#52. THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH By Philip K Dick

Published : 1964
Pages : 230
Overall Mark : 7/10

In the overcrowded world and cramped space colonies of the late 21st century, tedium can be endured through the use of the drug Can-D, which enables the users to inhabit a shared illusory world. When industrialist Palmer Eldritch returns from an interstellar trip, he brings with him a new, alien drug Chew-Z, which is far more potent than Can-D, but threatens to plunge the world into a permanent state of drugged illusion controlled by the mysterious Eldritch.

PHILIP K. DICK (1928-1982)
'One of the two or three most important figures in 20th century US SF' (The Encyclopedia Of Science Fiction). Born one of twins - his sister died in infancy - he lived most of his life in California, and wrote more than fifty books in a career of prodigious productivity and achievement. The films Blade Runner and Minority Report are both based on his stories.

VERDICT
Dick creates a world of hallucinatory drugs and precognitive powers that is slowly falling apart due to the creation of another drug which produces images of the future that are frighteningly real and over which the user has no control. The loss of control that takes over many of the characters is something quite prevalent in Dick's later novels, and this - rather irronically - gives us a nice glimpse of what his future novels will become.