...and it sucked so much it made me want to share it with you.
Time Out of Joint by Philip K. DICK.
I've read his other books; A Scanner Darkly gave me a bit of material to think about (including Disco and my oh-so-under-control gaming addiction). However this last book, the one I read today, just plain sucked.
Characters seem dry, uninspired and apparently have no real motives to back their actions. For instance Vic just sort of believes in the "the reality isn't real and this is all a show" conspiracy. A conspiracy backed by a HALLUCINATION (yes, I actually feel inclined to use caps). I could go on here, however with chances of anyone actually giving a damn right next to zero, there is no point in that.
Screw it, I have to write about the ending. In a couple of pages (among meaningless dribble about future teenagers with filed teeth, odd hairstyle, nose pipe instruments and glue sniffing parties in dark rooms, dark hired rooms with fat owners that turn out to be agents from the dark side of the Moon) it is revealed that there is a classy nuclear war between the Earth and the colonised Moon. Somehow, ignoring the fact a missile may very well be put into Apollo-like orbit to strike the dark side, the said dark side of the Moon is invulnerable to any attack. The only thing keeping the Earth going is a fucked up dude named Ragle that thinks he's winning a puzzle contest, but in fact predicts missile strikes. Like they couldn't just lob a big planet-screwing space rock at Earth. He has to be suspended in an alternate reality of late 1950s to do that.
In a nutshell the book is just crap. I do realise that to judge highly esteemed, world renowned author such as Dick, is lunacy. But hey, after a drink or two everyone turns into a literature critic. Not.
Anyway, share your views of various books; be it the Song of Ice and Fire or something as annoying as the Catcher in the Rye. No more talking about dogs in skype chats, this is now a serious forum.
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The inability to bomb the far side of the Moon seems really banal. When was the book written?
I haven't read it, but it gives me an impression it's written that "badly" intentionally, to show, or satire something. I haven't read anything from that author, though, so I don't know.
it is guite known that quality of his books vary a lot. He wrote many books...and lot of them for money as he had contract with publisher. But some of those books are still ones of the best in sci-fi ever written. I would suggest you to read some of his short stories or my favourite novel The three stigmata of Palmer Eldritch .That could somehow improve his lost reputation.
PS: Its a looong loong time i read those books so my memory can trick me. But i know i really liked it at that time.
To Thundered:
When was the book written?
1959
No, I won't update my account to enable 3rd party hosting!
(07-07-2013, 01:31 PM)Whenawhere Wrote: To Thundered:
When was the book written?
1959
That's the reason why they had nukes, but still didn't know how to reach the far side of the Moon. Apollo 13 was launched in 1970. The writer couldn't know much about space travel in 1959.
What makes me wonder is how the far side of the Moon could send the missiles to Earth, but Earth couldn't do the same reversed.