Published : 1970Pages : 190
Overall Mark : 8/10
When fourteen people arrive to colonize the otherwise uninabited planet of Delmark-O, they quickly discover that their bizarre new world is more dangerous - and much, much stranger - than they could ever have imagined. The colonists have nothing in common and no idea why they've been sent there. All they know is that there's no way to leave and, one by one, they are being killed...
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, Total Recall and A Scanner Darkly are based on his stories.
VERDICT
This is such an unusual tale, but definitely for me one of Dick's most effective. The use of hallucinations combined with the characters religious beliefs works well and the ideas that are created her of an all-controlling God like creation is both worrying and curiously plausible.
