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Fourteen strangers came to Delmak-O. Thirteen of them were transferred by the usual authorities. One got there by praying. But once they arrived on that planet whose very atmosphere seemed to induce paranoia and psychosis, the newcomers found that even prayer was useless. For on Delmak-O, God is either absent or intent on destroying His creations.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A MAZE OF DEATH: HAUNTED-HAUNTING,
By artist with no country (gachis) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Maze of Death (Paperback)
There is a two-fold problem with writing a review of this fabulous novel: first, it is literally impossible to give detailed analysis of it without giving away things that really need to remain unknown for the reader to get the most impact from a first reading; second, I personally have very deep feelings about this book that might be difficult to express coherently without such a detailed analysis. But because of my love for this unjustly lesser known and appreciated Dick novel, I am going to cast some rational caution aside, write what I feel at the risk of some incoherence:For me A MAZE OF DEATH is both a haunted and haunting novel: the book itself, the very object, seems to hold, or is held by, a mysterious, dizzying depth and it imprints this character deeply onto the reader. Haunted and haunting. You will perhaps understand what I mean when you finish reading the last page. It's a novel with what we call a 'surprise' or a 'twist', but it is so much more than merely clever. With its casual, even banal, surface it draws the unknowing reader into a maze (amazing) that leads to the most deliberately neglected and yet the most fundamental and profound of all human problems: the ego's struggle to find a transcending means of overcoming its seemingly endless, insane, fear-rooted conflicts with other ego's at the same time that it is trying to find a permanent sense of meaning for itself in the face of its own inevitable death which only increases its fear and tends to induce an excess of fantasy which in turn increases the difficulty of relating to other ego's. Existence as a darkly flaming whirligig that can, no matter how many of its own layers it burns away, only trace and retrace its own limited, circular condition. A maze of death called life that the most advanced technology can not essentially change but only turn like a kaleidoscope and create fantastic patterns that still just come back down to the same few tormenting colors and elements. A very dark vision. And yet the novel burns with brilliance and leaves a brilliance in the reader in the very midst of that darkness. Is there not, seriously, a truly positive quality is such clarity and depth of vision however dark its appearance? Another Dick paradox. This novel is one of the reasons why Philip K. Dick must be considered the most important of all sci-fi writers and more than just a sci-fi writer. My task here is not to tell you the content of the novel, but to help you decide to read it or not. I sincerely hope that you will. I highly recommend it without hesitation to Dick beginners and journeymen.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A mystery that veers into mysticism,
By Doug Mackey (Fairfield, IA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Maze of Death (Paperback)
A Maze of Death is a strange mixture of science fiction, mystery, and theology. Fourteen people are assigned to colonize an uninhabited planet, Delmak-O. One by one, they meet mysterious deaths. It is unclear whether the malevolent agent is a military conspiracy, evil aliens, or each other. The solution to this puzzle is, however, in the end less important than the mystery of Delmak-O itself. This world gives indications of being a false reality; some of its life forms are organic, others are mechanical contraptions of unknown origin. Its central mystery is a monolithic Building that each member of the group sees in a different light. The lettering above the entrance changes according to the psychology of the viewer. The Building is the ultimate symbol, an irreducible core reality that cannot be entered and whose nature can only be inferred. Dick invented a completely original theology for this novel; it gives quite a fascinating dimension of meaning to the plot, but that religious system ultimately proves as unreal as any of the experiences of any of the characters. This is an essential novel for anyone interested in the "higher Dick" novels such as VALIS.
5.0 out of 5 stars
a excellent taste of P. K. Dick,
By Jeffrey Staley (Fullerton, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Maze of Death (Paperback)
First off, Dick is the unsung hero of postmodern literature. If there is a sense of failure in any of his works it can only be attributed to his effort to take on too much of reality, to put complete portraits of men and women in an environment fully realized and even more complex than that in which we live presently. Call him Icarus or Ishmael, for his task is greater than the breadth of any of his novels is capable, which is to say that nothing seems to end satisfactorily, that Dick is more than ready to leave loose ends and frayed edges, not because of oversight or inability, but because he rejects conventionality. Simply put, if the universe were really in order, why would one be compelled to write? Like other novels, A Maze of Death ends ambiguously, but in a much different manner...A Maze of Death is sheer mastery, and yet to characerize this mastery is at once to applaud its unconventionality and to give away the plot. This I cannot do, but I will say this: nothing ends so sweetly as this work. Unlike other works, this one is the epitome of postmodernism--it will wrap you in its folds, stretching your imagination and forcing you to carry out endless deductions, and then it will give you nothing to walk away with. It is a purely reflexive experience: this book connects to nothing in the world and is yet a world unto itself, a maze that can only be appreciated by getting through it.
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