When overpopulation threatens the Earth, one company offers a solution: transportation to the colony Whale's Mouth. The only problem? The teleportation machine only works one way. the whole thing sounds too good to be true to Rachel ben Applebaum, who sets himself to reveal the scam only to get ensnared in surveillance by the transport company, who will do anything to thwart him.

There is a MASSIVE tone and plot shift in the middle of the book that was incredibly bewildering, but slowly makes sense of itself. This book had a particularly tortured publication history, which was interesting to read about in the Afterword. It really explained some things!

Far from my favorite Dick, but I did really enjoy it. ( )

Whoo, boy. Unless you like your Philip K. Dick mixed with a heavy dose of Hunter S. Thompson, avoid this book like the plague. If you don't believe me, read the afterword first, which explains how the book went through several iterations - it's a Frankenstein's monster of parts and revisions. ( )

The crisis which defines the novel borders on mastubatory as one ascertains Dick's predilection towards confusion. The drug-induced stream of consciousness prose is not helpful in gaining any deeper understanding of the work. ( )

The premise is baller: Earth is overcrowded, an evil genius invents and then capitalizes on a one-way teleportation system to a habitable planet (Whale's Mouth) outside the solar system. Rachmael ben Applebaum surmises that the grass might not be so green on the other side of the Telpor gates and decides to take his ship out there the long way (18 year one-way trip) to see if anyone wants to join the Earthling ranks again. The teleportation syndicate's attempts to thwart his journey leave him without a deep-sleep component. Hooray! Love reading about descents into madness. Except... this was too bizarre and disjointed. Disappointing! Shockingly, the inhabitants of Whale's Mouth have been conscripted into an army with the purpose of conquering Earth (turns out the teleportation system CAN function both ways... everyone's pretty upset with themselves that they fell for the evil genius's ruse). Hopefully this is one of his worst - I like the drug-trip feel of his writing, but this was WAY garbled. ( )

An odd little book for sure, but very well written, very human and very Dickian. ( )