Unlike some of his other reviews I thought this work was a bit more cohesive and a feeling of a more intentional writing style than some of his works. I found it quite hard to put down. Probably will not be a favorite, but it certain strikes a cord. It's a bit depressing though.

I didn't enjoy this as much as other Philip K. Dick books. I didn't find it as clever.
The story is set in the future, when mankind has colonised Mars. A number of people have moved there and a social and political society has grown. But the expected investment of time, money and interest from Earth has not happened, and the migrants feel abandoned by home.
The book is not a commentary on society, but rather on its treatment of those who are different, focusing on an autistic child.
One aspect I did like was the view of education in the future. Teachers have been replaced by machines, each machine with its own personality and teaching style. I found the descriptions of the teaching machines very amusing. "Its advantage over a human teacher lay in its capacity to deal with each child individually. It tutored, rather than merely teaching."
Ultimately, I found the book unsatisfying. The reader is left unsure of what is real and what is not. Which version is being imagined? Maybe that's the whole point. ( )

Dick's novels tend to fall in to one of two categories. The first category consist of his recognized classics, the books that made his name ("The Man in the High Castle," "A Scanner Darkly" etc.). The second category holds the bulk of his fiction, the often dashed-off hack work that he did to meet the publishing deadlines of the cheap science fiction houses for which he wrote. These books often contain genius elements, but they marred by Dick's wooden characters and haphazard plotting. "Martian Time-Slip" falls somewhere in between these groups. It's not on the imaginative level of his classic works, but it's also one of his better-written pieces. Taking place on a colonized Mars that is besieged by supply shortages and political bickering, it tells the story of a professional repairman, and former schizophrenic, who is hired by a land speculator to build a device that will translate a mentally disturbed boy's gibberish into clairvoyant forecasts. The book takes some time to get going, but this gives Dick the chance to set up his world and his characters, giving more weight to the novel's climax than his books usually have.

(This review originally appeared on zombieunderground.net) ( )

Link to a review on my personal website (might be in Swedish). ( )

http://home.comcast.net/~tonydal/wise... ( )