1964 - Year in SF&F: Reviews
THE WONDER TIMELINE: SF&F RETROSPECTIVE Read other issues here ---------------------------------------------- ![]() ![]() Philip K. Dick "The Penultimate Truth" (nv) (exp. from "The Defenders") (based on "Mold For Yancy") © Galaxy, Jan 1953 book: Belmont, 1964 --/ third place apocalyptic sf novel --/ wonder award --/ idea award "The Penultimate Truth" is a sharp Cold War nightmare, which greatly influenced me when I read it in my youth. It could be a "quintessential" paranoia premise: The world's population lives underground in small factories called 'Tanks'. They are making complex robots to fight World War III above. Information about the war comes to them from - yes, robots again, of course. So, it turns out the war finished ten years ago. And the robots are enjoying country estates, in the meantime trying to keep humanity locked up "for its own good". This novel has a darker feeling than the original story "The Defenders". It also contains my single "most-loved" idea - breaking out of the confining world into the great wide open - so this explains such a high rating, too. review: 04-Jul-06 (read in 1986) ---------------------------------------------- ![]() ![]() Philip K. Dick "UBIK" (nv) (based on "What the Dead Men Say") © Worlds of Tomorrow, Jun 1964 story: The Preserving Machine, 1969 novel: Doubleday, 1969 --all time sf novel : 1987 Locus /37 --sf novel : 1998 Locus /43 (tie) --/ second place sf novel --/ idea award --/ wonder award --/ adventure award --/ style award --/ shock value Philip K. Dick loved to play with reality: what it might be, what it could be, and how it could be twisted and warped. Ubik, which was published in 1969, is a perfect example of Dick at his most playful, wild, and enjoyable – all the while having an obvious blast playing his might be, could be, and twisted and warped reality games. At first Ubik is a science fiction drama, with Dick’s signature surreal details and devices: a Machiavellian fight between two powerful organizations in a technologically advanced North America. Then, as they say, things get weird – as weird as only Dick can make them. Escaping a bomb blast on the moon, the main characters soon begin to see the world -- their reality -- fracture and break. It takes them a while, but eventually they figure out that they are all in suspended animation, in half-life, and that they are being snuffed out one by one by a powerful being – and that the only thing that might save them is a weird, and ubiquitous, substance called UBIK. But even though UBIK is a very strange book it still is immensely readable, which demonstrates Dick’s tremendous talent. All too often bizarre is simply an author’s excuse for chaos, where meaning and characterization gets tossed for cheap surreal details. But that’s never true for Dick and absolutely not true with UBIK: things get very bizarre in the book but never as the expense of the core principles of a great book: characters, story, description, and so forth. Ubik is pure Dick, and a must-read: a wonderfully bizarre adventure that’ll make you stare at the wall for hours and wonder, as Dick surely did, about what’s really on the other side of it. Review by author M. Christian ---------------------------------------------- Return to the Wonder Timeline Labels: Timeline |
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"SF&F Reading Experience" is part of "Dark Roasted Blend / Thrilling Wonder" family of sites. We try to highlight the most entertaining and rewarding science fiction and fantasy, with emphasis on memorable reader experience, not necessarily general acceptance by the critics. Have fun, and delve into our extensive ratings and reviews! Most reviews are written by Avi Abrams, unless otherwise noted. Reviews also appear on our unique historical retrospective page Wonder Timeline of Science Fiction. Feel free to submit your own review, if a particular story is not listed here. All major OFFICIAL AWARDS are highlighted in BLUE ("winner" has a letter "W" by it, otherwise it is a runner-up only) Our PERSONAL AWARDS (ratings) are highlighted in RED and PURPLE: --/ first place : --/ second place : --/ third place : --/ fourth place : --/ cool : (equal to fifth place) ALL "BEST OF" LISTS ARE LOCATED HERE These awards are given in the following categories: - novel : - series : - novella : - story : - collection : Also, there are our personal STYLE / GENRE SPECIFIC AWARDS. These reflect the story's content and the lasting impression on the reader: --/ wonder award sense-of-wonder, "visual intensity" and inventiveness --/ idea award originality of idea / concept --/ adventure award exhilarating plot, excitement / action --/ style award outstanding literary qualities, inimitable style --/ romance award intense and beautiful love / relationships --/ humour award funny and cool --/ emotion award touching, lasting impression, sensitivity --/ shock value altogether wild --/ awesome scale mind-boggling; further enhances sense-of-wonder --/ rare find very hard to locate, mostly from old pulps, never reprinted, etc. Again, please feel free to leave your own review or comment under every writer's entry; also recommend us other stories you liked. |
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