The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
by Philip K. Dick
This book was truly weird and very hard to get at many points. Dick pretty much takes reality and ties it into a Gordian knot. As the conclusion approaches, it is very hard to tell what is really going on, what is real, and what is some kind of hallucination. And the ending only helps a little.
However, this is absolutely not a criticism. Most of Philip K. Dick's fiction deals in some way with the nature of reality and illusion, and how we tell the difference. And that's the chief reason I like his books so much. I enjoy the experience of disorientation I get from reading his books. I like the points he makes about reality, authenticity, and perception.
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is set in a near future in which the Earth is becoming ever hotter and citizens are randomly and forcibly relocated to off-world colonies. The colonies are not an escape from the over-heated Earth, however. They are uniformly dreary and relatively inhospitable. Thus, colonists resort to drugs that "translate" them into other existences. I won't describe the actual plot, since it involves a lot of messing with reality. As with a lot of Philip K. Dick's work, you really have to just read it. I think, though, that given just how mind-bending this book is, it might not make a good introduction to Dick's work. Read Ubik or Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (the basis for Blade Runner) first.
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