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The Zap Gun
Scaldingly sarcastic yet enduringly empathetic, The Zap Gun is Dick's remarkable novel depicting the insanity of the arms race. Lars Powderdry and Lilo Topchev are counterpart weapons fashion designers for a world divided into two factions–Wes-bloc and Peep-East. Since the Plowshare Protocols of 2002, their job has been to invent elaborate weapons that only seem massively lethal. But when alien satellites hostile to both sides appear in the sky, the two are brought together in the dire hope that they can create a weapon to save the world, a task made all the more difficult by Lars falling in love with Lilo even as he knows she's trying to kill him.
Author Biography: Winner of both the Hugo and John W. Campbell awards for best novel, widely regarded as the premiere science fiction writer of his day, and the object of cult-like adoration from his legions of fans, Philip K. Dick has come to be seen in a literary light that defies classification in much the same way as Borges and Calvino. With breathtaking insight, he utilizes vividly unfamiliar worlds to evoke the hauntingly and hilariously familiar in our society and ourselves.
258 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1967
116 people are currently reading
1975 people want to read
About the author
Philip K. Dick
1,993 books22.7k followersPhilip 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
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
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June 14, 2023
Brilliant and mind bending, classic PKD!
The Zap Gun is also more than eclectic and pulpy science fiction fun from Philip K. Dick; it is a scathingly funny cold war satire that blends elements of Why Are We in Vietnam?, Starship Troopers, and Stand on Zanzibar.
As I read this, I asked myself again and again why was he not more popular in his own time? From reading articles about his contemporaries, he was much lauded by his peers, but just never enjoyed the commercial success of Heinlein or Asimov, or even the literary praise of Vonnegut or Le Guin, but PKD was a masterful craftsman and his imagination was unparalleled.
This work is also somewhat reminiscence of his short story, The Defenders. The reader will enjoy Dick’s usual themes of mental illness and drug use and also an odd mix of time travel, androids, toys, and comic books.
A must read for fans and a good introduction to his early work.
*** 2023 reread -
This is akin to Vonnegut’s 1976 novel Slapstick in that it is the most over the top absurdist and satirical novel from a writer who is frequently over the top anyway.
PKD? Over the top? What?
Yes, gentle readers, Phil could get weird when he needed to. Actually, while this is most definitely over in the absurdist side of his canon, it may not be the MOST wild (Galactic Pot Healer maybe?) but it is untamed and funny.
This time around, eleven years after my first reading, I am again impressed with the richness of his writing and the subtle nuance of his satirical allusions. A casual reader will think PKD is being weird for the sake of weirdness, but a more attentive reader will pick up on Phil’s timely and relevant social and political observations.
Like The Defenders and its later “sequel” The Penultimate Truth, this is a Cold War satire, about the saturnine nature of our warlike governments.
President Eisenhower in his farewell address from the White House in 1961, famously warned us against the growing power of the military - industrial complex. He said, “[while] we recognize the imperative need for this development...We must not fail to comprehend its grave implications we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence…The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." Eisenhower cautioned that the federal government’s collaboration with an alliance of military and industrial leaders, though necessary, was vulnerable to abuse of power. Ike then counseled American citizens to be vigilant in monitoring the military-industrial complex.
Whoa! Sixty years later and his words are alive with consequence and cautionary vision.
PKD, for his part, provided this scathing rebuke of the powers that be, and especially of top level international support for war and the making of the instruments of war. Like the songwriters of Black Sabbath’s 1970 song War Pigs, Dick was playfully making fun of some real immorality. Geezer Butler, Black Sabbath’s bassist and one of the lyricists of the song said, “It wasn't about politics or government or anything. It was Evil itself. So I was saying 'generals gathered in the masses / just like witches at black masses' to make an analogy.”
Not one of his more recognized titles, this is nonetheless an important book in his bibliography.
The Zap Gun is also more than eclectic and pulpy science fiction fun from Philip K. Dick; it is a scathingly funny cold war satire that blends elements of Why Are We in Vietnam?, Starship Troopers, and Stand on Zanzibar.
As I read this, I asked myself again and again why was he not more popular in his own time? From reading articles about his contemporaries, he was much lauded by his peers, but just never enjoyed the commercial success of Heinlein or Asimov, or even the literary praise of Vonnegut or Le Guin, but PKD was a masterful craftsman and his imagination was unparalleled.
This work is also somewhat reminiscence of his short story, The Defenders. The reader will enjoy Dick’s usual themes of mental illness and drug use and also an odd mix of time travel, androids, toys, and comic books.
A must read for fans and a good introduction to his early work.
*** 2023 reread -
This is akin to Vonnegut’s 1976 novel Slapstick in that it is the most over the top absurdist and satirical novel from a writer who is frequently over the top anyway.
PKD? Over the top? What?
Yes, gentle readers, Phil could get weird when he needed to. Actually, while this is most definitely over in the absurdist side of his canon, it may not be the MOST wild (Galactic Pot Healer maybe?) but it is untamed and funny.
This time around, eleven years after my first reading, I am again impressed with the richness of his writing and the subtle nuance of his satirical allusions. A casual reader will think PKD is being weird for the sake of weirdness, but a more attentive reader will pick up on Phil’s timely and relevant social and political observations.
Like The Defenders and its later “sequel” The Penultimate Truth, this is a Cold War satire, about the saturnine nature of our warlike governments.
President Eisenhower in his farewell address from the White House in 1961, famously warned us against the growing power of the military - industrial complex. He said, “[while] we recognize the imperative need for this development...We must not fail to comprehend its grave implications we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence…The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." Eisenhower cautioned that the federal government’s collaboration with an alliance of military and industrial leaders, though necessary, was vulnerable to abuse of power. Ike then counseled American citizens to be vigilant in monitoring the military-industrial complex.
Whoa! Sixty years later and his words are alive with consequence and cautionary vision.
PKD, for his part, provided this scathing rebuke of the powers that be, and especially of top level international support for war and the making of the instruments of war. Like the songwriters of Black Sabbath’s 1970 song War Pigs, Dick was playfully making fun of some real immorality. Geezer Butler, Black Sabbath’s bassist and one of the lyricists of the song said, “It wasn't about politics or government or anything. It was Evil itself. So I was saying 'generals gathered in the masses / just like witches at black masses' to make an analogy.”
Not one of his more recognized titles, this is nonetheless an important book in his bibliography.
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June 1, 2022
Zapping good fun.
If PKD's The Zap Gun were ever made into a film, an animated cartoon highlighting the author's tongue-in-cheek humor would work marvels. For more audience fun, a director could even insert a laugh track.
Sure, there's a number of the author's signature New Wave SF themes (government deception, corporate manipulation, media distortion, mind screwing & mind altering drugs) but all the heady philosophic stuff happens within the context of what might be the wackiest, wonkiest, zonkeist SF novel ever written. Zap. Zap. Zap. Got ya!
It’s war! 1950s style cold war, that is. We're in 2004 and it’s Wes-bloc vs. Peep-East locked in perpetual stalemate. Weapons development is key. Lars Powderdry for Wes-bloc and Lilo Topchev for Peep-East design the latest fashions in deadly weapons while in a trace state – after all, their respective side must always keep one step ahead.
But here’s the trick: Lars and Lilo drawings aren’t used to create real weapons; rather, their fancy sketches are merely turned into trinkets and toys for the gullible general public. Oh, yes, the pursaps, the poor saps that make up the general population must be kept in ignorance.
Why? Basically for two reasons: 1) Pursaps want to feel safe and secure – nothing better than knowing your side has the latest in sophisticated weaponry to annihilate the bad guys; 2) Pursaps fuel the consumer economy by buying all those fashionable toys and trinkets and gadgets.
Then crisis hits – an alien invasion is under way. For the human race to survive, Wes-bloc and Peep-East must unite in a real war with real weapons with their first line of defense... well, to have Lars and Lilo meet in a luxury hotel in Fairfax, Iceland so they can enter the trace state together and create an honest-to-goodness real, effective weapon to zap those pesky aliens.
Does all this sound out-and-out preposterous, ludicrous, ridiculous? Welcome to The Zap Gun. What's uncanny about PKD 's zapper is all the many stinging, satirical zaps fired at politics and society back in the mid-1960s apply even more to our world today.
Ready, aim, fire! Take a gander at this round of Zap Gun zaps:
Lucky Bagman, TV Personality
Lars Powderdry reflects on the power of television, “I’d be one of those fans of Lucky Bagman and his morning TV interview shows that accepts what he’s told, knows it’s true because he saw it on that big screen with all those stereo colors, richer than life.” Philip K. Dick wrote this novel in the early 1960s. He could see television and mass media would become progressively more influential, creating an entire popular culture that would, in effect, become the dominant influence in people’s lives. Deeper into the story, Lars Powerderdry can even threaten government and military officials with his status as celebrity to reach the pursaps directly through his connection with Lucky Bagman and TV.
Turning Loose a Right-Winger
For years, Surley G. Febbs has been scanning educational tapes (edutapes) at the main branch of the Boise, Idaho Public Library. Surley G. Febbs has made himself an expert on the latest deadliest weapons and all other aggressive technologies and gadgets in his off-hours away from his job at New Era of Cooperative-Financing Savings & Loan Corporation of Boise where he performs the job of loan manager, as per:
“In detecting deadbeats he was unmatched. He could look an applicant, especially a Negro, over in less than one microsecond and discern the actual composition of their ethical psychic-structure.”
When Surley G. Febbs is chosen to be on the board of an influential government organization, we really get to peer inside the personality and values of this extreme right-winger. Reading about Surley G. Febbs during the events at the Capital in Washington, D.C. this past week has been eerie, eerie. Philip K. Dick could clearly see the ways in which freedom and democracy would be reduced when all the Surley G. Febbs-types are given power.
Drone On, Drone On
Peter Freid buzzes like a busy bee in his job as draftsman and engineer. Peter always wears his necktie like a “lead-rope from his unbuttoned, sweaty shirt, as if, under former slave conditions, Pete had been led periodically to slaughter by means of it.” Philip K. Dick could detect worker bees like Peter surrender their individuality, their creativity, the full flower of their humanity to the humdrum routine of regimentation and conformity centered around the function they perform for their employer. Recall PKD rebelled against being forced to participate in the ROTC program at his college – and for good reason: as a young man of powerful creative imagination, Phil refused to be a cog in anybody’s wheel.
Bureaucratic Bullshit
Agencies and organizations come in for a special satiric scalding. Here’s Lars talking about one report: “Minor Protocides, Subdivision Crop-production, Archives. Of Bulganingrad. A branch of Middle Auton-tool Safety Standards Ministry, which is their cover for their non-bacteriological warfare research agencies of every kind. As you know.”
Large organizations are large organizations - it doesn’t matter if the organization is private or public, a corporation or government, the largeness has the tendency to reduce people to order-takers and dullards. And large organizations have a tendency to treat outsiders like inferiors, subjecting them to reams and reams of inflated, jargon-filled babble.
Ol' Orville
Lars discovers a round grapefruit-sized object that speaks and has the vast capacity of, to use our current language, the world wide web. Lars asks Ol' Orville: "What am I." To which all-knowing Ol' Orville replies:
"Mr. Lars, you have posed an ontological query. The Indo-European linguistic structure involved defeats a fair analysis; would you rephrase your question?" Lars says, "No, I wouldn't." At this point, Ol' Orville provides the answer: "Mr. Lars, you are a forked radish."
Having ample experience with the web, we in 2021 can better appreciate Lars' interface with Ol' Orville the all-knowing supercomputer.
The fun continues. The craziness continues. The twists and surprises continue. I purposely avoided writing about Lars' dealing with Ms. Lilo Topchev or any reference to that alien attack. Much better for each reader to discover while turning the pages. Grab The Zap Gun and feel the zap.
American author Philip K. Dick, 1928-1982
January 15, 2016
Project Plowshare, or don't touch my Love Gun.
I ended up liking this one way more than I thought I might. I started reading thinking this was going to simply be one of PKD's early, pulpy sci-fi novels. Look. The guy wrote over 44 novels (and hundreds of short-stories). Not every book is going to be Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? or Ubik, but I had a copy, so...
Yes. I read it because it was there. Was it pulpy? Hell yes, even pulpier than I could have imagined. I'm not sure everything was fully realized in this novel. I'm sure he padded this novel with some unnecessary words simply because he was being paid by the word. It may have been written fast and lose, but there is clean, mad logic to it all. The book feels like a strange combination of Orwell's 1984 mixed with Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle but finished with a bit of Terry Gilliam's Brazil. For me, thus far, it is the funniest of Dick's novels. And no, it wasn't as good as '1984' or 'Cat's Cradle'.
The book also seems to have early seeds of Dick's later religious explorations. It isn't as heavy as his Valis (or Gnosis) trilogy, but it is hard to escape the feeling that already in the early 60s Dick's mind is working over some of his God/gnosis/divinity ideas. Looking at a timeline for Dick, I notice this novel was written right after The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. This makes sense, because they seem very similar (not identical twins, but Irish twins at least). Anyway, if you are a PKD fan, this one should definitely be on your list.
I ended up liking this one way more than I thought I might. I started reading thinking this was going to simply be one of PKD's early, pulpy sci-fi novels. Look. The guy wrote over 44 novels (and hundreds of short-stories). Not every book is going to be Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? or Ubik, but I had a copy, so...
Yes. I read it because it was there. Was it pulpy? Hell yes, even pulpier than I could have imagined. I'm not sure everything was fully realized in this novel. I'm sure he padded this novel with some unnecessary words simply because he was being paid by the word. It may have been written fast and lose, but there is clean, mad logic to it all. The book feels like a strange combination of Orwell's 1984 mixed with Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle but finished with a bit of Terry Gilliam's Brazil. For me, thus far, it is the funniest of Dick's novels. And no, it wasn't as good as '1984' or 'Cat's Cradle'.
The book also seems to have early seeds of Dick's later religious explorations. It isn't as heavy as his Valis (or Gnosis) trilogy, but it is hard to escape the feeling that already in the early 60s Dick's mind is working over some of his God/gnosis/divinity ideas. Looking at a timeline for Dick, I notice this novel was written right after The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. This makes sense, because they seem very similar (not identical twins, but Irish twins at least). Anyway, if you are a PKD fan, this one should definitely be on your list.
February 25, 2019
Oldschool Dick but still a few years after The Man in the High Castle, this particular little novel is the most comic-book zany of all of his works. Pulp to the max.
I mean, that shouldn't be too surprising in the middle of the sixties when his output was insanely high, when he was dragging out a novel as fast as he could to attempt to make a living... and a poor living at that.
And yet, he still manages to write something quite akin to Dr. Strangelove. Half satire, half comic book wacky. Quirky enough to encompass idiot savants, time travel, shifting mazes, and a futuristic arms race that is a setup from the get-go. Everyone's in on the plot except for the normal joes.
Sound familiar?
Well, it's pretty okay for what it is. Slapdash and quick, there's plenty of odd females to go along with the odd guys, and together they discover that the whole world is not what it seems. In that case, it's pretty classic PKD... it just didn't strike my fancy all that much.
The other novels are a lot more polished, deep, and deeply strange rather than just surface strange. So, unfortunately, I must dub this novel the worst of PKD. It's a shame, really. It's still okay. lol
I mean, that shouldn't be too surprising in the middle of the sixties when his output was insanely high, when he was dragging out a novel as fast as he could to attempt to make a living... and a poor living at that.
And yet, he still manages to write something quite akin to Dr. Strangelove. Half satire, half comic book wacky. Quirky enough to encompass idiot savants, time travel, shifting mazes, and a futuristic arms race that is a setup from the get-go. Everyone's in on the plot except for the normal joes.
Sound familiar?
Well, it's pretty okay for what it is. Slapdash and quick, there's plenty of odd females to go along with the odd guys, and together they discover that the whole world is not what it seems. In that case, it's pretty classic PKD... it just didn't strike my fancy all that much.
The other novels are a lot more polished, deep, and deeply strange rather than just surface strange. So, unfortunately, I must dub this novel the worst of PKD. It's a shame, really. It's still okay. lol
November 2, 2021
Ho letto quasi tutto di PKD e ho apprezzato parecchi suoi lavori. Ho imparato pero' ad aspettarmi di tutto cominciando a leggere un libro del nostro PKD. Ogni sua fatica nasconde un'insidia di fondo: trovarsi di fronte ad una cacchiata, magari di classe, ma pur sempre cacchiata. Temo di dover registrare "Mr Lars..." in questa categoria. Troviamo un po' l'intero armamentario dickiano, paranoia guerrafreddiana, psico-qualcosa, neologismi, un buon tasso ironico, acronimi estenuanti, stonatura... Il risultato e' un beverone solo per appassionati (e un po' masochisti).
November 26, 2015
"Hello, I'm Philip K. Dick. I sit down to write with a vague idea of the message I want to convey and make the plot advance as I go, throwing in crazy sci-fi cliches to my own rescue whenever I reach a dead end. You try to do that, and you'll obtain a mess; I do it, and it kicks ass. That's because I'm Philip K. Dick."
PKD of course never said that, but he could've, had he been a less nice guy.
PKD of course never said that, but he could've, had he been a less nice guy.
July 24, 2019
This is the First hardcover edition, originally published in 1967 as a Pyramid paperback.
This edition has a new introduction by Charles Platt.
Note: This is not a library copy.
This edition has a new introduction by Charles Platt.
Note: This is not a library copy.
May 5, 2023
3.5 overall.
My 16th PKD novel. Going into this project, I sort of figured that the focus might have its ups-and-downs. This one isn't exactly a 'down' - cause I admire its ambition. But, because of the way it's written, I didn't particularly love it. I struggled more than I ever like doing with a Dick.
A good writer always knows it's best to challenge him / herself; to stretch the imagination in one way or another on a regular basis. Dick never seemed to have a particular problem (per se) with his imagination. But with this novel - for the sake of clarity - it would have been a good idea to rein in the extent of the fanciful somewhat.
There's a fiendishly interesting plot inside this book - but following it consistently can be like dodging rogue asteroids. The narrative faces ongoing roadblocks that often reveal the storyline as either sloppy or cloudy. ~ but also with BURSTS of sudden lucidity.
It becomes a welcome relief whenever a chapter suddenly appears that's more or less crystal clear. But it's random - and maybe that's so the reader is kept from being too lost.
I'll 'fess up to the fact that some of the ground here is outside of my wheelhouse - esp. since the book relies heavily on the use of a futuristic pop-slang unique to the storyline.
Published in 1967, 'TZG' tells of the then-to-come world of 2004, in which there is something of a repeat of the Cold War - only this time it's a hoax, a détente designed (by the US and the Soviet Union) to give average people the illusion of tension - while the two superpowers enjoy a reprieve from the tiresomeness of competition. The specifics from there are decidedly wacky, as the 'stand-off' is maintained.
~ that is, until a real threat emerges: an alien invasion. At which point, everyone is in danger and the world must be saved.
Needless to say, there's always a lot going on here. When things in the read aren't heady or cryptic, you're lucky if you manage to follow the complicated plot. Reportedly, PKD himself did not like this book, calling it not only "unintelligible" but "a turkey" (!). With such claims, I think the author did the work a disservice. It's not a bad book; but it certainly seems to lack discipline.
That said, it's also often a lot of fun. There are moments of real wit and there's no lack in the element of surprise. What I really wish is that the book didn't feel so much like.... work.
Still... it's different, I'll give it that - and, I suppose, vive la différence! Genuine PKD fans may not mind that much going off the beaten PKD path. And, as I've said elsewhere about PKD, the book may improve on a re-read.
My 16th PKD novel. Going into this project, I sort of figured that the focus might have its ups-and-downs. This one isn't exactly a 'down' - cause I admire its ambition. But, because of the way it's written, I didn't particularly love it. I struggled more than I ever like doing with a Dick.
A good writer always knows it's best to challenge him / herself; to stretch the imagination in one way or another on a regular basis. Dick never seemed to have a particular problem (per se) with his imagination. But with this novel - for the sake of clarity - it would have been a good idea to rein in the extent of the fanciful somewhat.
There's a fiendishly interesting plot inside this book - but following it consistently can be like dodging rogue asteroids. The narrative faces ongoing roadblocks that often reveal the storyline as either sloppy or cloudy. ~ but also with BURSTS of sudden lucidity.
It becomes a welcome relief whenever a chapter suddenly appears that's more or less crystal clear. But it's random - and maybe that's so the reader is kept from being too lost.
I'll 'fess up to the fact that some of the ground here is outside of my wheelhouse - esp. since the book relies heavily on the use of a futuristic pop-slang unique to the storyline.
Published in 1967, 'TZG' tells of the then-to-come world of 2004, in which there is something of a repeat of the Cold War - only this time it's a hoax, a détente designed (by the US and the Soviet Union) to give average people the illusion of tension - while the two superpowers enjoy a reprieve from the tiresomeness of competition. The specifics from there are decidedly wacky, as the 'stand-off' is maintained.
~ that is, until a real threat emerges: an alien invasion. At which point, everyone is in danger and the world must be saved.
Needless to say, there's always a lot going on here. When things in the read aren't heady or cryptic, you're lucky if you manage to follow the complicated plot. Reportedly, PKD himself did not like this book, calling it not only "unintelligible" but "a turkey" (!). With such claims, I think the author did the work a disservice. It's not a bad book; but it certainly seems to lack discipline.
That said, it's also often a lot of fun. There are moments of real wit and there's no lack in the element of surprise. What I really wish is that the book didn't feel so much like.... work.
Still... it's different, I'll give it that - and, I suppose, vive la différence! Genuine PKD fans may not mind that much going off the beaten PKD path. And, as I've said elsewhere about PKD, the book may improve on a re-read.
April 23, 2018
Love the concept and satire but I did not gel with the writing or characters.
January 27, 2026
More like 3.5*
This has to be about the 1st PKD book I ever read, although this time around it's #21 in this chronological reread.
This one felt a little muddled, unless I missed something the arrangement between the 2 world powers vis-a-vis weapon development wasn't fully explained, although I did get the jist of it.
Dick adds in an extra little plot device (I won't explain here in case people feel it might be a spoiler) that only comes to fruition pretty much at the end.
A minor Dick novel
This has to be about the 1st PKD book I ever read, although this time around it's #21 in this chronological reread.
This one felt a little muddled, unless I missed something the arrangement between the 2 world powers vis-a-vis weapon development wasn't fully explained, although I did get the jist of it.
Dick adds in an extra little plot device (I won't explain here in case people feel it might be a spoiler) that only comes to fruition pretty much at the end.
A minor Dick novel
February 12, 2013
I was about fifty pages into The Zap Gun when it hit me. This PKD novel is a sustained satire on a focused topic. Each chapter did not introduce new characters with no discernible link to those I had already met. The plot had not yet splintered into blind alleys and drug-induced hallucinations. And PKD's writing seemed relaxed. It lacked the driven quality that can inform both his best and worst books. He was having fun with this one.
The object of his satire is the cold war arms race. The novel, written in 1965, is set in 2004. Lars Powderdry, known as Mr. Lars to his adoring fans, is a fashion weapons designer, the best in West-bloc. (West-bloc is us, the good guys. The enemy is a Soviet controlled Peep-east.) Lars designs while in a drug-induced trance. His sketches are whisked off to labs for fabrication and testing. His Peep-east counterpart is a young woman named Lily Topchev.
There is a dirty secret behind all this high tech militarism. None of the weapons work, nor are they needed. Agreements between West-bloc and Peep-east have made such weaponry obsolete. Films of the weapons in use are simulations using robots and special effects. The sketches are "plowshared." They become the basis for household gadgets and toys. The masquerade is necessary to keep the masses, the "pursaps," happy. They want both the threat of annihilation and the comfort afforded by weapons to avoid it. But then alien satellites appear in Earth's skies and begin abducting entire cities to serve as slave labor in the Sirius galaxy. Lars and Lily need to make a real weapon but fast.
PKD outdoes himself with neologisms and acronyms in The Zap Gun. The concept of plowsharing has real poetry to it. The society is divided between an elite group of "cogs" and a mass of "pursaps." Lars is a cog, and he hopes the term derives from cognoscenti. I thought he was worried it might imply he was merely a cog in a wheel, but he goes back to a an early English usage where "to cog" was to cheat at dice. I was pronouncing "pursap" in a way that suggested "poor saps," but Dick makes it clear he means "pure saps." Surly G. Febbs embodies Dick's jaundiced view of the masses. He is a self-important, deluded pursap angered because an alien invasion is delaying his appointment to what he imagines is an important government post. Febbs is a master of neologisms, hyphenated nouns, and acronyms, and he looks with disdain on those pursaps who cannot stay abreast of the lingo. That will likely include the reader, who might have trouble remembering what MACH stands for or just what a concomody does. Acronym fever reaches new heights with the creation of the BOCFDUTCRBASEBFIN. Who knows what it stands for? Just say it with confidence.
How earth repels the invaders is handled cleverly and dispatched with quickly. There is often the sense that PKD might not care much about his own plots. Of any of the PKD novels I have known almost nothing of before opening it to page one, The Zap Gun is among the most enjoyable. I read that PKD wrote it because a publisher requested a story with Zap Gun as the title. That could be true. He once expanded a novella into a novel because the publisher had cover art he really liked. But PKD does well by his arbitrary title. In one scene the weapons designers are discussing their basic uselessness, and Lars says of the pursaps, "All they really want is a Zap Gun." That throwaway line sums up the satire and the underlying anger in the book.
The object of his satire is the cold war arms race. The novel, written in 1965, is set in 2004. Lars Powderdry, known as Mr. Lars to his adoring fans, is a fashion weapons designer, the best in West-bloc. (West-bloc is us, the good guys. The enemy is a Soviet controlled Peep-east.) Lars designs while in a drug-induced trance. His sketches are whisked off to labs for fabrication and testing. His Peep-east counterpart is a young woman named Lily Topchev.
There is a dirty secret behind all this high tech militarism. None of the weapons work, nor are they needed. Agreements between West-bloc and Peep-east have made such weaponry obsolete. Films of the weapons in use are simulations using robots and special effects. The sketches are "plowshared." They become the basis for household gadgets and toys. The masquerade is necessary to keep the masses, the "pursaps," happy. They want both the threat of annihilation and the comfort afforded by weapons to avoid it. But then alien satellites appear in Earth's skies and begin abducting entire cities to serve as slave labor in the Sirius galaxy. Lars and Lily need to make a real weapon but fast.
PKD outdoes himself with neologisms and acronyms in The Zap Gun. The concept of plowsharing has real poetry to it. The society is divided between an elite group of "cogs" and a mass of "pursaps." Lars is a cog, and he hopes the term derives from cognoscenti. I thought he was worried it might imply he was merely a cog in a wheel, but he goes back to a an early English usage where "to cog" was to cheat at dice. I was pronouncing "pursap" in a way that suggested "poor saps," but Dick makes it clear he means "pure saps." Surly G. Febbs embodies Dick's jaundiced view of the masses. He is a self-important, deluded pursap angered because an alien invasion is delaying his appointment to what he imagines is an important government post. Febbs is a master of neologisms, hyphenated nouns, and acronyms, and he looks with disdain on those pursaps who cannot stay abreast of the lingo. That will likely include the reader, who might have trouble remembering what MACH stands for or just what a concomody does. Acronym fever reaches new heights with the creation of the BOCFDUTCRBASEBFIN. Who knows what it stands for? Just say it with confidence.
How earth repels the invaders is handled cleverly and dispatched with quickly. There is often the sense that PKD might not care much about his own plots. Of any of the PKD novels I have known almost nothing of before opening it to page one, The Zap Gun is among the most enjoyable. I read that PKD wrote it because a publisher requested a story with Zap Gun as the title. That could be true. He once expanded a novella into a novel because the publisher had cover art he really liked. But PKD does well by his arbitrary title. In one scene the weapons designers are discussing their basic uselessness, and Lars says of the pursaps, "All they really want is a Zap Gun." That throwaway line sums up the satire and the underlying anger in the book.
March 31, 2013
This was like a lot of PKD books - many names; many characters, almost all with Dick's education and interests; some bad writing; some good writing; a demented, convoluted plot. This book was even more convoluted than most: (a) there are weapons designers for East and West, who get weapons from trances; (b) the weapons are not real, due to a secret agreement; (c) a real nut, a weapons fanatic (who like all civilians thinks the weapons are real) is appointed to the government; (d) alien satellites begin to take Earth cities; (e) an obscure comic book contains East & West's weapons' sketches (this phenomenon never explained); (f) an ancient "war vet" is found who seems to be from the war with the aliens, which just started. Anyway, I enjoyed it for what it was, familiar as I am with Dick's themes and obsessions. It contained passages clearly the same as some PKD stories: "War Game," "War Vet" and "Beyond Lies the Wub."
November 23, 2008
ah, lars powderdry! how can one not like a book with a main character named lars powderdry? it would be impossible.
anyway, here we are back in the land of exhilarating imagination... ghanaian cartoonist of blueheaded cephalopod superhero accidentally transmits advanced weaponry designs to government researchers in the u.s. and u.s.s.r. via telepathic means, alien invaders accidentally destroyed by hyper-puzzling children's maze game, etc. oops, now i ruined the book for you. oh well, it was good!
anyway, here we are back in the land of exhilarating imagination... ghanaian cartoonist of blueheaded cephalopod superhero accidentally transmits advanced weaponry designs to government researchers in the u.s. and u.s.s.r. via telepathic means, alien invaders accidentally destroyed by hyper-puzzling children's maze game, etc. oops, now i ruined the book for you. oh well, it was good!
February 25, 2019
The year is 2004. . .
Even though it has typos throughout, this book is very reminiscent of The Jetsons, a cartoon I grew up watching in the 1980s.
https://media.giphy.com/media/PHOO9Cy...
June 12, 2022
Lo que más me gustó fue el juego del laberinto. Me habría encantado que toda la novela fuera a partir de eso y creo que Dick la re podría haber hecho.
February 9, 2018
Qué futurista es Philip,pero me sigue gustando más Blade Runner
January 8, 2026
Three Body Problem X 1984
Little slow start and anticlimactic ending but PKD still is such an interesting writer
Little slow start and anticlimactic ending but PKD still is such an interesting writer
May 1, 2025
Am I too dumb for this book? Was this book too dumb for me? I think I understood what happened... I'm still a little bit confused about what the "plowsharing" really was, but generally I get it. Why were the aliens defeated off screen? What was the point of Surley Febbs? Where was the Zap Gun? Our protagonists dream up fantasy "weapons", but they're really just ideas some comic book artist had? When did time travel get thrown into the mix? Why?
This was far from the worst book I've ever read, but if I didn't constantly find myself asking; Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? I feel like I might have had more fun reading "The Blue Cephalopod Man from Titan".
I took so many pictures of the absolute bonkers things this novel said. I never do that. Here are some of my favourites:
"... her natural, hormone-enriched breasts moving in synchronicity at his notice of them."
"Autism - a noble reference, dignified"
"... who had denied him access to the eight closed cases of microtapes of all the pornographic novels of the twentieth century"
"Okay, so maybe you're not a fairy. So what? My brother-in-law is a fairy and that's okay with me. A guy can be anything he wants"
What a strange, strange little book. And an interesting introduction to PKD.
This was far from the worst book I've ever read, but if I didn't constantly find myself asking; Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? I feel like I might have had more fun reading "The Blue Cephalopod Man from Titan".
I took so many pictures of the absolute bonkers things this novel said. I never do that. Here are some of my favourites:
"... her natural, hormone-enriched breasts moving in synchronicity at his notice of them."
"Autism - a noble reference, dignified"
"... who had denied him access to the eight closed cases of microtapes of all the pornographic novels of the twentieth century"
"Okay, so maybe you're not a fairy. So what? My brother-in-law is a fairy and that's okay with me. A guy can be anything he wants"
What a strange, strange little book. And an interesting introduction to PKD.
October 25, 2014
Plenty weird, but not one of Phillip K. Dick's best. I think part of the problem is that the publisher set up the story poorly on the jacket. OTOH, I loved the golden age cover.
Read
January 29, 2019Lot of ideas which don't have too much to do with each other, but it keeps going on until one closes the deal & then the rest sort of have to show themselves the door
Was funny seeing the remark about "Where is the grave's victory?", which was much more topical when it appeared in Counter Clock World, which was the book I'd read just before
Was funny seeing the remark about "Where is the grave's victory?", which was much more topical when it appeared in Counter Clock World, which was the book I'd read just before
February 21, 2021
clearly pkd pushing just anything forth to make a deadline and get a check to buy more speed, and pay rent if anything was leftover. as much as i love the author, this is the weakest story so far by him that I've come across since solar lottery. only recommend for PKD 100% completionists.
August 17, 2011
Cult author Philip K. Dick's 20th published sci-fi novel, "The Zap Gun," was first released in book form (Pyramid paperback R-1569, with a cover price of 50 cents) in 1967, after having been serialized in the November '65 and January '66 issues of "Worlds of Tomorrow" magazine under the title "Project Plowshare." Phil's previously published book had been "The Unteleported Man," later expanded as the largely incomprehensible "Lies, Inc.," but "The Zap Gun" is a completely understandable, reader-friendly novel that, as it turns out, is quite a winning satire on the arms race that was indeed so frightening back then. In Phil's book, it is the year 2004 (OK, maybe he should have made it 2104!), and the two major world powers have reached a detente of sorts in this game of armament one-upmanship. Rather than actually creating weapons, the two sides (Wes-bloc and Peep-East) now simply fake it, using "weapons fashion designers" to create convincing designs of the real thing, and then showing realistic but ersatz videos to their populations. Society, hence, is divided between the "pursaps" (the pure saps making up the bulk of society) and the "cogs" (the governmental cognoscenti who are in on the deception). But when the insectlike slavers from the Sirius system arrive and start dropping satellites into Earth orbit, things really DO get serious, and Lars Powderdry and the beautiful Lilo Topchev (the West's and the East's top "wep-fash" designers) must join forces to somehow construct a REAL weapon to save all of humankind....
Although Phil originally wrote "The Zap Gun" on commission for a Pyramid editor who wanted a novel written for that preset title, the result is anything but standard space opera fare (indeed, the alien invasion plot is dealt with so offhandedly, at the end, as to be almost an afterthought), and all of Dick's regular obsessions are on full display. As in "The Penultimate Truth" (written at the same time as this novel) and "The Simulacra," a duplicitous government manages to hoodwink the mass of mankind. Dick's fascination with drugs is evident here, too, and both Lars and Lilo not only depend on cerebral stimulants to effect the trance state that leads to their weapons visions, but also discuss LSD, peyote, mescaline and "magic mushrooms" with great apparent knowledge. The novel features several suicidal characters (seems like every Dick book I read has some such poor soul), one of whom actually succeeds in the sad act, and another who chooses to stick around in a wonderfully life-affirming scene. For some strange reason, the localities of Cheyenne, Wyoming and St. George, Utah are highlighted yet again, as they had been in "The Penultimate Truth" and "Now Wait For Last Year." As in "Now Wait" and "Lies, Inc.," female public toplessness is seen to be the fashion in "The Zap Gun," but whereas in those earlier books a woman's nipples were covered with a sentient Martian life form and flashlight/music-making pasties, respectively, HERE, they are merely described as being "silver-tipped." (These futuristic innovations don't seem half bad to me!) As in so many of Phil's other novels, several of the characters throw out German words and expressions, smoke cigars and talk about opera. And again, we have a character who is hoping to obtain a divorce from his mate; well, technically, Powderdry is here attempting to ditch his mistress.
As I said, lots of Dick's pet topics get another workout in this consistently amusing tale. And the book really is often very funny; indeed, Dick biographer Lawrence Sutin has called the novel's Surley G. Febbs "the funniest character Phil created." The author throws in a few surprising plot twists toward his finale, amuses us with some bizarre character names (such as Lucky Bagman, Oral Giocomini, Vincent Klug and General Nitz), keeps the pace of the story moving nicely, and even presents a time travel angle in a manner that for once didn't give this reader a headache. Sci-fi critic David Pringle has called the novel "one of Dick's most clotted narratives," but I still found it highly readable, and a lot of fun. (I'm not even sure I know precisely what he means by a "clotted narrative"!) Oh...I guarantee that you will chuckle when you read about Febbs' organization, with its catchy acronym BOCFDUTCRBASEBFIN....
Although Phil originally wrote "The Zap Gun" on commission for a Pyramid editor who wanted a novel written for that preset title, the result is anything but standard space opera fare (indeed, the alien invasion plot is dealt with so offhandedly, at the end, as to be almost an afterthought), and all of Dick's regular obsessions are on full display. As in "The Penultimate Truth" (written at the same time as this novel) and "The Simulacra," a duplicitous government manages to hoodwink the mass of mankind. Dick's fascination with drugs is evident here, too, and both Lars and Lilo not only depend on cerebral stimulants to effect the trance state that leads to their weapons visions, but also discuss LSD, peyote, mescaline and "magic mushrooms" with great apparent knowledge. The novel features several suicidal characters (seems like every Dick book I read has some such poor soul), one of whom actually succeeds in the sad act, and another who chooses to stick around in a wonderfully life-affirming scene. For some strange reason, the localities of Cheyenne, Wyoming and St. George, Utah are highlighted yet again, as they had been in "The Penultimate Truth" and "Now Wait For Last Year." As in "Now Wait" and "Lies, Inc.," female public toplessness is seen to be the fashion in "The Zap Gun," but whereas in those earlier books a woman's nipples were covered with a sentient Martian life form and flashlight/music-making pasties, respectively, HERE, they are merely described as being "silver-tipped." (These futuristic innovations don't seem half bad to me!) As in so many of Phil's other novels, several of the characters throw out German words and expressions, smoke cigars and talk about opera. And again, we have a character who is hoping to obtain a divorce from his mate; well, technically, Powderdry is here attempting to ditch his mistress.
As I said, lots of Dick's pet topics get another workout in this consistently amusing tale. And the book really is often very funny; indeed, Dick biographer Lawrence Sutin has called the novel's Surley G. Febbs "the funniest character Phil created." The author throws in a few surprising plot twists toward his finale, amuses us with some bizarre character names (such as Lucky Bagman, Oral Giocomini, Vincent Klug and General Nitz), keeps the pace of the story moving nicely, and even presents a time travel angle in a manner that for once didn't give this reader a headache. Sci-fi critic David Pringle has called the novel "one of Dick's most clotted narratives," but I still found it highly readable, and a lot of fun. (I'm not even sure I know precisely what he means by a "clotted narrative"!) Oh...I guarantee that you will chuckle when you read about Febbs' organization, with its catchy acronym BOCFDUTCRBASEBFIN....
October 26, 2012
My Philip K. Dick Project
Entry #29 - The Zap Gun (written Oct-Dec. 1963, published Jan 1967)
From the back cover:
ALIEN SATELLITES CIRCLE THE EARTH - AND MAN’S ONLY HOPE IS A MAD CARTOONIST!
Now this one is hard to get a handle on at first, until it becomes evident that this is a comedy of sorts, and can almost be read as a self-parody. On this level, it succeeds, although this book is also filled with some of Dick's most bizarre and original ideas yet. I constantly have to wonder how he came up with this stuff.
In the future (now the past, 2004), there is still nominally a cold war between the two major powers, the West-Bloc (the US, Western Europe, and their allies), and the East-Bloc (The Soviet Union, China, and their allies), but the two governments have secretly agreed at some point to only appear to create weapons. The outrageous but nonfunctional weapons are created and then converted into strange consumer products, or “plowshared”. Each government has one psychically talented creator who goes into strange trances to get ideas for their “weapons”. This convoluted and strange system nonetheless works at keeping an actual peace in the world, until Earth comes under attack from alien slavers from Sirius, and there are no longer any effective weapons to fight them off.
Once you fall into the lunatic rhythms of Zap Gun it starts to get fun. At first, it seem to be in terms of plot and terminology almost as complicated as Solar Lottery, which is another Dick book that is a little tough to follow at the beginning. Here, Dick throws an avalanche of futuristic terms and acronyms at the reader and expects you to keep up, with a sly wink. They start to become so ridiculous that I took it to be kind of a joke, at the very least a parody of extreme bureaucracy and government’s love for acronyms and terms of obfuscation, and Dick may even be mocking his own writing and penchant for made-up futuristic terms.
Dick maintains this tone, for the most part, for the duration of the book, although there are some moments of darkness, especially having to do with, you guessed it, women and affairs, and a surprising death. Lars Powderdry, the West-Bloc’s designer and protagonist, is not a particularly surprising character for Dick. In fact, he’s pretty much a default Dick protagonist, a sardonic and world-weary working man with relationship problems, drug temptations, and suicidal tendencies. Nor does Dick break the mold with Lilo Topchev, the East-bloc’s young and beautiful designer. She’s a typical Dick girl, young, dark-haired, and trouble. But’s that not really important here, what’s important is how Dick uses them. The bizarre discovery they make about their mysterious inspiration comes a little too late in the book and is not explored thoroughly enough, but by this point there is so much crazy stuff going on it’s not even that noticeable. The toymaker himself is a welcome and surprising twist, and ends up being the big game-changer.
The other main subplot, about a paranoid rightwing crackpot randomly selected to be part of Westbloc’s governing committee is appropriately humorous as well, and its conclusion is a great piece of writing of a piece with the eerie sudden reversals of reality seen in the best of Dick’s early short stories.
This is a nice, fast-paced book, one of Dick’s funnier ones, and recommended for readers who already have a few PKD books under their belt.
Stray thoughts:
# By now I’ve noticed that there about three main types of aliens that show up in PKD works. Type 1 are insectoids, basically giant bugs. The second type are protoplasms, or slime molds, or something similarly formless, usually with telepathic abilities. The third type are physically human, often evil, and often but not always with a vague intimation of being connected to Earth’s people.
# Wubs are back, if in name only! Dick must have a special place in his heart for the Wub, the protagonist of his first ever published work.
My edition:Voyager paperback, 1998
Up next: “Clans of the Alphane Moon”!
September 22, 2012
Entry #29 - The Zap Gun (written Oct-Dec. 1963, published Jan 1967)
From the back cover:
ALIEN SATELLITES CIRCLE THE EARTH - AND MAN’S ONLY HOPE IS A MAD CARTOONIST!
Now this one is hard to get a handle on at first, until it becomes evident that this is a comedy of sorts, and can almost be read as a self-parody. On this level, it succeeds, although this book is also filled with some of Dick's most bizarre and original ideas yet. I constantly have to wonder how he came up with this stuff.
In the future (now the past, 2004), there is still nominally a cold war between the two major powers, the West-Bloc (the US, Western Europe, and their allies), and the East-Bloc (The Soviet Union, China, and their allies), but the two governments have secretly agreed at some point to only appear to create weapons. The outrageous but nonfunctional weapons are created and then converted into strange consumer products, or “plowshared”. Each government has one psychically talented creator who goes into strange trances to get ideas for their “weapons”. This convoluted and strange system nonetheless works at keeping an actual peace in the world, until Earth comes under attack from alien slavers from Sirius, and there are no longer any effective weapons to fight them off.
Once you fall into the lunatic rhythms of Zap Gun it starts to get fun. At first, it seem to be in terms of plot and terminology almost as complicated as Solar Lottery, which is another Dick book that is a little tough to follow at the beginning. Here, Dick throws an avalanche of futuristic terms and acronyms at the reader and expects you to keep up, with a sly wink. They start to become so ridiculous that I took it to be kind of a joke, at the very least a parody of extreme bureaucracy and government’s love for acronyms and terms of obfuscation, and Dick may even be mocking his own writing and penchant for made-up futuristic terms.
Dick maintains this tone, for the most part, for the duration of the book, although there are some moments of darkness, especially having to do with, you guessed it, women and affairs, and a surprising death. Lars Powderdry, the West-Bloc’s designer and protagonist, is not a particularly surprising character for Dick. In fact, he’s pretty much a default Dick protagonist, a sardonic and world-weary working man with relationship problems, drug temptations, and suicidal tendencies. Nor does Dick break the mold with Lilo Topchev, the East-bloc’s young and beautiful designer. She’s a typical Dick girl, young, dark-haired, and trouble. But’s that not really important here, what’s important is how Dick uses them. The bizarre discovery they make about their mysterious inspiration comes a little too late in the book and is not explored thoroughly enough, but by this point there is so much crazy stuff going on it’s not even that noticeable. The toymaker himself is a welcome and surprising twist, and ends up being the big game-changer.
The other main subplot, about a paranoid rightwing crackpot randomly selected to be part of Westbloc’s governing committee is appropriately humorous as well, and its conclusion is a great piece of writing of a piece with the eerie sudden reversals of reality seen in the best of Dick’s early short stories.
This is a nice, fast-paced book, one of Dick’s funnier ones, and recommended for readers who already have a few PKD books under their belt.
Stray thoughts:
# By now I’ve noticed that there about three main types of aliens that show up in PKD works. Type 1 are insectoids, basically giant bugs. The second type are protoplasms, or slime molds, or something similarly formless, usually with telepathic abilities. The third type are physically human, often evil, and often but not always with a vague intimation of being connected to Earth’s people.
# Wubs are back, if in name only! Dick must have a special place in his heart for the Wub, the protagonist of his first ever published work.
My edition:Voyager paperback, 1998
Up next: “Clans of the Alphane Moon”!
September 22, 2012
May 3, 2017
Originally published on my blog here in November 2001.
Philip K. Dick had two concerns which appear over and over again in his novels, the meaning of humanity and the chance or occult motivation of events. The second theme is of primary importance here. The idea of the novel is that the arms race is effectively over, but that those not in the know ("pursaps" as opposed to "cogs") need to be persuaded that weapons research is still going on. So there has arisen a "weapons fashion industry", which each week comes up with a design, which is shown in action on TV (against androids; none of the weapons really work) and then elaborately "ploughshared" - turned into some peaceful gadget. The weapons designers get their ideas acting as mediums in trances, which is where the occult motivation of events comes in.
The crisis comes when Earth is invaded by aliens and suddenly real weapons are required - weapons which the pursaps believe to be already in existence. Or is this what is happening - the only source of information about what is going on (cities disappearing after satellites appear in orbit) is a toy designer who appears to have travelled in time from the future with a warning.
The extremely trashy title may have prevented this novel, which with its theme of the alien slavers is a satire on the pulp science fiction genre, being one of Dick's better known, but it is easily up to the high standard regularly reached by his fiction. It lacks the punch of his biggest classics, but doesn't fall far short.
Philip K. Dick had two concerns which appear over and over again in his novels, the meaning of humanity and the chance or occult motivation of events. The second theme is of primary importance here. The idea of the novel is that the arms race is effectively over, but that those not in the know ("pursaps" as opposed to "cogs") need to be persuaded that weapons research is still going on. So there has arisen a "weapons fashion industry", which each week comes up with a design, which is shown in action on TV (against androids; none of the weapons really work) and then elaborately "ploughshared" - turned into some peaceful gadget. The weapons designers get their ideas acting as mediums in trances, which is where the occult motivation of events comes in.
The crisis comes when Earth is invaded by aliens and suddenly real weapons are required - weapons which the pursaps believe to be already in existence. Or is this what is happening - the only source of information about what is going on (cities disappearing after satellites appear in orbit) is a toy designer who appears to have travelled in time from the future with a warning.
The extremely trashy title may have prevented this novel, which with its theme of the alien slavers is a satire on the pulp science fiction genre, being one of Dick's better known, but it is easily up to the high standard regularly reached by his fiction. It lacks the punch of his biggest classics, but doesn't fall far short.
November 22, 2011
Профессия Ларса Паудердрая уникальна. Он – главная надежда западного блока в борьбе с коммунизмом. Именно поэтому каждый день, погружаясь в наркотический транс, Ларс изобретает новую разновидность стратегического оружия, которое всего лишь через несколько дней будет создано и сброшено на головы ничего не подозревающих врагов. Есть только один важный нюанс. Ни одно из придуманных Ларсом видов вооружения никогда еще не было создано. На самом деле это всего лишь обман и надувательство, с помощью которого давно уже сговорившиеся между собой лидеры стран Востока и Запада упорно дурачат своих сограждан.
Вот только однажды этот обман выйдет им боком, когда орды работорговцев с Сириуса вторгнутся на нашу планету и начнут безжалостно порабощать землян. Именно в этот ответственный для человечества момент Ларсу Паудердраю и его русской коллеге Лиле Топчевой придется на полном серьезе взяться за создание Самого Настоящего Оружия…
Работорговцев с Сириуса в кадре почти не появится. И это хорошо понятно, так как для писателя они - всего лишь еще один удачный повод. Повод для того, чтобы развернуть перед нами ядовитую сатиру на общественные нравы времен “холодной войны”. У Дика никогда не получалось писать про “холодное” противостояние Востока и Запада без колючего яда. По мнению автора мышиной возне кучке импотентов претит пафос большой греческой трагедии. Поэтому ни один из его романов про “холодную войну” не входит в число “золотых”. И этот – не исключение. (2005.12.14)
Вот только однажды этот обман выйдет им боком, когда орды работорговцев с Сириуса вторгнутся на нашу планету и начнут безжалостно порабощать землян. Именно в этот ответственный для человечества момент Ларсу Паудердраю и его русской коллеге Лиле Топчевой придется на полном серьезе взяться за создание Самого Настоящего Оружия…
Работорговцев с Сириуса в кадре почти не появится. И это хорошо понятно, так как для писателя они - всего лишь еще один удачный повод. Повод для того, чтобы развернуть перед нами ядовитую сатиру на общественные нравы времен “холодной войны”. У Дика никогда не получалось писать про “холодное” противостояние Востока и Запада без колючего яда. По мнению автора мышиной возне кучке импотентов претит пафос большой греческой трагедии. Поэтому ни один из его романов про “холодную войну” не входит в число “золотых”. И этот – не исключение. (2005.12.14)
January 14, 2021
This was frequently mentioned by Philip K. Dick as one of his worst novels, but I think it is actually among the best of his prolific mid-to-late-60's period. He revisits a couple common themes in his work: a 21th century cold war world split between democratic West and communist East, and an arrogant elite class that keeps a dangerous secret from the general population. In my opinion, The Zap Gun actually does a better job and tells a better story than his similar novel The Penultimate Truth.
I wonder if the book's main character, Lars Powderdry, is another character based (at least in part) on Dick's friend Bishop James Pike (see also Timothy Archer), in that Lars has a mistress named Maren (as Pike did) who commits suicide (as the real Maren did). Whether the grief that haunts Lars over Maren's death reflect's Dick's or Pike's feelings (or both), I don't know. It seems so raw that I suspect it is Dick writing about his own feelings. Oftentimes it's these autobiographical fragments that anchor Dick's books, and keep them from drifting off into bizarre irrelevance.
I wonder if the book's main character, Lars Powderdry, is another character based (at least in part) on Dick's friend Bishop James Pike (see also Timothy Archer), in that Lars has a mistress named Maren (as Pike did) who commits suicide (as the real Maren did). Whether the grief that haunts Lars over Maren's death reflect's Dick's or Pike's feelings (or both), I don't know. It seems so raw that I suspect it is Dick writing about his own feelings. Oftentimes it's these autobiographical fragments that anchor Dick's books, and keep them from drifting off into bizarre irrelevance.
April 9, 2016
Un romanzo molto confuso nel suo inizio ma che ri rifà nella seconda parte trovando ritmo e colpi di scena. Una semidistopia/allegoria della corsa agli armamenti del secondo dopoguerra (è scritto nel 1964), i temi sembrano più attuali di quello che possono sembrare: a parte le riflessioni sul deterrente simbolico delle armi dietro la corsa agli armamenti, c'è la manipolazione della comunicazione di massa, la presunta democraticità e trasparenza degli organi statuali. Non mancano i capisaldi dickiani: consistenza della realtà, droghe e parodia della ipertecnologia. Ma per affinità lo accomunerei ai romanzi a sfondo più "politico-sociale" (come "E Jones creò il mondo"). Se amate l'autore non rimarrete delusi.
P.s: la lettura, soprattutto all'inizio risulta criptica anche per l'uso reiterato di sigle di varie istituzioni. Probabilmente un sotteso della cortina burocratica dello stato moderno.
P.s: la lettura, soprattutto all'inizio risulta criptica anche per l'uso reiterato di sigle di varie istituzioni. Probabilmente un sotteso della cortina burocratica dello stato moderno.
August 27, 2021
Spooooilereeerrrrrr 100%
Gran novela de Dick ❤️.
Siendo breve diré que es una novela de grandes acontecimiento (3/4 de la novela) siendo estos para mí desgarradores uno tras otro(justo en 25% final de esta). Un mundo distopico y personajes típicos del estilo de k Dick .Un gran personaje principal , según yo inteligente y común a la vez. Un personaje que llega a romper la historia (viejo veterano de guerra🙌🤟❤️), un mal que se veía impenetrable pero siempre con un cuota de esperanza.
Un final según yo abierto, respecto a lo que se enfrentará la humanidad , una dominación de esta, ya siendo esclavos algunos (boca abiertas), más bien a la sección no dominada (cog) es la que corre peligro después de la súper guerra. Peros en esta ocasión los esclavistas no vienen del espacio , posiblemente serán nuestros líderes terranos quienes quieran tener al pueblo totalmente dominado 🤯.
PD: igual dejo la duda de que los que envían los laberintos son los esclavistas de sirio 🤯
Gran novela de Dick ❤️.
Siendo breve diré que es una novela de grandes acontecimiento (3/4 de la novela) siendo estos para mí desgarradores uno tras otro(justo en 25% final de esta). Un mundo distopico y personajes típicos del estilo de k Dick .Un gran personaje principal , según yo inteligente y común a la vez. Un personaje que llega a romper la historia (viejo veterano de guerra🙌🤟❤️), un mal que se veía impenetrable pero siempre con un cuota de esperanza.
Un final según yo abierto, respecto a lo que se enfrentará la humanidad , una dominación de esta, ya siendo esclavos algunos (boca abiertas), más bien a la sección no dominada (cog) es la que corre peligro después de la súper guerra. Peros en esta ocasión los esclavistas no vienen del espacio , posiblemente serán nuestros líderes terranos quienes quieran tener al pueblo totalmente dominado 🤯.
PD: igual dejo la duda de que los que envían los laberintos son los esclavistas de sirio 🤯
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 15, 2018
I was happy to find a PKD on the shelf I hadn’t read yet. 200-odd pages later I had just experienced one of my favorite stories by him. I’m not sure why this isn’t mentioned with the ‘greats’ like Ubik and Scanner Darkly; personally, I found immense depth here. The prose has moments of poeticism. The plot and structure may be a bit pulpy, but that’s part of the appeal of PKD. What makes him untouchable is his ability to clothe mankind’s most harrowing questions in weapons fashion designers and megalomaniacal Everymen.
Note: this Mariner edition is rife with typos, mostly absent punctuation.
Note: this Mariner edition is rife with typos, mostly absent punctuation.
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