Review
โThe finest American novelist of our time.โ โ _Hartford Advocate
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โDick wasโฆone of the genuine visionaries that North American fiction has produced in this century.โโSteve Erickson,* L.A. Weekly
*โIf thereโs such a thing as a โblack science fiction,โ Philip K. Dick is its Pirandello, its Beckett and its Pinter.โ โHarlan Ellison
Product Description
Objective, unbiased and hyperrational, the Vulcan 3 should have been the perfect ruler. The omnipotent computer dictates policy that is in the best interests of all citizensโor at least, that is the idea. But when the machine, whose rule evolved out of chaos and war, begins to lose control of the โHealerโ movement of religious fanatics and the mysterious force behing their rebellion, all Hell breaks loose.
Written in 1960, Philip K. Dickโs paranoid novel imagines a totalitarian state in which hammer-headed robots terrorize citizens and freedom is an absurd joke. William Barrios, the morally conflicted hero, may be the only person who can prevent the battle for control from destroying the worldโif, that is, he can decide which side heโs on.
Winner of both the Hugo and John W. Campbell awards for best novel, widely regarded as the premiere science fiction writer of his day, and the object of cult-like adoration from his legions of fans, Philip K. Dick has come to be seen in a literary light that defies classification in much the same way as Borges and Calvino. With breathtaking insight, he utilizes vividly unfamiliar worlds to evoke the hauntingly and hilariously familiar in our society and ourselves.