Eye in the Sky (Paperback)

The clever story involves an accident at a scientific lab where several unconscious folks are absorbed into the minds of another victim who is conscious. So in effect they live in the world of how another person sees it - distorted, bizarre, and often dangerous. Yes, it all sounds a bit daft. And in the beginning I wasn't sure if this story line would hold. But actually the story gets more and more engaging. I think 'Eye in the Sky' should be viewed as one of Philip K. Dick's best works, along with 'Ubik' and 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?".

Bottom line: a must read for Philip K. Dick fans (present and future). Recommended.

When a Bevatron malfunctions, eight diverse personalities are catapulted into a strange, off-kilter version of reality, where a strange cult has blossomed into the dominant faith. The lead character, Jack Hamilton, is the one most concerned with getting the group free of their situation, even though a return to the known universe is no bargain for him either--he had just lost his Top-Secret government job when his wife was discovered to have Communist leanings. More and more, Jack comes to understand that he is trapped in some kind of dreamworld, produced by the paranoid mind of one of the victims of the Bevatron disaster. But shattering a universe where prayer-wishes are instantly granted, for better or worse, while the Sun naively revolves around a Ptolemy-style Earth, only leads to an even more bizarre, horribly mutable, altered reality, concocted by an even more paranoid psyche.

This compelling look at whole worlds created by not much more than the hidden tics festering in a series of small minds should appeal to fans of the following: The Lathe of Heaven, by Le Guin; Mysterium, by Robert Charles Wilson; Hotel de Dream, by Emma Tennant; 'It's a Good Life!', by Jerome Bixby; Job: A Comedy of Justice, by Heinlein; and of course any other brilliant PKD novels. The PKD trademarks are all delightfully rife--peeks at paranoia, pokes at what's wrong with reality as we've designed it, jabs at those who think they are in authority over the foolish but heroic everyman determined to find the absurd truth. Also, PKD experiments with elements of horror and mystery to spice up his plot; witness a house that eats people (that is, if you escape the thing in the cellar first!), and a bit of trickery when it comes to who is responsible for the final, unpalatable, unreal reality.

Shockingly satisfying PKD antics, just as brilliantly tic-ridden as some of the must-read later stuff.