From a stock pulp science fiction beginning, this novel swirls away into a psychadelic exploration of marketing, metaphysics and xenology. It is so heavily layered that it multiple readings and much reflection are needed to optimise its value but even at a superficial plot level it is an astonishing work if one can cope with the confusion that it generates towards the end. ( )

This book keeps messing with my head. ( )

I know that everyone says that this is PKD's masterwork, and I can see why, it's a pretty brilliant set of ideas, and the writing is splendid. I, however, didn't enjoy reading it as much as other PD books I have read in the past. ( )

I assume that the shared escapism of Dick's interplanetary settlers was intended as a satire on PKD's contemporary suburbia, or perhaps a literalization of television's "vast wasteland"; but there is an eerie connection between their drug-induced state and the "consensual hallucination" (aka 'cyberspace') found in Wiliam Gibson's Neuromancer.

The religious aspect is inescapable, but he gives you fair warning in the title. As for the last couple of paragraphs -- okay, they're weird. I'll get back to you after I've thought about them a bit...

PKD's vision of the future presented in this novel is frighteningly prescient -- people escape the doldrums of their life through an artificial "second life," plastic surgery has been replaced by medical "evolution," and so on. The ending will throw any reader for a loop, and requires several rereadings until you even think you might understand what is happening. However, PKD's strength has never been a coherent plot conclusion, but the startling details of the worlds he creates. In this novel, he excels at what he does best. ( )