Solar Lottery (1955)

Again, I don't want to give too much away with this book, I like going into PKD's books with as little knowledge about them as possible. To sumarize a little, the leader of Earth and it's colonies is elected by a random lottery system. Though the previous leader has the chance to take back the position. We start this book with one such change in power occuring.

I wasn't aware of how much earlier this book was written in comparison to other PKD books when I bought it and read through most of it. I really, really enjoyed it and how I wasn't sure what would happen next. By the time I finished it I was a bit sad it hadn't been made in to a film yet. I would love to see this on the big screen, especially the character of Mr. Pellig. I hope it's something I can see in my lifetime. After reading this book I'm definitely more curious about PKD's earlier novels. ( )

A dying economy and a world population dependent on a lottery is what you will find in the year 2023. The economy is so bad, quizzes helped the many people struggling. But if you had the right p-card and your number came up you could win cars, refrigerators, toys for the kids and any other type of merchandise you wouldn't be able to afford otherwise. The “Bottle” which pumps out numbers randomly, supposedly, could even help a lucky winner gain power and prestige. And if you could get either of those you could possibly become a Quizmaster. This system was created as a method of surviving the Minimax, a way of surviving the 20th century, by a group of mathematicians including John Preston, the creator of this system. This system was put in place instead of having government. Ted Bentley who is now released from his contract with Oiseau-Lyre, sets out to become an 8-8 biochemist for the current Quizmaster, Reese Verrick. As he gets deeper in and his facts are skewed about how the operation is run it's too late to back out. He has already pledged to serve Verrick even after he finds out that Verrick is no longer the Quizmaster. Verrick implements a plan to assassinate the newest Quizmaster Leon Cartwright. As the new Quizmaster, Cartwright is protected by the Corp, a group of telepaths no assassin could get past. In order to achieve his goal, Verrick plans to use Keith Pellig, his species is unique, in that his body is a vessel that can house many minds, in order to manipulate the Corp. The action starts when Ted and Leon cross paths. Together they share an idea to change the current system that could give people a better chance of winning. But with Verrick and his crew on their trail they face the biggest challenge of their lives. Dick has created a riveting futuristic tale that has lots of twists and turns. The cities and system are a brilliant idea. Young readers will love the characters and the adventure. A great fast read for anyone. ( )

My reactions on reading this novel in 1989 -- spoilers are definitely here.

Given all of Dick's own statements and complaints about the supposed bad quality of this novel, I was expecting a bad read. I was pleasantly surprised. Dick creates an intriguing society ruled by lottery, social Darwinism, and the economics of conspicous consumption. Dick postulates economic depression eroding people's faith in natural law and a political system based entirely on chance emerging. People also become absurdly superstitious (the omens at the novel's beginning are very Roman-like as is the social feature of patronage mentioned in passing. The application of von Neumann's game theory to society was interesting. Dick's political order is randomness and survival of the fittest incarnate.

Even at this state of his career, Dick's ear for dialogue was good though his characterization was not quite as developed as it was to become but it's still good. The book's plot whizzes along enough to qualify for Dick's term of "potboiler". The characters are every bit as mercurial and illrational as ever in Dick's work, a trait that accounts for his very believeable characters. The book's big fault, though, is in the details of his society. There's really only about two pages of social exposition, and Dick leaves many questions unanswered: How do quizzes fit in to the order? Why is the chief official the Quizmaster? How are classifications changed? What is the relation between the classified and unclassified? Under what conditions does the bottle twitch and slect a new leader? How do the p-cards work? Dick leaves a lot unexplained.

I was intrigued by the idea of publically sanctioned assassination as an answer to tyranny and incompotence -- though I wouldn't want to live in such a society. I also liked Dick's use of Heisenberg's Uncertainity Principle in political and philosophical terms. The figure of Moore and his contradictary, scheming, pontifical nature reminded me of Joseph Goebbels. And Dick, with the Pellig machine, introduces, in a muted form, his concern with reality's nature and appearance in novel form.

Read enough Dick work and material about him and you begin to notice possible personally relevant things in his fiction. Here it is one remark by Ted Benteley, "And I hate fathers.". A possible clue to Dick's own feelings about his father and genesis of his distrust for authority figures. And even in this first published novel, the deceitful neurotic female (of course, there are plenty of neurotic males in Dick's works) -- as characterized by Eleanor Stevens -- makes an appearance. She is a pathetic, startling, always interesting. Her death is poignant. ( )

It's 2203, and the world ruler is chosen at random, according to the rules of a game under the control of the Quizmaster. Currently, the Quizmaster is Reese Verrick, and has been such for the past ten years. However, this story isn't about the Quizmaster. It's about Ted Benteley, who, on a fateful morning, when he signs up to work for Verrick, has no idea that a new Quizmaster is to be chosen; a certain Leon Cartwright. He also has no idea that he's about to become a big player in a scheme to assassinate Leon Cartwright so that Verrick can resume his leadership as Quizmaster. However, nothing is ever as it seems, and the Universe isn't quite as random as it appears.

This novella, at just 200 pages long, was quite enjoyable. Despite the brevity of the book, the main characters are quite developed. And perhaps because the story is short, it's fast-paced, except for a few scenes concerning the Prestonian subplot, where Cartwright's fellow 'cultists' go out into the farthest reaches of the solar system, seeking the Flaming Disc, which is said to be the tenth planet of the solar system.

Philip K. Dick describes, in this novella, a world which is completely different, yet familiar to our own only by the vocabulary used. This was written in 1955; will humans still be using televisions in two centuries from now? Will cigarette still exist? Who knows?

One aspect I also enjoyed was the use of telepaths, although this ability isn't widespread; only a few individuals have this gift, and all of them are in the police service, thus serving the Quizmaster. And when Cartwright's assassin arrives in Batavia to kill him, he manages to completely confuse the Corps, which relies only on telepathy to track him down. So not everything is perfect.

Solar Lottery is a good and fun piece of science-fiction, the kind of science-fiction that one could imagine coming to fruition one day. Old and new get combined to create a realistic world which could mirror our own, and evokes familiarity with our own society.

4/5 ( )

NIL