It’s taken me ten years. I have read each of Philip K Dick’s 34 science fiction novels at least once and as many as four or five times. now I’m finally ready to declare my top ten, in ranked order to begin with! this is a completely subjective list, of course. feel free to add your own top ten pkd sf novels in the comments below.
a note on inclusions and exclusions. Since I’m limiting myself to pkd sci-fi novels here, I’m excluding novels that I’d probably consider to be in the top ten overall, but aren’t sci-fi (i.e. timothy archer’s transmigration , but maybe also confessions of a shitty artist). I exclude nick and the glimmung on the grounds that it is a science fiction novel for children, and not a particularly successful work in general.
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Without further ado, here is my top ten in ascending order of merit. all 10 novels are part of gollancz’s series of science fiction masterpieces:
10. doctor bloodmoney, or how we got along after the bomb
This novel presents probably the strangest post-bomb narrative I have ever come across. a strange pastoral fantasy with a huge cast of characters, it is something less than the sum of its parts.
link to my review
9. time out of joint
the first memorable novel of pkd’s career and his only novel from the 1950s that retains much of its relevance today. aside from the last sixty pages, this is great.
link to my review
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
a fast-paced, spartan police thriller forever immortalized by blade runner. it has some weird stuff (mercerism?), but it’s a real pleasure to read. an effective piece of smart entertainment.
link to my review
See Also: Janette Oke – Book Series In Order
7. ok
most people would have valis higher in their top ten than this. certainly one of pkd’s most important novels, but here, I think, he missed the material.
link to my review
6. now wait for last year
the quintessential pkd novel. time travel, illicit drugs, an alien invasion, and a sick world leader (actually, several of them are the same, and they’re all based on benito mussolini). what’s not to like?
link to my review
5. a dark scanner
pkd’s anti-drug novel is not only a vicious indictment of 1960s drug culture, it’s also one of the most moving works he would produce in his lifetime. and there are plenty of laughs along the way, even if it’s black humor.
link to my review
4. the man in the high castle
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somber, slow, quiet… but about the Japanese and the Nazis who won the second world war. this is a classic that will be remembered long after the rest of us have been forgotten.
link to my review
3. the three stigmata of palmer eldritch
Widely considered the best pkd novel, it’s hard to deny that this is the pinnacle of this man’s career. he tries to make a movie out of this.
link to my review
2. ubik
Apart from the first 70 pages, ubik is the best thing pkd has ever written. he just needed to edit it properly, which he never did. but the rest is so brilliant that all objections vanish.
link to my review
1. martian time slip
a controversial choice for no. 1 maybe, but for me this is the best thing pkd ever wrote. It doesn’t hurt that it was the book that made me the great man in the first place. various scenes will haunt me forever.
link to my review
See Also: Robert Bailey – Book Series In Order