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Da Italia

Recensito in Italia 🇮🇹 il 24 agosto 2022

È riduttivo considerare Dick uno scrittore di genere. Questo è il suo ultimo romanzo ed è la sintesi di un pensiero e di una tormentata ricerca che è durata una vita. Non è un romanzo di fantascienza (in senso stretto). Personalmente suggerirei prima di leggerlo, per poterlo apprezzare fino in fondo, la lettura di una buona biografia. Una che mi seno di suggerire (in italiano) è "La Fantascienza di Philip Dick" di Francesca Rispoli.

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Recensito nel Regno Unito 🇬🇧 il 1 marzo 2023

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When I read this I didn't realise it was the 3rd in a trilogy. It didn't take from the story though and I think it read like standalone.
Loved the book and definitely look out fir the first two.

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Graham Mummery

An exploration on the nature of belief

Recensito nel Regno Unito 🇬🇧 il 4 gennaio 2016

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Philip K Dick was one of the greatest science fiction writers, and like many in the genre was interested in using it to explore philosophical matters. This one is the last of what is sometimes considered loosely as a trilogy which included Valis (S.F. MASTERWORKS) and The Divine Invasion . All explore aspects of a mystical philosophy in some ways based on the Gnostics. Of the three, the Divine Invasion is the one that is most science fiction proper, and more immediately accessible than Valis (though many PKD fans consider that his masterpiece).

This volume of the three, despite the marking on the back, is the work that is perhaps least well described as science fiction. It's events take place in the nineteen seventies at around the time of the death of John Lennon which is mentioned several times in the text. Unusually for Dick the story is told in first person and by a woman who is the daughter-in-law of an episcopalian (British readers read as Anglican) bishop of California, Timothy Archer. The events are probably more day to day for most readers than in PKD's science fiction, centring around the way the bishop's faith is challenged by the discovery of historical texts and the suicide of his son and mistress.

Yet for all the events being more quotidian there is also Dick's familiar interest in philosophical questions about the nature of reality and how we and beliefs relate to this. There are references to Jung, Heidegger, Plato as well as gnostic and classical texts listed at the back of the book as events unfurl to a mystery at the end which the author leaves us to ponder upon. The characters are believable, as most are in Dicks novels, and well drawn. The philosophy is well explained without overpowering the story.

In the end however, though I find this work well written and enjoyable, it is not my absolute favourite of his works. For that I would turn to books like The Man in the High Castle (Penguin Modern Classics) , or Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? (Gollancz) or A Scanner Darkly (S.F. MASTERWORKS) . There are others also. Dick, as has often been noticed, was an uneven writer. Though this book is definitely not one those I rate as poor, and is worth reading, I would still read those other masterpieces before this one, including the other ones in the Valis trilogy. Hence only the three stars.

3 persone l'hanno trovato utile

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Guy

The Final Dick

Recensito nel Regno Unito 🇬🇧 il 30 dicembre 2014

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PKD's last novel is unusual, both generally speaking and in terms of the author's works. This is palpably not a science-fiction book, but a rumination on faith and how people are affected when they are forced through experience and evidence to re-assess that faith... or is it?

A bit of research will show that the traditional disclaimer that "all characters within are ficticious and and resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental" is not applicable here, and at least the lead character is based very strongly on an evangelist Dick knew very well in real life. Timothy Archer is a fascinating character to view from the outside as we see him swing desperately from one theory to another to rationalize both the discovery of historical artefacts that appear to invalidate the New Testament and the unfortunate tendencies of his loved ones to commit suicide.

Narrator Angel Archer was not a particularly likeable character initially and seems curiously unemotional about certain events that happen to her, but becomes more identifiable as the book progresses and we see the full extent of the quite literal madness that she's been surrounded by.

There is quite a bit of dry ponderance on biblical and literary influences that make this not the easiest of reads in places, and I was definitely out of my depth with some of the quotations and references which might be more satisfying to others more scholarly than I, but Dick nicely pulls a rabbit of the hat at the end of the novel that, like Timothy Archer himself, made me re-appraise or at least question what I thought the book had actually been about. Ultimately not the greatest thing Dick ever wrote, but a fitting epitaph nonetheless.

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Brandon Matuja

Philip K. Dick at his most technically, and probably also spiritually, mature. One of his best novels!

Recensito negli Stati Uniti 🇺🇸 il 1 giugno 2018

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One of my all-time favorite PKD novels. This is one of those books that gets more rich and rewarding with every re-read--a true mark of a classic masterpiece, in my experience.

The first time I read it, many years ago, it struck me as only slightly interesting; the second time, a year or so, it impressed me a lot better, but still seemed almost boring compared to Dick's other, more well-known, far-out sci-fi masterpieces; and now, having read it a third time all the way through, I am certain it is Dick's most mature novel, and a wonderful "swan song" of sorts from him. True, it may lack the sci-fi far-out-ness of many of his other works--in a lot of ways, it is just a great novel in the classic "novel" sense, and one of his least "sci-fi" books--but he really makes the characters come alive, especially Angel Archer, the narrator. He himself had told how he felt like he was actually WITH the character, while writing her, and was deeply grieved to be finished with her, when he finished this book. (I thought that was touching and nice, when I read that, but this time around, reading this book through, I know exactly what he meant; I too felt her company and presence, and now that I've finished reading it again, I too miss her ongoing presence, which reading this book gives you. She is truly an exceptional character... and "she's smarter than I am," Dick had claimed!

This book contains PKD's most mature, actual WRITING-skills. Many readers have observed that, while his ideas have often been first-rate and amazing, his actual prose-style has often seemed rushed, plain, or mediocre. That is definitely not true of this book! His characters come alive, his descriptions and details are simply amazingly articulate and well-written.

9 persone l'hanno trovato utile

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Klaus Stiefel

Bishop Timothy Archer according to his daughter in law

Recensito negli Stati Uniti 🇺🇸 il 1 agosto 2009

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PKD at his best: The story of renaissance man Tim Archer, ex-lawyer, ex-alcoholic, current Episcopalian Bishop and Civil Rights activists' leader, seeker of the true religion, occultist. The story of his personal tragedies, eventual downfall, and - transmigration - is taking place mainly in Northern California and is narrated by Angel Archer, his daughter in law, or rather, as a consequence of the events unfolding, the widow of his son. Angel is depressed about the suicide of her husband, her best friend who was also Tim Archer's lover, and the accidental (is there really anything accidental, random in a PKD novel?) death of Bishop Tim Archer in the Israeli desert. Still, she is fascinated and moved by what she experienced (believed to have experienced?), and that fascination rubs of on the reader: I read this 250 page novel in only two settings.
What makes PKD (Philip K. Dick) such a fantastic writer, in my eyes, is his ability to transport his unusual ideas about the very vague substance of reality in such a casual way; There is no dry lecture about the constructivist nature of reality, weighted with dry philosophical terms and sentences with unnecessarily complicated grammar. Instead, one reads a dinner conversation which within a few sentences drifts from small talk about the menu to philosophy of the mind, the occult, and back to the food on the table. There is no dumbing down of ideas or insights, in contrast, the fact that PKD's ideas are articulated by different people at different times makes it harder to figure out what he really means. But the fact that these ideas are packed into an extremely well written novel featuring characters, whom somewhat alternatively minded contemporaries can probably relate to, predigests them nicely. At the end of the book one ends up not only understanding how PKD thinks that "real" is a very relative term, and how he speculates that information can travel between minds in ways unbeknown to modern man; one also understands how it must FEEL to be subjected to bouts of reality dissolution. These are the things he brilliantly accomplishes to communicate in "The Transmigration of Timothy Archer".

8 persone l'hanno trovato utile

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Ramesh G

The PhD thesis of Philip K Dick - his last and finest book

Recensito negli Stati Uniti 🇺🇸 il 17 gennaio 2020

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in Berkeley California, where Philip K Dick came into his formative years, and where I went to school decades later , 'Do you like Dick?' was, in some circles, a conversation opener, (or a crude pick up line).
and I have always been a little underwhelmed by his work - too much telepathy, obsession with schizophrenia, and drug induced alternate realities and histories - seemed besides the point, even if I have had to review blue books, scrawled with gibberish after the student's acid raves with bongs all over the hardwood floors, or come down to breakfast tables where broken mirrors lay with white powder traces still left over.
So 'Transmigration' was completely different, and completely satisfying - here PKD completes his spiritual journey, and is able to tie all his realizations about the meaning of life into a human, moving story, and without all the silly crutches of drugs, madness and nonsense of telepathic visions.
It probably also helps that each novel, like an old wine, must be imbibed at the right time, the right age between writer and reader. Philip K Dick wrote this, his last novel, at just a few years older than my age when I am reading it, so perhaps I am able to appreciate its value, its vision all the more.

12 persone l'hanno trovato utile

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Terry Bee

His last, but one of his best.

Recensito nel Regno Unito 🇬🇧 il 10 aprile 2022

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This was P.K.Dick's last novel and it must rank as one of his best. A great cultural exposition on many of the arguments for and against Christianity. The way he structures the story is very compelling and his characters shine through as having genuine charisma. P.K.Dick was a polymath and a great story teller. Miss him greatly.

2 persone l'hanno trovato utile

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Adrian Delatorre

The very best of PKD

Recensito negli Stati Uniti 🇺🇸 il 8 settembre 2010

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I don't have the time to write a review, but I was looking online for a list of the best PKD books and I was a tad disappointed. That being said, if you are a PKD fan, or if you are just getting into him, here are what I believe to be his best books.

1. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - Far and away his most interesting book. The commentary on the nature of transubstantiation, communion, and drug culture is simply fascinating.

2. Transmigration of Timothy Archer - Here PKD displays the best writing of his career. The title character and the narrator, Angel Archer, are the most developed and human characters in PKD's cannon.

3. A Scanner Darkly - As good as everyone says it is, probably the best in the Am-I-Who-I-Say-I-Am sub-genre of science fiction.

4. VALIS - Truly one of the most bizarre and compulsively readable (not to mention difficult) autobiographies you're likely to encounter, VALIS is PKD's personal exegesis--a learned exploration of what the author refers to as his encounter with the divine. This book is the culmination of PKD's theology, of whihc we see traces in nearly everyone of his works.

5. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, & Ubik (Tie) - I would be remiss to leave these books off of the list, though I think that they receive more acclaim than they deserve. The same can be said of The Man in the High Castle, which looks immature compared to Dick's later works. Amazing what a Hugo can do, I guess.

Well, there's my list, take it or leave it. I'd gladly argue with anyone as to my rather arbitary ordering of these literary masterpieces. Either way, whether you agree or disagree, go read some PKD!

5 persone l'hanno trovato utile

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kmanthie

Part of VALIS Trilogy

Recensito negli Stati Uniti 🇺🇸 il 4 agosto 2021

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This is one of the books PKD wrote post-1974, after some kind of mental breakdown or, as he interpreted it, “as some sort of quasi-religious/spiritual thing, so his writing in that time went from the trippy stuff from the 60s, like UBIK, Martian Time Slip, Confessions of a Crap Artist. Still, it’s well-written, interesting story & has PKD’s usual schizo mental processes. Good book.

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