From the Bookshelf of Philip K Dick…

The Ganymede Takeover

Philip K. Dick,

Ray Faraday Nelson

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

Feb 25, 2017 Cliff Jr. rated it it was amazing

This was the last PKD novel I still had on my to-read list, and I've got to say, I was pleasantly surprised. Going by the other reviews here, I was expecting this to be pretty terrible, but actually, I thought it was brilliant. Just maybe not for everybody.

A better title for this work would have been "Oblivion Therapy", after a mad psychologist character's magnum opus. Does that sound like a book you'd like to read? If so, go ahead. If you're looking to read about a Ganymedian invasion of Earth, This was the last PKD novel I still had on my to-read list, and I've got to say, I was pleasantly surprised. Going by the other reviews here, I was expecting this to be pretty terrible, but actually, I thought it was brilliant. Just maybe not for everybody.

A better title for this work would have been "Oblivion Therapy", after a mad psychologist character's magnum opus. Does that sound like a book you'd like to read? If so, go ahead. If you're looking to read about a Ganymedian invasion of Earth, then sorry. That's not what this is about. The outlandish monsters conjured up for a ground battle are only in like one scene. It's not about them at all.

My favorite part of the story has to be the worm/snake-type aliens, completely inhuman but still relatable. Their telepathic civilization is based on regular fusions of their minds into one "Common". One of the major characters stops fusing and develops a more human ego. It's left to us to decide whether this is a good or bad thing in principle.

The whole book is focused on the tension between the individual and the community, or in more extreme terms the self and the universe. The goal of transcendental meditation is to eliminate the self and embrace the universe as it is, with no worry or judgement or attachment. That's on the extreme end, obviously, and not workable for any length of time. But the other extreme is just as bad: complete egocentrism and isolation.

This book explores the horror of both extremes and winds everything up with an attempt at reconciling them into something like the "Middle Way" of Buddhism or Taoism, or just pragmatic moderation if that works better for you.

I read most of this while sick in bed with fever, so that may have had an effect on my interpretation, but it certainly left me with an uneasy feeling, at least. The story comes to a close, but we don't get a sense of finality like we've just won the Big War and everything's going to be OK now. That may leave some readers unsatisfied, but I just find it true to life. It's reassuring, in a way, the message that the struggle is unending but we can still find little chances to enjoy ourselves and appreciate the beauty of it all.

That's the optimistic pessimism that PKD never fails to deliver. Now that I've read all his novels, it's kind of sad there are no more to discover. Any suggestions for another author I could start obsessing over? ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Sep 30, 2024 Nathan rated it liked it

Book 21 in PKD’s publication order is a bit of a slog, maybe because of his collaborator who in all fairness, has a lot to keep up with, but ends up presenting us with a watered down version of a typical Dick extravaganza. Not much to say except on to book 22. Well, you know..I’ll say this. There are a few moments that appear startlingly out of the murk that I found really moving. For example, after being subjected to a hallucination-inducing military weapon, a soldier meets a hallucinated fello ...more

Like · see review