Philip K. Dick

>>7923044
I've only read half of valis and honestly i'd recommend skipping it. It's just a christian-gnostic dump out of the mouths of stupid characters that remind me of my friends when I was twenty. I'm always interested in those lenes of thought about consciousness and god, and despite the interesting subject matters, pkd (again speaking from only having read half of one of his books) is a terrible writer.

>>7923061
lines* not lenes

>>7923044
Anytime I see a thread about him I want to derail it and talk about Bladerunner.

Havnt read any of his books

>yeah I'm that guy

Whose* are you fucking serious

I prefered Androids as a whole, but Valis had some really memorable moments that i think made it stand out to my mind that much more. At times it gets very snoozy and boring, but worth it in the end.

i read ubik and valis all within a short period of time as my introduction to pkd. earlier this year i read a scanner darkly for the first time and its easily become my favorite novel of his

So far I've only read The Man in the High Castle and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, going to read VALIS at some point.

The Man in the High Castle is one of my all time favourite novels.

>>7923044
Will my enjoyment of Androids be diminished by the fact that I've seen Bladerunner? I guess what I'm asking is to what extent when I'm reading PKD am I >reading for plot?

Ubik was good. That's all I've read by him.

>>7923777
i own MITHC but im not a particular fan of ww2 novels so i havnt dived into it yet. i know its apart of his body of work where he still took copius amounts of speed to complete all his books. knowing that its your favorite im definitely going to give it a try this summer

>>7923783
blade runner is only losely based on androids. theres lots depper concepts and themes dealing with typical pkd schizo themes.
i had first read androids and then saw bladerunner and was surprised how different it was. give it a try

I've read 9 of his books this year, and my favourites are A Scanner Darkly and A Maze of Death. Valis, Ubik, TMitHC and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch are also great.

I've only read a few of his novels, but I thought he was really bad at ending them. It's like, "oh, it was just drugs the whole time" or "oh, none of this is real"

i would recommend getting a short-story collection.

>>7923061
the second half is the best part tho. you just have to get through the bullshit.

>>7923783
The movie is nothing at all like the book. They share only character names.

>Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
>UBIK
>The Man In the High Castle
>A Scanner Darkly
>Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
and
>The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
are all supposed to be his best books.

I've only read the first four and I'm almost finished Flow My Tears tho. Haven't read Palmer yet but that's on my list.

A scanner darkly is a great book of his.

Scanner Darkly
Do Androids.. ?
The California novels
Thats all. Dick was imaginative but his abilities as a writer were limited

>>7924627
What are "the California novels"?

>>7925922
The Crying of Lot 49, Inherent Vice, and Vineland

Deus Irae wasn't exclusively his, but it's also my favorite novel he was involved with.

>>7926338
Are you implying that Pynchon and K Dick are the same person?

Ive read quite a few
A Scanner Darkly is his most personal and impacting work.
Man in the High Castle is his most well constructed novel, his best in many ways
Game Players of Titan is right at the sweet spot between sci-fi shenanigans and paranoid horror. My favorite of his.
Though you should really start with Selected Stories of. Put together those stories top any individual novel.

>no time out of joint
plebs

The first PKD I read and one that people don't seem to mention too often is Galactic Pot Healer. I'd recommend that one.

Also, Flow my Tears, the Policeman Said.

>>7926465
His implying that he's a Pineconehead, not a Dickhead

>>7925922
Ubik, VALIS,Confessions of a Crap Artist

>>7925922
also: Transmigration of Timothy Archer

>>7926486
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKEXGRJSN4s

>>7923044

His short stories are better. My favorite PKD story is Second Variety. The problem is it was written in the 50's and it has a plot twist that has been copied so many times, that you'll see it coming a mile away. Still good though.

tl:dr

Short Stories:
Second Variety
Paycheck
Minority Report
I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon
The Days of Perky Pat

Books:
Clans of the Alphane Moon
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
Flow My Tears The Policeman Said

>>7927805
>>7927812
Didn't UBIK take place in the eastern US? New York and Des Moines or something?

>>7928230
Maybe. Sue me. I'll send my legal info.

>>7923044
Galactic Pot-Healer might be my favorite of his. Otherwise, most of what everyone in this thread has recommended.

I don't think his short stories are as good as his novels. He was a real hack (or at least a working writer) in the early part of his career.

>>7924511
This. I would throw in VALIS rather than Man in the High Castle though.

>>7924511
Why is A Maze of Death so underrated? The ending was great.

Someone a while back posted a .mobi for the complete short stories by PKD and I was too dumb to save it. Does anyone have it?

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The Electric Ant is my favorite short of his. Its premise and conclusion are haunting.

Valis
A Scanner Darkly
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
The Transmigration of Timothy Archer
A Maze of Death
Now Wait For Last Year
Lies Inc.

those are my favorites in loose order

To all those anons who are recommending VALIS as an entry-level PKD novel, I have a piece of advice for you: VALIS summed up the ideas behind his entire career. It's actually his magnum opus. The best way to go about reading it is after years of reading every single other book by him, and then after careful study of those, you're ready to read VALIS, and even then you can spend years and years of very intense study and behind-the-scenes study of his life and personal philosophy before you fully understand it. His Exegesis is similar but requires a lifetime's work and dissertation to fully understand. This is coming from someone whose thesis to become a PhD. was on his religious beliefs and philosophy.

>>7924627
>Dick was imaginative but his abilities as a writer were limited

This. Every time I read through a book of his, I wonder why his editors didn't just make it into a better written piece. He really just needed help in the development area. The ideas are pretty amazing, but the writing just brings it all down.

>>7931687
I need this as well. Anyone?

OP, go ahead and read everything that's been recommended here. To be honest, everyone seems to have their own 'favorite' from Dick, so just read as many as you have the attention span for.

Should VALIS be read after all his other works? It seems to be his magnum opis.

>>7931732
How convinced was he of the reality of his "VALIS" experience under the influence of Sodium Pentothal? And was the insight he gained from it the motivation for writing the VALIS trilogy?

>>7923786
The Man in the High Castle is hardly a ww2 novel.

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Not a novel but...
Exegesis is where it's at

... And Galactic Pot-Healer is a pretty good novel

>>7923044
The Three Stigmatas of Palmer Eldritch
Clans of the Alphane Moon
Ubik

>>7934995
I really hope the full manuscript will be released one day.

>>7923786
I agree with >>7934961

Think dystopian speculative fiction with a blend of American antiquing, Eastern mysticism, political espionage, and some unexpected self-reflexivity. It's one of those books that stayed with me.

>>7936678
Thanks. Definitely more excited to read it now I'm better informed

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>>7923044
So far I've just read We Can Remember It For You Wholesale in an anthology, but looking to start The Man Who Japed soon, it's apparently one of his early, more lighthearted ones. Then I'll work my way up to the really weird post-pink-ray ones.

>>7923044
I just finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Thought it was pretty good.I like how Dick doesn't really explain if Mercerism is fake or not.

>>7923044
Key to being a good writer is abusing amphetamines.

>>7923044
Dr. Bloodmoney

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Does anybody have this set? I found two volumes in a bookstore but didn't want to buy them incomplete

>>7938881
There's supposed to be an ebook floating around with all his short stories, but I cant find it, and no one seems to want to share it.

DICK

>>7931687
>>7938881
>>7939690
There are separate ebooks for each of the five volumes on Libgen.

OP here btw. thanks everyone