Richard Matheson & Philip K Dick

Mark Hamill

So I recently read I Am Legend and loved it, so I'm thinking of reading his other stuff, but I want know which I should start with, i.e. should i start with the stuff that made into movies ("What Dreams May Come", "Stir Of Echoes" etc) or would his other stuff be just as good.
Pretty much the same question for Philip K Dick (I just got "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?", but haven't read it yet). Thanks

Tree

didnt much like i am legend.

phillip k dick is awesome, but some of his stuff should be avoided. defo read any and all of his short stories. also read a scanner darkly, it's brilliant. he's got a fair few excellent novels

Legend_DIT

I've Read of Phillip K. Dick:

Solar Lottery which I didn't particularly enjoy...

But that was an early novel which apparently was of lesser quality, by most accounts, so I believe anyway - I've enjoyed Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Flow My Tears the Policeman Said (think that's the title - if not it's very close to it), The Man in the High Castle and Time Out of Joint.

I've not read any Matheson yet.

mcgovern

I Am Legend is the only Matheson I've read, but I've read a fair bit of PKD.
As Tree says, check out his short stories.
I also read (and enjoyed) A Scanner Darkly, Flow My Tears The Policeman Said, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Ubik, The Man In The High Castle and probably a few more.

pwd

I read eye in the sky, the man in the high castle, doctor bloodmoney, the unteleported man, the penultimate truth by Philip K Dick. maybe others too.

I like his books. Most of them seem pretty short though.
The man in the high castle is particularly good I thought. He claimed that all major plot turns in the book were decided by the I Ching, which is featured centrally in the book. He even says he thinks he would have preferred if certain parts of the plot were different as far as I recall. The book is multithreaded account of a few different characters in very different social positions in America in an alternate history where the Axis won World War 2. It is very well realised and has some interesting historical discussion.

Doctor Bloodmoney was quite reminiscent to me of the Stand by Stephen King. It was published 15 years before the Stand incidentally. Also very good. Bizarre in places.

The unteleported man wasn't great. The version I read was compopsed of parts that were written at very different stages of his life, and the difference in styles is very apparent. The main plot is very straightforward and predictable. There's an interesting and imaginative bit in the middle then, but it really just seems stuck in or something.

The Penultimate truth was good too. More conspiracies and deceptions and reality turning out to be something completely different to what the protagonists think it is - what PKD does best really.

CiDeRmAn

A nice and more accessable way to get into PKD is in his collected short stories, very good stuff.

Johnny Storm

PKD is IMHO the very best SF author, full stop.
http://www.philipkdick.com/

Very good advice from all posters so far IMHO.

I think his best are Ubik, 3 Stigmata, Scanner Darkly (very, very dark)

In addition to the books already recommended in this thread I also particularly enjoyed:-
Clans of the Alphane Moon - his most good-humoured book.
Martian Time-Slip - writen immediately after Man in the High Castle and continuing the same high level of attention to the quality of writing but darker.
A Maze of Death - pretty good.
We can Build You -Also quite funny but (typically of PKD) changes gear halfway through and beomes quite dark.
The Zap Gun - so titled due to some SF competition - not bad
The transmigration of Timothy Archer - The best of his post-epiphany/descent-into-madness books. Not really SF.


As regards which of his books to avoid:
There's a PKD book out called "3 Early Novels" - avoid. I'd also avoid his early non-SF novels unless you are madly into his work.

Mark Hamill

Thanks for all the replies, after "Do Androids Dream...." I guess I'll move onto the short stories, or whichever PKD novels I can get cheap or second hand in chapters.
Another question for you, where do you get the books? Would you all stick to the shops, or go online? PKD is pretty easy to find, and usually isn't too dear, but Richard Matheson is almost non existent in Dublin. I found two shops in the city centre that had "What Dreams May Come", one was 16.25 and the other was 18.99. Seems pretty dear considering I got I Am Legend a few weeks ago for 6.99 new, and they're not that much longer.

mcgovern

Try http://www.play.com or http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/
Both have free shipping and a good selection of both authors.

Mark Hamill

mcgovern wrote: »

Try http://www.play.com or http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/
Both have free shipping and a good selection of both authors.

Play.com is out of a lot of his books at the moment, but thebookdepository has some, and at good prices too, thanks a lot!

CiDeRmAn

However, while I do like PKD, I do find his stories almost always follow the path of questioning ones identity, the break down of personality, mirrors, perhaps, of PKDs own mental health issues.

I couldn't really call hime my favourite SF author, that person tends to change, depending on what books I've read at the time,

for example, I really loved Stephen Baxter, Time Ships, Raft, Ring, Timelike Infinity, all brilliant, as is Moonseed, Titan and Mars. However, then he went and did his mammoth books, the Space, Time, Origin books and his Destinies Children series, which have just left me completely cold.

Iain M Banks, there's a man who has never disappointed, Alastair Reynolds, John Varley, James White, John Brunner, all written books that, in their own way, have been better than much of Philip K Dicks output.

But then PKD isn't as overrated as, say, Heinlein, Herbert or Asimov, so points there!


Just an opinion of someone who has read far too many SF books.

Dades

I liked Maze of Death the most of the PKD stuff I've read, or maybe The World Jones made. I found The Man in the High Castle very disappointing.

Enjoyed I am Legend, though haven't seen any other Matheson books anywhere.

Enjoying Frederik Pohl at the moment. Loved "Gateway".

CiDeRmAn

Yeah, Gateway sure put the shivers up me!