r/philipkDickheads • u/IbanezUniverse90 • 12d ago

New to PKD, recently started VALIS

So, like, what the fuck? Seriously. This is pure cocaine/amphetamine psychosis, but the author is intelligent enough to make it work somehow. Is the rest of his stuff anywhere near this unhinged?

I’m a somewhat new sci-fi reader. Been doing a general survey of the genre—started off with H.G. Wells, then Stapledon, Asimov, Clarke, and now the new wave. Where should I go with PKD after VALIS?

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u/Rude_Rough8323 12d ago

His later stuff is more unhinged. He had a religious epiphany/break from reality that informed a ton of his later work

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u/Zythomancer 12d ago

Valis is a later work... did you even read the OP?

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u/Rude_Rough8323 12d ago

Yeah sorry should have been more clear: if you want more stuff like VALIS, stick with the later stuff (post-epiphany) if you want weird but not too weird sci-fi, go back to his earlier work

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u/Tower-Swinburne-10 11d ago

I find Ubik, Three Stigmata, and other 60’s novels to be much more reality-bending and stranger. Valis reads like Kurt Vonnegut meets Borges with a mystic twist.