I'm not sure how to rate this book. It was good, at times tedious (I'm really not into theological debates or philosophical musings)... but, I liked Horselover Fat aka Philip Dick aka the insane guy.

So take one crazy guy slightly twisted in the head due to taking too many 'uppers', let one of his girl friends jump out of a window, let his wife leave with the kid, kill off another one of his girl friends and then set the poor guy on a course trying to figure out just what we humans are and where are we going. Oh, and be sure to throw in a pink laser beam containing mysterious information and aim it at his brain, and surround him with a handful of other wacky characters. Dip into Greek mythology, gnosticism, Christianity, and an unexplained dead cat... well, it's explained how it died but not the why it died, well, according to little Sophia, the new messaih, the why is because it was stupid. Put all of this together, bring a sane, stable mind to the table (yourself I'm assuming, but I may be wrong) and watch yourself unravel.

It's fiction. It's partly autobiographical. It's a crazy new religion, if I were to use religion in a general sense that's defined as why we're here and where we're going and what we should do to go where we're going.

It confused me until Eric Lampton (Eric Clapton/Peter Frampton combination, name-wise with the mind of Jim Morrison??) and Mini (Brian Eno??) came into the picture and confirmed that all of this was indeed crazy. But then, Horselover Fat came back and I was confused again.

I really don't know what I'm saying here. I really don't know how to discuss this book. I do want to read The Chronicles of Narnia. Funny thing that this book would lead me to that book. But then nothing is really funny... except for Kevin's dead cat.

And one more thing... my number 714 was mentioned in this book. That's cool. Maybe I'll go to India now. Something needs to be found. ( )

Probably my favorite PKD book. The mix of religion and sci-fi paranoia is just right. ( )

Probably my favorite PKD book. The mix of religion and sci-fi paranoia is just right. ( )

Having only previously read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, I'm not sure I was entirely prepared for this book, but I still found it fascinating.

It's not scifi, it's mostly an autobiographical account of possible schizophrenia with some fiction thrown in. The subject of the book, Horselover Fat, has an experience in which he thinks that he has interacted not God, but "Zebra," the rational being behind the irrational world. This interaction occurs through a beam from a pink laser. The author of the book experienced the same thing, at the same time.

Fascinating, at times fantastical, and then at times so lucid in its truth that it's hard to believe. If you have an interest in Gnostic Christianity or the nature of existence, you'll probably enjoy it even more than I did. ( )

I was having immense trouble with this book, probably because I was reading it in small-ish chunks whilst on my daily commute. I could make no sense of it whatsoever.

But suddenly, one morning, I was sat on the bus and just as we passed the turn-off for the village of Breadsall in Derbyshire (England), it hit me. I understood what this book was about. It all made sense. I arrived at work a different person. Even now, the fact that I could take you to exactly where I was when it happened shows what a blinding flash of insight I had. (And no, there was no pink light.)

But I got better.

Now, years later, I remember little about it except that it demonstrated to me what a wierd place the inside of PKD's head was in his later years. ( )