Alrightreads: Bag of Dicks

PKD books written in 1964, published over the next 40 years. Not all classics, but how many novels have you churned out in the last 12 months?


Philip K. Dick, Clans of the Alphane Moon

1964 / Audiobook / 192 pages / USA

**

I enjoy unhinged psychedelic PKD, so had high hopes for this tale set in an extraterrestrial madhouse that casts telepathic slime mould as a supporting character. Unfortunately, it falls back on simplistic caricatures of mental illness and our main story is a dull domestic dispute with no likeable side to root for.

Philip K. Dick, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

1965 / Audiobook / 278 pages / USA

****

Someone's taken LSD. Casually dropping satirical and ingenious ideas all over the place, this disorienting trip across space, time and mind would be one of Dick's best, if Ubik hadn't refined it.

Philip K. Dick, The Zap Gun (a.k.a. Project Plowshare)

1965-66 (collected 1967) / Audiobook / 176 pages / USA

***

This Cold War satire is possibly the 'zaniest' PKD outing, but it's no Robert Sheckley. Our everyday hero is a clairvoyant womanising comic artist, and that blend informs the style. I never fully got into it.

Philip K. Dick, The Penultimate Truth

1964 / Audiobook / 174 pages / USA

***

Like many (most? all?) PKD novels expanded from short stories, I feel I'd rather be reading the concise originals than this weird mash-up. It's conventional for these things to go off the rails as the story gets developed/padded, but this lost me when it brought in bizarrely low-key time travel schemes and inexplicable immortality. The 1984 stuff's all good.

Philip K. Dick, The Unteleported Man

1964 / Audiobook / 100 pages / USA

***

"A new life awaits you in the off-world colonies. The chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure!"

Don't believe everything you see in the brochure. Skilfully written to fit existing magazine art, PKD's shortest novel about a shady cover-up was later expanded/ruined as Lies, Inc.

Philip K. Dick, Lies, Inc.

1964-? (published 2004) / Audiobook / 202 pages / USA

**

I need to refrain from making assumptions that I've read the maddest or trippiest Dick novel any time one turns out a bit weird, but it's surely justified here. The long-gestating expansion of his 60s novella The Unteleported Man, that PKD insisted was necessary but that never saw publication in his lifetime, the full version wasn't published until 20 years after his death. The new material is a literal acid trip that interrupts the decent story for half the book. I don't really know what to make of it, but it's no 2001.

Alrightreads: Collaborations

The power of friendship.


Carl G. Jung, Joseph L. Henderson, Aniela Jaffé, Jolande Jacobi and Marie-Louise von Franz, Man and His Symbols

1964 / Audiobook / 310 pages / Switzerland

***

I was sceptical about Jung's credibility after reading his frivolous synchronicity book, but this collaborative summary of his life's work on dream imagery and mythic archetypes all sounds reasonable, if stretched in the way literature fans appreciate. He could be right about religion being helpful – regardless of whether it's true – for helping people impose meaning on their lives and preventing civilisation at large from going nuts, but not everyone's brain works like that. Especially when we've just been reminded about the variety of mutually incompatible systems out there. Just pick one, I'm sure you'll get it right.

Philip K. Dick and Ray Nelson, The Ganymede Takeover

1967 / Ebook / 157 pages / USA

**

The more toxic of PKD's two collaborations, this is the most overlooked of his 60s work, with good reason. What could have been a classic if problematic SF civil rights allegory is derailed by B-movie farce, atypical pew-pew action scenes and requisite perviness. The authors seemed to enjoy it, but they were bad for each other.

Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, Inferno

1976 / Audiobook / 237 pages / USA

**

I was hoping this would be a light and quirky alternative to the duo's more heavygoing collaborations, but once we're past the good gag of a sceptical SF writer stubbornly trying to rationalise his paranormal experiences in terms he understands, the extended, cliquey homage begins and it's a wearying road.

William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, The Difference Engine

1990 / Audiobook / 383 pages / USA

****

When the pioneers of cyberpunk linked their beige '80s computers across the ocean to collaborate on a novel in green text, few would have expected the dot-matrix-printed result to be a vague Victorian alt-history mystery that would kick off another sub-genre for less imaginative people to ruin.

With every machine-punched detail and tidal ripple obsessed over, the authors introduce a vivid setting that they're too classy to dilute with sequels or satisfactory conclusions. This is the sort of thing I've tried to write before giving in to laziness and insecurity. Better to read the more competent things that already exist.

Doug Dorst and J. J. Abrams, S.

2013 / Ebook / 518 pages / USA

***

A (fictional) cryptic classic with (fictional) handwritten correspondence trying to crack the code and the deeper mysteries of love, this had the potential to be incredible if there was more substance to back up the style. Between the unconvincing 'classic' text with its unsubtle ciphers and the angsty kids who succeed in decoding it while getting tangled up in their own convoluted conspiracy, all conveniently narrated for our benefit, the authentic presentation makes the suspension of disbelief even harder to maintain. The gimmicks wore thin after the first hundred pages or so, but it kept going. Lee and Herring's version was briefer and funnier.

Alrightreads: Cults

I think everyone's right.

Roger Zelazny, Lord of Light

1967 / Audiobook / 257 pages / USA

****

I've long been meaning to read some proper Hindu and Buddhist mythology, but this postmodern sci-fantasy tribute probably takes care of it. The premise is like one of those Star Trek episodes where advanced aliens impersonate primitive Earth deities, but Zelazny's cosplayers are more method and he's more respectful of the wisdom behind the trappings. It's the most 1967 thing I've ever read.

Philip K. Dick and Roger Zelazny, Deus Irae

1976 / Audiobook / 182 pages / USA

***

This complex satire of orthodoxy demands rapt attention and cross-referencing that I was too lazy to provide, what with finding it a bit boring in places and wanting to move on, but I'm glad I made the pilgrimage.

Zelazny's voice is clear in the more fantastical and theological digressions, which are some of the more interesting bits. It's also probably not a coincidence that it contains more bizarre and memorable imagery than your standard PKDystopia.

Danny Wallace, Join Me: The True Story of a Man Who Started a Cult by Accident

2003 / Ebook / 320 pages / UK

*****

I found Dave Gorman's further japes disappointing after his endearingly stupid namesake odyssey, co-authored with Danny Wallace in its definitive book form. It turns out I'd been following the wrong branch. Starting out similarly juvenile and egocentric before randomly becoming meaningful and heartwarming eight chapters in, this is the worthy sequel I was waiting for. Danny's admirably frank about how much of a twat he is, but this never would have happened if he wasn't.

Louis Theroux, The Call of the Weird: Travels in American Subcultures

2005 / Ebook / 290 pages / UK

****

Louis writes like he speaks, only more introspective, opinionated and sarcastic now he has to narrate as well. With no camera for his subjects to play up to, he digs deeper into what makes his kooky cast of harmless and less harmless characters tick, sometimes just having to accept defeat.

Angela Nagle, Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars from 4chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right

2017 / Audiobook / 136 pages / Ireland

***

I don't know whether the online era in question had reached peak insanity by the time this immersive historical document was rushed to print, since I'd largely stopped paying morbid attention to that whole misanthropic battleground by then and returned to comforting escapism. I'll assume everyone agreed to live and let live, had a good think about what they'd done and the digital utopia arrived. Give it a rest, twats.

Alrightreads: Time

Non-linear, wrong-way-round or otherwise unnecessarily complicated.


Philip K. Dick, Counter-Clock World

1967 / Audiobook / 160 pages / USA

**

Like Red Dwarf's backwards universe, the internal logic and consistency of this world where you eat through your arse is way off, and even annoying if you're the sort of person who gets hung up on things like that. Not as annoying as the rambling theology and tedious misogyny of the main story though. The short story it's based on was probably a  lot more tolerable.

David Gerrold, The Man Who Folded Himself

1973 / Audiobook / 148 pages / USA

****

There's no improving on Heinlein's concise closed circuit, but this Star Trek writer's looser take on self-perpetuating time jaunts is significant for different reasons as he voyages where no man has gone before. No doubt a few paperbacks were thrown at the bin half-way through by science fiction fans whose imaginations turned out to have quite narrow horizons after all.

Craig Callendar and Ralph Edney, Introducing Time: A Graphic Guide

1997 / Ebook / 176 pages / USA

****

Quitting the sciences at the earliest educational opportunity, I'm permanently stuck in the beginner's pop science tier. This factual comic for smart kids starts out patronisingly pimpsy, but doesn't take long to get reality-warping. When Gödel and Möbius twists show up, it gets incomprehensible.

David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

2004 / Audiobook / 544 pages / UK

*****

The brilliance of this novel is in the structure. What might otherwise have been a bizarre fix-up anthology contrasting historical pastiches and farce with earnest sci-fi instead becomes a compelling chain letter across time with thoughtful parallels and multiple climaxes. I didn't love all the parts, but I loved the whole. Give me a playful structure and I'm anyone's.

Richard McGuire, Here

2014 / Ebook / 304 pages / USA

*****

Like H. G. Wells' time traveller, if his machine glitched, sit comfortably and observe the same patch of ground fourth-dimensionally at various points from 3,000,500,000 BCE to 22,175 CE (with disproportionate stops in the 20th and early 21st centuries, as is often the way with random time travel). Marvel at the coincidences and contrasts and wonder what it could all mean, or just flip through to enjoy the colours.

Alrightreads: Space Goth

The New Adventures of He-Man of Gothic fiction?


Archie Goodwin and Walter Simonson based on the story by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, Alien: The Illustrated Story

1979 / Ecomic / 64 pages / USA

****

From flying industrial cathedrals to innuendo-strewn biomechanics, I've always been more in love with Alien's production design than the story. This efficient adaptation captures all of that in rough storyboard sketches, while editing the action down to fit a 30-minute slot with adverts. Alongside Alan Dean Foster's highly-regarded novelisation, a screencaps storybook, souvenir magazine and The Book of Alien, pre-VHS Alien fans were well looked after.

Alastair Reynolds, Revelation Space

2000 / Audiobook / 560 pages / UK

***

Technically brilliant, well-written and relentlessly sinister modern sci-fi, in a really long and overbearing way that I found a slog. I would have found it easier to get through and paid more attention if it had been arbitrarily broken down into a series, like Gene Wolfe's novels. I could have just pretended it was, but it's a bit late for that revelation [space].

Richard Paul Russo, Ship of Fools

2001 / Ebook / 370 pages / USA

***

This hits all the right notes of suspenseful space Gothic – sometimes amusingly so, with its deformed Frankingstein orphan, corrupt clergy and literal space cathedral – but it's not very well written or original. That's what will happen when you set out to find a book that might remind you of a film.

Peter Watts, Blindsight

2006 / Audiobook / 384 pages / Canada

****

Science fiction and horror are the more marketable genres Watts blends to explore his challenging philosophical ideas, and these dogged digressions and the supporting world-building are what make this so impressive, more than the rote Borg plot. No character gets off lightly as the author crams in concepts from AI and augmentation to virtual afterlife and credible vampires. I appreciated the value.

Garth Ennis and Facundo Percio, Caliban

2014 (collected 2015) / Ecomics / 176 pages / UK/Argentina

***

I don't know whether Garth Ennis was being meta when he wrote this literal and figurative mash-up. It's all been done before, some of it ad nauseam, but the enthusiastically gruesome art makes it worth another go around.

Alrightreads: Goth Boys

Gender-swapped reboot of Goth Girls. Classic re-reads and newer trash.


Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

1886 / Audiobook / 123 pages / UK

*****

The last decade or so of the 19th century was an abnormally influential period for timeless sci-fi and horror classics, and most of them are a comfortable length as well. Stevenson's gas-lit psychological mad scientist tale with shades of the Ripper is the type of era-defining time capsule you'd normally have to unconvincingly contrive decades later. It does the found footage approach before Dracula too.

Bram Stoker, Dracula

1897 / Audiobook / 390 pages / UK

*****

The first four chapters covering Jonathan Harker's Transylvanian troubles make for one of the best openings and one of my favourite things in literature. The rest of the book rarely reaches those heights again, mainly for being extremely drawn-out, but there's still plenty of quaint Victorian values and symbolism to enjoy amid all the nattering.

Charles Addams, Nightcrawlers

1957 / Ebook / 96 pages / USA

**

I was hoping for a lot more Addams Family from this collection, which were presumably used up in his previous five collections, though plenty could qualify as extended family. Other themes include giants, murderers, disgruntled spouses (crosses over with murderers) and good old-fashioned racism. Some are pretty funny when you spot the punchline skulking in the background, some probably made more sense half a century ago, most are groaners. Most interesting was seeing the original Uncle Knick-Knack gag.

Dave Thompson, The Making of The Cure's Disintegration

1996 / Ebook / 72 pages / UK

**

I didn't expect a lot from this kitsch CD-sized book covering one of my favourite albums for want of a more definitive companion, but it was still a letdown. After the composition and recording anecdotes promised by the title, the songs themselves are only given a couple of sentences each that don't bother describing them musically or lyrically, the focus instead being on listing all the obscure single and bootleg releases that would be of interest to the type of obsessive collector who bought this. We end on a rambling interview that would have been more insightful if it wasn't about the next album but one.

Grant Morrison and Klaus Janson, Batman: Gothic (a.k.a. Gothic: A Romance)

1990 (collected 1991) / Ecomics / 120 pages / UK/Germany

****

After the disturbing Arkham Asylum, Morrison's back with another mature and literary Batman that's impressively horrific. Mashing up more sources than I can spot, this dark tale of a Faustian bargain, perverse monks and occult architecture could be getting held back by its famous lead. Strip it down to prose and recast a generic supernatural detective and it might show up on more favourites lists.

Alrightreads: Familiar

Of all the books this unpublished can't-write-for-toffee crappy book reviewer has been needlessly critical of over the years, House of Leaves troubles me the most. It's one of the most impressive and absorbing things I've ever read, but apparently I'm remembering wrong and it's actually "style-over-substance twaddle" deserving of 4/5 at best, tellingly compared to my own amateur scrawlings at university (i.e. I wished I'd written it).

At first glance, the author's more recent project – a 4,400-page "first season" of a projected five-or-so season novel serial – certainly has style. Let's see if it has substance, or if it's just more captivating twaddle to seethe over.


Mark Z. Danielewski, The Familiar, Vol. 1: One Rainy Day in May

2015 / Ebook / 880 pages / USA

****

Even as a fan of wank for art's sake, this literary pilot episode was an uphill struggle for most of the first half until the semblance of connections started to become vaguely fuzzy across these disparate events happening to unrelated characters in different locations in real time (depending on your reading speed {and how much you've got going on in your life}). But don't all the best things start out quite annoying?

Spanning multiple genres and styles, some chapters are more welcome than others once those bespoke colours and typefaces become familiar.

Mark Z. Danielewski, The Familiar, Vol. 2: Into the Forest

2015 / Ebook / 880 pages / USA

****

There's more pretty word art in Vol. 2, which was the main motivation
to persevere. I'm not sure how he's going to keep raising the bar,
but I've already committed too much time to stop committing
more time now. My main worry is that the more pointless
and distracting side stories won't converge until Vol.
27.

...I got 100 pages or so into book three when the ennui set in. Maybe I'll continue one day, but since the series was cancelled after 5/27 books due to insufficient interest anyway, there's no rush.