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The Ganymede Takeover
First published, in paperback, in 1967, this is one of two novels Dick wrote in collaboration. Stylistically, it is typical Dick, but it lacks the gravity and conviction of most of his other novels. It's set in the 21st century when the Earth has been conquered by a race of alien, telepathic, wormlike creatures, one of whom, Mekkis, is attracted to the theories of the psychologist Rudolph Balkani. Although ostensibly a "wik" or worm-kisser (i.e., one who freely serves the Ganymedians), Balkani is a complex man whose allegiances and motives are not easily discerned; indeed, Mekkis's attraction to his ideas leads to the worms' undoing. Other characters include the musicologist Joan Hiashi, whom Balkani unsuccessfully pursues, and Percy X, the black revolutionary who represents the only overt resistance to the worms. Characterizations are unusually weak for Dick, and the ultimate instrument of the alien downfall--Dr. Balkani's "hell-machine," which distorts reality--cannot summon up in the reader the ontological confusion and terror that drives Dick's best work.
Cover illustration by Jack Gaughan
Cover illustration by Jack Gaughan
157 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1967
9 people are currently reading
802 people want to read
About the author
Philip K. Dick
2,006 books22.5k followersPhilip 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
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
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 87 reviews
September 26, 2017
Reading Philip K. Dick could be an integral part of a counseling session.
Doctor: So Mr. Smith, your wife has left you, you hate your job, your son is in jail and your teenage daughter is pregnant and is not certain which of her sex partners is the child’s father.
Smith: Um, yeah, that sums it up, pretty much.
Doctor: and your last payment check bounced, but we can talk about that later.
Smith: Oh, sorry, …
Doctor: Did you complete your reading assignment, Philip K. Dick’s 1967 collaboration with Ray Nelson The Ganymede Takeover?
Smith: Yes, what the hell was that all about?
Doctor: What do YOU think it was all about?
*******
The Ganymede Takeover is about a lot of things – oddly Tennessee is one of them – and many ubiquitous PKD themes are present: vidphones, telepaths, androids, precognition, aliens, mental instability, and gestalt.
Essentially, a race of giant worm-like aliens have taken over Earth and they and their henchmen alien “creeches” control Earth except for a couple of rebel groups, one led by the Tennessee “Neeg-parts” led by a Black Muslim, Percy X. There is some Poul Anderson like empathy for the Ganymedians and some drama on Earth, (and some 60s era racism) and then a crazy wild weapon that kind of reminded me of both Dick’s The Zap Gun and also vaguely reminiscent of Heinlein’s Between Planets.
Not one of his better books, but not bad either.
Doctor: So Mr. Smith, your wife has left you, you hate your job, your son is in jail and your teenage daughter is pregnant and is not certain which of her sex partners is the child’s father.
Smith: Um, yeah, that sums it up, pretty much.
Doctor: and your last payment check bounced, but we can talk about that later.
Smith: Oh, sorry, …
Doctor: Did you complete your reading assignment, Philip K. Dick’s 1967 collaboration with Ray Nelson The Ganymede Takeover?
Smith: Yes, what the hell was that all about?
Doctor: What do YOU think it was all about?
*******
The Ganymede Takeover is about a lot of things – oddly Tennessee is one of them – and many ubiquitous PKD themes are present: vidphones, telepaths, androids, precognition, aliens, mental instability, and gestalt.
Essentially, a race of giant worm-like aliens have taken over Earth and they and their henchmen alien “creeches” control Earth except for a couple of rebel groups, one led by the Tennessee “Neeg-parts” led by a Black Muslim, Percy X. There is some Poul Anderson like empathy for the Ganymedians and some drama on Earth, (and some 60s era racism) and then a crazy wild weapon that kind of reminded me of both Dick’s The Zap Gun and also vaguely reminiscent of Heinlein’s Between Planets.
Not one of his better books, but not bad either.
February 5, 2020
This is so cheesy I had to laugh:
“There on the screen Gus saw, forming out of the blackness, a herd of gigantic African aardvarks as big as dinosaurs with evil, glittering eyes, huge claws and ears like circus tents, and with unbelievably long tongues that lashed out and licked ionocrafts out of the sky.
‘Oh my God,’ Gus said, unable to accept the fantastic sight. ‘Not aardvarks!’” (131-132).
But was it worth reading The Ganymede Takeover just for ‘not aardvarks’?
Actually, this collaboration between Philip K. Dick and Ray Nelson was more entertaining than I thought it would be. I’ve read enough PKD to recognize his contributions to the story. Oblivion therapy. Obviously. And the description of cats as “great philosophers and holy men” (149).
Ray Nelson I don’t know nearly as well. I’ve only read his short story, “Eight O’Clock in the Morning,” which I sought out because the movie that is based on it, John Carpenter’s They Live (1988), is my favorite science fiction movie of all time.
Halfway through the novel, the rather pedestrian plot of an alien occupation of Earth takes a truly bizarre turn. A weapon is deployed that plunges everyone into a hallucinatory state. What follows is a psychedelic apocalypse involving absurdities such as a “battalion of Brownie Scouts , cracking skulls left and right with overbaked cookies” (133) and a “dayglo orange unicorn” that “reared up with seven soldiers impaled on his horn like so many unpaid bills” (134).
From this point on, there is more humor in the book. And this is a welcome turn.
The metaphysical meets the comical when Joan Hiashi, in a Buddha-like state of ego death and cosmic oneness, serenely contemplates an anthill during a fight between Paul Rivers and Percy X.
“The last thing Paul saw before he blacked out was Joan Hiashi frowning at him and saying, ‘Watch out; you almost fell on the anthill‘” (183).
I like to imagine Dick and Nelson chuckling over each other’s contributions to the story.
The Ganymede Takeover is not great speculative fiction and it’s not a great piece of prose, but it is an amusing minor novel with all the psychedelic and philosophical hallmarks of a PKD story. So yeah, it was worth reading for the dinosaur-sized aardvarks, philosopher cats, and dayglo orange unicorn.
“There on the screen Gus saw, forming out of the blackness, a herd of gigantic African aardvarks as big as dinosaurs with evil, glittering eyes, huge claws and ears like circus tents, and with unbelievably long tongues that lashed out and licked ionocrafts out of the sky.
‘Oh my God,’ Gus said, unable to accept the fantastic sight. ‘Not aardvarks!’” (131-132).
But was it worth reading The Ganymede Takeover just for ‘not aardvarks’?
Actually, this collaboration between Philip K. Dick and Ray Nelson was more entertaining than I thought it would be. I’ve read enough PKD to recognize his contributions to the story. Oblivion therapy. Obviously. And the description of cats as “great philosophers and holy men” (149).
Ray Nelson I don’t know nearly as well. I’ve only read his short story, “Eight O’Clock in the Morning,” which I sought out because the movie that is based on it, John Carpenter’s They Live (1988), is my favorite science fiction movie of all time.
Halfway through the novel, the rather pedestrian plot of an alien occupation of Earth takes a truly bizarre turn. A weapon is deployed that plunges everyone into a hallucinatory state. What follows is a psychedelic apocalypse involving absurdities such as a “battalion of Brownie Scouts , cracking skulls left and right with overbaked cookies” (133) and a “dayglo orange unicorn” that “reared up with seven soldiers impaled on his horn like so many unpaid bills” (134).
From this point on, there is more humor in the book. And this is a welcome turn.
The metaphysical meets the comical when Joan Hiashi, in a Buddha-like state of ego death and cosmic oneness, serenely contemplates an anthill during a fight between Paul Rivers and Percy X.
“The last thing Paul saw before he blacked out was Joan Hiashi frowning at him and saying, ‘Watch out; you almost fell on the anthill‘” (183).
I like to imagine Dick and Nelson chuckling over each other’s contributions to the story.
The Ganymede Takeover is not great speculative fiction and it’s not a great piece of prose, but it is an amusing minor novel with all the psychedelic and philosophical hallmarks of a PKD story. So yeah, it was worth reading for the dinosaur-sized aardvarks, philosopher cats, and dayglo orange unicorn.
December 23, 2020
Από τα πιο μέτρια βιβλία του μεγάλου αυτού συγγραφέα.
Οχι ότι δεν διαβάζεται ευχάριστα και χαλαρά μετά από μια κουραστική ημέρα...
Οχι ότι δεν διαβάζεται ευχάριστα και χαλαρά μετά από μια κουραστική ημέρα...
May 10, 2014
[Original review, based on dim memories of reading the book as a teen]
I thought this was one of the better Philip K. Dicks... there are some fine passages. Here's the one I found most memorable. The mad genius psychologist subjects the girl to aggressive deprogramming using total sensory deprivation, which destroys her personality. He then falls in love with her. She's not interested, but he persists.
One night, the resistance movement sneak her out, replacing her with a replica robot. The next day, the psychologist resumes his amorous advances. The robot is even less interested than the girl was. Suddenly, the psychologist snaps. He clubs her over the head with the heavy bust of Freud he always keeps on his desk - as he believes, killing her.
"I didn't mean to do that," he says, shocked by his own action. Then he sees that she's a robot, moreover one that he's constructed himself. The next day, his staff discover his body next to that of the wrecked machine.
I've always felt that Dick was saying something insightful here about a certain kind of pathological relationship.
_________________________________________
[Update, May 2014]
After seeing Not's review the other day, I felt compelled to reread this book, which I hadn't looked at since I was about 15. I was rather shocked to see how horribly written it was - Not is in no way exaggerating, and evidently my standards were deplorably low at the time.
I was also surprised to learn that Dick's co-author Nelson had spent some time in Paris and got to know Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Boris Vian. All I can say is, at different times in your life you notice different things.
I thought this was one of the better Philip K. Dicks... there are some fine passages. Here's the one I found most memorable. The mad genius psychologist subjects the girl to aggressive deprogramming using total sensory deprivation, which destroys her personality. He then falls in love with her. She's not interested, but he persists.
One night, the resistance movement sneak her out, replacing her with a replica robot. The next day, the psychologist resumes his amorous advances. The robot is even less interested than the girl was. Suddenly, the psychologist snaps. He clubs her over the head with the heavy bust of Freud he always keeps on his desk - as he believes, killing her.
"I didn't mean to do that," he says, shocked by his own action. Then he sees that she's a robot, moreover one that he's constructed himself. The next day, his staff discover his body next to that of the wrecked machine.
I've always felt that Dick was saying something insightful here about a certain kind of pathological relationship.
_________________________________________
[Update, May 2014]
After seeing Not's review the other day, I felt compelled to reread this book, which I hadn't looked at since I was about 15. I was rather shocked to see how horribly written it was - Not is in no way exaggerating, and evidently my standards were deplorably low at the time.
I was also surprised to learn that Dick's co-author Nelson had spent some time in Paris and got to know Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Boris Vian. All I can say is, at different times in your life you notice different things.
May 9, 2014
This is just silly.
You can try making it something else – I notice a blog interpreting it as an allegory for the war in Vietnam – but it isn’t worth investing meaning into. Dick’s co-author, is in fact quoted as saying:
Since we were “only practicing” for “the big one”, we wrote the book we did in a spirit of almost hysterical hilarity, enclosing weird newspaper clippings and Beatle bubblegum cards in the installments of the ongoing story we mailed back and forth. When we met –first at his place in East Oakland and later at his other place in Marin County near the water, we often spent more time smoking grass, dropping acid and flirting with each others’ wives than working.
Rest here:
http://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpres...
May 3, 2021
Wow... OK so here's my theory on the genesis of this novel, based on vague recollections of PKD's biographical details and the content of this book.
Philip K Dick is sitting at home working on the sequel to The Man in the High Castle, a little preoccupied with the smell from the cat litter box and having his usual bit of relationship stress with his (current) wife. Ray Nelson turns up, hears all about this manuscript in progress, and finally convinces PKD to drop acid. They have a grand and terrifying time and then PKD decides to never do acid again and also to toss out the High Castle sequel he was working on and instead co-write a different novel with Ray, salvaging random parts of the work he had in progress... and this is the wild-ass result. It's flawed, bizarre, funny, disturbing, psychedelic, silly but somehow deep at the same time. Includes elements such as a Bureau of Psychedelic Research, simulacra, precogs, telepathic thought amplifiers, and a mission called Operation Cat Droppings. I'm also gonna guess that Ray Nelson did an edit because it seems a bit more polished than PKD's usual style.
It's not PKD's finest novel and I wouldn't start here if you're newish to his writing, but if you already love his style and weird ideas, it's such a treat. He and Nelson make a good team. In case you don't know him, Ray Nelson wrote the kickass short story "Eight O' Clock In the Morning" that was adapted into one of the greatest 80s films, John Carpenter's THEY LIVE!
My fav characters in this novel:
- The dilapidated, sentient hotel that accuses guests of trying to leave without paying when it catches them looking out the window. lol.
- The ancient flying taxi cab that works for the resistance and proudly tells customers, "I do what I like." (Would it even be a PKD novel without a talking cab?)
- Joan, the novel's only woman, who all the men are creepily fascinated by (or worse) and who has an entire scene just standing watching a dead leaf hanging on a tree for about 12 hours until she almost gets hypothermia. Go Joan.
Overall a fun, nutty novel that comes out of what I think is PKD's best phase: 60s-ish, when his novels all seem so exuberant, funny, empathetic and psychedelic. The "talking-household-items era".
Philip K Dick is sitting at home working on the sequel to The Man in the High Castle, a little preoccupied with the smell from the cat litter box and having his usual bit of relationship stress with his (current) wife. Ray Nelson turns up, hears all about this manuscript in progress, and finally convinces PKD to drop acid. They have a grand and terrifying time and then PKD decides to never do acid again and also to toss out the High Castle sequel he was working on and instead co-write a different novel with Ray, salvaging random parts of the work he had in progress... and this is the wild-ass result. It's flawed, bizarre, funny, disturbing, psychedelic, silly but somehow deep at the same time. Includes elements such as a Bureau of Psychedelic Research, simulacra, precogs, telepathic thought amplifiers, and a mission called Operation Cat Droppings. I'm also gonna guess that Ray Nelson did an edit because it seems a bit more polished than PKD's usual style.
It's not PKD's finest novel and I wouldn't start here if you're newish to his writing, but if you already love his style and weird ideas, it's such a treat. He and Nelson make a good team. In case you don't know him, Ray Nelson wrote the kickass short story "Eight O' Clock In the Morning" that was adapted into one of the greatest 80s films, John Carpenter's THEY LIVE!
My fav characters in this novel:
- The dilapidated, sentient hotel that accuses guests of trying to leave without paying when it catches them looking out the window. lol.
- The ancient flying taxi cab that works for the resistance and proudly tells customers, "I do what I like." (Would it even be a PKD novel without a talking cab?)
- Joan, the novel's only woman, who all the men are creepily fascinated by (or worse) and who has an entire scene just standing watching a dead leaf hanging on a tree for about 12 hours until she almost gets hypothermia. Go Joan.
"Joan Hiashi had returned to normality, if by normality one meant this leafless world in which humans normally live."
Overall a fun, nutty novel that comes out of what I think is PKD's best phase: 60s-ish, when his novels all seem so exuberant, funny, empathetic and psychedelic. The "talking-household-items era".
September 1, 2011
When I read Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore's 1946 novella "Chessboard Planet" some years back, the thought occurred to me that this story is a must-read for all fans of cult author Philip K. Dick. In the story, the United States is in the midst of a decades-long war with the European union and is in big trouble, because scientists working for the enemy have come up with a formula employing "variable constants" that can completely preempt reality. In the story's memorable opening, a doorknob opens a blue eye and watches one of the protagonists, and ultimately, the tale becomes hallucinatory in the extreme, as equations and counterequations for abrogating reality are bounced back and forth by the two sides. Anyway, somehow I wasn't surprised to read, just recently, in an article written by Dick in 1968 called "Notes Made Late at Night by a Weary SF Writer," that that image of the blue-eyed doorknob was one of his favorite in all of science fiction. And his 22nd sci-fi novel, "The Ganymede Takeover," seems to me one of his books that is most indebted to this great Kuttner & Moore work.
"The Ganymede Takeover" is in many ways the oddball of Dick's sci-fi oeuvre. Originally released in 1966 as a 50-cent Ace paperback (G-637, for all you collectors out there), it is the only science fiction novel by Dick not currently in print by Vintage Books and one of only two books that Dick coauthored. I suppose that part of the fun in reading this novel is trying to discern where Dick's input leaves off and Ray Nelson's (his first novel) begins. In the story, the people of Earth have been conquered by the snakelike, telepathic inhabitants of Ganymede. In the year 2047, a Ganymedean named Mekkis comes to Earth to act as administrator of the district of Tennessee, where "Neeg-parts" (Negro partisans), under the command of freedom fighter Percy X (read: Malcolm), have been stirring up trouble. To this area also converges Joan Hiashi, a TV hostess looking to record some of the Neeg-parts' hymns (just as Nat Flieger, in Dick's 1964 novel "The Simulacra," traveled into the wilds of radiation-mutated northern California to record the music of the inhabitants there), and Paul Rivers, of the World Psychiatric Association. When Percy X gets his hands on some cached government weapons that have been created with the assistance of Dr. Rudolph Balkani, of the Bureau of Psychedelic Research (!), things really start to get hairy, however. In a battle royale between Percy's men and those of Gus Swenesgard--a "wik" (worm kisser), or what might today be called a quisling--machines that cause severe illusions are utilized; thus, vampires, orange unicorns, transvestites, inch-high lesbians, carnivorous vacuum cleaners, Frankenstein, Godzilla, King Kong, the Wolfman, man-eating plants, et al. contend in a free-for-all that Kuttner & Moore might well have gaped at in approbation. In a direct nod to that winking doorknob, Dick has a Tennessee mountain suddenly grow an eyeball on its flank! And then things get even stranger, when Percy X decides to utilize the fearsome Hell Weapon!
As you can probably tell, this really is some pretty way-out stuff here; certainly a product of '60s California, and a clear reflection of Dick's changing taste in drugs, progressing from prescription amphetamines to LSD. As in many other Dick novels, amphetamines ARE mentioned (Balkani stays awake on uppers for days, writing his final thesis on "Oblivion Therapy"), pot is given a passing reference (filter-tip marijuana cigarettes called Berkeley Boo are popular), and the author's love of music is shown (folk and blues, for a change, as opposed to classical). In retrospect, it seems to me that Nelson may have been responsible here for the alien takeover plot, with Dick supplying all the drug references and mind-blowing psychedelic pyrotechnics, but this guessing game is as futile as figuring out the respective contributions in Kuttner & Moore's stories. Suffice it to say that this melding of talents is a very happy one; "The Ganymede Takeover" is remarkably fast moving and fun, despite "The Science Fiction Encyclopedia"'s claim that its furious action is "rather implausibly emphasized." And really, how can you dislike any book with a Bureau of Psychedelic Research, and one in which one of the Ganymedean conquerors lists as his prize souvenir from Earth nothing less than the complete collection of the original Three Stooges shorts? Even Kuttner & Moore would never have thought of that!
"The Ganymede Takeover" is in many ways the oddball of Dick's sci-fi oeuvre. Originally released in 1966 as a 50-cent Ace paperback (G-637, for all you collectors out there), it is the only science fiction novel by Dick not currently in print by Vintage Books and one of only two books that Dick coauthored. I suppose that part of the fun in reading this novel is trying to discern where Dick's input leaves off and Ray Nelson's (his first novel) begins. In the story, the people of Earth have been conquered by the snakelike, telepathic inhabitants of Ganymede. In the year 2047, a Ganymedean named Mekkis comes to Earth to act as administrator of the district of Tennessee, where "Neeg-parts" (Negro partisans), under the command of freedom fighter Percy X (read: Malcolm), have been stirring up trouble. To this area also converges Joan Hiashi, a TV hostess looking to record some of the Neeg-parts' hymns (just as Nat Flieger, in Dick's 1964 novel "The Simulacra," traveled into the wilds of radiation-mutated northern California to record the music of the inhabitants there), and Paul Rivers, of the World Psychiatric Association. When Percy X gets his hands on some cached government weapons that have been created with the assistance of Dr. Rudolph Balkani, of the Bureau of Psychedelic Research (!), things really start to get hairy, however. In a battle royale between Percy's men and those of Gus Swenesgard--a "wik" (worm kisser), or what might today be called a quisling--machines that cause severe illusions are utilized; thus, vampires, orange unicorns, transvestites, inch-high lesbians, carnivorous vacuum cleaners, Frankenstein, Godzilla, King Kong, the Wolfman, man-eating plants, et al. contend in a free-for-all that Kuttner & Moore might well have gaped at in approbation. In a direct nod to that winking doorknob, Dick has a Tennessee mountain suddenly grow an eyeball on its flank! And then things get even stranger, when Percy X decides to utilize the fearsome Hell Weapon!
As you can probably tell, this really is some pretty way-out stuff here; certainly a product of '60s California, and a clear reflection of Dick's changing taste in drugs, progressing from prescription amphetamines to LSD. As in many other Dick novels, amphetamines ARE mentioned (Balkani stays awake on uppers for days, writing his final thesis on "Oblivion Therapy"), pot is given a passing reference (filter-tip marijuana cigarettes called Berkeley Boo are popular), and the author's love of music is shown (folk and blues, for a change, as opposed to classical). In retrospect, it seems to me that Nelson may have been responsible here for the alien takeover plot, with Dick supplying all the drug references and mind-blowing psychedelic pyrotechnics, but this guessing game is as futile as figuring out the respective contributions in Kuttner & Moore's stories. Suffice it to say that this melding of talents is a very happy one; "The Ganymede Takeover" is remarkably fast moving and fun, despite "The Science Fiction Encyclopedia"'s claim that its furious action is "rather implausibly emphasized." And really, how can you dislike any book with a Bureau of Psychedelic Research, and one in which one of the Ganymedean conquerors lists as his prize souvenir from Earth nothing less than the complete collection of the original Three Stooges shorts? Even Kuttner & Moore would never have thought of that!
March 8, 2023
Masszív előítéleteim vannak a társszerzős regényekkel szemben, de azt kell mondjam Dicknek nagyon jót tett ez az infúzió. Habár a könyv nem szűkölködik a szokásos hibáktól (kapkodós cselekményszálak, zavaros történetfűzés, tudományos maszatolás), rendkívül szórakoztató. Úgy értem, tényleg humoros, már-már abszurdba hajlóan. Szerintem bizonyos szempontból kiemelkedik az életműből.
February 26, 2017
This was the last PKD novel I still had on my to-read list, and I've got to say, I was pleasantly surprised. Going by the other reviews here, I was expecting this to be pretty terrible, but actually, I thought it was brilliant. Just maybe not for everybody.
A better title for this work would have been "Oblivion Therapy", after a mad psychologist character's magnum opus. Does that sound like a book you'd like to read? If so, go ahead. If you're looking to read about a Ganymedian invasion of Earth, then sorry. That's not what this is about. The outlandish monsters conjured up for a ground battle are only in like one scene. It's not about them at all.
My favorite part of the story has to be the worm/snake-type aliens, completely inhuman but still relatable. Their telepathic civilization is based on regular fusions of their minds into one "Common". One of the major characters stops fusing and develops a more human ego. It's left to us to decide whether this is a good or bad thing in principle.
The whole book is focused on the tension between the individual and the community, or in more extreme terms the self and the universe. The goal of transcendental meditation is to eliminate the self and embrace the universe as it is, with no worry or judgement or attachment. That's on the extreme end, obviously, and not workable for any length of time. But the other extreme is just as bad: complete egocentrism and isolation.
This book explores the horror of both extremes and winds everything up with an attempt at reconciling them into something like the "Middle Way" of Buddhism or Taoism, or just pragmatic moderation if that works better for you.
I read most of this while sick in bed with fever, so that may have had an effect on my interpretation, but it certainly left me with an uneasy feeling, at least. The story comes to a close, but we don't get a sense of finality like we've just won the Big War and everything's going to be OK now. That may leave some readers unsatisfied, but I just find it true to life. It's reassuring, in a way, the message that the struggle is unending but we can still find little chances to enjoy ourselves and appreciate the beauty of it all.
That's the optimistic pessimism that PKD never fails to deliver. Now that I've read all his novels, it's kind of sad there are no more to discover. Any suggestions for another author I could start obsessing over?
A better title for this work would have been "Oblivion Therapy", after a mad psychologist character's magnum opus. Does that sound like a book you'd like to read? If so, go ahead. If you're looking to read about a Ganymedian invasion of Earth, then sorry. That's not what this is about. The outlandish monsters conjured up for a ground battle are only in like one scene. It's not about them at all.
My favorite part of the story has to be the worm/snake-type aliens, completely inhuman but still relatable. Their telepathic civilization is based on regular fusions of their minds into one "Common". One of the major characters stops fusing and develops a more human ego. It's left to us to decide whether this is a good or bad thing in principle.
The whole book is focused on the tension between the individual and the community, or in more extreme terms the self and the universe. The goal of transcendental meditation is to eliminate the self and embrace the universe as it is, with no worry or judgement or attachment. That's on the extreme end, obviously, and not workable for any length of time. But the other extreme is just as bad: complete egocentrism and isolation.
This book explores the horror of both extremes and winds everything up with an attempt at reconciling them into something like the "Middle Way" of Buddhism or Taoism, or just pragmatic moderation if that works better for you.
I read most of this while sick in bed with fever, so that may have had an effect on my interpretation, but it certainly left me with an uneasy feeling, at least. The story comes to a close, but we don't get a sense of finality like we've just won the Big War and everything's going to be OK now. That may leave some readers unsatisfied, but I just find it true to life. It's reassuring, in a way, the message that the struggle is unending but we can still find little chances to enjoy ourselves and appreciate the beauty of it all.
That's the optimistic pessimism that PKD never fails to deliver. Now that I've read all his novels, it's kind of sad there are no more to discover. Any suggestions for another author I could start obsessing over?
December 22, 2015
I think the most interesting thing about this book was when it referenced the lynchings of black men in 1966, and how things had changed in the past 120 years. Racism is an issue that PKD deals a lot with in his work, and it was definitely a central theme to this one. Turned around with a black leader and the "neeg parts" as the only people who were able to take a stand against the alien invaders. There was an interesting woman (more unusual for PKD) who underwent therapy and became enlightened, though her enlightened state wasn't exactly perfect. There were a lot of hallucinations. Even though it was a co-written project it lost none of the brilliance of PKD's solo work and is definitely one I'd recommend and like to read again.
March 29, 2023
Altogether a good read, as oldschool science fiction goes - amid alien takeover (by giant superintelligent worms!) and outrageously surreal psychedelic warfare, there is enough irony and humor to carry off a few massively un-PC subplots.
The holdout Bale of Tennessee and its rebelling Neeg-parts, with Percy X against Gus Swenesgard, could have aged disastrously but somehow still holds up as spoof. The female lead Joan Hiashi is much as a hard-boiled detective story's femme fatale, with all the mysoginistic trappings thereof.
I think overall the good outweighs the bad in this one. There are plenty of genuine laughs, and the icks somehow fit in alright too, just don't take it all too seriusly.
The holdout Bale of Tennessee and its rebelling Neeg-parts, with Percy X against Gus Swenesgard, could have aged disastrously but somehow still holds up as spoof. The female lead Joan Hiashi is much as a hard-boiled detective story's femme fatale, with all the mysoginistic trappings thereof.
I think overall the good outweighs the bad in this one. There are plenty of genuine laughs, and the icks somehow fit in alright too, just don't take it all too seriusly.
June 27, 2019
Mimo wspoautorstwa Raya Nelsona, książka jest bardzo dickowska. Na poziomie jezyka, fabuły i filozofii. Myślałam że to będzie totalna klapa, więc jestem mile zaskoczona.
June 2, 2016
It has all the elements of a PKD novel, robotaxis, vidphones, telepaths, ionocraft simulacra, especially the Earth conquering worms from Ganymede whose physical needs are attended to by a slave-race called "Creeches" The ridiculous humour is also all there, though the engaging characterization common to Dicks work is somewhat lacking here. I feel that the final draft may be more Nelson here than Dick - not sure as I have not yet read anything by Ray Nelson. However, the novel, though it was a slow at the start, does develop into something with PDK level merits. A cool read for sure.
September 16, 2020
My review in the form of a podcast I co-hosted.
https://soundcloud.com/dickheadspodca...
The world has been conquered by space worms and humanity's last hope lies with a psychic revolutionary hiding from the law in the mountains of the worst place on earth, Tennessee. The Ganymede Takeover is the first of only two novels Philip K. Dick coauthored and the only one (of a planned 3) to be written with Ray Nelson. Plus: The guy who invented the propeller hat. Privileged modern babies. And Overbaked Brownie scout club of death cookies.
Want to read
June 16, 2014I probably don't really want to read this but after seeing the cover and the fact it has man-eating plants, valkyries, and giant vampires (yes, you read right, GIANT vampires, and then seeing Manny and notgettingenough's reviews, if I come across it for cheap, I just might have to pick it up.
June 1, 2022
Two authors. Both of them on drugs and a least one of them insane. This is an incompetently written novel.
The premise is that alien space worms have taken over the earth. The last hold-out against the invaders is a band of Nation of Islam guerrilla fighters who are holed up in the hills of Tennessee.
The novel is chock full of ideas, any one of which could be expanded in to novel of it’s own, but none of which appear to have any real connection to the plot in a way which brings meaning to the book. The most developed theme (if theme is a word that can be applied to this novel) is that of American racial politics. Do the authors have anything to say on the matter? I have no idea, and I’ve literally just finished reading it. You can look for meaning, but just when you think you’ve found it the authors will contradict themselves. They appear to be in as great a state of confusion as I am. Looking for meaning here is like looking for canals on Mars.
Early on in the novel we’re told that a precog has predicted that the occupation of earth will fail. So we’re in a deterministic universe. This immediately sucks all tension out of something about a struggle for survival. And we’re told this very early on so it must be important, yet it never has any impact on anything ever again.
The premise is that alien space worms have taken over the earth. The last hold-out against the invaders is a band of Nation of Islam guerrilla fighters who are holed up in the hills of Tennessee.
The novel is chock full of ideas, any one of which could be expanded in to novel of it’s own, but none of which appear to have any real connection to the plot in a way which brings meaning to the book. The most developed theme (if theme is a word that can be applied to this novel) is that of American racial politics. Do the authors have anything to say on the matter? I have no idea, and I’ve literally just finished reading it. You can look for meaning, but just when you think you’ve found it the authors will contradict themselves. They appear to be in as great a state of confusion as I am. Looking for meaning here is like looking for canals on Mars.
Early on in the novel we’re told that a precog has predicted that the occupation of earth will fail. So we’re in a deterministic universe. This immediately sucks all tension out of something about a struggle for survival. And we’re told this very early on so it must be important, yet it never has any impact on anything ever again.
September 15, 2022
As crazy as it gets. I feel this is some top-tier PKD weirdness, up their with his weirdest. Yeah, the premise IS that giant, intelligent, organized worms from Ganymede take over Earth, but all that happens before the first page. The real plot has to do with the neurotic human resistance and collaborators with the worms. Oh, and then a few of the worms get interested in human culture - one of them converts to Roman catholicism, or fascinated with WWI artifacts, or the writings of an particular psychologist. Did I mention that some characters are psychic? Or that they develop weapons that quite literally drive people to hallucinate? Then a few people go into a sensory deprivation tank and become kind of disassociated with the world. I also liked how the hotels and flying taxis had their own personalities and sentience, and were occasionally rude or cynical with guests. PKD is just doing whatever he feels like. Very brave. I'm not surprised that it was co-written with another author while they spent the summer getting high in Berkeley. https://philipdick.com/mirror/website...
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
December 25, 2024
Quite possibly the worst Dick book I've read. It has all the bad Dick writing traits, but none of the good or interesting ideas. The worm-like Ganymedian conquerors are basic humans but with a chattel race who assist them, and as usual, the one interesting character, the female Joan Hiashi, who starts out as a turncoat trying to setup the rebel leader and is later subjected to a deprivation water-tank experiment subsequently turning her into a 'Nowhere Girl', is completely squandered and merely bats her eyelids every now and then. Percy X, the black leader of the last of the partisan holdouts, is a stand-in for Malcolm X, but is constantly referenced as a 'neeg-part' (negro partisan) which becomes extremely grating, and although there feels like there's an attempt to create a strong, black, rebel leader, he is often seen through the eyes of the conquerors in terms of being captured and his skin being turned into a pelt for a wall display. Quite disgusting, and if the author's had had any sense of respect, they would have at least
It's readable. Bust most of Dick's books are. But this one is for completionists only.
It's readable. Bust most of Dick's books are. But this one is for completionists only.
November 18, 2023
Just delightful- loved this collaborative novel from PKD and Ray Nelson- the guy who wrote the story that inspired the film They Live. Some of the prose towards the beginning as a bit blustery, but that's par for the course with this genre at that time, and the prose actually markedly improves after the first few chapters have setup the scenery. The plot is effective and relevant, and the dénouement really ties it together- sufficiently sophisticated to address the religio/philosophical quandary set forth by the text (master/slave dialectic, psychoanalytic incursions into eastern enlightenment ambitions, liberation theology etc), without floundering into trite dismals or other pretentious prestidigitations. This is definitely a seldom read PKD text, but it deserves more attention!
February 27, 2023
A Földet a harmadik világháború után a ganümédeszi telepatikus lények elfoglalják. A megszállóknak még nem teljes a győzelme, mert egy gerillaként harcoló csoport felveszi ellenük a harcot. Természetesen a lázadó földlakóknak nem csak az elnyomó hatalommal kell szembeszegülniük, hanem az átállt emberekkel is.
A Ganymedes a Jupiter holdja, a legnagyobb hold és a kilencedik legnagyobb égitest a Naprendszerben Ha nem a Jupiter, hanem a Nap körül keringene, mérete alapján akár bolygóként is besorolható lenne, mivel a Mars háromnegyedét teszi ki, és nagyobb a Merkúrnál. /wikipedia/
Philip K. Dick regényei közül, amit olvastam eddig, szerettem, a regény kora és a történetvezetés komótossága ellenére, mindig van bennük valami érdekes és számomra új, elgondolkodtató gondolat vagy elmélet, ami miatt érdemes olvasni őket. Az a kisregény felülmúlta a várakozásaimat, mert nem csak jó gondolatébresztő, hanem mozgalmas kalandregény.
Bár éppen most az Octavia E. Butler Hajnalának az idegen lényei rendesen tágítottak az ingerküszöbömön, azért ebben a könyvben lévő féregszerű telepatikus lények megjelenése is igazán horrorfilmbe illene. (Ennek még nincs filmfeldolgozása? Én eddig nem találtam.)
Összességében nagyon jó olvasmányélmény volt, sőt lehet, felkerül az újraolvasandók listájára. Ajánlom minden sci-fi szerető olvasónak, akik nem idegenkednek a furcsa formájú idegenektől! :)
Jó választás volt az űrhajó telepesei tematikájú könyvkempingre
A Ganymedes a Jupiter holdja, a legnagyobb hold és a kilencedik legnagyobb égitest a Naprendszerben Ha nem a Jupiter, hanem a Nap körül keringene, mérete alapján akár bolygóként is besorolható lenne, mivel a Mars háromnegyedét teszi ki, és nagyobb a Merkúrnál. /wikipedia/
Philip K. Dick regényei közül, amit olvastam eddig, szerettem, a regény kora és a történetvezetés komótossága ellenére, mindig van bennük valami érdekes és számomra új, elgondolkodtató gondolat vagy elmélet, ami miatt érdemes olvasni őket. Az a kisregény felülmúlta a várakozásaimat, mert nem csak jó gondolatébresztő, hanem mozgalmas kalandregény.
Bár éppen most az Octavia E. Butler Hajnalának az idegen lényei rendesen tágítottak az ingerküszöbömön, azért ebben a könyvben lévő féregszerű telepatikus lények megjelenése is igazán horrorfilmbe illene. (Ennek még nincs filmfeldolgozása? Én eddig nem találtam.)
Összességében nagyon jó olvasmányélmény volt, sőt lehet, felkerül az újraolvasandók listájára. Ajánlom minden sci-fi szerető olvasónak, akik nem idegenkednek a furcsa formájú idegenektől! :)
Jó választás volt az űrhajó telepesei tematikájú könyvkempingre
October 3, 2019
A pretty cohesive alien takeover then rebellion novel, albeit with a big PKD bent as well as a racial politics/satire bent. Its interesting to compare this to PKD's A Crack in Space, which also features strong civil rights theme.
Lots of psychic/precog stuff - i thought the alien race was rather alien and strikingly different.
I enjoyed the rather holistic resolution to the plot and the characters - uncharacteristic of PKD, who usually stops his novels on a whim.
Lots of psychic/precog stuff - i thought the alien race was rather alien and strikingly different.
I enjoyed the rather holistic resolution to the plot and the characters - uncharacteristic of PKD, who usually stops his novels on a whim.
December 8, 2020
Fantascienza un po’ datata, comunque godibile. Simpatica l’invenzione dei mostricci, i servi dei vermi. Splendida la descrizione della battaglia psichedelica: tre pagine da ridere!
January 31, 2013
My Philip K. Dick Project
Entry #37 - The Ganymede Takeover (written with Ray Nelson) (written 1964-1966, published June 1967)
Well, here we are. After mentioning Ganymede about a thousand times in his short stories and novels, Dick has finally gone all out and we have an actual gosh-darn book with Ganymede in the title, and a full-scale Ganymedean invasion. (As an aside, my favorite Ganymedean will most likely always be Lord Running Clam, the telepathic slime-mold and all-around nice guy from Clans of the Alphane Moon). Despite knowing beforehand that this was not one of Dick's more well-received books, I was still looking forward to this for a number of reasons, one of them being a focus on Ganymede. This is also the first Dick novel that he co-wrote with another author, Ray Nelson. I wanted to see how that worked out. Also, my edition has a really cool, mysterious cover that appealed to me. And finally, my own selfish reason, is that completing this means the next book in my project is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which I've been looking forward to for a long time.
So, then, how was it? It was OK. Not bad, but certainly not great. The Ganymedeans here are miles away from Lord Running Clam, specifically, they are basically gigantic, telepathic, despotic worms, who depend on slaves to move them around and do their work for them. Although I am completely unfamiliar with his work, I imagine this must be Ray Nelson's influence, because these are not typical PKD aliens (as I mentioned in an earlier review, Dick's aliens tend to come in three types: telepathic slime molds or protoplasms, basically humans with some ancient connection to Earth, or giant insects). They actually seemed like something that would show up in one of Calvin's Spaceman Spiff fantasies from Calvin & Hobbes. When the novel opens they have already occupied Earth, dividing it into fiefdoms ruled by governors. The only problem for them is Tennessee, which remains untameable. A black revolutionary called Percy X (gee, where did they come up with a name like that?) leads a resistance militia in the backwoods and hills of rural Tennessee. Joan Hiashi, who is a wik (a collaborator), and former fellow student of Percy is sent to find him and neutralize him. However, Paul Rivers, an agent of the World Psychiatric Association seeks to covertly aid Percy, seeing him as necessary to take back Earth from the worms. Hiashi switches sides, joins with Percy, but the two are captured and sent to the Norway clinic of renowned psychiatrist Rudolph Balkani, by Mekkis, the Ganymedean who has been given the task of subduing Tennessee as a sort of punishment by his fellow Ganymedeans. And so on.
I couldn't tell you how much influence Ray Nelson actually had but the written prose is obviously Dick's, functional, occasionally awkward, occasionally earnest and sweet. In fact, for the most part, this seems to me to be mostly PKD, although unfortunately, it's mediocre PKD. It's filled with many of his obsessions, among them psychiatrists, reality-bending, racial tensions between blacks and whites (still fresh from Counter-Clock World, android simulacrums, telepathy, dabblings in Christianity, and sympathetic antagonists. As often happens in Dick's novels, once the shit hits the fan, everything sort of goes off the rails and ends too abruptly. In this case, the reality-warping at the end of the book, while interesting, feels a little unearned. It just happens, without enough hints as to why.
That's all I can really think to say, this book didn't inspire me to write too much about it. It's not bad, and it definitely has its moments, but I don't think anyone would call this one of Dick's classics.
Stray Thoughts: * Joan Hiashi as a character is taken straight from Dick's short story "The Little Black Box".
* Although I can't even remember his name now, the racist hick wik ruler of Tennessee's little bid to assume world control on TV near the end of the book is so naive and pathetic and sad, I felt sorry and embarrassed for him. For some reason, I often feel so sorry for villains when their plans backfire on them.
* As always, one thing that gets overlooked in a Dick book is the always strange juxtaposition between the the fantastic and the mundane, and this book has plenty of that. Nobody could do that like Dick.
My edition: Arrow Books paperback, 1971
Up next: "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" ! Arguably Dick’s most famous work and basis of the classic film “Blade Runner!”
January 28th, 2012
Entry #37 - The Ganymede Takeover (written with Ray Nelson) (written 1964-1966, published June 1967)
Well, here we are. After mentioning Ganymede about a thousand times in his short stories and novels, Dick has finally gone all out and we have an actual gosh-darn book with Ganymede in the title, and a full-scale Ganymedean invasion. (As an aside, my favorite Ganymedean will most likely always be Lord Running Clam, the telepathic slime-mold and all-around nice guy from Clans of the Alphane Moon). Despite knowing beforehand that this was not one of Dick's more well-received books, I was still looking forward to this for a number of reasons, one of them being a focus on Ganymede. This is also the first Dick novel that he co-wrote with another author, Ray Nelson. I wanted to see how that worked out. Also, my edition has a really cool, mysterious cover that appealed to me. And finally, my own selfish reason, is that completing this means the next book in my project is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which I've been looking forward to for a long time.
So, then, how was it? It was OK. Not bad, but certainly not great. The Ganymedeans here are miles away from Lord Running Clam, specifically, they are basically gigantic, telepathic, despotic worms, who depend on slaves to move them around and do their work for them. Although I am completely unfamiliar with his work, I imagine this must be Ray Nelson's influence, because these are not typical PKD aliens (as I mentioned in an earlier review, Dick's aliens tend to come in three types: telepathic slime molds or protoplasms, basically humans with some ancient connection to Earth, or giant insects). They actually seemed like something that would show up in one of Calvin's Spaceman Spiff fantasies from Calvin & Hobbes. When the novel opens they have already occupied Earth, dividing it into fiefdoms ruled by governors. The only problem for them is Tennessee, which remains untameable. A black revolutionary called Percy X (gee, where did they come up with a name like that?) leads a resistance militia in the backwoods and hills of rural Tennessee. Joan Hiashi, who is a wik (a collaborator), and former fellow student of Percy is sent to find him and neutralize him. However, Paul Rivers, an agent of the World Psychiatric Association seeks to covertly aid Percy, seeing him as necessary to take back Earth from the worms. Hiashi switches sides, joins with Percy, but the two are captured and sent to the Norway clinic of renowned psychiatrist Rudolph Balkani, by Mekkis, the Ganymedean who has been given the task of subduing Tennessee as a sort of punishment by his fellow Ganymedeans. And so on.
I couldn't tell you how much influence Ray Nelson actually had but the written prose is obviously Dick's, functional, occasionally awkward, occasionally earnest and sweet. In fact, for the most part, this seems to me to be mostly PKD, although unfortunately, it's mediocre PKD. It's filled with many of his obsessions, among them psychiatrists, reality-bending, racial tensions between blacks and whites (still fresh from Counter-Clock World, android simulacrums, telepathy, dabblings in Christianity, and sympathetic antagonists. As often happens in Dick's novels, once the shit hits the fan, everything sort of goes off the rails and ends too abruptly. In this case, the reality-warping at the end of the book, while interesting, feels a little unearned. It just happens, without enough hints as to why.
That's all I can really think to say, this book didn't inspire me to write too much about it. It's not bad, and it definitely has its moments, but I don't think anyone would call this one of Dick's classics.
Stray Thoughts: * Joan Hiashi as a character is taken straight from Dick's short story "The Little Black Box".
* Although I can't even remember his name now, the racist hick wik ruler of Tennessee's little bid to assume world control on TV near the end of the book is so naive and pathetic and sad, I felt sorry and embarrassed for him. For some reason, I often feel so sorry for villains when their plans backfire on them.
* As always, one thing that gets overlooked in a Dick book is the always strange juxtaposition between the the fantastic and the mundane, and this book has plenty of that. Nobody could do that like Dick.
My edition: Arrow Books paperback, 1971
Up next: "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" ! Arguably Dick’s most famous work and basis of the classic film “Blade Runner!”
January 28th, 2012
June 13, 2014
Cover Art: A black fighter craft flying over some farmland.. kinda a cool ship, but not breathtaking or anything. Only very vaguely connected to the story... they did mention some scout planes and bombers and such.
Plot: The Worm-like hive society of Ganymede has taken over the Earth, the last pocket of resistant is the 'Negro Partisans' of Tennessee under the leader of Percy X. Meanwhile, Percy's college girlfriend gets mixed up in the sensory deprivation experiments of Dr, Balkani. A plantation boss named Gus accidently finds a lost UN cache of super weapons and loses them to Percy, but these weapons are so terrible they cause the users to become paranoid schizophrenics.
The new Gany ruler in charge of Tennessee becomes a fan of Dr. Balkani, and becomes obsessed with it's secrets, leading him to leave the hive mind and help Earth break free.
What I thought: After starting the book, I'm pretty sure I've read it before, long ago (or at least tried to). This is defniitely an acid trip on paper... it's really weird. There's alot of stuff about letting go of life to live it and things of that nature. It could be I just didn't get it totally, but that wasn't the sense I got, really it's just a product of the last 60s ;)
There were a couple of weird interludes too... one that gave us a couple page history of jazz music, and one that spent a good 5 pages on early 20th century war plane models (Which one of the aliens collected).
Setting: The story takes place around 2040 or so.. so 75 or so years in the future at the time of writing. Earth had been conquered some time ago, as the Ganymedeans were sending a civilian governor to replace the military one. There's no mention of other aliens, space travel, or anything of that nature.
Tech: Not much past the 60s, really. They have Vidphones (including cellphone-like pocket ones), but not computers to speak of. Lots of basic services seem to be run by low level AI (the hotel rooms and taxis, for instance), but it's really more Jetson-like than anything. There's still Microfilm for archiving documents, and Dr. Balkani writes his findings using a typewriter.
There were a few things, though... the 'hell weapon' that the book was focused on was a psychic device of some sort that put the entire world into sensory deprivation.. the lesser weapons were basically green lantern rings.. they made thoughts become real. Unfortunately, the illusions made didn't go away right away, which made the users kinda crazy.
The good guys seemed to have whatever they needed to fix things.. including X-Men style Image Inducers, and Robot Doubles.
Odds and ends: They mention that Unisex clothes replaced gender specific fashions 'in the 90s' which was pretty funny. Though, after thinking about it, that's not an unreasonable extension of the feminist movement.
It cracked me up that the people do the research on the mind weapons were the "World Psychadelic Council".. very appropriate. He was right on with marajuana cigarettes and meth pills, though. Not so on with the UN as the ruling body of the Earth (though LOTS of 60s and 70s Sci-Fi went with that)
It was also really funny that the aliens made their own money, and took the time to research and put cultural icons on the money (which the characters in world hated)...a fun little detail :)
Plot: The Worm-like hive society of Ganymede has taken over the Earth, the last pocket of resistant is the 'Negro Partisans' of Tennessee under the leader of Percy X. Meanwhile, Percy's college girlfriend gets mixed up in the sensory deprivation experiments of Dr, Balkani. A plantation boss named Gus accidently finds a lost UN cache of super weapons and loses them to Percy, but these weapons are so terrible they cause the users to become paranoid schizophrenics.
The new Gany ruler in charge of Tennessee becomes a fan of Dr. Balkani, and becomes obsessed with it's secrets, leading him to leave the hive mind and help Earth break free.
What I thought: After starting the book, I'm pretty sure I've read it before, long ago (or at least tried to). This is defniitely an acid trip on paper... it's really weird. There's alot of stuff about letting go of life to live it and things of that nature. It could be I just didn't get it totally, but that wasn't the sense I got, really it's just a product of the last 60s ;)
There were a couple of weird interludes too... one that gave us a couple page history of jazz music, and one that spent a good 5 pages on early 20th century war plane models (Which one of the aliens collected).
Setting: The story takes place around 2040 or so.. so 75 or so years in the future at the time of writing. Earth had been conquered some time ago, as the Ganymedeans were sending a civilian governor to replace the military one. There's no mention of other aliens, space travel, or anything of that nature.
Tech: Not much past the 60s, really. They have Vidphones (including cellphone-like pocket ones), but not computers to speak of. Lots of basic services seem to be run by low level AI (the hotel rooms and taxis, for instance), but it's really more Jetson-like than anything. There's still Microfilm for archiving documents, and Dr. Balkani writes his findings using a typewriter.
There were a few things, though... the 'hell weapon' that the book was focused on was a psychic device of some sort that put the entire world into sensory deprivation.. the lesser weapons were basically green lantern rings.. they made thoughts become real. Unfortunately, the illusions made didn't go away right away, which made the users kinda crazy.
The good guys seemed to have whatever they needed to fix things.. including X-Men style Image Inducers, and Robot Doubles.
Odds and ends: They mention that Unisex clothes replaced gender specific fashions 'in the 90s' which was pretty funny. Though, after thinking about it, that's not an unreasonable extension of the feminist movement.
It cracked me up that the people do the research on the mind weapons were the "World Psychadelic Council".. very appropriate. He was right on with marajuana cigarettes and meth pills, though. Not so on with the UN as the ruling body of the Earth (though LOTS of 60s and 70s Sci-Fi went with that)
It was also really funny that the aliens made their own money, and took the time to research and put cultural icons on the money (which the characters in world hated)...a fun little detail :)
October 24, 2021
Being a PKD fan, at the same time as being a woman, can be very taxing to the psyche.
This book is clearly a very rough, poorly planned-out, draft for a bigger, better book that never got to be written. Several plot holes early on make the first half somewhat of a chore to read (case in point: an alien government executive forgets a character of major importance is a telepath), but I chose to persevere, and I am glad I did.
Both authors seem to never have met, much less respected, a woman during the entirety of their lives. Women are somewhat underrepresented and oversexualised in most PKD efforts, but this one might just take the cake (extra lolz for the scene towards the end where a protagonist tries to "channel" being a "woman" using words like yin, small, delicate etc etc.) . Joanne is an interesting character condemned by the plot itself to the most degrading character arc I've ever seen.
To the positives now, because there always are reasons to soldier through the worst of PKD books. There are millions of great -and mighty fun!- ideas explored within the story, some of which I would deem un-writeable had I not just read "The Ganymede Takeover". I liked the reality-altering technologies, the worm-like aliens, even the awkwardly dated but well meant exploration of race. The "Villain", too, (or should I say,"Villains", because we also have the mad scientist) is interesting and somewhat deep, even in his absurd extremes.
A lot of philosophical ideas about reality and the centre of the ego, too. Some observations are astute and poetic, and, dare I say, even oddly prescient in their understanding of human nature (e.g.: a character admits to themselves that gender is a social construct).
Finally, though some of the prose and dialogue is awkward, many paragraphs within this absurd little book shine through as some of the most cinematic, even cathartic, I've ever seen. Among the highlights: Joanne observing an autumn leaf; a battle involving unspeakable horrors that is so funny to read I couldn't breathe for a solid minute; the final scenes involving the mad scientist / psychologist Dr. Balcani; Gus and his televised speech.
Most of all, the book was fun. And I don't take the word lightly. It is filled with clever absurdist humor and some of the most surreal imagery out there. It is clear the two authors set out to create something entirely bonkers- and to that end, they succeeded.
This book is clearly a very rough, poorly planned-out, draft for a bigger, better book that never got to be written. Several plot holes early on make the first half somewhat of a chore to read (case in point: an alien government executive forgets a character of major importance is a telepath), but I chose to persevere, and I am glad I did.
Both authors seem to never have met, much less respected, a woman during the entirety of their lives. Women are somewhat underrepresented and oversexualised in most PKD efforts, but this one might just take the cake (extra lolz for the scene towards the end where a protagonist tries to "channel" being a "woman" using words like yin, small, delicate etc etc.) . Joanne is an interesting character condemned by the plot itself to the most degrading character arc I've ever seen.
To the positives now, because there always are reasons to soldier through the worst of PKD books. There are millions of great -and mighty fun!- ideas explored within the story, some of which I would deem un-writeable had I not just read "The Ganymede Takeover". I liked the reality-altering technologies, the worm-like aliens, even the awkwardly dated but well meant exploration of race. The "Villain", too, (or should I say,"Villains", because we also have the mad scientist) is interesting and somewhat deep, even in his absurd extremes.
A lot of philosophical ideas about reality and the centre of the ego, too. Some observations are astute and poetic, and, dare I say, even oddly prescient in their understanding of human nature (e.g.: a character admits to themselves that gender is a social construct).
Finally, though some of the prose and dialogue is awkward, many paragraphs within this absurd little book shine through as some of the most cinematic, even cathartic, I've ever seen. Among the highlights: Joanne observing an autumn leaf; a battle involving unspeakable horrors that is so funny to read I couldn't breathe for a solid minute; the final scenes involving the mad scientist / psychologist Dr. Balcani; Gus and his televised speech.
Most of all, the book was fun. And I don't take the word lightly. It is filled with clever absurdist humor and some of the most surreal imagery out there. It is clear the two authors set out to create something entirely bonkers- and to that end, they succeeded.
January 22, 2018
It’s not PKD’s best work, but it’s got some salient insights dotted throughout, as does most of his corpus. I thought the line:
“Learn to be alone; watch a bird fly without telling anyone about it or even storing it up to tell someone about it in the future.”
quite insightful, rather than escapist as another character describes.
It does have a rather peculiar 2D pastiche feel about it, rather than being a well built reality - but I’m inclined to be sympathetic and believe that that was the point, given that like much of his work, this pokes holes through reality, around the basis of a shared gestalt.
“Learn to be alone; watch a bird fly without telling anyone about it or even storing it up to tell someone about it in the future.”
quite insightful, rather than escapist as another character describes.
It does have a rather peculiar 2D pastiche feel about it, rather than being a well built reality - but I’m inclined to be sympathetic and believe that that was the point, given that like much of his work, this pokes holes through reality, around the basis of a shared gestalt.
March 25, 2020
The product of a collaboration between good friends, TAKEOVER was really an exercise as a warm-up to the real novel Phil and Ray intended to write. That book never got written and TAKEOVER was published anyway. A story of post-invasion America centered on a rebel enclave in Tennessee, the struggle between the Ganymedeans ("worms") and the rebel humans is part race-war, part War of the Worlds. The whole thing is kind of a mess to say the least, but there are a lot of funny and sharp scenes. Worth a read for PKD fanatics, but overall, like the previous UNTELEPORTED MAN, a bit of a quality lull in Phil's otherwise stellar mid-late 60s run.
May 24, 2021
Worm-like aliens have invaded Earth, but the Neeg-Parts (black partisans) in Tennessee are resisting the occupation. Various factions, including a nefarious psychologist, a Japanese woman and media specialist, and an alien general are intent on capturing Percy X, the leader of the Neeg-Parts. The resulting conflict are fought with mind-altering super weapons that threaten reality. This collaborative novel has the "furniture" of a Dick novel, but it never really comes to life. Easy to blame this on Dick's collaborator, Ray Nelson, but it may be that Dick was not engaged by the novel that he started. Recommended for hardcore PKD fans.
July 2, 2008
someone will hopefully explain why this is out of print.
March 23, 2016
The end started to salvage it but it was a stretch
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