VALIS & Later Novels: A Maze of Death / VALIS / The Divine Invasion / The Transmigration of Timothy Archer

by Philip K. Dick, Jonathan Lethem (Editor)

In 2007, Philip K. Dick: Four Novels of the 1960s became the fastest selling title in The Library of America's history. The 2008 companion volume, Five Novels of the1960s & 70s, broke series records for advance sales. Now comes a third and final volume gathering the best novels of Dick's final years, when religious revelation, always important in his work, became a dominant and irresistible theme.

In A Maze of Death (1970), a darkly speculative mystery that foreshadows Dick's final novels, colonists on the planet Delmak-O try to determine the nature of the God-or "Mentufacturer"-who plots their destiny. The late masterpiece VALIS (1981) is a novelistic reworking of "the events of 2-3-74," when Dick's life was transformed by what he believed was a mystical revelation. It is a harrowing self-portrait of a man torn between conflicting interpretations of what might be gnostic illumination or psychotic breakdown. The Divine Invasion (1981), a sequel to VALIS, is a powerful exploration of gnostic insight and its human consequences. The Transmigration of Timothy Archer (1982), Dick's last novel, is by turns theological thriller, roman à clef, and disenchanted portrait of late 1970s California life, based loosely on the controversial career of Bishop James Pike-a close friend and kindred spirit.

LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Novels, Speculative Fiction, Literature, Science Fiction Fantasy, Anthologies

849 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Philip Kindred Dick was a prolific American science fiction author whose work has had a lasting impact on literature, cinema, and popular culture. Known for his imaginative narratives and profound philosophical themes, Dick explored the nature of reality, the boundaries of human identity, and the impact of technology and authoritarianism on society. His stories often blurred the line between the real and the artificial, challenging readers to question their perceptions and beliefs.
Raised in California, Dick began writing professionally in the early 1950s, publishing short stories in various science fiction magazines. He quickly developed a distinctive voice within the genre, marked by a fusion of science fiction concepts with deep existential and psychological inquiry. Over his career, he authored 44 novels and more than 100 short stories, many of which have become classics in the field.
Recurring themes in Dick's work include alternate realities, simulations, corporate and government control, mental illness, and the nature of consciousness. His protagonists are frequently everyday individuals—often paranoid, uncertain, or troubled—caught in surreal and often dangerous circumstances that force them to question their environment and themselves. Works such as Ubik, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, and A Scanner Darkly reflect his fascination with perception and altered states of consciousness, often drawing from his own experiences with mental health struggles and drug use.
One of Dick’s most influential novels is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which served as the basis for Ridley Scott’s iconic film Blade Runner. The novel deals with the distinction between humans and artificial beings and asks profound questions about empathy, identity, and what it means to be alive. Other adaptations of his work include Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, and The Man in the High Castle, each reflecting key elements of his storytelling—uncertain realities, oppressive systems, and the search for truth. These adaptations have introduced his complex ideas to audiences well beyond the traditional readership of science fiction.
In the 1970s, Dick underwent a series of visionary and mystical experiences that had a significant influence on his later writings. He described receiving profound knowledge from an external, possibly divine, source and documented these events extensively in what became known as The Exegesis, a massive and often fragmented journal. These experiences inspired his later novels, most notably the VALIS trilogy, which mixes autobiography, theology, and metaphysics in a narrative that defies conventional structure and genre boundaries.
Throughout his life, Dick faced financial instability, health issues, and periods of personal turmoil, yet he remained a dedicated and relentless writer. Despite limited commercial success during his lifetime, his reputation grew steadily, and he came to be regarded as one of the most original voices in speculative fiction. His work has been celebrated for its ability to fuse philosophical depth with gripping storytelling and has influenced not only science fiction writers but also philosophers, filmmakers, and futurists.
Dick’s legacy continues to thrive in both literary and cinematic spheres. The themes he explored remain urgently relevant in the modern world, particularly as technology increasingly intersects with human identity and governance. The Philip K. Dick Award, named in his honor, is presented annually to distinguished works of science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States. His writings have also inspired television series, academic studies, and countless homages across media.
Through his vivid imagination and unflinching inquiry into the nature of existence, Philip K. Dick redefined what science fiction could achieve. His work continues to challenge and inspire, offering timeless insights into the human condition a

Reviews

[Darwin8u · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I chose God over the material universe.”
― Philip K. Dick, The Divine Invasion



I know. I know. I gave most of the individual novels (Valis Trilogy + A Maze of Death) 4 stars, but gave all four books together 5 stars. The math doesn't add up, but shit man, that is the whole dilemma of life. The Universe doesn't compute. God doesn't compute. Just accept it, bro.

1. A Maze of Death - Read August 2013 (3-stars)
2. Valis - Read 2011 (4-stars) - need to reread soon.
3. The Divine Invasion - Read August 2013 (4-stars)
4 The Transmigration of Timothy Archer - Read August 2013 (4-stars)

[Jack Tripper · Rating 5 out of 5]

The three Library of America editions of Philip K. Dick's work contain nearly all of his best material, with only a few notable exclusions. Valis and Later Novels, however, just might contain his very best. Besides A Maze of Death, published in 1970, the others here are his three final novels before he died in 1982. Sometimes referred to as the "Valis Trilogy," these three loosely connected novels represent a huge leap forward in terms of Dick's prose, as he was able to dedicate more time to these compared to earlier in his career when he was forced to pump out a book every 6 months to make ends meet. These stories show him struggling with the events that shaped his life beginning in February of '74, in which he had a deeply spiritual "invasion of the mind," which Dick attributed at various times to God, aliens, the Soviets, and even a future version of himself.

Valis is Dick's attempt to explain what exactly happened to him in that time period. Structured within a semi-autobiographical framework, it is a mind-bending extrapolation of nearly everything going on in Dick's head at the time, and is considered by many, including me, to be his masterpiece. It even includes dozens of actual passages from the Exegesis, his reflections on the events of '2-3-74,' as Dick referred to it. Although people new to him may want to start with something else, every fan should read this and proceed to be awe-struck. No other PKD novel has more of a "falling down the rabbit hole" vibe, not even Ubik or Three Stigmata.

The Divine Invasion takes these same ideas about God, or Valis, but structures them around a more traditional, futuristic framework. It asks the question, "What if God were living among us, as a human child?" Of the four novels in this collection, this is probably my least favorite. It's still definitely worth a read, and works a lot better when read directly after Valis. There are some great ideas here, unfortunately it doesn't always quite work, at least for me.

The Transmigration of Timothy Archer can very well be considered one of Dick's 'straight' novels, the first he'd written since the late '50's, and unfortunately his last. This is one of Dick's most beautiful works, based on his real-life relationship with the semi-famous Bishop Pike, and features many of the same themes that permeate Valis and The Divine Invasion, although they are much more toned down and based in reality here. A very well-written and absorbing novel dealing with the lengths one will go for faith, in something...anything.

A Maze of Death was published four years prior to his experiences in '74, and the only reason I can think of as to why it's included is that there's definitely a religious bent to it. It sort of serves as a springboard for his later works. Plus, it's one of Dick's greatest novels, and absolutely had to be included somewhere in these LOA releases. It features many of the same concepts as his previous novel, Ubik, in that there are a group of people trapped in a world that may not be what it appears at first to be, and has a similar And Then There Were None-type horror vibe. Suffice to say, if you like Ubik, you should definitely like this as well. It's one of my very favorite PKD novels.

The book itself is absolutely beautiful, with great annotations and a chronology of Dick's life at the end. For those not familiar with LOA editions, the typeface is smaller than the Vintage trade versions, but about the same as my older mass-market paperbacks of these novels. As an example of the print size, the stories here are about 20 pages shorter than their Vintage trade counterparts, meaning the print is about 10-15% smaller, I'd guess.

All in all, this is an essential collection for PKD fans. Those new to his work may want to start with one of the previous two releases from LOA, but anybody familiar with his style should have no trouble comprehending anything here. And once you turn the final page, you just may see the world a little differently than you did before. Even if you're like me and don't have a religious bone in your body.

5 Stars

[brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

i've really come to love PDK, but this collection? a bunch of human-shaped exposition machines blasting out humorless profundities like so many breezy farts whooshing out of a loose anus.

but the transmigration of timothy archer is something else entirely: it dispenses with the sci-fi elements and windy assthoughts, and turns out to be a pretty affecting piece on belief and loss.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will not pretend to be an expert on Philip Kindred Dick, his life and work. Others have said more and better things than I'll manage here. But I will say that this scholarly edition of Dick's later novels (comprising A Maze of Death; VALIS; The Divine Invasion; and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer) will, if closely read, make you feel like an expert. Shorn of their lurid covers and surrounded by sober bibliographic and biographical information, these novels still stand both as great stories and as literature worthy of study. The headlong prose still carries the amphetamine-soaked, scattershot flavor of Dick's earlier, more straightforwardly science-fictional tales, but here it all seems much more serious in intent, more scholarly in nature—Dick drops in quotations from John Donne, from Dante and other sources in mad profusion, and in many places departs entirely from plot in order to expand on Biblical interpretation (exegesis) and to relate hallucinatory visions rivaling any revelation from St. John the Divine.

Let this stunning inspirational speech, taken only somewhat out of context from near the end of Chapter 2 of The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, stand in for the whole. Bishop Archer says,

"The people opposing you are people, not things. Your enemy is not men but ignorant men. Don't confuse the men with their ignorance. It has taken years; it will take years more. Don't be impatient and don't hate."

These are words as wise as any ever spoken.

Basically, though, Phil Dick was insane, in a very public and particularly felicitious way for the rest of us. His worldviews (plural intended) are constantly changing but always forcefully expressed, utterly real for as long as they last. His admixture of fiction and autobiography, here at its most realistic in Transmigration, makes it even harder to tell how many of these views were his own and how many belonged strictly to his characters. But that's what we like about Dick, the way he unsettles us, makes us question—thoughtfully, perhaps more so than he himself—the stability of our own cozy existences, the sanctity of our own beliefs.

Or should, anyway. For even if one is reluctant to admit this particular dead white male to the Western canon, his work shares this with other great literature: it's challenging, deeply emotional and erudite prose that everyone ought to read.

[Tom Bensley · Rating 5 out of 5]

My reviews of each book in the collection:

A Maze of Death

VALIS

The Divine Invasion

The Transmigration of Timothy Archer

Damn. This is a good collection of books. For me, Philip K Dick is one of those authors who leaves me dissatisfied every time I finish one of his stories. Same thing happens with Flannery O'Connor, Roberto Bolaño, Tao Lin, H.P. Lovecraft and Thomas Pynchon. It's like, each of their works is getting at something intriguing, but it never really gets there. Which forces me to read more. So basically these are my favourite authors, because I always want to find out what their entire body of work seems to be getting at.

Dick always said he was writing about two things: The nature of reality and the authentic human being. The books in this collection are all meditations on these things, some more frenetic and difficult to digest than others. And, like any good work, they're all unsatisfying, just enough to want to read another (and another and another), until it feels like you as a reader are trying to understand the same things the author was. And like, isn't that what reading good fiction is about?

"My books (& stories) are intellectual (conceptual) mazes. & I am trying to figure out our situation ... because the situation is a maze, leading back to itself."

Philip K Dick, p.836 of VALIS and Later Novels.

[Taka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sci-fi meets theology--

This is the last volume of PKD collection by the Library of America, and after reading all three LOR volumes and thirteen novels included in them, I can say he's one hell of an interesting author, though not all his works are mind-blowing.

In PKD's final phase as presented in this third LOR volume, he turned to everything religious and theological, starting with VALIS, followed by The Divine Invasion and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. Of the so-called "VALIS trilogy," I liked The Divine Invasion the best, and thought The Transmigration, one of PKD's few realistic novels, slightly boring. VALIS is a weird story where PKD engages in self-indulgence by incorporating his own diary entries speculating on divine revelation and personal cosmology that, I felt, could have been better left out entirely.

So, to sum up:

A Maze of Death was really good. It's a characteristic PKD novel where reality and dream become suspect. This was actually my favorite novel in this volume.

The first half of VALIS is boring. PKD rambles on in theological matters that could have been cut by like 50% without losing anything. When the protagonists watch the eponymous sci-fi film, things get a lot more interesting.

The Divine Invasion is a bit more interesting than VALIS, though the interminable quotations, both biblical and literary that Manny and Zina dish out at each other can get frustrating.

The Transmigration of Timothy Archer is pretty boring. Here, PKD writes a realistic novel without any sci-fi element, and it disappoints. The protagonist engages in way too much introspection that's supposed to reflect the root of her problem (obsession with words), but the presentation of it doesn't really make the story one bit exciting as she rambles on in a redundant, pretentious, and allusive manner that only annoys the reader. This is probably the only PKD novel I was glad I didn't have to read anymore when I finished.

All in all, I recommend the following PKD novels from his LOR oeuvre:

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Ubik
Now Wait for Last Year
A Scanner Darkly
A Maze of Death
The Divine Invasion

The others included in the LOR volumes are either overrated or not worth it.

Anyways, after three months of immersing myself in PKD's world, I must say it was a good time.

[Jon Frankel · Rating 5 out of 5]

It wasn’t until this year that I finally sat down to read the Valis trilogy: Valis, The Divine Invasion, and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. It is easy to see why these books made him a popular author. But any idea that they are in some way radically different from what came before is wrong. They were not written to be a trilogy, though they narrate in different ways the same event, Philip K. Dicks encounter with a new reality, or descent into madness. He never made up his mind about it, and the reader won’t either. It doesn’t matter. These books are the summation of all he did, and reflect the various types of books he wrote over and over, including the contemporary books he wrote but was never able to publish. I read these books a while ago so the ‘review’ that follows will be necessarily sketchy and is only intended to give readers an idea of what the books are about and why they are worth reading.

PKD’s work suffered from the industry he was in. He had few editors in his career and he wrote to pay the bills. He took large amounts of amphetamines and wrote books in a matter of weeks. By the late 60’s he was coming apart. In 1974 he had the experience of a pink beam of light illuminating his mind. We might think of this as the final onset of schizophrenia, but he experienced it as a redemptive revelation, and the nature of the revelation became the subject of his work. The Valis Trilogy explores this crisis. Each of the three books is unique and yet each forms the side of a triangle or surface of a pyramid.

Valis (VALIS: Vast Active Living Intelligence System) is a crap artist’s final confession. A crap artist, according to Dick, is a person who collects crackpot theories. (see his wonderful, posthumously published contemporary novel Confessions of a Crap Artist for a full exploration). And Valis, superficially at least, is about the apotheosis of crackpot ideas. It is also deeply versed in German philosophy, psychoanalytic theory and the occult. Dick has always been a crap artist indeed, but as all crap artists recognize, the line between nonsense and spiritual wisdom is hard, if not impossible, to draw. Yeats famously said of Madame Blavatsky (and I paraphrase), ‘Of course she’s a fraud, how else is a psychic to make a living?’ Yeats is stood on his head in these pages by Dick, to the effect that we are not a living soul tied to a dying animal, but a dying soul tied to a living animal (see Sailing to Byzantium). And in that there is much Schopenhauer. And there is much of Yeats’ ‘A Vision’ here (Yeats, like Joyce, was a renown and great crap artist), and Blake’s myth. But this is all Dick territory, going back to his early writing. What’s remarkable about Valis is how clear it is. And how poignantly, and starkly he poses his usual questions about madness and sanity, about the noumenal versus phenomenal, and of course our ontological status and all of the attendant epistemological questions that arise. It is also an amusing, if not hilarious, book about California, and a famous science fiction writer’s drift into madness.

Late interviews with Dick reveal little space between the fiction and the man. It is impossible to tell if he is playing with his audience or sincere, or most likely, both. It is taken for granted that a madman can’t play at sanity, or be reflexive about his madness. That is not necessarily more than a truism. There are many forms of madness, and PKD spent a life writing about, experiencing, and toying with the mad mind.

Valis begins with a suicide and the death by cancer of two women a man named Horselover Fat is involved with. Horselover Fat has had a mystical experience. A pink light has entered his mind through a third eye in his forehead. Early in the book there is a first person narrative intrusion: Phil Dick informs the reader that he and Horselover Fat are the same person, split. There are further splits. Two friends of Phil/Horselover are fellow travelers. The first part of the book is a melodrama concerning the death of the two women and a lot of discussion and exploration of Horselover’s mad ideas. Horselover does not know if he is sane or not, but he advances theory after theory to explain his visions, which involve ultimately a Gnostic false creation. Eventually he sees an underground movie that seems to confirm his experience. He and his friends seek out the filmmakers. In their compound they have a two year old child, a divine child who reveals to Fat the true cosmogony and future of the universe.

Valis is a post-modern novel with a contemporary LA setting. It is a meta novel, a low budget, post-modern self-reflexive narrative. Low budget is key, but it has not got the slapdash, cartoony exuberance of his early work, nor the primitive sentences. PKD has slowed down and written a clear narrative about a schizophrenic break that is actually the revelation of a divine order and drama that has been concealed from humanity by a demiurge’s creation of minds that cannot conceive of or perceive the truth.

THE VIRGIN MARY HAD STRETCH MARKS

The second book, The Divine Invasion, is a science fiction work and takes place mostly in the mind of a half-dead man, experiencing life unaware of his actual situation, as in Ubik. The Divine Invasion is much more religious. VALIS exists in this world, but now we have an explicitly Christian allegory: Rybys, a virgin, is impregnated by Yah, the God of a planet in the star system CY30)-CY30B. What follows is a theological drama, a reenactment of the birth of Christ in a future world with domes on moons of frozen ammonia. It is classic Dick sci fi, with wonky stereo systems, rival rulers of a planet earth full of hovercraft, political paranoia, a hapless boob in love with a woman, and god children. Narrated clearly in the 3rd person, it tells the Valis story over, in the voice of early 1960s PKD . Gone are the philosophical explanations. It is hilarious, surreal, and a total affront to good taste and reason.

BACK TO BERKELEY

The Transmigration of Timothy Archer is the most conventional of the three books. In it PKD achieves something he was after his whole life: a successful, serious, interesting, mostly controlled contemporary novel. It is a first person narrative, told by a woman named Angel who is married to the mentally ill son of the Episcopal Bishop of California, Timothy Archer. It is a distinctly California tale of crossed love, drugs and obsession, and is based on PKD’s friendship with the actual Episcopal Bishop of California James Pike. Archer lives with Kirsten a Swedish feminist antagonist who becomes first his assistant and then his lover and Kirsten has a schizophrenic son….Pike, an avid leftist, pro gay rights, civil rights era hero, with a staggeringly large intellect and ego, has a crisis of faith. He is engaged in theological battle with his church and with Christianity. He believes he has discovered texts that reveal the non-divinity of Jesus. When his son kills himself Archer launched is into despair and begins to communicate with spirits. Again the difference between theological truth and madness is explored. What’s unusual here is the female protagonist and narrator. She is a typical Dick protagonist in many ways except for her gender. She is skeptical about all of the New Age nuttiness around her but on some level wants to believe. The books is sad, calm and brilliantly rounds off the preceding volumes with a little sleep.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Maze of Death: Eerie despite its caricature-personned cast; lots of hands grasping at too few straws.

VALIS: A headtrip so earnest it's disarming, making the absence of flycars and zapguns tolerable.

The Divine Invasion: Marriages Kabbalah and SF; explores the nature of God through dialectical characters and their whacked-out wargames.

The Transmigration of Timothy Archer: Grounded, tragic, human.

[David Spalding-Aguirre · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a big PKD fan these were necessary to read but I don't think I could recommend this to anyone else who's not interested in learning about his late life theology/philosophy.

[Martin Hernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Volumen final de la colección de novelas de Philip K. DICK publicada por The Library of America. Este tomo contiene cuatro novelas, incluyendo la "Trilogía VALIS":

"A Maze of Death"
"VALIS"
"The Divine Invasion"
"The Transmigration of Timothy Archer"

Los libros de The Library of America se distinguen por su cuidadísima edición, que no escatima en detalles y se concentra en preservar y rescatar la obra de los escritores estadounidenses más destacados. Vale mucho la pena conseguir tantos tomos como lo permita el bolsillo!.

[Ian Mathers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actually, I've never read this particular volume; this rating is more for the SFBC-exclusive edition of The Valis Trilogy my dad got in the 70s that he never read and I first tried to get through when I was around 12. It would have to wait until later in my teen years for me to actually understand Dick's writing enough to finish it off, but those three novels (the ones in this edition minus the perfectly fine but unrelated A Maze of Death) make for a brilliant, beautiful, occasionally mad and tremendously moving trilogy that was extremely formative for me and still stands as my favourite work of Dick's (no offense to Ubik, A Scanner Darkly, Flow My Tears... and the rest). If you're going to add a fourth, though, why not Radio Free Albemuth?

[Zedsdead · Rating 1 out of 5]

Warning: Sci-fi blasphemy ahead. I was so bored I gave up on this volume halfway through.

The first story, "A Maze of Death", started off mildly interesting, sort of a futuristic "Ten Little Indians" with a Dickian reality-might-not-be-what-you-think-it-is tilt but the bizarre religous themes felt tacked on, distracting, and pointless.

In the second story, "VALIS", drugged-up losers endlessly regurgitate loads of philosophical and religious bullshit and occasionally attempt suicide. I stuck with it as long as I could in hopes that the payoff would be worth it. No dice.

I was excited to open my first Dick novel. Sadly, I'll just have to be satisfied with enjoying (some) of the movies based on his work.

[Laurence · Rating 3 out of 5]

Serieus doorgebeten om door VALIS te geraken, met de gedachte "wat een religieuze crap"... vreemd genoeg blijven de ideeën toch hangen. Gelukkig waren de drie andere verhalen net iets draaglijker (zelfs goed)!

[Mad Russian the Traveller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just finished the fourth novel in this collection, "The Transmigration of Timothy Archer," and I found this story similar to VALIS in some ways but the focus was more on the loss that entails when those around you that you love start 'offing' themselves. The whole thing was poignant with sadness, yet we still had the profound explorations of philosophy and religion and human nature that is the hallmark of these late novels. It has been somewhat difficult to slog through these novels in this collection, but now that I have made the effort, I have that satisfied feeling of making it back from across the universe.

In the novel "Divine Invasion" (#3 of 4 in this collection), we have the retelling of the historical moment of Christ's incarnation in science fiction terms with the limited understanding that an unbeliever would have in these matters. It is an alternate future in which the Earth is ruled by a global government made of a coalition of two major factions. On faction is the Catholic-Islamic Church sharing power with the Scientific Legate, the other faction. The S.L. is a trans-statist power controlling at least half of the Earth, an alliance led by the Communists.

This Earth under totalitarian control is slowly colonizing the nearby star systems. A female colonist is impregnated by an alien being, but the offspring is fully human. She is assisted by an unwilling fellow colonist to return to Earth with her unborn child. The powers of Earth notice her arrival through the stellar frontier immigration checkpoint and immediately want the child dead.

Here is a passage that displays the moral corruption of these powers among other things (Linda Fox is some media star whose entertainment package is used to keep the colonists happy in their lonely outposts):

[Quote:]

"If Linda Fox will not decide for the S.L.," Galina said,"why don't you draw her aside and tell her that one day on her way to a concert engagement her private rocket--that gaudy plush thing she flies herself--will go up in a flash of flaming fire?"

Gloomily, Bulkowsky said, "Because the cardinal got to her first. He has already passed the word to her that if she doesn't accept sweet Jesus into her life bichlorides will find her whether she wants to accept them or not."

The tactic of poisoning Linda Fox with small doses of mercury was an artful one. Long before she died (if she did die) she would be mad as a hatter--literally, since it had been mercury poisoning, mercury used to process felt hats, that had driven the English hatters of the nineteenth century into famous organic psychosis.

I wish I had thought of that, Bulkowsky said to himself. Intelligence reports stated that the chanteuse had become hysterical when informed by a C.I.C. agent of what the cardinal intended if she did not decide for Jesus--hysteria and then temporary hypothermia, followed by a refusal to sing "Rock of Ages" in her next concert, as had been scheduled.

On the other hand, he reflected, cadmium would be better than mercury because it would be more difficult to detect. The S.L. secret police had used trace amounts of cadmium on unpersons for some time, and to good effect.

"Then money won't influence her," Galina said.

"I wouldn't dismiss it. It's her ambition to own Greater Los Angeles."

Galina said, "But if she's destroyed, the colonists will grumble. They're dependent on her."

"Linda Fox is not a person. She is a class of persons, a type. She is a sound that electronic equipment, very sophisticated electronic equipment, makes. There are more of her. There will always be. She can be stamped out like tires."

"Well, then don't offer here very much money." Galina laughed.

"I feel sorry for her," Bulkowsky said. How must it feel, he asked himself, not to exist? That's a contradiction. To feel is to exist. Then, he thought, probably she does not feel. Because it is a fact that she does not exist, not really. We ought to know. We were the first to imagine her.

Or rather--Big Noodle had first imagined Fox. The A.I. system had invented her, told her what to sing and how to sing it; Big Noodle set up her arrangements...even down to the mixing. And the package was a complete success.

Big Noodle had correctly analyzed the emotional needs of the colonists and had come up with a formula to meet those needs. The A.I. system maintained an ongoing survey, deriving feedback; when the needs changed, Linda Fox changed. It constituted a closed loop. If, suddenly, all the colonists disappeared, Linda Fox would wink out of existence. Big Noodle would have canceled her, like paper run through a paper shredder.

[Unquote.]

[Here is another passage from a conversation during the long journey to earth:]

"The Torah is the Law?" Herb said.

"It is more that the Law. The word 'Law' is inadequate. Even though the New Testament of the Christians always uses the word 'Law' for Torah. Torah is the Creator's instrument. With it he created the universe and for it he created the universe. It is the highest idea and the living soul of the world. Without it the world could not exist and would have no right to exist. I am quoting the great Hebrew poet Hayyim Nahman Bialik who lived from the latter part of the nineteenth century into the mid-twentieth century. You should read him sometime."

"Can you tell me anything else about the Torah?"

"Resh Lakish said, 'If one's intent is pure, the Torah for him becomes a life-giving medicine, purifying him to life. But if one's intent is not pure, it becomes a death-giving drug, purifying him to death.'"

The two men remained silent for a time.

"I will tell you something more," Elias said. "A man came to the great Rabbi Hillel--he lived in the first century, C.E.--and said, 'I will become a proselyte on the condition that you teach me the entire Torah while I stand on one foot?' Hillel said, 'Whatever is hateful to you, do not do it to your neighbor. That is the entire Torah. The rest is commentary; go and learn it.'" He smiled at Herb Asher.

"Is the injunction actually in the Torah?" Herb Asher said. "The first five books of the Bible?"

"Yes. Leviticus nineteen, eighteen. God says, 'You shall love your neighbor as a man like yourself.' You did not know that, did you? Almost two thousand years before Jesus."

"Then the Golden Rule derives from Judaism," Herb said.

"Yes, it does, and early Judaism. The Rule was presented to man by God Himself."

"I have a lot to learn," Herb said.

"Read," Elias said. "'Cape, lege,' the two words Augustine heard. Latin for 'Take, read.' You do that, Herb. Take the book and read it. It is there for you. It is alive."

As their journey continued, Elias disclosed to him further intriguing aspects of the Torah, qualities regarding the Torah that few men knew.

[Unquote.]



{{Original post:}

I find elements of the polyphonic voice reminiscent of Dostoevsky, but with an almost schizophrenic exploration of madness, philosophy, and religion in a proto-New Age mien. This is not so much a novel as a out-spilling of the mental overload that was Philip K. Dick the author.

End.}

[7thTrooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

"VALIS" och "The Divine Invasion" gör boken värd fyra stjärnor. Jag gillar den sistnämnda mest, tror jag, men den som är mest intressant är utan tvekan "VALIS" med dess paranoia och alltid närvarande biografiska inslag. Incidenten med budflickan och ljuset, sonen och "berättarens" författarskap är alla tagna direkt ut Dicks egna liv. Det ger det hela en fascinerande sorts autenticitet som i kombination med den sedvanliga paranoian blir fantastiskt lockande. Däremot så är det utan tvekan den absolut snurrigaste boken jag läst av honom än så länge. Paradoxalt nog också den mest fokuserade, tror jag, trots gyttret av ockulta, religiösa och filosofiska termer som han utan paus vräker över läsaren. Det är tur man har läst lite om gnosticism innan. "The Divine Invasion" är mer traditionell Dick, inte lika fokuserad som "VALIS" men fortfarande mer än genomsnittet, med diverse olika verkligheter, rymdskepp och annan dekoration från pulp-eran. Den är, tekniskt sett, en uppföljare till "VALIS" men har i stort sett inget gemensamt med den utom på ett tematiskt plan. Filmen med samma namn (och de som jobbade på den) nämns i förbifarten, bara. Båda två har också drag av den torra, svarta humorn som Dick är så bra på. Jag vet dock inte om nån av dem kommer kvala in på min favoritlista.

"The Transmigration..." gav jag upp på fem kapitel in. Men jag skall återvända till den vid ett senare datum. Det kan ha varit för mycket Dick på samma gång eller att den aldrig riktigt verkade komma igång på något sätt. Den var inte heller lika fokuserad som de andra två. Den mest bara puttrade på utan att någonting hände, tematiskt eller narrativt. Så den var en besvikelse.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing collection of Philip K. Dick novels. I couldn't rate this collection anything less than 5 stars.

A Maze of Death - Of the 4 novels gathered in this title, this novel is the most 'science fiction-y'. And yet it also incorporates religious themes and themes of perception and reality.

VALIS - This novel continues Dick's themes from the previous novel but pushes everything harder and further. The reader is challenged on nearly every page. At times autobiographical, the novel also blurs the lines between the reality of the novel and the reality of the author. Dick could have stopped here and been lauded as one of the finest science fiction writers ever.

The Divine Invasion - This novel is a follow-up to VALIS but not a sequel. The reader should have read the previous book, however, for the headstart it gives into this novel. The themes this time are woven into a less personal story.

The Transmigration of Timothy Archer - This novel is simply one of the finest novels I've ever read. It is taut, compelling, and beautiful.

[Ryan Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won’t say I enjoyed all four of the novels all the time, but there’s a lot to chew on here. The very idea of theophany boggles the mind and Dick’s struggle with formulating a coherent exposition of his views on the subject is understandable. My one criticism of this collected volume is that A Maze of Death really doesn’t “belong” thematically with the other three novels. Of the four, I think I enjoyed The Divine Invasion most. Some believers may find the idea of a shattered and schizophrenic YHWH heretical and offensive, but there is so much pathos and determination on the part of God in this story to share love and truth with humanity that that people of all religious and non-religious persuasions should be touched.

[kpanic · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars in average.

⭐⭐⭐ to "A Maze of Death"
It was very interesting

⭐⭐ to "Valis"
It was interesting, however it was too strange for me.. although I enjoyed some parts and speculations about religion and *weird stuff* happening.

⭐⭐⭐ to "The Divine Invasion"

I would say that I enjoyed it like "A Maze of Death", even if the theme is totally different.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ to "The Transmigration of Timothy Archer"

Well written, even if sometimes there are sentences repeated. But I enjoyed it fully.
It stands out, from my personal point of view of course, among the other novels.

Overall, I enjoyed the drifts into religious speculation, deities and really good old reality mixed with fate, faith and beliefs

Worth a read for P.K.Dick aficionados

[Derin]

A Maze of Death - 2/5
Opens with Dick's preamble explaining how LSD and his invention of the theology presented provided the creative foundation for the novel. The latter remains an obvious constant as characters look to intercession via diety as last-ditch solution to their mysterious planetary woes. Sort of a meandering slog peppered with deathly instances as catalysts that merely perpetuate what's going on. A big reveal boosts it considerably, negating the nagging helplessness exemplified by all but Mr. Morley in its final moments, resulting in a Twilight Zone-esque bit of competent sci-fi goodness. Unfortunately thrives almost solely in these moments and little prior.

[Leland William · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars but I'll give PKD the fifth just because.

I think I'm giving this collection 4.5 stars because one of the things I value most in writing is the ability for a writer to open the reader's mind. I can be forgiving of the writer's style in these endeavors. I sometimes slog through dense, awkward prose just to try to coil myself boa-constrictor-like around ideas that are genuinely unique if somewhat awkwardly expressed. Sometimes this isn't worth it, but you never know until you are on the other side.

[Zack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Divine madness: Novelist Philip K. Dick (December 16, 1928 – March 2, 1982). He sold his first story in 1952 and his first novel, The Solar Lottery, in 1955. He published almost exclusively within the science fiction genre, but dreamed of a career in mainstream literature, writing In 1960 that he was willing to "take twenty to thirty years to succeed as a literary writer." During the ‘50s he produced a series of non-science fiction novels, only one of which, Confessions of a Crap Artist, was published before his death. Throughout February and March 1974, which he referred to in shorthand as "two-three-seventy four" (2-3-74), Dick experienced a series of visions. As these increased in length and frequency, Dick believed he was living a double life, one as himself, and one as "Thomas", a Christian persecuted by Romans in the 1st century A.D. Unwilling to accept this self-diagnosis unquestioningly, he sought other rationalist and religious explanations for these experiences, which are chronicled in the semi-autobiographical novels VALIS and Radio Free Albemuth. At one point Dick felt he had been taken over by the spirit of the prophet Elijah, and is regarded today as a postmodern prophet of sorts himself. In time, Dick became paranoid, imagining plots against him by the KGB and FBI. At one point, he alleged one of these covert associations was responsible for a burglary of his house, in which documents were stolen, but later came to suspect he might have committed the burglary himself, and then forgotten about it. On occasion, Dick himself speculated as to whether he may have suffered from schizophrenia. He has made a number of post-mortem appearances, notably in Michael Bishop's Philip K. Dick Is Dead, Alas, first published as The Secret Ascension in 1987. which novel is set in a Gnostic alternative universe where his mainstream work is published but his science fiction is banned by a totalitarian USA in thrall to a demonically possessed Richard Nixon (review coming soon). Lawrence Sutin's 1989 biography of Dick, Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick, is considered the standard biographical treatment of Dick's life. Sutin was one of my advisors at Vermont College, just one of several exceptional talents encountered there, and it was a pleasure to work with him. He has also written a biography of English occultist Aleister Crowley called Do what Thou Wilt, and just published a new work of fiction titled When To Go Into The Water. Dick was a writer who believed that human perception of reality is occluded to such a degree that the apparent is a hoax, and chose to make this heretical message palatable for readers by expressing it within a genre of speculative fiction. He chronicled his neurosematic breakdown or theophany, as the case may be, of 2-3-74, which involved his temporary possession by Para human forces, whether divine or extraterrestrial, and his reception of uncommon knowledge via a mysterious beam of pink light in his VALIS trilogy (VALIS, The Divine Invasion, and Owl, which he hadn’t begun at the time of his death—and for which The Transmigration of Timothy Archer is a stand-in). Rightly or wrongly, Dick felt he had seen through this veil to the bare bones of What really Was, and spent most of the rest of his life attempting to understand, explain and communicate it to others. His was possibly the first and certainly one of the more remarkable recent attempts to unite the disparate fields of theology and creativity in literature. A major inspiration for Timothy Archer was the story of his friend, Bishop Arthur Pike, whose embrace of spiritualism after the death of his son was the source of a minor scandal within the Episcopal church. Pike disappeared without a trace during a spiritual expedition to the Dead Sea in 1969. Phil’s wife during 2-3/74, Tessa carries the legacy of this ultimate experience, and succeeds brilliantly with this novel in equaling and possibly surpassing his own attempts to pay tribute to its implications by modernizing them for a new generation of seekers. She self-published The Owl in Daylight after failing to interest traditional publishers. Written in loving tribute to her late husband, her book manifests a completed version of the unwritten masterpiece Phil had in mind. As with VALIS and other post 2-3/74 works, parts of the plot mirror elements of Dick’s own life. Author of several other works of fiction and nonfiction, Tessa says, “The Owl needs more exposure. I consider it my best work so far.” I just looked and one used copy is available on Amazon for $1,599.97. My hope she does a reprint soon.

PKD: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K...
The Solar Lottery: http://www.philipkdickfans.com/solarl...
Confessions: http://www.philipkdick.com/works_nove...
VALIS: www.philipkdick.com/works_novels_vali...
Radio Free Albemuth: www.radiofreealbemuth.com/
PKD is Dead, Alas: www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/.../phil...
Vermont College links:Noel: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-83...
Amy Greene: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-83...
Clothier: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-83...
Larry Sutin http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pag...
Divine Invasions www.sfsite.com/04a/di245.htm
Do What Thou Wilt www.culturecourt.com/Br.Paul/lit/Crow...

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am, and will be distraught at my change of emotion to the VALIS trilogy for quite a while I believe. I trashed the series to many a person at 50% through the first book and now after finishing the series it's a 5/5.

What pushed it over the edge was the final book being a semi-autobiographical retelling of Dicks actual life experiences. I'm amazed. Goosebumps even, I need more time to think on it. Wow.

[Rui Carlos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Toughest of the three books in the Library of America series. Deeply theological and yet still speculative and critical of theology. A deep dive after the introspection of sanity in A Scanner Darkly. Enjoyable nonetheless but I'm happy to have finished this omnibus series. Maybe more PKD later? Or find the novels that I haven't read and read them in order of writing or published work. Totally recommend.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wholly disappointed. VALIS was decent, but the other two in the trilogy were not continuations of the same story, only tangentially related. A Maze of Death started out really well, but it seems that my copy of this book was bound incorrectly as the story shifted weirdly toward the end. All novels seemed to leave me dissatisfied as their endings were so abrupt.

[Jrwren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't read The Diving Invasion or The Transmigration of Timothy Archer.

[Gregg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Dick, but the Valis trilogy reads like the ramblings of a stroke victim reciting sunday school gibberish.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Be sure to go to the back of the volume and read the timeline of PKD's life and career; the real events are no less outlandish than the novels.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic.

[Sam Pote · Rating 4 out of 5]

weird

[David James · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third and final Library of America collection of the great science fiction writer finds Philip K. Dick trying to reach beyond the genre writing he'd been confined to by publishers. "A Maze of Death" is the only novel that fits the standard Dickian mold, with reality turning in dark and disturbing ways and a twist ending worthy of an old EC Comic. VALIS is an account of Dick's mental breakdown and the spiritual vision he believed he gained from it. While there is a bit of sci-fi patched into it, the book is mostly a first-hand telling of what a descent into genuine insanity feels like, and it is harrowing. "The Divine Invasion" is a shaky effort at turning his religious vision into a science fiction story. There are some fascinating insights here, but the novel itself is fatally unfocused. "The Transmigration of Timothy Archer" is straight forward fiction, and not sci-fi at all. It novelizes the story of the unraveling of the life of Dick's good friend, California Anglican Archbishop James Pike, who famously spiraled into the occult and some controversial ideas about the origin of Christianity. It's the best novel in this collection, and it hints at what an entirely different author Dick could have become in later years had he not suffered a deadly stroke prior to its publication.

All four novels, as well as those in the previous two volumes, demonstrate how Dick always reached beyond his limits. The results were perpetually uneven, but never once boring. That his mind was forever outpacing his abilities is what makes him an author who is completely absorbing and at the same time always a bit frustrating to read. The one thing you can't do with his books is put them down.