This is one of my favourite Philip K Dick novels, and is one in which his humour comes to the fore more than is usual. It contains the usual Dick trademarks of fakes, levels of subjective reality, artificial humanoids and waspish vindictive women. There is an overall lack of any scientific sense, but then Dick was never a writer who let scientific accuracy get in the way of a good story. The overarching theme here is the nature of madness and whether sanity is just a subjective view. It's a fascinating, complex novel, and one I've read many times. It also has one of my favourite SF characters ever, Lord Running Clam, a telepathic Ganymedian slime mold. What's not to love?

This should be required reading in all schools, and I would suggest, for most adults also. Dawkins cuts through the mumbo-jumbo of religious dogma with a common sense scalpel. Whatever your beliefs, you should read this.