Christopher O'Riley

Just finished re-reading Philip K. Dick’s The Divine Invasion, the second in his VALIS Trilogy, wholly informed by PKD’s series of visions/visitations/anamneses/philosophical meditations chronicle in his Exegesis, this novel is his narrative of the Seventh Coming and the battle for the universe(s). Reads a little more like CS Lewis than PKD, but still awe-inspiring.

just finished re-reading Philip K. Dick’s VALIS presupposing PKD’s masterwork as being his philosophical magnum opus, The Exegesis, and reading VALIS now as a work of non-fiction, i found it incredibly moving, and a supreme moment in the history of the genre. required reading.

just finished reading Philip K. Dick’s A Maze of Death, the technological standing in for the anthropomorphic and vice versa in another of PKD’s mandalas of nested perceptions and realities in certainly his most macabre book. great as always. thought i would take a break from PKD, until i turned the page in this 3rd …

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just finished reading Philip K. Dick’s Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, the first novel of PKD’s post-mescaline experimentation, and the last before a cycle of stays at mental hospitals (also the first of his novels to be extensively if desultorily-seemingly revised). the most comprehensively, intuitively, and crystal-clearly described alternate-reality novels, with vanity as prominent …

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i know i always say this, but it’s true: every book i read by Lucius Shepard instantly becomes my absolute favorite. just finished his short novel, Floater, any description would be hopelessly pigeon-holing, despite its compelling elements of NYC cop story (basically underpinned by the real-life Amadou Diallo story), voudon (in-joke), and an alternate reality …

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