Most helpful customer reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
God, or a giant ego?, April 29 2004
Eye in the Sky is an early Dick novel, first published in 1957, and I think of it as the first and most accessible book in a thematic group on the subject of reality breakdown which also includes The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Ubik, Flow My Tears the Policeman Said, and Valis. Sparkling with brilliant humor and memorable characterizations, Eye in the Sky thrusts a group of eight people, lying unconscious after a freak accident in a particle accelerator, into the bizarre alternate universes existing within each other's minds. One of the group, an old war veteran, is a fanatical member of a racist, fundamentalist Islamic cult (was Dick a little bit ahead of his time or what?). In the veteran's reality, religious charms, holy water, and prayers actually work. The hero ascends to heaven on an umbrella, where he finds to his amazement that the universe is geocentric, and God is a gigantic, malevolent eye. That scene fascinated me as a boy when I first read the cheap Ace paperback version (with Valigursky's wonderful cover painting of a huge eyeball) in the late 50s, and over the years I have re-read (and rebought) the book many times. This is a work that breaks boundaries; it conveys a powerful experience that the world as perceived through the senses is a veil of illusion, like the maya of Indian philosophy. Matter is but mind stuff, and even our stable identities are temporary cohesions in the flux. Psychedelic? Definitely. The ending is a bit more upbeat than in some of Dick's other books. After the trip, we are back on dry land. Or so it seems. One can never be fully sure again after reading Eye in the Sky.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
a very original piece of early science fiction, Feb 28 2004
'Eye in the Sky', written years before Philip K. Dick's golden era (late 1960s/early 1970s), is a forgotten jewel. And it is one of the few novels by the author that might appeal to folks who don't care for science fiction since the story doesn't involve space travel, time travel or aliens.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.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Eye In The Sky, Jul 20 2003
Eye In The Sky is Philip K. Dick attempting genius early in his career, and succeeding. Another early entry by Dick--The World Jones Made--is a minor muddle done in flat style, and I was a bit nervous about reading another book by this author that pre-dates the marvellous Time Out Of Joint of 1959 (sometimes cited as Dick's leap-off into greatness). Lo and behold, anyone who says there are no masterly PKD novels before Time Out Of Joint is wrong. Eye In The Sky is actually PKD's first, quiet exercise in genius (assuming that Solar Lottery is not equally clever--who knows: once I finally read that one, I may have to eat my words).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.
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by Philip K. Dick
by Philip K. Dick
by Philip K. Dick
by Philip K. Dick
by Philip K. Dick
