della lettura rimangono quasi sempre perplessità e incomprensioni.

[Grazia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Se una settimana d'estate un viaggiatore...

...non si fosse portato neanche un libro cartaceo in vacanza?
E se il supporto a disposizione di questo viaggiatore risultasse inutilizzabile in spiaggia al sole?
E se l'unica libreria (libreria si fa per dire) nel raggio d'azione del viaggiatore non offrisse niente di papabile al suddetto?
Al viaggiatore non rimarrebbe che "ravanare" tra i libri a disposizione dell'hotel in cui soggiorna, pochi, quasi tutti non in italiano (ci sarà un perché) e scovare questo titolo...di Dick.
Allora il viaggiatore che in testa aveva Dick da un sacco di tempo pensa: "Ecco. È arrivato il suo momento. Si voleva far leggere...I libri si sa scovano le strade più impensate per giungere in nostro possesso"

Il viaggiatore inizia di lena. "Ehm... Ma siam sicuri che sia quel Dick così tanto citato e osannato?" Sto titolo il viaggiatore in effetti mica l'aveva mai sentito nominare. E la prosa... Beh, bella "sgarruppata"...Tra l'involuto e l'aggrovigliato. Per non parlare dell'idea dell'intreccio che pare non prendere mai quota. Ripetitivo e noiosetto proprio.

Siamo in un ipotetico dopobomba. Gli esseri umani sopravvissuti son strane mutazioni di ciò che erano in precedenza. Topi che suonano col naso, topi che vengono mangiati crudi, strani esseri che vivono all'interno dei bambini che leggono nel pensiero, focomelici con poteri sovrannaturali...e una sorta di "divinità" osannata da tutti, un uomo comune spedito nella stratosfera su un razzo e condannato a stare in orbita (in cielo) in eterno a causa della guerra... e che fa 'sto uomo per essere divinizzato? Beh, innanzitutto non ha subito gli effetti della bomba essendo stato spedito su Marte prima dell'esplosione della bomba, legge "Schiavo d'amore" di Maugham a puntate, e trasmette musica classica...E poi c'è 'sta donna Penny, coi denti bellissimi ...eh, che si accoppia con chiunque le capiti a tiro...

Insomma. Forse voleva parlare della impossibilità di relazionarsi in modo normale, della morte di Dio soppiantato da nuovi idoli umani divinizzati per qualche recondito potere soprannaturale o per qualche strano caso del destino, della eterna lotta tra il bene e il male. E della vita che in ogni caso continua, nonostante l'uomo faccia di tutto per autoeliminarsi.Forse.

Ma francamente...

[P.E. · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the wildest from Philip K. Dick's.

Soundtrack playing :
Splitting the Atom - Massive Attack

-----------

Un des plus perchés de son auteur !

Correspondance musicale :
Splitting the Atom - Massive Attack

[David Agranoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, I really loved this PKD book and I am surprised I had not read it sooner. This is a weird post nuclear novel that is equally dark and sarcastic at times. Our Dickheads podcast review:

https://soundcloud.com/dickheadspodca...

[Lucian Bogdan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mi s-a părut foarte bună.
Traducerea mi s-a părut bună.

Într-o Americă post-atomică, oamenii încearcă să refacă legăturile dintre comunități, ferindu-se de animalele mutante devenite tot mai îndrăznețe și mai periculoase. Comerțul se reia cu greutate, știrile sunt transmise de un astronaut ipohondru condamnat să orbiteze până la moarte Pământul, un mutant cu puteri telekinetice încearcă să devină stăpânul comunității care, cu ani în urmă, râdea de infirmitatea lui, iar singurul de care se teme este „fratele” unei fetițe, un homunculus dezvoltat în trupul ei ca efect al expunerii la radiații.

O frescă fascinantă, plină cu elementele specifice prozei lui PKD, cu personaje stranii, între care autorul oscilează continuu - prezentând, practic, fragmente diferite ale acelei lumi văzute din perspective diverse. Acțiunea e rareori redată în desfășurarea ei - mai degrabă, un personaj prezintă apropierea unui eveniment, doar ca, în capitolul următor, un alt personaj să redea, prin prisma sa, urmările evenimentului respectiv. PKD oferă un tablou necosmetizat, dar nu o face folosind tușe menite să scârbească, să șocheze, cum e cazul altor autori ce au scris cărți similare. El doar prezintă o încercare a omenirii de a merge mai departe într-o lume devenită neprielnică, dar o face - paradoxal - într-un mod relativ optimist, ce denotă încredere în capacitatea omenirii de a supraviețui și a se adapta. Nu încearcă să inducă o stare anxioasă, depresivă - deși ăsta e stilul lui -, nu-și propune să ne facă să empatizăm cu personajele supuse unor situații injuste. Doar prezintă acel viitor ca pe o realitate căreia trebuie să i se facă față, așa cum au făcut față, de exemplu, cei ce au colonizat America în urmă cu câteva secole.

Pentru mine, romanul acesta reprezintă tot ce ar fi putut fi și n-a fost „Omul din Castelul Înalt”.

Păcat că în limba română nu s-a păstrat și subtitlul romanului, cred că s-a pierdut din mesaj cu asta.

[Simon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is probably the weakest PKD book I've read. Not that it was especially bad, it just didn't really work for me on any level.

At no point did I find myself particularly engrossed and enjoying the story. The narrative, fragmented by numerous points of view of the disparate characters whose futures eventually become loosely entwined later on in the novel, and punctuated by random time intervals between chapters, it didn't flow well at all, especially for the first half of the novel.

Here are some familiar themes such as mental illness, paranoia and megalomania and other new ones such as a post apocalyptic scenario, not one but a couple have already happened and another unfolds in the narrative. Also, a full range of psychic powers are explored such as telekinesis, telepathy, future visions and communion with the dead.

One can usually expect a mish-mash of ideas in a PKD novel but they didn't really come together very well here, as he somehow manages to pull off elsewhere. There was a wry humour throughout that occasionally made me chuckle though. All in all, not a book I would particularly recommend.

[Claudia ∇ · Rating 2 out of 5]

L'inizio del libro è promettente, la struttura interessante con i salti da un personaggio all'altro e anche attraverso il tempo, lasciando solo sottesi alcuni passaggi, senza dilungarsi troppo nella narrazione, ma lasciando parti all'intuizione del lettore.
Purtroppo, io credo, non è stato sviluppato affatto bene. Alcuni personaggi sono piuttosto ben caratterizzati, altri invece sembrano veramente surreali, infantili fino all'inverosimile. Ma la cosa che mi è piaciuta meno è la presenza della cosiddetta "magia": non il fatto che essa esista, ma che sia capace di qualunque cosa, davvero qualunque, senza una spiegazione se non "le radiazioni". Credo si potesse trovare un qualunque altro tipo di escamotage per arrivare alle stesse conclusioni senza usare un mezzo così blando come la "magia" ingiustificata.
Personalmente, tenendo conto di tutto questo, posso dire che il libro non mi è piaciuto quasi affatto.

[notgettingenough · Rating 2 out of 5]

To set the scene, I read this while sick of the yes-I'd-consider-being-put-down-if-the-drugs-were-good variety sick. Maybe this made the book pall a little. But it is tantalisingly written up in the foreword of a revived edition - did this become catchy with reviewers? - as like the craziest Dick book, whereas I found it the plainest and most straightforward of his books I've read. I do admire the way he managed to write a book which Neil (of the Young Ones) could have turned to if he ever felt like the downer was lifting, whilst at the same time being more or less nice. So, contrary to the opinions of many, I found the flatness and ordinariness to be the the surprise here. At a time when American children were achingly aware that they weren't likely to come even close to living out their shelf life, the book might have been reassuring. Put those umbrellas up when the bombs go off and life will carry on....that was the government propaganda at the time and it's almost like Dick is taking that as his starting point.

There was never a question of not finishing it. But I didn't like it. Not one bit.