By Peter Cook, The Digital Scene
Having just finished his book "Time Out of Joint," we'd like to call attention to one of our favorite authors: Philip K. Dick. Although he died almost 30 years ago, he remains one of our favorites for a few reasons.
First, he was able to turn the genre of science fiction into something more than mediocre-at-best genre fiction. He took science fiction ideas and turned them into studies of religion, philosophy and the human condition. He was not content to use science fiction to escape, but used it to explain.
Second, and we love him for this, there is no telling what will happen when you pick up his books. You can start off reading a book of his about a clear-cut situation and by the end you're traveling across planets in search of greater truth and religious insight. There are some authors that after the first chapter or two, you know exactly where the book is headed. That is not so with P.K.D.
For those two major reasons, his control over his subject matter and his ability to twist a premise into something you could never have imagined, he is one of our favorite authors of all time. So read up, because he was prolific, and enjoy.
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