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review of my first read and a second read 10 months later:
VALIS is the most autobiographical novel PKD wrote. With Dick my favorite author and VALIS one of his most highly regarded novels I expected to love it. But the problem is that it isn't an autobiography. What happened to Dick in 1974 is fascinating, but there is where I'd recommend reading a biography or watching a documentary, rather than turning to VALIS. VALIS was just boring to me, failing to be true enough to be an autobiography and ...more
VALIS is the most autobiographical novel PKD wrote. With Dick my favorite author and VALIS one of his most highly regarded novels I expected to love it. But the problem is that it isn't an autobiography. What happened to Dick in 1974 is fascinating, but there is where I'd recommend reading a biography or watching a documentary, rather than turning to VALIS. VALIS was just boring to me, failing to be true enough to be an autobiography and ...more
Dizzyingly layered; demands to be re-read, but not until my head has stopped swimming.
Whether you buy-in to Dick's religious/philosophical position or not, there's certainly lots to think about and, if you make it through to the end, it will stay with you for a long time.
As is usual with PKD, there's much here about the nature and perception of reality and what it is to be human. There's a big chunk of auto-biography and painful honesty. Where PKD deals with characters, they are by turns funny, ...more
Whether you buy-in to Dick's religious/philosophical position or not, there's certainly lots to think about and, if you make it through to the end, it will stay with you for a long time.
As is usual with PKD, there's much here about the nature and perception of reality and what it is to be human. There's a big chunk of auto-biography and painful honesty. Where PKD deals with characters, they are by turns funny, ...more
One of the least approachable PKD books, yet one of the best, certainly the best of the brilliant 2-3-74 books and my personal favorite. Genius layered worlds of delusion, a mind-bending master piece.
This is PKD at his best: a protaganist named Horselover Fat (which makes perfect sense as the novel unfolds), a totally unique take on Christianity, vastly powerful computers, mind control, immortality, and more! My head is still spinning...
Mar 31, 2009
Forrest
added it
Apr 10, 2009
Sarah
marked it as to-read
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review of another edition
Shelves:
science-fiction,
sf-masterworks-old
Dec 16, 2009
John
added it
