Average customer rating:
- Surprisingly good early novel
- Interesting ideas but kind of a dull ending
- One of Philip K. Dick's Best Books - A Brilliant Look at The McCarthy Era in the 1950s
- COSMIC PUPPETEER?
- Adventures in the World of Nightmares (Eye in the Sky)
|
Eye in the Sky: A Novel
Philip K. Dick
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Dick, Philip K.
| ( D )
| Authors, A-Z
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Science Fiction & Fantasy Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Teen Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The Cosmic Puppets: A Novel
-
Solar Lottery: A Novel
-
The Crack in Space: A Novel
-
Martian Time-Slip
-
The Man Who Japed
ASIN: 1400030102
Release Date: 2003-06-10 |
Book Description
While sightseeing at the Belmont Bevatron, Jack Hamilton, along with seven others, is caught in a lab accident. When he regains consciousness, he is in a fantasy world of Old Testament morality gone awry—a place of instant plagues, immediate damnations, and death to all perceived infidels. Hamilton figures out how he and his compatriots can escape this world and return to their own, but first they must pass through three other vividly fantastical worlds, each more perilous and hilarious than the one before.
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.
Customer Reviews:
Surprisingly good early novel.......2007-08-15
This novel is best enjoyed if you know nothing about it and just read it cold. I was fortunate enough to have done just that, and got a lot more out of it, because the back blurb gives quite a bit of it away.
Eye In The Sky is another expedition into PKD's favorite theme: "what is reality?" As such, the reader spends the first half of the book learning what the "game rules" are, and once the fun of that has played itself out, the back half is spent trying to figure out who the "game master" is -- which purposefully shifts several times. Because of this, there are two levels of enjoyment in the book.
Normally, I'm a bit wary of PKD's early works, especially his short stories (which were written for pulp magazines with an obvious looming deadline and word limit.) Eye In The Sky surprised me at how well it was written (for someone still early in his career) and I believe it ranks up with the classics of his later days.
Interesting ideas but kind of a dull ending.......2007-05-15
"Eye in the Sky" is a twisted trip through the mental realities of several messed up characters. The idea is interesting but I think that it could have been executed better by Dick, who writes this book too chaotically. Ultimately, the conclusion is disappointing and predictable. Read "Time Out of Joint" or "A Maze of Death" for some better examples of Dick's work.
One of Philip K. Dick's Best Books - A Brilliant Look at The McCarthy Era in the 1950s.......2007-04-29
In the 1950s, America was troubled with an identity crisis...the struggles between paranoia and socialism and communism and the fear of the different or seemingly un-American were gripping the nation. From the Beavers' sterile vision of America to the youth yearning to throw off the yoke of societies norms through figures like Elvis Presley to McCarthy, we were defending our society from every angle - both the overly conservative who wanted us all to act and behave the "right" way and those who embraced the false hope of socialism or communism and the belief that we can make an "equal" society and everything in between.
During a tour of the new Bevatron facility, eight people from different walks of life are bathed in the Bevatron beam when something goes terribly wrong with the Bevatron experiment. After the accident, these eight people think that they have escaped any effects of the accident until they realize that they are trapped in a time hole and dropped into an alternate reality - kind of a quantum virtual reality - where one of the eight are secretly creating the rules and manipulating the laws of physics through their dreams. And these dreams are definitely specific about how they think the world should be and how people should live in it.
From here, this book also becomes a whodunit of sorts as some the eight begin to understand what is going on; they must learn who their new companions are and what they believe if they are to determine who is controlling their reality so they can stop the madness before things get out of control. But they also figure out that the only way to stop the person is to kill them...something that isn't too easy to do when that person controls the nature of reality.
Oh yeah...and killing this person is just the beginning of their journey back to reality.
In one of his most lucid novels, Philip K. Dick's *Eye in the Sky* takes a critical look at the America where one group or another thinks they have all the answers and know exactly how everyone else should live. If ever someone wanted to truly understand the importance of keeping society out of the bedroom and the like, this would be the book to start with. And, for anyone just wanted to get started in reading Philip K. Dick, *Eye in the Sky* is one of the five to start with.
COSMIC PUPPETEER?.......2007-02-01
As readers know, what fascinated Dick were the questions: Why is man here? What registers the reality that sparks man to act? or put another way: Is there a cosmic puppeteer pulling man's invisible strings. With EYE IN THE SKY the reader sees the bare bones of Dick's questions which he later polished in later novels.
By presenting scenes in which the seven other characters were forced to live in the pleasant or horror fantasy version of one character, Dick vividly illustrates the old philosophical question of solipsism. Is reality constructed within each and every person's brain? The illusory worlds that his characters were forced to live in would seem to answer that question in the positive. Is man's reality merely a projection of the deity's eye in the sky? Is man living in the dream world of a god?
Beneath all the surplus of words in this story, of too many virtual worlds, was the stark suggestion of solipsism -- that each and every mind, given the power, could construct its own world to live in. As an aside, the mere recitation of the story elements of a book is hardly helpful in deciding if there was any "take home" value. Such a review shows zero creative content
Adventures in the World of Nightmares (Eye in the Sky).......2006-05-01
Eight people lost in the surreal world of Philip K Dick. An accident occurs in a futuristic astronomical observatory. The victims, visitors to the observatory, have all been rendered unconscious, and share the same nightmarish dreams. Just as in the land of the blind, where the one-eyed man is king, so in this land of the unconscious, the semi conscious is god, and his precepts, no matter how bizarre, are the law. The precepts of the first of the group to gain godhood includes a PKD invented religion called Second Babiism. A fabulous story marred only by a weak ending.
Book Description
In this modern Australian classic, award-winning author Tim Winton tells the story of young Ort Flack and his struggle to come to grips with the forces pulling his family apart. An extraordinary snapshot of boyhood, That Eye, the Sky is also a powerful exploration of the nature of hope and faith.
Ort doesn't have a bad life. He mucks around with his best pal, Fat Cherry; he wonders what his sister Tegwyn's so mad about and why his grandma's disappeared inside herself; he looks up at the sky and thinks it's like a big blue eye looking right back at him. But when Dad isn't back from work when he's supposed to be and a strange car pulls into the drive, Ort's life is thrown into turmoil. Suddenly, Mum doesn't seem as strong as she used to, Fat starts saying bad things, and the stranger knocking on the door seems to know an awful lot about the Flacks.
Customer Reviews:
I agree - a fine read - but mysterious ending.......2005-05-26
I agree with the reviewer in April of 2003. I really enjoyed the book. You fall in love with Ort. Seeing things through his eyes are very touching and funny at times. The end is definately what you make of it - a good book for discussion - book club.
A quick, but fine read.......2003-04-29
That Eye, the Sky is a novel about a family in the outback of Australia. Life goes wrong when the father is in a car accident and in a coma afterwards. It is narrated by twelve year old Ort Flack. Through his eyes we meet his Dad, his Mum, the helpless hippy, Tegwyn, his angry sister, Fat his only friend and Henry, the missionary that saves them.
Through the eyes of Ort, the story of the Flack family unfolds, in simple, but beautifully written language. The novel jumps from reality to surreality, from living on the dole in the outback to miracles and mystical lights. It end on a strange surreal note and the reader is left to make of it what he/she chooses.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, although I don't quite know what to make of the end of this book. I would love to discuss it with someone that read it.
Amazon.com
Jonathan Lethem continues his unique brand of storytelling with this collection of seven short works. There is no mistaking his range or ability as he writes skillfully about subjects as various as Hell and the NBA. As usual, reading Lethem is a bit like staring at an upside-down Picasso in black light with 3-D glasses--intensely interesting, often confusing, rampantly inventive and never dull. The underpinning of this book is not a theme or an idea but rather Lethem's pure, unleashed talent and a mind that can come up with ideas that will jolt even seasoned SF readers.
Book Description
A dead man is brought back to life so he can support his family in "The Happy Man"; occasionally he slips into a zombielike state while his soul is tortured in Hell. In "Vanilla Dunk," future basketball players are given the skills of old-time stars like Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain. And in "Forever, Said the Duck," stored computer personalities scheme to break free of their owners.
In these and other stories in this striking collection, Jonathan Lethem, author of The Fortress of Solitude and Motherless Brooklyn, draws the reader ever more deeply into his strange, unforgettable world—a trip from which there may be no easy return.
Customer Reviews:
Huge Creative Range, but Not Always Satisfactory Execution.......2005-06-21
You never know what to expect from Lethem. Compare the terse, stripped-down language of "Gun, With Occasional Music" with his hyperverbose description in "Fortress of Solitude." The man is a literary chameleon, a ventroliquist of strange new voices.
Of what I've read so far, my favorite two Lethem stories are "Mood Bender" from The Best of Crank! anthology and "The Happy Man" from this one. Like what other reviewers have said, the rest is a mixed bag. Most are interesting, and might show the beginnings of Lethem's literary aspirations, as they are more vignettes than traditional stories ("Light and the Sufferer," about crackheads shadowed by strange mute aliens, is the best of these). Frequently, I found myself impressed by the ideas far more than the stories themselves.
But the collection is definitely worth reading, especially for fans of Philip K. Dick looking for something new in SF. I enjoyed them much more than his more recent novels, where he takes a nose-dive into big-L "Literature," with its endless description and dearth of plot.
2 Great Stories, 5.... Aren't.......2001-10-05
With this collection of seven stories (three of which are reprints from Asimov's) Lethem continues to befuddle me. I loved Motherless Brooklyn, Gun With Occasional Music, and a short story in the Best of Crank anthologyÑbut I hated Amnesia Moon and another story in Best of Crank. While all the stories in this collection benefit from brilliant premises and Lethem's dexterous prose only the two best two ("The Happy Man" and "Vanilla Dunk," both from Asimov's) have true "endings." The other five trail off into nothingness or incomprehensible weirdness that make me wonder if Lethem's subconscious is bound by the old writer's adage that no ending is better than a bad ending.
"The Happy Man" features a dead man who is raised from the dead so he can financially support his family, the catch is that his consciousness must reside in hell part of the time. There he has bizarre nightmares that lead to an unfortunately predictable denouement. In "Vanilla Dunk," professional basketball players are issued suits giving them skills of former greats. From this interesting idea, Lethem fabricates one of the best sports stories I've ever read, as an obnoxious white kid wins the "draft lottery" and gets to be the next Michael Jordan and racial tensions ensue. "Light and the Sufferer" follows a crack addict, his brother, and the mysterious alien who follows them around New York. The humans' story ends rather obviously, but the significance of the aliens is left somewhat obscure. "Forever, Said the Duck" is about a cocktail party inhabited by clones of everyone who's had sex with the two hosts. It's promising enough at first, but degenerates into a psychedelic nonsense. The nifty notion of "The Hardened Criminals" is that convicts are physically hardened and used as bricks for a massive prison tower. Lethem seemed totally unable to make anything out of the premise, however, and when a young criminal meets his father in the wall, the result is rather forced. "Five ..." presents the mystery of a woman who has sex with a man and "loses" two weeks of her life. Unfortunately, the story implodes rather than leading anywhere interesting. The final story, "Sleepy People" is simply odd and makes you wonder why it was included.
Lethem is certainly a creative genius, however, he's still pretty hit or miss in harnessing his creativity. Sometimes he doesn't seem to know what to do with it and ends up writing himself into a bizarre corner. Still, I'll continue to read him to catch the sparkling stuff.
Lethem's Outstanding Range.......2001-08-02
It is the sign of a true master that none of these short stories bears any resemblance to another, yet each is in its own way outstandingly audacious.
Some worked better than others, and from reading the other reviews here it seems the selection varies from reader to reader. Yet the range and boldness of his ideas nearly staggers the imagination, and to have pulled this off -- not once, but seven times -- is astonishing.
Great writing without much plot.......2000-10-12
I loved _Gun with Occasional Music_ and _Amnesia Moon_ but this collection didn't really do it for me. _The Happy Man_ was great, I liked _And Forever, said the Duck_, _Vanilla Dunk_ was fun even though I hate sports. But like another reviewer said, no real conclusions, more like story fragments. His quirky style is great, he just needs more room to develop it.
As a huge Lethem fan, I hated this book.......2000-08-23
After reading Gun With Occasional Music, Amnesia Moon and Motherless Brooklyn and thoroughly enjoying all 3, I consider myself to be a Lethem fan--DESPITE this book.
I have not read any other short stories by Lethem, but I didn't enjoy ANY of the stories in this book. They all start with really interesting and promising ("lethemesque") premesis and then either go somewhere too wierd in what is apparently an attempt to be provocative, or go nowhere. Each could probably be a great novel if flushed out. Instead, they either gross you out, put you to sleep, or bore you to death.
Customer Reviews:
REVIEW 2 of 3: Day: Eye in the Sky : Corona Story.......2000-01-22
Of the 3 books on this subject which I have so far read, this was the first book I obtained and read. The book is a compilation of papers/speeches of a meeting. The most accurate picture can be gained by having all three books (sorry, but more $ to Amazon, and you may tire of seeing certain images again). This book represents rare original source material from cold war history. There are some good pointers in the Appendix. Careful reading of papers talk about computing (++) and what is now regarded as "virtual reality" (++). Day's book has a chapter on the Soviet Zenit program lacking in other books (++).
Peebles' Corona book has more chapters on the human side of the recovery and process (minor Day--).
The most technical, expensive, longest-delivery time, and most professional is McDonald's ASPRS book on this same meeting. A chapter details the Corona earth model (++, math). The appendices include redacted original reports (++) and some marginally reproduced space images (++). The book also has a pointer to the breast cancer X-ray ID which the NRO/CIA claim to have released. These will not be found in Day.
Presentation of an amazing US intellegence program.......1998-11-23
>This book is less a narrative and more a series of accounts byindividuals throughout the life of the CORONA project. As such, itreads a bit differently from a single-author non-fiction book. However, this form adds detail, personal perspective, and color to the account of the project. I hope that future books can be written using this material and the newly declassified government material to write a full account of the CORONA program and its heirs and its impact to international affairs. END
A detailed account of early U.S. satellite imaging.......1998-04-16
The genesis of this book was a conference in May 1995 which brought together many of the main players in the CORONA project at the time it was declassified. The book contains chapters by different authors on specific aspects of the project including its historical context, technical development, impact of the resulting intellignce, etc. A short chapter on the corresponding Soviet "Zenit" project is also included. The different chapter authors bring interesting perspectives and specialist knowledge at the expense of some repetition. The photographs are also very nice. This is a more scholarly and comprehensive treatment than the Peebles book on the same subject.
Amazon.com
You don't need expensive instruments to appreciate the beauty of the night sky, as Bob Berman exuberantly demonstrates in Secrets of the Night Sky. Berman takes you on a tour of the night sky, pointing out its highlights and its history, along with a wealth of practical tips and tricks, such as how to categorize satellites that appear overhead. Secrets of the Night Sky is not only a how-to manual for enjoying the celestial sphere but is also a painless introduction to the science of cosmology. With a flair for analogies, Berman imparts a visceral understanding of the scale of stellar objects. And in case your explorations do lead you to buy a telescope, the book's appendices contain a variety of no-nonsense advice that may save you from getting fleeced.
Book Description
From blue moons to Betelgeuse, it's all in this witty, fact-packed, profusely illustrated guide to the heavens by the author of Discover magazine's popular "Night Watchman" column.
Customer Reviews:
A great basic astronomy read for the casual observer........2006-01-30
I first read this book when in the Navy stationed in Japan, I would read it on the train to and from Tokyo and Yokosuka. It was light, enjoyable reading about what you can see in the night sky. Now I am reading again to refresh my memory of constellations, stars, Jupiters moons and how to see satellites. My daughter loves stars and I want to refresh my basic knowlege so I can stimulate her curiosity as we view the sights together. I cannot think of a better text to do so. It is a quick read and filled with intersting facts about spacial relationships, space travel and just the magnitude of it all. If there is a down spot it would be the frequent analogies of size and distance which really become meaningless after a point. Still the text will give the lay reader a vocubulary and understanding of the night sky in an easy to read, fun text, what more can you ask for?
Great author........2005-02-24
This book is one of the most informative and entertaining I have ever read. The author provides the information is such a way that you want to keep reading about why there are really more than 24 hours in a day. Anyway, it's a great book, very interesting, very well written. Buy it.
A wonderful book.......2003-09-18
I have been in amateur astronomy for 15 years, and this is one of my favorite books, for beginner or astronomy hobbyist. This is, mercifully, NOT a textbook. You can learn your way around the sky with Raymo's "365 Starry Nights" (also an excellent book), but Berman supplies the humor. The beauty of the night sky is, unfortunatly, a "secret," as few people know anything about it! Let Bob Berman describe the scene up there, get yourself a star chart, and get outdoors!
General knowledge only.......2003-06-14
This book is probably intended for the vast masses that want and look for general information about the universe. The writer indeed contribute a little bit of amazing information about the sizes of stars but many pages are wasted on tidbits which contribute nothing for the science of astronomy. The book is written in light English with not so many words in every page. The diagrams and pictures are of a very low quality and it is very difficult to understand the names of the stars in the diagrams. The pictures are simply disappointing and the paper quality is low as well. The book is as far as possible from a scientific book. Don't come closer to this book if you are after the science of astronomy.
sky at night.......2003-04-12
Very good book for the lovers of sky , especially at night..
beautiful examination and imagination... lovely and kind
Customer Reviews:
Dave Stone! by Sky Pirates.......2003-07-18
Having heard a lot about SKY PIRATES! over the years, but never having previously read the book myself, I admit to having had certain expectations going into it. This one certainly seems to be a love-it or hate-it novel; at least, that was the impression that I got from various on-line discussions. So, it was a bit of a surprise when I actually got around to reading it and found myself being quite bored with long stretches of it. Of all the things I was expecting, boredom wasn't one of them.
Yes, "boredom" adequately describes my reaction to the first hundred or so pages of SKY PIRATES!. Now, I have to keep in mind that while reading those opening sections, I was far too busy with a number of unavoidable activities, and the time I had during the day for reading was drastically reduced. But with this as my current book, I never felt that I was missing anything. I never felt the overriding need to sneak more time from some other activity in order to get through a few more pages. I only had time to read one short chapter an evening, and I really never felt the need to read any more than that.
For a book that is based upon a treasure hunt of sorts, it takes a considerable amount of time for the characters to actually get around to it. Until the voyage actually begins, the book consists of a whole lot of throat clearing. There are a lot of pointless interludes, random observations, and passages that aren't nearly as funny as they're supposed to be. Some of the jokes are indeed hilarious. Some of them are just tiresome. Despite the deliberate wackiness, the plot points are built up in a relatively logical manner (once one works through all of the distractions); the only problem is it just takes too long to get to each one.
Fortunately, my interest gradually increased as the book moved further along. Once Stone gets around to actually telling the story, he puts a lot of fun things into it. Of particular note are the alien Sloathes, a species who talk like how one would expect Yoda to sound if that little, green, Grover-voiced guy had been born with a touch of Tourette's syndrome. They're utterly hilarious, and it's no wonder that I heard much about these creatures years before I actually read the book.
But, in addition to the comedy, there's quite a dark story being told in here. It almost feels like a Jim Mortimore novel at times; it includes an all-powerful alien menace (putting millions upon millions of people in danger), a manipulative, amoral Doctor, and an ethical decision affecting the lives of every population within a certain astronomical region. Not exactly the sort of thing I was expecting given the goofy illustration of Sylvester McCoy on the cover.
I'm not quite sure how to sum up SKY PIRATES!. "Uneven" would probably be the word I'd attempt using to describe my overall reaction. Despite the tiresome beginning, I did end up enjoying the book. But there are too many little awkward pieces (including "funny" pieces that aren't, well, funny) for me to truly say that I thought it was a very good novel. Looking around at other reviews, it seems to be held as common wisdom that this book could have done with some serious editing, taking it down from its larger-than-average 337 pages to a more reasonable 250-275. I can't say that I'd disagree with that view. While fifty pages may not seem like a lot, if the story hadn't taken so long to get to where it was going, I probably would have felt more of a desire to pay attention during the middle and end.
Why has no-one reviewed this before?!.......1999-04-21
Wacky. Wild. Crazy. Superb! Great stuff, Dave
Average customer rating:
|
Eyes of Clear Skies: Memories of WWII
Florie H-F Alandt
Manufacturer: 1st Books Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Holocaust
| Historical
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Memoirs
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
War
| Genre Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0759674558 |
Book Description
WW II. 1942. Southern France is invaded. The SS hunt Jews. Sarah, 3, has disappeared, her parents deported. The Nazis suspect France, 3, a neighbor, to be Sarah. France's mother and her six children flee to uncertain safety and survival
Download Description
WW II. 1942. Southern France is invaded. The SS hunt Jews. Sarah, 3, has disappeared, her parents deported. The Nazis suspect France, 3, a neighbor, to be Sarah. France's mother and her six children flee to uncertain safety and survival
Product Description
Songbook with 10 scores
Books:
- Facing Your Giants: The God Who Made a Miracle Out of David Stands Ready to Make One Out of You
- Family Tree
- Fix-it And Forget-it Cookbook
- Flags of Our Fathers: Heroes of Iwo Jima (Young Reader's Abridged Edition)
- Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves, and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia (Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture)
- Georgia, Armenia & Azerbaijan (Lonely Planet Travel Guides)
- Glitter and Doom: German Portraits from the 1920s (Metropolitan Museum of Art Publications)
- Google Hacking for Penetration Testers, Volume 1
- Government by the People, Teaching and Learning, Classroom Edition (6th Edition)
- History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Why Should Anyone Be Led by You
- Sins of the Night
- Complex Carbohydrates, Part F, Volume 179: Volume 179: Complex Carbohydrates Part F
- Ideas and Methods of Supersymmetry and Supergravity: Or a Walk Through Superspace, Revised Edition
- History: Fiction or Science
- Overcoming Life's Disappointments
- Magic Treee House Complete Boxed Set
- Color Style: How to Identify the Colors That Are Right for Your Home
- Everyday Architecture of the Mid-Atlantic: Looking at Buildings and Landscapes
- The Genera of Australian Lichens
