VALIS by PK Dick

 Refinished Su 4/27/25

I think I have read this novel a few times over the years and in this edition of the book I 'Refamiliarized' myself with the novel on Mo 11/9/09. 

It's a classic and I'll always come back to it. There's always something different to wonder about. 

A link to an excellent description of the novel:

https://philipdick.com/literary-criticism/reviews/review-by-ian-mathers-valis-1981/

From 'readingproject.neocities.org'

"By the time I finished reading this book I wasn’t sure what kind of ‘reality’ was meant to lay beneath the narrative. Valis is a mess, a hybrid book that is philosophical, religious and science fiction, all happening at once. And make no mistake. The problem here isn’t a desire to pin a genre tag to this book. By the end, all you can really be sure is that the narrator doesn’t have a firm grip on reality.

This realisation is heightened by the knowledge that the narrator is a fictionalised version of Philip K. Dick, himself. Although not too fictional. Dick makes references to several of his own books throughout the text, his character friends refer to his books and people he knows in Hollywood. And it appears, from the author information at the back of my copy, that this novel was one of several novels Dick wrote as he tried to cope with a ‘breakdown’ he suffered in March 1974; the exact month Dick’s narrator suffers a breakdown.

The narrative voice is further complicated by the fact that Philip K. Dick narrates much of the novel through his alter ego, Horselover Fat, a man who appears to be a figment of his deranged imagination, yet seems to work independently of him in the real world in different parts of the book.

What caused this mental collapse? Several reasons are given: the breakup with his wife; the attempted suicide of a friend; the death of another friend to cancer. But most curious, and most relevant to the story, is the pink beam of light Horselover/Phil has fired in to his eyes in March 1974, giving him access to all sorts of information he couldn’t possibly have known. Where did it come from? What was it exactly? He doesn’t know. But the event sets off a philosophical and religious search as he writes a 300,000 word exegeses on God and Gnosticism, tied together through interfaith references and mythical allusions. Horselover’s (Phil’s) theorising is a messy hodgepodge of beliefs, suppositions and theorising.

For this reason the book seemed to be more a product of the counter culture of the sixties and seventies than inspired by traditional science fiction concerns. This is a book related to the drug experimentations of the period, the hallucinations that that engendered, as well as the willingness to embrace alternative systems of thought in a blend of east and west, modern and ancient, that at least made some sense of the assertion in the novel, more reminiscent of sci-fi writing, that time doesn’t exist.

At this point I was thinking that this was a very different kind of book than any other Dick book I have read. This didn’t feel like Science Fiction. It was about mental illness and a religious search.

Then, enter VALIS. Valis is an acronym for ‘Vast Active Living Intelligence System’. It’s at this point that the plot takes a turn via a most unlikely means, a Hollywood film. Horselover’s complex system of beliefs seem to be confirmed through the likely presence of Valis, and his friends begin to believe as well, leading them on a quest that might just bring them face to face with the meaning of everything.

It’s hard to say much more about the book beyond this without risking giving things away to anyone who is interested. All I can say is that I found the book very uneven. At times I was fascinated, at other times bored. The story takes quite a while to get going, and I would count myself as a fairly patient reader. Sometimes the narrative flows well, but then it gets bogged down in religious exegesis. As someone who finds religious proselytising a little creepy, this was a bit tedious, and made more so because I felt Dick never really revealed the true significance he placed on this aspect of the story. As someone a religious person would call an atheist, I had no choice but to accept some of this for the sake of the story, and any dismissal Dick/Horselover makes of the system of belief he advocates is small and questionable.

In the end, the one thing I felt I could be sure of, was the constant refrain of the book; that the universe is irrational, as much as the characters and much of the narrative in the book is. I would recommend much of Philip K. Dick’s writing to anyone looking for older science fiction, but I feel that this book would try the patience of many people."

POLYMATH by John Brunner

 Refinished We 4/23/25

This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I first finished on Mo 2/15/16. I liked it then, and the second time around I liked it even more.

It's really about two different styles of managing people. One faction believes in 'the military way' and the other is a more relaxed and reflective way of governing. 

A 'polymath' is a person of wide-ranging knowledge or learning. In the novel there is a character who is a 'polymath on steroids'. He has been scientifically altered to become a hybrid human who has an unbelievable array of abilities. 

From the book's description at Amazon: "Colonising a new planet requires much more than just settling on a newly discovered island of Old Earth. New planets were different in thousands of ways, different from Earth and from each other. Any of those differences could mean death and disaster to a human settlement. When a ship filled with refugees from a cosmic catastrophe crash-landed on such an unmapped world, their outlook was precarious. Their ship was lost, salvage had been minor, and everything came to depend on one bright young man accidentally among them. He was a trainee planet-builder. It would have been his job to foresee all the problems necessary to set up a safe home for humanity. But the problem was that he was a mere student - and he had been studying the wrong planet. (First published 1974)". 

From 'strangerthanf.com'

"Without warning, the sun of the planet Zarathustra goes nova. There is no time to evacuate, but a few spaceships on the night side of the planet are able to lift off and--by driving at maximum speed--outrun the shock wave of the explosion. Driven far beyond charted space, beyond communication range with civilization, they have no hope of rescue. Each ship puts down on the first habitable planet it can find, hoping to make a life there.

On one inviting planet, two ships make crash landings. One lands on the coast near a river delta; the other sets down in the interior highlands. During the bitter winter, the group on the coast lose their radio antenna and lose contact with the other survivors. When spring begins, they give the others up for dead and settle down to the task of building a permanent community on their new world.

The Zarathustra refugees are unqualified, though. Zarathustra was an advanced, automated planet, and the people have no experience with the outdoors or with manual labor. The two people who reveal themselves as most qualified are an amateur historian who has some book knowledge of old machines, and a hobbyist who figures out how to turn that knowledge into practice.

On the leadership side of things, the situation is even worse. Captain Arbogast acted as ruler during the winter, but the distress at losing his ship eventually overwhelms him; he has a mental breakdown. Nanseltine, a continental manager back on Zarathustra, has no useful skills whatsoever, but is intent on succeeding Arbogast. The best qualified leader is a young man named Lex, whose polymath training gives him special insight. Among the women, no qualified leaders emerge. Worse, the interpersonal issues come to a head when the youngest refugee, a girl named Naline, develops an unhealthy sexual fixation on Delvia. The other women turn against Delvia because of the callous way she appears to toy with Naline.

Lex, with his polymath training, is the only hope the survivors have. As a polymath, he is specifically trained--and augmented physically--to coordinate the terraforming and colonization of a virgin planet. However, this planet is not the planet he has trained for; further, he has not finished polymath training. Nevertheless, he must adapt to the planet, hone his leadership skills, and forge a lasting community.

And he must fight a war against the survivors from the interior, whose captain has instituted a military dictatorship, enslaved his crew and passengers, and is now eyeing the resources of the coastal survivor group."

TRAPPED by Greg Iles

 Finished Su 4/20/25

A paperback that Janny loaned to me.

 From Google AI:

""Trapped" by Greg Iles is generally considered a thrilling but ultimately unsatisfying novel. It starts strong with a captivating premise about a seemingly perfect family facing a nightmare kidnapping, but many reviewers find the ending contrived and implausible, diminishing the overall impact. 

Strengths:

Intriguing premise:

The novel begins with a compelling scenario of a family targeted by a con man and psychopath, creating suspense and a sense of impending doom.

Suspenseful atmosphere:

Iles builds a tense atmosphere and keeps readers on the edge of their seats with the escalating threats and twists.

Character development:

While the main focus is on the suspense, the characters of Will, Karen, and their daughter are well-developed and relatable. 

Weaknesses:

Contrived and implausible ending:

Many reviewers criticize the ending as being too far-fetched and lacking in realism, which ruins the overall effect. 

Deus ex machina resolution:

The ending relies heavily on a deus ex machina, a sudden and unexpected resolution, which feels forced and unsatisfying. 

Potentially boring in parts:

While the beginning is engaging, some reviewers found the story to become tedious and less captivating as it progressed, according to an Amazon review." 

THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE by William Gibson & Bruce Sterling

 Finished Th 4/17/25

This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I had never read and I bought it on Su 10/31/04. This was a highly rated novel and very important within the 'Steam Punk' movement. 

I really liked the book, but it was no easy read. Sections of the novel were like a trip to the nineteenth century and some of it was just too hard to follow. The scenes where men are on the Thames river during 'The Big Stink' were very memorable. 

Charles Babbage was a real person who 'invented' computer science {The Analytic Engine} in the early 1800's.  

From a review by Robert Sawyer:

"The Difference Engine belongs to that sub-genre of Science Fiction known as the alternative-history story. It assumes a divergence in the past between the way things did go and the way things might have gone.

In this case, the hinge is the work of Charles Babbage (1792-1871). In our history, Babbage, a British mathematician, came up with the idea for a "difference engine" — a mechanical computer — but died without ever having built one. In Gibson's and Sterling's world, Babbage does build his computer, and England sees the industrial revolution and the information revolution simultaneously.

Gibson, who lives in Vancouver, won the Hugo and Nebula awards for his 1984 novel Neuromancer. That novel firmly established the "cyberpunk" school of SF — gritty, technophillic, slang-rich tales of the near-future. Sterling, a Texan, although not as big a name in SF, was a natural collaborator for Gibson, having written the cyberpunk novel Islands in the Net and edited Mirrorshades, the definitive anthology of cyberpunk short stories.

We should laud them for not pooling their talents to simply do another iteration of cyberpunk. What they've produced here is something completely new for both of them, and a work, I suspect, that neither could have done on his own.

That said, in significant ways, the final product is flawed. It posits a series of mysteries, none of which are resolved to the reader's satisfaction. First, we're led a merry chase after a deck of stolen French computer cards. But about halfway through this plot line peters out without the cards ever really amounting to much.

Next, we keep hearing of a mysterious antagonist who goes by the code-name "Captain Swing." One naturally assumes that Swing's true identity will be a key revelation, but we never find out who he is.

Finally, in an intriguing device, portions of the book are narrated by an unidentified omniscience, apparently looking over data from the year 1855. One guesses early on that this might be an intelligent computer — perhaps the often-referred-to, but never-seen Grand Napoleon, a super-powerful French ordinateur. But Gibson and Sterling leave the mystery of the storyteller's identity as an exercise for the reader.

In fact, the reader can get lots of exercise with this book. An enormous familiarity with things Victorian is assumed, making for frequent trips to the encyclopedia to decipher where the novel's timeline diverges from our own (quickly now: was the real London paralyzed by a smog inversion layer in the summer of 1855?).

Almost every character in the book is a real person, or is taken from Victorian pop literature. Dandy Mick, who figures prominently in the book's opening, is borrowed from a Disraeli novel, and Byron, Darwin, and Disraeli himself all play roles — although roles different from those they had in our timeline. Byron is prime minister, Darwin a member of the House of Lords, and Disraeli remains a seedy pulp writer throughout his days.

Those willing to grant two master writers a large dollop of poetic license will enjoy the hauntingly strange landscape, filled with steam-propelled cars, 19th-century credit cards, and "clackers" — the computer hackers of the day (taking their name from the sound made by paper cards moving through the brasswork of the steam-driven computers).

Gibson and Sterling range over a surprising variety of topics, including British Columbia's Burgess Shale and its fantastic array of fossil life forms; a debate between the uniformitarian and catastrophic schools of geology; the rise of communism in New York; Japanese robot women with springs made of whalebone; and fascinating "kinotrope" shows, the steam-computer-driven 19th-century equivalent of the big animated display boards found in today's sporting arenas. (In the world of The Difference Engine, poet John Keats has found his niche as a master programmer of kinotrope displays.)

The book's plot, of which there's surprisingly little, is muddled, but then this is not a story about getting from point A to point B. Rather, it's an immersion in a fascinating, wholly realized milieu.

The authors do indulge themselves at times. There's a drawn-out sex interlude that reads like a letter to some 19th century edition of Penthouse. And the final chapter is stuffed with random historical notes and ersatz press clippings, filling in background details that should more appropriately have been woven into the body of the text.

Still, the depth of imagining is magnificent. No one would call The Difference Engine a fun book, but it is a challenging work, and bound to generate much controversy."

I think the book is challenging, however it was well worth the effort. Although the final section I just skimmed because it dealt with the fictional historical timeline within the novel. Shouldn't that have come first? 

THE TRISTAN BETRAYAL by Robert Ludlum

Finished Mo 4/7/25

This is a paperback that I recently bought at Amazon (Dec 2024).

I found this out at Wikipedia:

"The Tristan Betrayal is a novel by Robert Ludlum, published posthumously in 2003. Ludlum wrote an outline shortly before his death. The novel itself was written by a ghostwriter." Maybe this was why I liked it so much?

A terrific love story- "The Spy & The Ballerina". In the early part of WWII she smuggles false documents to the Nazis that the show Russian defenses are paper thin. This is a lie and entices Hitler to invade Russia and he is forced into a '2-front' war that he ultimately loses. 

Summary from Wikipedia:

"In the fall of 1940, the Nazis are at the height of their power – France is occupied, Britain is enduring the Blitz and is under constant threat of invasion, America is neutral, and Russia is in an uneasy alliance with Germany.

In this dark time, Stephen Metcalfe is living the high life in occupied Paris. The younger son of a prominent American family, Metcalfe is a handsome young man who is a notable guest at all the best parties, has been romantically linked to the elite's most desirable women, and is in great demand in the upper echelons of Paris society. He is also a minor asset in the U.S.'s secret intelligence forces in Europe, cavalierly playing The Great Game like so many socially connected young men before him. However, what has been largely an amusing game becomes deadly serious – the spy network he was a part of is suddenly dismantled in the midst of war-torn Europe and he is left without a contact, actual orders, or a contingency plan.

With no one else in place, it falls to Metcalfe to instigate a bold plan that may be the only hope for the quickly dwindling remains of the free world. Using his family's connections and relying on his own devices, he travels to wartime Moscow to find and possibly betray a former lover – a fiery ballerina whose own loyalties are in question – in a delicate dance that could destroy all he loves and honors. With his opponents closing in on him and the war itself rapidly approaching an irreversible crisis point, Stephen Metcalfe faces both a difficult task and an impossible decision, where success will have unimaginable consequences far into the future and failure is unthinkable."