In article <47f706e6$0$98483$d368eab@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, Mike Van Pelt
writes:
>In article
<c886d76c-7471-4855-9ace-c045d17676da@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
<daijoudaijin@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
[last paragraph of _Ubik_]
>>When I first finished it last night, I assumed it meant
>>that Runciter had died as well (or was dead all along), and
>>was now about to go through the same process that the rest
>>of them had.
>
>My take on it was extremely negative. Alas, it was a
>borrowed copy, so I was unable to give it the treatment I
>felt it so richly deserved: Fling it on the floor, and then
>jump up and down on it over and over and over and over, then
>drop-kick it into the toilet.
>
>Basically, the whole book is setting up some kind of
>mystery, and you spend the whole book trying to figure out
>the mystery as it gets weirder and weirder, then in the last
>paragraph, PKD goes "Nyah nyah, neener neener, everybody
>died in that explosion in Chapter 1, and this has all been
>the dying hallucinations of the only one who wasn't killed
>instantly as his brain slowly deteriorates on life sup****t.
>I bet you thought it was supposed to make sense! Ha ha,
>fooled you!"
Well, some of us are more easily fooled than others. I was surprised
when I found out that the viewpoint characters were dead.
>Some people really like that sort of thing. I am not one of
>them.
Just goes to show how tastes differ. I *love* having the rug yanked
out from under me. Given what you've stated, you really woulnd't like
Laumer's _Knight of Delusions_. Trust me.
>This was my first PKD story,
Mine as well. Also borrowed.
>except I got talked into reading "The Man in the High Castle."
>My reaction to that was that it was OK, but nothing special.
Yeah. If I'd read that at first, I wouldn't have picked up another
PKD. Still don't see it as Hugo caliber. If you'd like to try another
acclaimed PKD that doesn't mess with your expectations, you might try
_The Untele****ted Man_. Pretty much bog-standard SF. I didn't care
much for that one, either.
--
Michael F. Stemper
#include <Standard_Disclaimer>
2 + 2 = 5, for sufficiently large values of 2
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