04-21-2013, 02:57 PM | #1 | |
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Sci-Fi Recommendations - similar to Ubik
Hi,
I just read Ubik - my very first by Philip K. Dick. Apart from my intention of reading everything I can find by PKD - which was even predicted in the Introduction of Ubik by Michael Marshall Smith Quote:
I am quite a virgin when it comes to Sci-Fi |
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04-21-2013, 05:03 PM | #2 |
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Go to Literature Map here http://www.literature-map.com/ and enter Philip K. Dick in the window in the center of the screen then hit return. A new window will open with PKD's name in the center and a whole of authors arrayed around him. The closer they are the more like him they are.
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04-22-2013, 01:30 AM | #3 |
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Thank you, I tried literature map, but I have a feeling it gives rather strange recommendations. I think it's more based on what people reading PKD read than on similraty of those authors.
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04-22-2013, 12:53 PM | #4 |
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I tried the link, used Robert Heinlein, and thought, You've got to be kidding!
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04-22-2013, 01:16 PM | #5 |
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04-24-2013, 10:25 AM | #6 |
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Funny you brought this up. I have never read any Dick. Been meaning to for 20 years.You've inspired me to correct that egregious oversight by reading Ubik as soon as possible.
So I'm no help to you with your question, but for what's it's worth, since you said you are new to science fiction, you might start with Spares and One of Us andOnly Forward by Michael Marshall Smith, who wrote the intro in your Ubik edition. All 3 are terrific. Other personal favorites: Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion - Dan Simmons Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead- Orson Scott Card Spin - Robert Charles Wilson The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx & Crake - Margaret Atwood Contact - Carl Sagan The Risen Empire/Killing of Worlds - Scott Westerfeld |
04-24-2013, 11:53 AM | #7 |
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It has to be said that starting to read Philip K. Dick by opening Ubik is like starting to explore the solar system by flying to Pluto.
I've not read it since 1978, but the teenage me was blown away by it. I've been struggling to think of a book that's like it. Again, I'd have to reread it, but Dick's own A Scanner Darkly also had an effect on me. Graham |
04-24-2013, 12:35 PM | #8 |
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Goodreads has a pretty good list of authors like Philip K. Dick:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/simi....Philip_K_Dick There must be something in the air with Dick. Just started The Man in the High Castle this week. |
04-24-2013, 12:39 PM | #9 | |
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Quote:
I think I'd agree with the inclusion of Alfred Bester, though. Graham |
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04-24-2013, 02:13 PM | #10 | |
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Quote:
Cordwainer Smith Arkady Strugatsky Stanisław Lem Brian W. Aldiss Samuel R. Delany |
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04-24-2013, 02:53 PM | #11 |
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Honestly, I don't think there is any book that is like Ubik. That book was crazy. Crazy good, but wow. Both hilarious and terrifying.
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04-24-2013, 05:55 PM | #12 |
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Hunter S Thompson.
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04-25-2013, 10:17 AM | #13 |
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Ubik and Dick? Is there anything else like Dick? If you liked Ubik, you'd probably like The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and A Martian Timeslip. They're not my faves, but they are wacky like Ubik in the sense they mess around with realities in a similar way. My fave is probably The Man in the High Castle.
You might like to try Stanislaw Lem, but it's heavy. The most famous and possibly the best is Solaris. Lem loved Dick, if you see want I mean. He called him 'a prince among knaves.' He annoyed most of the science-fiction writiers in America, particularly Philip Jose Farmer. It's called the Lem Incident if you want to google it. You got me thinking. If you like wacked-out sci-fi with mess-up realities, try some Christopher Preist. I reccomend The Prestige and The Separation. He really pissed off Harlan Ellison, but that's another story, lol. I just read the Inverted World by Preist and I was really impressed by it. But the other two I mentioned first are more wacked-out in a Dick sense. If you know what I mean |
04-25-2013, 11:20 AM | #14 | |
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Quote:
But seriously, he's right, if you like one PKD chances are you will like most of his SF books. They explore a lot of the same themes: questionable realities, the nature of god, mind-altering drugs, etc. |
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04-25-2013, 12:38 PM | #15 | |
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I heard about all the other writers you mentioned, but never read, so I guess I will put it on my TBR list. |
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