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Philip K. Dick is Dead, Alas
In this heartfelt science-fiction homage, Philip K. Dick dies in 1982 in Santa Ana, California, during the fourth term of the repressive imperial presidency of Richard Milrose Nixon. Soon thereafter, stripped of his memory, Dick turns up in the office of Lia Bonner, a young psychotherapist in Warm Springs, Georgia. Ultimately, Dick manifests at Von Braunville, the American moon base, as a key figure in a gonzo conspiracy to trigger a “redemptive shift” of world-changing scope. Indeed, according to The New York Times, the ending of Michael Bishop’s wittily inventive Dickian extravaganza “approaches sublimity.”
352 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1987
13 people are currently reading
717 people want to read
About the author
Michael Bishop
308 books105 followersMichael Lawson Bishop was an award-winning American writer. Over four decades & thirty books, he created a body of work that stands among the most admired in modern sf & fantasy literature.
Bishop received a bachelor's from the Univ. of Georgia in 1967, going on to complete a master's in English. He taught English at the US Air Force Academy Preparatory School in Colorado Springs from 1968-72 & then at the Univ. of Georgia. He also taught a course in science fiction at the US Air Force Academy in 1971. He left teaching in 1974 to become a full-time writer.
Bishop won the Nebula in 1981 for The Quickening (Best Novelette) & in 1982 for No Enemy But Time (Best Novel). He's also received four Locus Awards & his work has been nominated for numerous Hugos. He & British author Ian Watson collaborated on a novel set in the universe of one of Bishop’s earlier works. He's also written two mystery novels with Paul Di Filippo, under the joint pseudonym Philip Lawson. His work has been translated into over a dozen languages.
Bishop has published more than 125 pieces of short fiction which have been gathered in seven collections. His stories have appeared in Playboy, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, the Missouri Review, the Indiana Review, the Chattahoochee Review, the Georgia Review, Omni & Interzone.
In addition to fiction, Bishop has published poetry gathered in two collections & won the 1979 Rhysling Award for his poem For the Lady of a Physicist. He's also had essays & reviews published in the NY Times, the Washington Post, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Omni Magazine & the NY Review of Science Fiction. A collection of his nonfiction, A Reverie for Mister Ray, was issued in 2005 by PS Publishing. He's written introductions to books by Philip K. Dick, Theodore Sturgeon, James Tiptree, Jr., Pamela Sargent, Gardner Dozois, Lucius Shepard, Mary Shelley, Andy Duncan, Paul Di Filippo, Bruce Holland Rogers & Rhys Hughes. He's edited six anthologies, including the Locus Award-winning Light Years & Dark & A Cross of Centuries: 25 Imaginative Tales about the Christ, published by Thunder’s Mouth Press shortly before the company closed.
In recent years, Bishop has returned to teaching & is writer-in-residence at LaGrange College located near his home in Pine Mountain, GA. He & his wife, Jeri, have a daughter & two grandchildren. His son, Christopher James Bishop, was one of the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre on 4/16/07.
Bishop received a bachelor's from the Univ. of Georgia in 1967, going on to complete a master's in English. He taught English at the US Air Force Academy Preparatory School in Colorado Springs from 1968-72 & then at the Univ. of Georgia. He also taught a course in science fiction at the US Air Force Academy in 1971. He left teaching in 1974 to become a full-time writer.
Bishop won the Nebula in 1981 for The Quickening (Best Novelette) & in 1982 for No Enemy But Time (Best Novel). He's also received four Locus Awards & his work has been nominated for numerous Hugos. He & British author Ian Watson collaborated on a novel set in the universe of one of Bishop’s earlier works. He's also written two mystery novels with Paul Di Filippo, under the joint pseudonym Philip Lawson. His work has been translated into over a dozen languages.
Bishop has published more than 125 pieces of short fiction which have been gathered in seven collections. His stories have appeared in Playboy, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, the Missouri Review, the Indiana Review, the Chattahoochee Review, the Georgia Review, Omni & Interzone.
In addition to fiction, Bishop has published poetry gathered in two collections & won the 1979 Rhysling Award for his poem For the Lady of a Physicist. He's also had essays & reviews published in the NY Times, the Washington Post, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Omni Magazine & the NY Review of Science Fiction. A collection of his nonfiction, A Reverie for Mister Ray, was issued in 2005 by PS Publishing. He's written introductions to books by Philip K. Dick, Theodore Sturgeon, James Tiptree, Jr., Pamela Sargent, Gardner Dozois, Lucius Shepard, Mary Shelley, Andy Duncan, Paul Di Filippo, Bruce Holland Rogers & Rhys Hughes. He's edited six anthologies, including the Locus Award-winning Light Years & Dark & A Cross of Centuries: 25 Imaginative Tales about the Christ, published by Thunder’s Mouth Press shortly before the company closed.
In recent years, Bishop has returned to teaching & is writer-in-residence at LaGrange College located near his home in Pine Mountain, GA. He & his wife, Jeri, have a daughter & two grandchildren. His son, Christopher James Bishop, was one of the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre on 4/16/07.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
December 17, 2014
Excellent pastiche by Bishop. I believe he captured the meat of PKD literature very well. The main theme in Radio Free Albemuth is definitely evident here. I loved the way it ended up; almost as a sacrifice by Philip K Dick in a way to have lived this "alternate" life pretty much the way he was in actual reality. PKD in real life, as amazing an author of SF as he was, wanted SO BADLY to be recognized as a "real" novelist. He considered himself as writing "schlock" just to pay the rent. As it stands, he only had one non science fiction novel published in his lifetime, Confessions Of A Crap Artist. You can tell that Michael Bishop here really understood that about PKD when he opted to make the main storyline (the original dimension/reality) be the one where his largest body of work were his non SF stories (albeit most all were banned in the current [novel's] government and therefore only available in samizdat form).
The story, the characterizations, tempo, etc were all top-notch. If I only had one complaint, it would be the method that is used to "abreact" to the other reality. I cant actually recall what exactly it was, but I recall it being kinda hokey and the only thing that kinda jolted me out of the fluidity of the overall novel.
The story, the characterizations, tempo, etc were all top-notch. If I only had one complaint, it would be the method that is used to "abreact" to the other reality. I cant actually recall what exactly it was, but I recall it being kinda hokey and the only thing that kinda jolted me out of the fluidity of the overall novel.
January 21, 2020
Michael Bishop's tribute to Philip K Dick is a marvellous if less frenetic pastiche of Dick's work, rich in irony and sly humour. Rather as Dick did in VALIS, with a late post modern twist, real people appear, albeit in a dystopian parallel universe of America in the Nineteen Eighties.
In VALIS of course, Dick included fictionalised versions of people such as his friend KW Jeter and David Bowie, disguised through the medium of fictional names, but it was a conceit waiting to be discovered, much like Easter eggs in video games, given that the narrator of VALIS is Dick himself, hidden behind the name Horselover Fat (Philip in Greek is Lover of horses. Dick is German for Fat).
Here, the book begins with Dick's death, and his resurrection as a ghost, on a mission to gather a team to alter Earth's reality to one which provides a better level of happiness to everyone.
Cal Pickford is an ex cowboy (a horse lover in fact), now employed in the Happy Puppy Pet Emporium. The shop is visited by a woman Cal is nervous about, who purchases two genetically modified Russian guinea pigs, known as Brezhnev Bears.
Meanwhile, his wife Lia is visited by the temporarily corporeal Philip K Dick who can not for the moment, remember who he is.
In this alternative US, Richard Nixon has stayed in power for four terms running an authoritarian regime. Black people have for the most part been repatriated to Africa, and non-whites and dissidents are subject to cultural programming under the Americulturation process.
Cal has reason to be nervous, as he is a fan of the late Philip K Dick, and has a collection of his banned titles locked away in his house, possession of which is a felony.
Bishop includes Dick's semi-regular trope of a domineering and/or psychotic woman, here in the form of ex film star Grace Rinehart, now the powerful wife of a senator, dedicated to the implementation of Nixon's authoritarian policies.
To add to the VALIS 'Horselover' connection, we also have the character of Kenneth 'Horsy' Stout, a black dwarf working in a stables who gets 'possessed' by the spirit of Dick and transported to the moon. 'Stout' is another word for 'Fat' and there is the initial K in the first name.
Written not too many years after Dick's actual death, this is a warm, clever and often funny tribute to his life and legacy, although disturbingly Bishop's US dystopia is not a million miles from our US of 2020.
Recommended
In VALIS of course, Dick included fictionalised versions of people such as his friend KW Jeter and David Bowie, disguised through the medium of fictional names, but it was a conceit waiting to be discovered, much like Easter eggs in video games, given that the narrator of VALIS is Dick himself, hidden behind the name Horselover Fat (Philip in Greek is Lover of horses. Dick is German for Fat).
Here, the book begins with Dick's death, and his resurrection as a ghost, on a mission to gather a team to alter Earth's reality to one which provides a better level of happiness to everyone.
Cal Pickford is an ex cowboy (a horse lover in fact), now employed in the Happy Puppy Pet Emporium. The shop is visited by a woman Cal is nervous about, who purchases two genetically modified Russian guinea pigs, known as Brezhnev Bears.
Meanwhile, his wife Lia is visited by the temporarily corporeal Philip K Dick who can not for the moment, remember who he is.
In this alternative US, Richard Nixon has stayed in power for four terms running an authoritarian regime. Black people have for the most part been repatriated to Africa, and non-whites and dissidents are subject to cultural programming under the Americulturation process.
Cal has reason to be nervous, as he is a fan of the late Philip K Dick, and has a collection of his banned titles locked away in his house, possession of which is a felony.
Bishop includes Dick's semi-regular trope of a domineering and/or psychotic woman, here in the form of ex film star Grace Rinehart, now the powerful wife of a senator, dedicated to the implementation of Nixon's authoritarian policies.
To add to the VALIS 'Horselover' connection, we also have the character of Kenneth 'Horsy' Stout, a black dwarf working in a stables who gets 'possessed' by the spirit of Dick and transported to the moon. 'Stout' is another word for 'Fat' and there is the initial K in the first name.
Written not too many years after Dick's actual death, this is a warm, clever and often funny tribute to his life and legacy, although disturbingly Bishop's US dystopia is not a million miles from our US of 2020.
Recommended
November 14, 2023
you gots your choice of covers
the rainbow from hell
or nixon with a crown on his head
man old scientology book covers are less triggering
the rainbow from hell
or nixon with a crown on his head
man old scientology book covers are less triggering
August 24, 2025
Living in Philip K. Dick’s Warning
I really enjoyed Philip K. Dick Is Dead, Alas. The novel imagines an alternative America in which the Watergate scandal was never uncovered, Nixon remained in power and won a third term. He has bombed North Vietnam back to the Stone Age and now rules with an iron fist. The FBI enforces a reign of terror, dissent is brutally punished and immigrants are 'educated' in absurdly harsh patriotic ways. Despite the dark setting, Bishop fills it with surreal, ridiculous and often hilarious scenes that make this dystopia feel simultaneously threatening and ludicrous.
The story follows Cal Pickford, a pet-store employee and devoted fan of Philip K. Dick, who secretly collects his novels, among a rich set of characters. In this world, Dick's science fiction works were never published; owning a manuscript is a crime and they circulate only as underground samizdat. Bishop references several of Dick's non-SF works and mocks his SF works. (I have added all of his non-SF books to my TBR list.) The narrative is thrilling and emotionally resonant because the stakes for ordinary people like Cal, who are essentially caught in the parallel worlds that Dick always warned about, are so high.
As a regular reader of PKD, I could clearly see that Bishop had tried to incorporate Dick’s existential themes, surrealism and paranoia, while maintaining his own distinct voice. The combination of homage, alternate history, absurdity and engaging plot twists makes the novel both familiar to Dick fans and refreshingly original. Surreal and ludicrous moments, ranging from ridiculous political scenarios to bizarre character encounters, keep the narrative unpredictable and vividly entertaining. Philip K. Dick's role as a character in the book is phenomenal!
Overall, this is a compelling and thought-provoking read that is often hilarious. Bishop skilfully balances homage, political satire and absurdity to create a story that is both emotionally engaging and intellectually stimulating. Fans of Philip K. Dick, dystopian fiction and surreal storytelling will find much to appreciate, and the novel also stands as a clever meditation on power, censorship and the enduring value of art.
I really enjoyed Philip K. Dick Is Dead, Alas. The novel imagines an alternative America in which the Watergate scandal was never uncovered, Nixon remained in power and won a third term. He has bombed North Vietnam back to the Stone Age and now rules with an iron fist. The FBI enforces a reign of terror, dissent is brutally punished and immigrants are 'educated' in absurdly harsh patriotic ways. Despite the dark setting, Bishop fills it with surreal, ridiculous and often hilarious scenes that make this dystopia feel simultaneously threatening and ludicrous.
The story follows Cal Pickford, a pet-store employee and devoted fan of Philip K. Dick, who secretly collects his novels, among a rich set of characters. In this world, Dick's science fiction works were never published; owning a manuscript is a crime and they circulate only as underground samizdat. Bishop references several of Dick's non-SF works and mocks his SF works. (I have added all of his non-SF books to my TBR list.) The narrative is thrilling and emotionally resonant because the stakes for ordinary people like Cal, who are essentially caught in the parallel worlds that Dick always warned about, are so high.
As a regular reader of PKD, I could clearly see that Bishop had tried to incorporate Dick’s existential themes, surrealism and paranoia, while maintaining his own distinct voice. The combination of homage, alternate history, absurdity and engaging plot twists makes the novel both familiar to Dick fans and refreshingly original. Surreal and ludicrous moments, ranging from ridiculous political scenarios to bizarre character encounters, keep the narrative unpredictable and vividly entertaining. Philip K. Dick's role as a character in the book is phenomenal!
Overall, this is a compelling and thought-provoking read that is often hilarious. Bishop skilfully balances homage, political satire and absurdity to create a story that is both emotionally engaging and intellectually stimulating. Fans of Philip K. Dick, dystopian fiction and surreal storytelling will find much to appreciate, and the novel also stands as a clever meditation on power, censorship and the enduring value of art.
November 24, 2016
I don't know much about Philip K. Dick, but fictional representations of U.S. presidents are pretty solidly My Thing. (Seriously: What is with my fascination with Nixon, or at least the Imagined Nixon [see also: Coover, Roth, Futurama]? I have no idea.)
May 2, 2020
Welcher andere Autor könnte mehr prädestiniert sein, in einer Alternativwelt als Figur aufzutauchen als Philip K. Dick! Er, der immer nach der Natur unsere Realität gefragt hat und selbst viele Alternativwelten geschaffen hat.
So ist Bishops Roman auch eine Hommage an den berühmten Kollegen. Ein Pastiche auf hohem Niveau, mit eigenen Ideen und eigener Erzählstimme. Denn Bishop ist ein eher intellektueller Autor, der satirische Töne anschlagen kann und Sinn für das Absurde hat.
Hab den Roman Roman nicht zur Unterhaltung gelesen, aber der Roman war gute SF und daher auch unterhaltsam.
So ist Bishops Roman auch eine Hommage an den berühmten Kollegen. Ein Pastiche auf hohem Niveau, mit eigenen Ideen und eigener Erzählstimme. Denn Bishop ist ein eher intellektueller Autor, der satirische Töne anschlagen kann und Sinn für das Absurde hat.
Hab den Roman Roman nicht zur Unterhaltung gelesen, aber der Roman war gute SF und daher auch unterhaltsam.
May 8, 2021
I have the dubious honor of being the first person on Goodreads to give this book one star and then actually review it. As I am fond of saying, my book reviews are inherently subjective. The difference between a one star and a two star book for me is that a two star book I can finish it, but did not care for it. A one star book is one that I have to force myself to finish. This book became unbearable toward the end, and I dreaded reading it, but forced myself to read so many pages each day until it was done.
Philip K. Dick is one of my favorite writers. This homage knows the notes but can't play the music. It reads like one of the bad Dick novels at best. The caricature of Nixon is ridiculous. I'm no fan of "Tricky Dick", but PKD would have had more nuance and subtlety.
Philip K. Dick is one of my favorite writers. This homage knows the notes but can't play the music. It reads like one of the bad Dick novels at best. The caricature of Nixon is ridiculous. I'm no fan of "Tricky Dick", but PKD would have had more nuance and subtlety.
February 21, 2020
This was a definite homage to the PKD and his body of work. Though it was written well, this will surely fall short for unfamiliar readers. Surprisingly enough the book manages to provide with a somewhat timeless criticism of power and nationalism with various points of light relief. I was somewhat disappointed with certain parts toward the end, but as a whole it was a nice haphazard un-tethered amalgamation of characters befitting of PKD.
February 19, 2020
Very tedious. Maybe because I haven't read PKD.
February 23, 2020
I am not entirely what I was expecting when I read this but being the co-host of a Philip K Dick makes you somewhat of an expert. I thought a good time to read this was on the heels of re-reading Lawrence Sutin's amazing biography of Philip K Dick. I admit somehow over the years I missed reading Bishop before. He is an award-winning author and teacher of the genre. He has over thirty novels published but honestly, I can't comment on those.
The Secret Ascension is a delightfully weird book that is about an alternate reality that is kinda the prose version of the PKD robot. I mean in many ways this is a loving tribute to PKD and it is more meaningful that it happened in 1986 when his genius was far less recognized. It is clear to this Dickhead that Bishop loved and knew deeply the work of Philip K Dick. It is not just the moments when PKD appears as a character but it is the story about an alternate reality where Nixon won the Vietnam war and is in his fourth term. Bishop is ticking all the boxes for a PKD concept.
The world in this novel is just like ours only slightly different. For the Dickheads, the major difference is that PKD's career is flipped. He is a literary figure whose mainstream fiction like Mary and the Giant and Voices From the Street were published and it was his science fiction that was largely unpublished. Not because it was bad because it was considered crazy and subversive. All his mainstream titles here are from Bishop's research but the science fiction besides Valis and Flow my Tears are slightly changed titles like The Doctor in the High Dudgeon and They Scan us Darkly, Don't They. The boldest step of Bishop's was to create a PKD novel conceived entirely in this world. This fictional PKD is a reaction to Nixon's fiction four-term called The Dream Impeachment of Harper Mocton.
The Dream impeachment was super interesting to me, partly because as I read this in 2020 in this strange timeline a president who thinks he is a king who lost the popular vote is managing to avoid being impeached. In the PKD novel of Bishop's imagination, the deeply entrenched but unpopular president is impeached in the collective unconscious of the public. This makes Nixon and PKD adversaries in a strange way. PKD who recently died in the events of the novel has his subversive Sci-fi novels traded on the underground.
The story that involves moon bases, King Richard Nixon, pets and domestic travel bans and most interesting Vietnamese refugees who are brought to American for Americanization training after losing the war. All this feels like PKD pastiche. I have the feeling that this book dives into themes from Valis and Radio Free Albemuth books we have yet to cover although I read them back in the day. This is mostly expressed in the character of Philip Kai Dick. Who is not as dead as he was thought to be believed. It gets even weirder from there.
The first question I think I need to address is the aspect of this novel paying tribute to PKD. Is it a good tribute? I would say yes. I think it takes a fair amount of hubris to invent novel that PKD never actually wrote. It is one thing for Bishop to write that in this reality there is a slightly different Scanner Darkly, the Dream Impeachment, however, is something altogether different. It takes brass ones to say this is a book that PKD would have written in this reality, but I have to hand it to Bishop and his research. I can live with all those aspects of this book. It is a fun thought exercise and i think Phil would have been amused by this. The man clearly enjoyed messing with people. How much of his alternate reality stuff he really believed is hard to say but he loved to ponder it.
How is this as a science fiction novel? I don't know if I can separate myself as a PKD podcaster from this reading experience. So I enjoyed it but I don't know how much of that is my personal connection to the material. I think being a serious Dickhead is kinda required here or you are going to end up being disappointed. The non-PKD moments are interesting but not enough to really carry this novel. The good news it doesn't have to as this book is a pure tribute to PKD. So yeah serious Dickheads will have fun I am not sure I think anyone else needs to spend the time.
The Secret Ascension is a delightfully weird book that is about an alternate reality that is kinda the prose version of the PKD robot. I mean in many ways this is a loving tribute to PKD and it is more meaningful that it happened in 1986 when his genius was far less recognized. It is clear to this Dickhead that Bishop loved and knew deeply the work of Philip K Dick. It is not just the moments when PKD appears as a character but it is the story about an alternate reality where Nixon won the Vietnam war and is in his fourth term. Bishop is ticking all the boxes for a PKD concept.
The world in this novel is just like ours only slightly different. For the Dickheads, the major difference is that PKD's career is flipped. He is a literary figure whose mainstream fiction like Mary and the Giant and Voices From the Street were published and it was his science fiction that was largely unpublished. Not because it was bad because it was considered crazy and subversive. All his mainstream titles here are from Bishop's research but the science fiction besides Valis and Flow my Tears are slightly changed titles like The Doctor in the High Dudgeon and They Scan us Darkly, Don't They. The boldest step of Bishop's was to create a PKD novel conceived entirely in this world. This fictional PKD is a reaction to Nixon's fiction four-term called The Dream Impeachment of Harper Mocton.
The Dream impeachment was super interesting to me, partly because as I read this in 2020 in this strange timeline a president who thinks he is a king who lost the popular vote is managing to avoid being impeached. In the PKD novel of Bishop's imagination, the deeply entrenched but unpopular president is impeached in the collective unconscious of the public. This makes Nixon and PKD adversaries in a strange way. PKD who recently died in the events of the novel has his subversive Sci-fi novels traded on the underground.
The story that involves moon bases, King Richard Nixon, pets and domestic travel bans and most interesting Vietnamese refugees who are brought to American for Americanization training after losing the war. All this feels like PKD pastiche. I have the feeling that this book dives into themes from Valis and Radio Free Albemuth books we have yet to cover although I read them back in the day. This is mostly expressed in the character of Philip Kai Dick. Who is not as dead as he was thought to be believed. It gets even weirder from there.
The first question I think I need to address is the aspect of this novel paying tribute to PKD. Is it a good tribute? I would say yes. I think it takes a fair amount of hubris to invent novel that PKD never actually wrote. It is one thing for Bishop to write that in this reality there is a slightly different Scanner Darkly, the Dream Impeachment, however, is something altogether different. It takes brass ones to say this is a book that PKD would have written in this reality, but I have to hand it to Bishop and his research. I can live with all those aspects of this book. It is a fun thought exercise and i think Phil would have been amused by this. The man clearly enjoyed messing with people. How much of his alternate reality stuff he really believed is hard to say but he loved to ponder it.
How is this as a science fiction novel? I don't know if I can separate myself as a PKD podcaster from this reading experience. So I enjoyed it but I don't know how much of that is my personal connection to the material. I think being a serious Dickhead is kinda required here or you are going to end up being disappointed. The non-PKD moments are interesting but not enough to really carry this novel. The good news it doesn't have to as this book is a pure tribute to PKD. So yeah serious Dickheads will have fun I am not sure I think anyone else needs to spend the time.
March 4, 2025
3.75
Delightfully post-modern, and remaining poignant.
Delightfully post-modern, and remaining poignant.
December 4, 2018
Bishop takes an interesting concept and completely mangles the execution. A better writer could have made a masterpiece of this. In the intro, Bishop states he purposely didnt write this in PKD pastiche, but in his own author voice. I think he did this because hes a shit writer, and he knows it.
The high level concept is neat - PKD as a character in a different world, taking elements of Valis, the man in the high castle, the divine invasion, as well as inverting his status as a genre writer to mainstream literary success. INitially, the alternate timeline Nixon world is interesting and rather fleshed out in Georgia. Big investment in the gbeginning in setting, and some key characters.
However what it ends up being is
- a huge investment in characters that arent at all important except to advance the plot (cal's wife, grace, Lone Boy) - no pay off in their stories
- a lot of pet store melodrama. Ill never look at guinea pigs the same.
- Really Badly written action sequences
- Too many characters that we dont care about literally because "7 is a holy number". The journeys of the moon colonists / Cal seem trivialized because of additional last minute characters.
- Critically important Bishop character introduced as last minute - literal deus ex machina
- Climactic battle with with Satan Nixon Baloon and possessed black dwarf (yes)
- Satan Nixon baloon popped with a pin. A pin that is an obvious macguffin from the start. The book screams "LETS DROP EVERYTHING AND FOCUS ON THIS MYSTERIOUS PIN WOOOOOOO"
Its clear that Bishop doesnt understand PKD novels, or was too lazy to put them in.
- He makes a christian heavy story but fails to leverage any gnostic voodoo stuff in PKD's voice. It would have added a lot of depth. I bet he never read the exegesis.
- PKD specialized in layers of reality - a typical PKD book would "invert on itself" multiple times throughout the read - completely upending the readers understanding of reality. Theres many opportunities for this to happen in the book, but doesnt happen because Bishop is a lazy writer
- For a tribute book, very few actual references to PKD, except in some book titltes and a winking reference to Yubiq. For the first couple of chapters he wants to name check all the non-science fiction books PKD wrote , i feel like to prove what a big PKD nerd he is. But its all fronting.
- would have appreciated an autofac, a homepape, a vidphone or something - the everyday future tech that made PKD books very tangible while compelling.
Bishop loves his fucking modern brands, chick filet all over the place (although it is native to georgia)
I liked the Coda, i felt like this was written first.
Honestly the most interesting bit was the Frank Miller Daredevil series, although it had no relation to the book. Bishop is a big comic book nerd and he couldnt resist, even in this book.
This is my second Michael Bishop book, and will probably be my last. He has good ideas but hes a terrible writer.
The high level concept is neat - PKD as a character in a different world, taking elements of Valis, the man in the high castle, the divine invasion, as well as inverting his status as a genre writer to mainstream literary success. INitially, the alternate timeline Nixon world is interesting and rather fleshed out in Georgia. Big investment in the gbeginning in setting, and some key characters.
However what it ends up being is
- a huge investment in characters that arent at all important except to advance the plot (cal's wife, grace, Lone Boy) - no pay off in their stories
- a lot of pet store melodrama. Ill never look at guinea pigs the same.
- Really Badly written action sequences
- Too many characters that we dont care about literally because "7 is a holy number". The journeys of the moon colonists / Cal seem trivialized because of additional last minute characters.
- Critically important Bishop character introduced as last minute - literal deus ex machina
- Climactic battle with with Satan Nixon Baloon and possessed black dwarf (yes)
- Satan Nixon baloon popped with a pin. A pin that is an obvious macguffin from the start. The book screams "LETS DROP EVERYTHING AND FOCUS ON THIS MYSTERIOUS PIN WOOOOOOO"
Its clear that Bishop doesnt understand PKD novels, or was too lazy to put them in.
- He makes a christian heavy story but fails to leverage any gnostic voodoo stuff in PKD's voice. It would have added a lot of depth. I bet he never read the exegesis.
- PKD specialized in layers of reality - a typical PKD book would "invert on itself" multiple times throughout the read - completely upending the readers understanding of reality. Theres many opportunities for this to happen in the book, but doesnt happen because Bishop is a lazy writer
- For a tribute book, very few actual references to PKD, except in some book titltes and a winking reference to Yubiq. For the first couple of chapters he wants to name check all the non-science fiction books PKD wrote , i feel like to prove what a big PKD nerd he is. But its all fronting.
- would have appreciated an autofac, a homepape, a vidphone or something - the everyday future tech that made PKD books very tangible while compelling.
Bishop loves his fucking modern brands, chick filet all over the place (although it is native to georgia)
I liked the Coda, i felt like this was written first.
Honestly the most interesting bit was the Frank Miller Daredevil series, although it had no relation to the book. Bishop is a big comic book nerd and he couldnt resist, even in this book.
This is my second Michael Bishop book, and will probably be my last. He has good ideas but hes a terrible writer.
March 14, 2013
Originally published on my blog here in October 2002.
Philip K. Dick is Dead, Alas is a direct tribute to the famous science fiction author; not only does it use many themes from his work, but Dick himself is one of the major characters. The novel begins with the death of Dick and the rising of a ghostly form from his body. But this is not the world we know, but an America which won in Vietnam, and where the increasingly dictatorial Richard Nixon is approaching the end of his fourth term in office. This is an America where travel is severely restricted, black people have almost all been "repatriated" to African countries, and the remaining population live in fear of the secret policemen known as "No Knocks". Dick is an almost forgotten author, though his earliest novels are still required reading for the Vietnamese who come to the States and are "Americulturated" - indoctrinated into the American dream. Dick's later work (more like the satirical science fiction for which he is really known) was never published but circulates in photocopied samizdat form, among the remnants of the sixties counter-culture. It is to one of the owners of these dangerous manuscripts, a pet shop employee, that the ghost appears, driving him on a course which both of them hope will change this nightmare reality.
Among the themes that Bishop picks up from Dick's novels are alternative realities, external supernatural intervention, a blue collar central character (rather than the middle class scientists/engineers of the genre before him), the importance of the desire to care for animals (as in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), and the triumph of American popular culture. Although rather uneven (in this reality, there is a lunar base, and the chapters set there fail to grasp the reader), it must be one of the best homages to another author ever written. Bishop even re-uses something of Dick's style.
To choose this way to memorialise one of the greatest of all science fiction writers - one who (eventually) massively raised the literary profile of the genre - seems entirely appropriate, and this is perhaps the best indicator of how successful Bishop has been in this novel. Genre fiction, like popular culture generally, has a tendency to forget most of its past, and so reminders of just how good some of the earlier masters were serve an admirable purpose.
Philip K. Dick is Dead, Alas is a direct tribute to the famous science fiction author; not only does it use many themes from his work, but Dick himself is one of the major characters. The novel begins with the death of Dick and the rising of a ghostly form from his body. But this is not the world we know, but an America which won in Vietnam, and where the increasingly dictatorial Richard Nixon is approaching the end of his fourth term in office. This is an America where travel is severely restricted, black people have almost all been "repatriated" to African countries, and the remaining population live in fear of the secret policemen known as "No Knocks". Dick is an almost forgotten author, though his earliest novels are still required reading for the Vietnamese who come to the States and are "Americulturated" - indoctrinated into the American dream. Dick's later work (more like the satirical science fiction for which he is really known) was never published but circulates in photocopied samizdat form, among the remnants of the sixties counter-culture. It is to one of the owners of these dangerous manuscripts, a pet shop employee, that the ghost appears, driving him on a course which both of them hope will change this nightmare reality.
Among the themes that Bishop picks up from Dick's novels are alternative realities, external supernatural intervention, a blue collar central character (rather than the middle class scientists/engineers of the genre before him), the importance of the desire to care for animals (as in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), and the triumph of American popular culture. Although rather uneven (in this reality, there is a lunar base, and the chapters set there fail to grasp the reader), it must be one of the best homages to another author ever written. Bishop even re-uses something of Dick's style.
To choose this way to memorialise one of the greatest of all science fiction writers - one who (eventually) massively raised the literary profile of the genre - seems entirely appropriate, and this is perhaps the best indicator of how successful Bishop has been in this novel. Genre fiction, like popular culture generally, has a tendency to forget most of its past, and so reminders of just how good some of the earlier masters were serve an admirable purpose.
March 3, 2009
I learned from reading this book that I do not possess an intimate knowledge of Philip K. Dick's lexicon. I knew that going in, but didn't think it would matter. I've loved the few Dick books I've read and was intrigued by an effort to make him a central conceit in a fantasy/surrealist novel. Maybe if you knew Dick as well as the author you'd really like it. I lost interest in the book about half way, completely uninterested in how the plot would resolve. Mostly, I found the writing style and character dialogue unrealistic, as if imagined by someone with less insight than his own characters should have. I suppose my review is somewhat unfair, having not finished it. But it's fair to say that I would choose hundreds of books to read before this one.
August 15, 2007
A hesitant 4... perhaps a 3.5.
Not bad... it took a bit of reading before I became interested in the plot, but then it got fairly interesting.
For some reason it reminds me of The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks. Must be that subversive character approach. :P
Not bad... it took a bit of reading before I became interested in the plot, but then it got fairly interesting.
For some reason it reminds me of The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks. Must be that subversive character approach. :P
July 25, 2013
Helps being an admirer of PKD's work.
March 3, 2023
I bought this 1st edition book when it was released in 1986. 37 years it's been sitting in my Philip K. Dick collection and I just now got around to reading it. While reading I researched Michael Bishop and found he's has an incredible career writing sci-fi, so I found a new notable author even though I've had the book in my collection for so long. And yes, Michael Bishop is a great writer, the prose of this book was very readable and flowed nicely. The book is very interesting, I must admit Bishop did a very good job of taking elements of Philip K. Dick's books (#1 would be alternate universes) and crafted an almost standup PKD novel. The only problem I have with this book, and it's a major issue, is Bishop takes his structured PKD world and uses it to slay the major real-life demons of the era...mainly Richard Nixon. Now I don't care one way or another about Nixon, my point is Philip K. Dick did not use his writing to outwardly attack real life villains...his villains were fictional who represented real life tyrannical bad guys. Soooo, this is a big deal concerning this book; Bishop uses PKD's elements to create a world that he in-turn uses as a sledge hammer to wallop Nixon, etc., and by doing so Bishop expresses his own personal political views of that time period. Otherwords Bishop has used PKD for his own political agenda.....BUT, getting past all that, I like The Secret Ascension as a read very much...The plot flowed well, the characters really came alive (I really liked Cal), the alternate universe felt real, the action in the final scene on the moon was pretty good. I've got some other minor issues like the exorcism at the end didn't feel like a PKD element, but not a biggie...So The Secret Ascension was a pretty good read and I plan on reading more of Michael Bishop's books...3.0 outta 5.0
December 29, 2024
I've been thinking and writing a lot lately about how one of the main characteristics of psychedelic pop and rock is how the musicians absorbed and represented each other's sonic personas. Of course, all other kinds of music do this, as well, but to me it seems a way to think through the pointed effects on the ego that potent psychedelics possess. Something of that is at work here, at multiple layers, both within the narrative and outside of it. In context, it's a very Dick-ian trait, that gets to the way different realities, and the people in them, overlay on top of each other, and it provides us with the hope that maybe we can tune into a better reality (or at least tune away from a worse or the current one).
Bishop's pastiche/tribute just about fully absorbs PKD's authorial persona -- the only thing "missing" is that none of the female characters are given gratuitous descriptions of their breasts. There are moments that capture PKD's brilliance, particular where psychological issues are concerned, while others capture PKD's peculiarly cringy characterization and unrealistic choices of names, his quirky vocabulary, and the occasionally unsatisfying plot device. There were a few times I almost forgot that I wasn't reading a novel by PKD, which was wonderfully unsettling.
The book was temporally destabilizing, right down to the frequent shifts between past and present tense, though I couldn't detect any specific reason for these shifts. And there is something about this that sums up my feelings about the book itself. As a tribute and celebration and inhabitation of PKD, particularly the PKD of the last few novels, I don't feel that this project really added much to either my understanding or appreciation of PKD. It simply wasn't transformative enough to stand on its own because every facet was essentially borrowed, and not necessarily bettered. With that said, however, I appreciated how the book's concern with the imperial presidency of Richard M. Nixon resonated with the looming round of Trump 2.0. I came to this novel looking for a little hope to find that there might be a hell of a good universe next door, and for understanding how storytelling, even storytelling so reliant on the script and strategy left us by PKD, might give us a little bit of hope (even if we won't know any better when the transformative rewrite/revision occurs).
Bishop's pastiche/tribute just about fully absorbs PKD's authorial persona -- the only thing "missing" is that none of the female characters are given gratuitous descriptions of their breasts. There are moments that capture PKD's brilliance, particular where psychological issues are concerned, while others capture PKD's peculiarly cringy characterization and unrealistic choices of names, his quirky vocabulary, and the occasionally unsatisfying plot device. There were a few times I almost forgot that I wasn't reading a novel by PKD, which was wonderfully unsettling.
The book was temporally destabilizing, right down to the frequent shifts between past and present tense, though I couldn't detect any specific reason for these shifts. And there is something about this that sums up my feelings about the book itself. As a tribute and celebration and inhabitation of PKD, particularly the PKD of the last few novels, I don't feel that this project really added much to either my understanding or appreciation of PKD. It simply wasn't transformative enough to stand on its own because every facet was essentially borrowed, and not necessarily bettered. With that said, however, I appreciated how the book's concern with the imperial presidency of Richard M. Nixon resonated with the looming round of Trump 2.0. I came to this novel looking for a little hope to find that there might be a hell of a good universe next door, and for understanding how storytelling, even storytelling so reliant on the script and strategy left us by PKD, might give us a little bit of hope (even if we won't know any better when the transformative rewrite/revision occurs).
May 17, 2023
Se vi piace Philip Dick, soprattutto la trilogia di Valis, leggete questo romanzo: è grandioso, e credo che se Dick fosse ancora vivo, approverebbe quello che Bishop è riuscito a scrivere, dalla prima all'ultima pagina.
E' un pastiche riuscito benissimo, pieno di omaggi, camei, rimandi all'opera dickiana, alle sue idee, al suo modo di scrivere e di intendere la fantascienza e la società americana.
Bisogna però avere letto un pò delle sue opere ed avere bene in mente come la pensava, per apprezzare fino in fondo questo libro e coglierne tutte le sfumature.
Altrimenti, se non avete mai letto Dick o non sapete chi sia, vi perderete metà del divertimento.
Ci sono personaggi ben delineati, una storia che si sviluppa prendendosi i suoi tempi, sullo sfondo di un mondo alternativo non troppo alternativo; un giusto ritmo, un giusto spazio riservato ad ognuno dei protagonisti.
La ciliegina sulla torta è un finale ben costruito, per nulla scontato e proprio per questo molto, molto soddisfacente.
E' un pastiche riuscito benissimo, pieno di omaggi, camei, rimandi all'opera dickiana, alle sue idee, al suo modo di scrivere e di intendere la fantascienza e la società americana.
Bisogna però avere letto un pò delle sue opere ed avere bene in mente come la pensava, per apprezzare fino in fondo questo libro e coglierne tutte le sfumature.
Altrimenti, se non avete mai letto Dick o non sapete chi sia, vi perderete metà del divertimento.
Ci sono personaggi ben delineati, una storia che si sviluppa prendendosi i suoi tempi, sullo sfondo di un mondo alternativo non troppo alternativo; un giusto ritmo, un giusto spazio riservato ad ognuno dei protagonisti.
La ciliegina sulla torta è un finale ben costruito, per nulla scontato e proprio per questo molto, molto soddisfacente.
December 9, 2025
I bought this book back in the 80s and lent it to somebody and never got it back. I've been looking for it ever since but it always seemed expensive. Anyway, I found a copy in a charity shop last week. I can't remember reading it back in the 80s but I suppose I must have done (I read all PKD's work back then).
It helps to know about PKD's life and work to get the most out of the book. The spirit of the man inhabits every page and it was obviously written with love. What I found really surprising is the relevance to the times we are now forced to endure. Swap King Richard with Trump and the book is completely up to date. A fantastic work of prophetic fiction as the US descends into fascism.
Phil Dick fans will enjoy the references to his novels, the multiple viewpoints, the hapless characters caught up in events beyond their control, the parallel worlds, the ironic humour and the satire on US politics. I love this book.
It helps to know about PKD's life and work to get the most out of the book. The spirit of the man inhabits every page and it was obviously written with love. What I found really surprising is the relevance to the times we are now forced to endure. Swap King Richard with Trump and the book is completely up to date. A fantastic work of prophetic fiction as the US descends into fascism.
Phil Dick fans will enjoy the references to his novels, the multiple viewpoints, the hapless characters caught up in events beyond their control, the parallel worlds, the ironic humour and the satire on US politics. I love this book.
December 13, 2018
En esta novela/tributo, Bishop reproduce fidedignamente algunos de los elementos más característicos de las obras de Philip K. Dick. Lo hace de tal manera que consigue hacernos creer que efectivamente estamos leyendo una de las mismas. Realidades históricas alternativas, libros prohibidos, universos paralelos a esas realidades históricas alternativas, cosmonautas, un Nixon desatado, tiendas de mascotas ...elementos en aparencia discordantes se van uniendo para tejer una historia coral imprevisible. Se trata de un libro entretenido además de un interesante ejercicio literario.
December 23, 2017
For Philip K. Dick fans, of course.
Thoroughly weird and full fun PKD nods and references. I really loved the stuff at the very end, but for me, that could have been half the book, not just an epilogue. There was a lot of crazy sci-fi action, but somehow not as much as I expected. Overall, this book made me miss PKD, which I really should have expected.
Thoroughly weird and full fun PKD nods and references. I really loved the stuff at the very end, but for me, that could have been half the book, not just an epilogue. There was a lot of crazy sci-fi action, but somehow not as much as I expected. Overall, this book made me miss PKD, which I really should have expected.
October 7, 2022
I like what I have read by Michael Bishop and love PKD. However this is obviously an attempt to write a novel both in the style of and also featuring Philip K Dick. It mostly fails. Reads like one of the worst PKD tales and that makes it all the more frustrating. I knew I had read this when it was first published but had no recall of the actual plot. Now I know why. It is best forgotten.
January 25, 2020
Interesante pero ante todo curiosa lectura, ya que ahonda en la faceta más controvertida del genio de la ciencia ficción más que en su metodología o publicaciones. Aún así recomendable si quieres conocer más sobre la vida de K. Dick.
August 13, 2025
Very well-constructed story, which uses Philip K Dick and his work as both inspiration and a central character. This is not , however, a parody of Dick’s style in any way. A background knowledge of his books and life will help the reader appreciate this novel more.
October 13, 2019
Really enjoyed this book!
Basically an ode to Phillip K Dick.
Striking similarities to our current president....
Basically an ode to Phillip K Dick.
Striking similarities to our current president....
October 21, 2019
2,5 en realidad.
Si quieres hacer un homenaje a un autor copiando sus trucos y ambientes, asegúrate de tener al menos la mitad de talento que él.
Si quieres hacer un homenaje a un autor copiando sus trucos y ambientes, asegúrate de tener al menos la mitad de talento que él.
June 4, 2023
Great read.
March 3, 2025
Read for class.
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