|
-
Hivemind social net
-
News
- Features
- Blogs
- Events
Calendar
- Editorials
- Monthly
Zine
- Offworld
Report
- Our Daily
RSS Feed
- Google Toolbar scifi
- Movie/TV
Reviews
> Recent movies
> Movies by year
> Movies by title
- Book
Reviews
> Recent books
> Books by year
> Books by title
- Home
- Worlds
- Biography
- Bibliography
- Appearances
- Reviews
- Blog
- Community
- Press
- Links
Become
an Advertiser
- Web
Site Directory
- Search
the Net
- StephenHunt.net
- WoodenRocket.com
- Check
your E-mail
- Non Sci-Fi
News
|
A Maze Of Death by Philip K. Dick (SF Masterworks # 63)
01/08/2006 . Source: Paul Skevington 
pub: Gollancz. 190 page enlarged paperback. Price: £ 6.99 (UK). ISBN: 0-575-07461-2. Buy A Maze Of Death in the USA - or Buy A Maze Of Death in the UK  check out website: www.orionbooks.co.uk
This book has what is quite possibly the best foreword of all time. It tells us that: '...the theology of this novel...stems from an attempt...to develop an abstract, logical system of religious thought, based on the arbitrary postulate that god exists.'
Author Philip Dick then proceeds to tell us that a character's post-mortem experiences are based on one of his own LSD trips and the entire novel is written subjectively, through the minds of his characters.
When you start a book like this, you had better follow it up with something good. After all, it may be the only thing that stops everyone from concluding you're not a proper author, you're just a little bit mad. Luckily, this book is very good. It is also a little bit mad.
The wonder of this novel is in the way that Dick manages to write something so personal and yet still manages to invade the mind of his readers, pulling out hidden secrets, forcing open our eyes to make us gaze upon some uncomfortable truths. It is as if Dick writes straight onto the page without the layer of obfuscation that the transition from thought to word can instil. Presented here is the human soul, raw and bleeding and in glorious Technicolor.
The plot concerns a group of colonists who, upon arriving at their new planet, start being killed off one-by-one. The machines they arrived in were fit for one journey only, there is no escape from the death trap they now inhabit. Together, they struggle to find an answer to their plight before it's too late. As the book progresses, we begin to realise that their quest is hopeless. As the title suggests, they are in a labyrinth and each turning leads to an ending. It's what happens when the divine becomes concrete.
It is as if the removal of religion as a mysterious and internalised power has forced the characters into an existence purely based on egoism. Each is pre-occupied with their own interests, barely acknowledging the existence of the others. The colony's linguist, Betty Jo Berm, describes the colonists' reactions to new arrivals: 'We have an initial curiosity...but...after we see the person and listen to him a little-'
This isolation is epitomised when they finally arrive at the 'Building', only for each of them to see a different sign above it with a significance tailored to each individual.
Although one might suppose that the elimination of theological doubt would have a binding effect on this group, it actually contributes to their separation. At the start of the novel, Seth Morley has an encounter with an aspect of God, the Walker-on-Earth. When Babble is told about this, he decides it must not have been the Walker at all, but in fact a 'passing itinerant labourer'. In this novel, no one values the experiences or the desire of others, only their own holds any currency.
This applies particularly to the relationships between the men and women in the book. The two Morleys have an extremely troubled relationship and Susie Smart's interactions with the men are aggressive and unsatisfactory. Relating to someone in any significant way is impossible in this world. At this stage in his life, Dick was about to divorce his fourth wife. It is conceivable that this state of affairs may have influenced this unquestionably bleak vision of human interaction.
Dick's enduring and subtle wit enlivens what could have been a thoroughly depressing read. He is quick to point out the terrible absurdities of the colonists' thoughts and actions so that we never sink too far into melancholy. At the same time, there is the mystery of the colony and its purpose to engage us, with new and even more bizarre possibilities surfacing every few pages. It all culminates in an ending that is conceptually light-years ahead of its time.
This little book is a skeleton key. It opens up thousands of doors, some of them frightening, all fascinating. It's additional proof that Philip K. Dick has done more for the substance and relevance of SF than we can ever hope to quantify.
Paul Skevington
|
|
