The Crack in Space by Philip K. Dick
… The Crack in Space is fun, but not up to par with the best PKD offers. I don’t know if Dick really imagined that in 2080 American race relations wouldn’t have progressed beyond 1960s levels, but this really makes the novel feel more dated than his other works do. Also, the way that Americans dealt with the parallel universe was so simplistic and naïve that this was hard to swallow, but yet it’s so typical of PKD. Fans, who are used to his frenzied plots and other little writing quirks, are likely to just chuckle and let it go. In the end, though, there’s a beautiful ironic message. As Americans are dealing with race warfare, PKD shows us that, really, we’re all human after all. Brilliance Audio, who is gradually producing all of Philip K. Dick’s novels in audio format, did another wonderful job with this one. Eric Dawe performs it superbly. Read the rest.
“Also, the way that Americans dealt with the parallel universe was so simplistic and naïve that this was hard to swallow”
I always find it odd in PKD books the way people tend to take weird sci-fi happenings in their stride and pretty much every character is capable of deep philisophical discussions. But then I like reading about characters like that so I don’t let a little thing like lack of realism spoil my enjoyment!
I haven’t read this one or any new PKD in a while. Think I need to delve back in!
I feel the same way, Kieran. If we know it’s what to expect from PKD, we excuse it. New readers may not be so forgiving. Personally, I enjoy the bizarreness, or else I wouldn’t read him.