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А тепер зачекайте до минулого року
Життя доктора Еріка Світсента не назвеш легким. Його планету втягнуто у затяжний та кровопролитний конфлікт між двома потужними галактичними цивілізаціями — людиноподібними лілістарцями та потворними, схожими на велетенських комах ріґами, війна між якими триває вже не одне століття. Його дружина підсіла на новий небезпечний наркотик, який розладнує звичне сприйняття реальності і змушує того, хто його вжив, безпорадно переноситися туди й назад у часі. А на додачу йому ще й довелося стати особистим лікарем примхливого та іпохондричного правителя Землі Джино Молінарі, який вже давно перетворив свої недуги на політичний інструмент. Перебувати так близько до епіцентру багатолітнього міжпланетного конфлікту, безумовно, небезпечно, але, можливо, Еріку вдасться владнати суперечки з Лілістар і знайти порозуміння з ріґами? Однак якщо так, то якою ціною? Роман «А тепер зачекайте до минулого року» (1966) є одним із менш знаних шедеврів Філіпа Діка (1928–82), який неодмінно захопить як хардкорних фанатів ФКД, так і тих читачів, які тільки починають знайомитися з творчістю цього без перебільшення легендарного американського фантаста.
333 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1966
About the author
Philip K. Dick
1,758 books20.9k followersPhilip K. Dick was born in Chicago in 1928 and lived most of his life in California. In 1952, he began writing professionally and proceeded to write numerous novels and short-story collections. He won the Hugo Award for the best novel in 1962 for The Man in the High Castle and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel of the year in 1974 for Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. Philip K. Dick died on March 2, 1982, in Santa Ana, California, of heart failure following a stroke.
In addition to 44 published novels, Dick wrote approximately 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. Although Dick spent most of his career as a writer in near-poverty, ten of his stories have been adapted into popular films since his death, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, Paycheck, Next, Screamers, and The Adjustment Bureau. In 2005, Time magazine named Ubik one of the one hundred greatest English-language novels published since 1923. In 2007, Dick became the first science fiction writer to be included in The Library of America series.
In addition to 44 published novels, Dick wrote approximately 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. Although Dick spent most of his career as a writer in near-poverty, ten of his stories have been adapted into popular films since his death, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, Paycheck, Next, Screamers, and The Adjustment Bureau. In 2005, Time magazine named Ubik one of the one hundred greatest English-language novels published since 1923. In 2007, Dick became the first science fiction writer to be included in The Library of America series.
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April 4, 2019
Welcome to the science fiction world of Philip K. Dick’s 1966 novel Now Wait for Last Year. We are plunged into the teeth of a mid-twenty-first century interplanetary war: Lillistar, (human-like beings with superhuman strength) vs reggs (human-size semi-mechanical bugs). Just so happens Terra (Planet Earth) is also a potential big player in the outer space battles.
The husband and wife team of Kathy and Eric Sweetscent are the novel's main characters. Kathy occupies a key upper-echelon post at TF&D, a San Diego based company manufacturing wiring for interplanetary spacecraft with subsidiaries in cities like Detroit, a company that also develops powerful drugs (ah, still so much money to be made from drugs by companies in the US!). Dr. Eric Sweetscent, a surgeon performing futuristic implants, also occupies a top slot at TF&D.
Additionally, the novel contains three highlights worthy of a special call-out: 1) robots engaged in various activities and occupations, including cab drivers who zip around in flying cabs; 2) political intrigue with a particular focus on Gino Molinari, supreme leader of Terra, a man who makes a habit of failing health just at the right moment; and, most dramatically, 3) JJ-180, a powerful, instantly addictive, toxic drug with very strange properties.
One user tells Kathy that JJ - 180 alters one’s sense of time so that it should be called a tempogogic drug instead of a hallucinogenic drug, however, as we find out after Kath and later Eric take the drug, JJ – 180 does much more: the pill popper is propelled into the future or into the past.
Ah, JJ- 180, bender of time. It is this drug-induced time-travel that is the most fascinating aspect of the novel. For example, here is Eric under the influence of the drug: “Eric confronted a face which he had seen many times and yet it was distorted now, witnessed from a weird angle, as if inside out, pulled through infinity. The man’s hair was parted on the wrong side so that his head seemed lopsided, wrong in all its lines. What amazed him was the physical unattractiveness of the man. He was too fat and a little too old. Unpleasantly gray. It was a shock to see himself like this, without preparation; do I really look like that? He asked himself morosely.” I suspect most of us would have a similar reaction if we encountered our twenty year older self on the street.
There is never a dull moment. The novel’s action is fast-paced and told in crisp, staccato, hard-boiled language similar to James M. Cain, Charles Bukowski or Jim Thompson. And all the science fiction elements are combined in crazy combinations.
Time travel has been around for decades – H.G. Well’s The Time Machine published in 1895 and the first novel of alien abduction was Jean de La Hire’s 1908 novel, The Fiery Wheel. But with PKD the science fiction imagination kicked into overdrive. Perhaps the place and time (the US in the 1960s); perhaps common use of new drugs (speed, meth, LSD), perhaps the political climate (Gotta revolution!), but whatever the reason, reading this PKD novel is nothing less than a literary acid trip.
Also, there is a good bit of social commentary. For example, Eric makes many social and cultural observations as explores the streets and peoples of Tijuana, Mexico. “A girl during daylight hours on the streets of Tijuana dressed with incomprehensible smartness: high heels, angora sweater, shiny purse, gloves, coat over her shoulders, preceded, as she hurried, by high, sharp-as-tacks breasts, the smartness carrying even to the detail of her modern bra. What did these girls do for a living? Where had they learned to dress so well, not to mention the problem of financing such a wardrobe?”
Through the effects of JJ – 180, knowing what the future holds for him personally and what will happen to his wife Kathy, Eric faces hard ethical choices. Why continue living when there will be so much pain? How much do all his future selves depend on the decisions he makes in the present? What is his ultimate responsibility to Kathy and to himself?
By way of this time-bending drug, PKD explores the moral dimensions of our all-too-human existence. Now Wait for Last Year isn’t as well-known as some of his other novels but perhaps it should be.
December 28, 2017
I treated myself to a rather more obscure PKD book to end out the year. I've always loved just how wonky his works can get, but here's the really interesting aspect of Horselover Fat's writing: it's never really wonky.
In fact, it has heart. Especially when that heart is breaking, the story is still devoted to some of those most human questions: how to go on when life is hard.
The old saying, "All's fair in love and war" holds doubly true here. Earth is caught in a conflict between two factions of aliens and we've sided with the humanoid types and have been stuck in a tug of war for an awfully long time. The main character, a doctor named Sweetscent, is caught in a difficult marriage, a conflict between duty and hate and tons of difficult questions. He's at war with himself just as much as the human race can't seem to find a way out of the interstellar war.
Enter the drug JJ-180, highly addictive and damaging, but happens to have some serious temporal properties. Namely, it allows you to jump years ahead in time to see the world as it will be. Unfortunately, it's much worse than crack, too, and withdrawal is terminal in days without another dose.
It turns out that it is not only a manufactured drug designed to decimate a populace, but it has the added ability to spawn one's consciousness and self in alternate realities. Add the conflicts of the war efforts and some sneaky back-and-forths with world-lines, and we've got a dual story of the Earth President's life and Earth's flailing status in the war and Sweetscent's attempts to make his own life better as alternate versions of the drug sends him both forward and back in time, spawning alternate versions of everything, as he tries to fix or break his marriage.
The novel is actually fun as hell and thought-provoking and it holds up really damn well. It comes out of Phil's heavily productive mid-sixties SF adventure period, riding close on the heels of his Hugo for Man in the High Castle. It's polished, full of great ideas, action, and best of all, the kinds of hard questions about living through bad relationships that he has a lot of experience with.
Suicide is a big one. So is weakness and sliding and emotional abuse and power dominance games in relationships. I remember his take on all that across so many of his novels. It's hard and it's honest and it is also beautiful even if it's difficult. It's messy. Like war.
But it also feels genuine.
I won't say this is my favorite PKD novel, by a long shot, but it's definitely worth the read and it's still a sight better than most SF out there. :)
In fact, it has heart. Especially when that heart is breaking, the story is still devoted to some of those most human questions: how to go on when life is hard.
The old saying, "All's fair in love and war" holds doubly true here. Earth is caught in a conflict between two factions of aliens and we've sided with the humanoid types and have been stuck in a tug of war for an awfully long time. The main character, a doctor named Sweetscent, is caught in a difficult marriage, a conflict between duty and hate and tons of difficult questions. He's at war with himself just as much as the human race can't seem to find a way out of the interstellar war.
Enter the drug JJ-180, highly addictive and damaging, but happens to have some serious temporal properties. Namely, it allows you to jump years ahead in time to see the world as it will be. Unfortunately, it's much worse than crack, too, and withdrawal is terminal in days without another dose.
It turns out that it is not only a manufactured drug designed to decimate a populace, but it has the added ability to spawn one's consciousness and self in alternate realities. Add the conflicts of the war efforts and some sneaky back-and-forths with world-lines, and we've got a dual story of the Earth President's life and Earth's flailing status in the war and Sweetscent's attempts to make his own life better as alternate versions of the drug sends him both forward and back in time, spawning alternate versions of everything, as he tries to fix or break his marriage.
The novel is actually fun as hell and thought-provoking and it holds up really damn well. It comes out of Phil's heavily productive mid-sixties SF adventure period, riding close on the heels of his Hugo for Man in the High Castle. It's polished, full of great ideas, action, and best of all, the kinds of hard questions about living through bad relationships that he has a lot of experience with.
Suicide is a big one. So is weakness and sliding and emotional abuse and power dominance games in relationships. I remember his take on all that across so many of his novels. It's hard and it's honest and it is also beautiful even if it's difficult. It's messy. Like war.
But it also feels genuine.
I won't say this is my favorite PKD novel, by a long shot, but it's definitely worth the read and it's still a sight better than most SF out there. :)
April 23, 2015
"Life is composed of reality configurations so constituted. To abandon her would be to say, I can't endure reality as such. I have to have uniquely special easier conditions."
- Philip K. Dick (in Now Wait for Last Year)
This is a book for married couples (having difficulties), suicides, drug addicts, politicians, and time travelers -- and it just happens to be one of my favorite PKD novels ever (although ever with Philip Kindred Dick is always a fluid thing).
'Now Wait for Last Year' is something rare. A selcouth piece of pulp that if judged by its cover or sales (I'm guessing here), could easily be discarded. It is always a joy to find a book that resonates with you in a visceral way in a place you weren't expecting. This book really is the last/best self-help book for couples and suicides. I thought this was just going to be another middle-of-the-road, funky, throwaway PKD from the mid-60s (1966 to be exact). Look, there are definitely better written Dick novels, but for even mild fans of this amazing author, I would definitely check this one out. There is a unpretentious sophistication and depth to it that some of his messier, early novels lack, but there is also a helluva lot of heart. It really is something haunting to finish a novel where you can almost smell and taste the chemical density of the blood the author pumped into the ink on every page.
- Philip K. Dick (in Now Wait for Last Year)
This is a book for married couples (having difficulties), suicides, drug addicts, politicians, and time travelers -- and it just happens to be one of my favorite PKD novels ever (although ever with Philip Kindred Dick is always a fluid thing).
'Now Wait for Last Year' is something rare. A selcouth piece of pulp that if judged by its cover or sales (I'm guessing here), could easily be discarded. It is always a joy to find a book that resonates with you in a visceral way in a place you weren't expecting. This book really is the last/best self-help book for couples and suicides. I thought this was just going to be another middle-of-the-road, funky, throwaway PKD from the mid-60s (1966 to be exact). Look, there are definitely better written Dick novels, but for even mild fans of this amazing author, I would definitely check this one out. There is a unpretentious sophistication and depth to it that some of his messier, early novels lack, but there is also a helluva lot of heart. It really is something haunting to finish a novel where you can almost smell and taste the chemical density of the blood the author pumped into the ink on every page.
January 7, 2024
Стоячи в брудному підземному переході серед завалених засцяними ковдрами бомжів я дочитував останні 10 сторінок цієї новели на яких головний герой вирішує свою долю в брудному перевулку Тіхуани оточений горами сміття. Повз нас обох сунули байдужі перехожі. Обидва наші світи занурені в страшну війну якій, здається, нема кінця. Обидві голови зайняті схожими питаннями і приймають схожі виклики в стилі гамлетівського «бути чи не бути»…може саме тому «А тепер зачекайте до минулого року» зайшла мені АЖ ТАК.
Перші глави, як і годиться, пішли на те щоб зануритись в чергову химерну версію реальності витворену Діком, в її політичні виміри, виклики і тд. З плином, коли читання набирає обертів, читач вже пробує розгадати що ж насправді відбувається, вибудувати теорії, але то все марне! Ви дізнаєтесь правду тільки тоді, коли захоче автор. Але от що насправді робить цю книгу видатною: тільки дочитавши її до самого кінця читач збагне про що вона була насправді. Принаймні так було зі мною. І справа геть не в закрученому сюжеті, де вбивця виявляється не тим ким ви думали - ні! Мова йде про саму тему, головну ідею і один із сюжетів книги який ніби весь час присутній, але напозір геть не є головним чи видатним. Чудова книга. Чудовий фінальний кидок автора в душу героя-читача, особливо актуальний в наш час і в нашому місці, коли кожен шукає для себе відповіді: чи варто боротись чи покинути все і шукати собі «легшої», «зручнішої» «реальності».
10/10
Перші глави, як і годиться, пішли на те щоб зануритись в чергову химерну версію реальності витворену Діком, в її політичні виміри, виклики і тд. З плином, коли читання набирає обертів, читач вже пробує розгадати що ж насправді відбувається, вибудувати теорії, але то все марне! Ви дізнаєтесь правду тільки тоді, коли захоче автор. Але от що насправді робить цю книгу видатною: тільки дочитавши її до самого кінця читач збагне про що вона була насправді. Принаймні так було зі мною. І справа геть не в закрученому сюжеті, де вбивця виявляється не тим ким ви думали - ні! Мова йде про саму тему, головну ідею і один із сюжетів книги який ніби весь час присутній, але напозір геть не є головним чи видатним. Чудова книга. Чудовий фінальний кидок автора в душу героя-читача, особливо актуальний в наш час і в нашому місці, коли кожен шукає для себе відповіді: чи варто боротись чи покинути все і шукати собі «легшої», «зручнішої» «реальності».
10/10
November 16, 2018
Another of the tranche of novels produced in an amphetaminal frenzy in 1963, Now Wait for Last Year is like a compendium of Dick's major obsessions of the period: time travel, mind-altering drugs, multiple versions of people and places, Mad Men-style office dynamics, weird fashions, telepathy. And, of course, his habit of approaching stories through bizarrely obscure corporate entities – so that in this one, we see a three-way intergalactic war from the perspective of a middle manager in the ‘Tijuana Fur & Dye company’ in Mexico.
There is a strange melancholy streak in this one which feels different, though, and gives a kind of emotional heart to the book. The major plot on an interpersonal level has to do with a failing marriage, and Dick must have been going through one of his many divorces at the time, since there are several passages that come across as startlingly bitter (‘In marriage the greatest hatred that is possible between human beings can be generated…’). Nevertheless, there is a feeling of emotional depth underlying a lot of the craziness which makes many of the scenes resonate in a different way.
Sadly, the effect of this is rather militated against by Dick's perennially dubious treatment of female characters – which is especially poor here, in a novel where it most jars with his themes. The protagonist's estranged wife is a mega-shrew of ludicrous proportions who, like the other women in the book, is described breasts-first whenever she flounces on stage, a tendency not helped by the fact that half the women are walking around literally with their tits out:
‘Your nipples seem to be watching me,’ as one character later complains. All this is so adolescently silly that it's almost charming, in a pulp-fiction way – you feel like you're reading one of those grungy '50s sci-fi magazines with an alien snogging a babe on the cover. But in a novel where relationships between men and women are a central concern, it is fatal. (At one point, when our hero finds himself transported to an unfamiliar future world filled with sentient bugs, he works out that one of the bugs is female and concludes seriously from that that it is a receptionist!)
All of this sounds like it doesn't work at all, but the strange thing is that it does – it's actually enormous fun. There are several set pieces which are riveting in their weirdness, and if many of the plot strands don't go anywhere, it's only because Dick pumps out so many productive ideas on every page that he simply can't get through them all. And in the doomed relationship portrayed in Now Wait for Last Year, there is yet again this sense, which I feel so often with his books, that very real and powerful feelings are bursting through – almost despite the prose, rather than because of it, but somehow all the more heartfelt for that.
There is a strange melancholy streak in this one which feels different, though, and gives a kind of emotional heart to the book. The major plot on an interpersonal level has to do with a failing marriage, and Dick must have been going through one of his many divorces at the time, since there are several passages that come across as startlingly bitter (‘In marriage the greatest hatred that is possible between human beings can be generated…’). Nevertheless, there is a feeling of emotional depth underlying a lot of the craziness which makes many of the scenes resonate in a different way.
Sadly, the effect of this is rather militated against by Dick's perennially dubious treatment of female characters – which is especially poor here, in a novel where it most jars with his themes. The protagonist's estranged wife is a mega-shrew of ludicrous proportions who, like the other women in the book, is described breasts-first whenever she flounces on stage, a tendency not helped by the fact that half the women are walking around literally with their tits out:
For tonight's mysterious undertaking Kathy had arrived naked from the waist up, except, of course, for her nipples. They had been—not gilded in the strict sense—but rather treated with a coating of living matter, sentient, a Martian life form, so that each possessed a consciousness. Hence each nipple responded in an alert fashion to everything going on.
‘Your nipples seem to be watching me,’ as one character later complains. All this is so adolescently silly that it's almost charming, in a pulp-fiction way – you feel like you're reading one of those grungy '50s sci-fi magazines with an alien snogging a babe on the cover. But in a novel where relationships between men and women are a central concern, it is fatal. (At one point, when our hero finds himself transported to an unfamiliar future world filled with sentient bugs, he works out that one of the bugs is female and concludes seriously from that that it is a receptionist!)
All of this sounds like it doesn't work at all, but the strange thing is that it does – it's actually enormous fun. There are several set pieces which are riveting in their weirdness, and if many of the plot strands don't go anywhere, it's only because Dick pumps out so many productive ideas on every page that he simply can't get through them all. And in the doomed relationship portrayed in Now Wait for Last Year, there is yet again this sense, which I feel so often with his books, that very real and powerful feelings are bursting through – almost despite the prose, rather than because of it, but somehow all the more heartfelt for that.
April 2, 2023
I wonder if William Gibson was influenced by this book when he began his 2014 novel Peripheral (the Jackpot series). Both books deal with mysterious time travel aspects.
I have long believed that Gibson was the literary heir to the PKD universe. Gibson’s own anecdote about attending the 1982 film Bladerunner (loosely based on Dick’s 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) during his writing of Neuromancer was a golden story behind the scenes of two of our most compelling writers. Three artists if we include Ridley Scott, and four if we also include Neil Peart who wrote the lyrics to Rush’s 1982 album Signals. All of these works detail our transition into the digital age.
So, Now Wait For Last Year, like so many of Dick’s work, barely contains the multitude of themes and explorations the author crammed into the sixties era 230 pages of SF awesomeness. Yes, we have the typical PKD themes like mental illness, drug use, aliens, and paranoia; but I’m going to add another common denominator in his books - bad relationships.
Other reviewers and critics have commented upon this easily recognizable element of his writing and we all opine that the apple has not fallen far from the tree when we consider that Phil was married five times. There’s an old joke about a man who was married five times and the punchline goes something like, “I don’t think we can blame all of them,” meaning of course that the problem may be with the man.
Anyway, we again get a glimpse into a troubled marriage as the two protagonists go through all the action but struggle with their own relationship.
We also see one of his most memorable characters in Gino Molinari. The Secretary General of this universe, Gino "The Mole" has a host if intriguing attributes that would make a gaggle of PKD fans talk for hours.
Hmmm. What could we call a collection of PKD fans? I know the vulgar sobriquet "dickheads" has been used but let me suggest a Circuit of PKD fans, I say this because of the engineering penchant in his writing and for the prevalence of repairmen. Feel free to suggest more terms to describe our community of PKD readers!
I wish that I was an artist so that I could illustrate my ideas about these books. My drawing of a PKD book would look like artwork about Gabriel García Márquez' brilliant 100 Years of Solitude with a visual cacophony of characters or a very busy mural. The Beatles Sgt. Peppers album cover also comes to mind.
This is not one of his more laudable works but maybe it should be as this is solid PKD writing. We also see foreshadowing of addiction that would be better realized ten years later with the publication of A Scanner Darkly.
Not just for fans, this is good SF and might be a good introduction to his work.
I have long believed that Gibson was the literary heir to the PKD universe. Gibson’s own anecdote about attending the 1982 film Bladerunner (loosely based on Dick’s 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) during his writing of Neuromancer was a golden story behind the scenes of two of our most compelling writers. Three artists if we include Ridley Scott, and four if we also include Neil Peart who wrote the lyrics to Rush’s 1982 album Signals. All of these works detail our transition into the digital age.
So, Now Wait For Last Year, like so many of Dick’s work, barely contains the multitude of themes and explorations the author crammed into the sixties era 230 pages of SF awesomeness. Yes, we have the typical PKD themes like mental illness, drug use, aliens, and paranoia; but I’m going to add another common denominator in his books - bad relationships.
Other reviewers and critics have commented upon this easily recognizable element of his writing and we all opine that the apple has not fallen far from the tree when we consider that Phil was married five times. There’s an old joke about a man who was married five times and the punchline goes something like, “I don’t think we can blame all of them,” meaning of course that the problem may be with the man.
Anyway, we again get a glimpse into a troubled marriage as the two protagonists go through all the action but struggle with their own relationship.
We also see one of his most memorable characters in Gino Molinari. The Secretary General of this universe, Gino "The Mole" has a host if intriguing attributes that would make a gaggle of PKD fans talk for hours.
Hmmm. What could we call a collection of PKD fans? I know the vulgar sobriquet "dickheads" has been used but let me suggest a Circuit of PKD fans, I say this because of the engineering penchant in his writing and for the prevalence of repairmen. Feel free to suggest more terms to describe our community of PKD readers!
I wish that I was an artist so that I could illustrate my ideas about these books. My drawing of a PKD book would look like artwork about Gabriel García Márquez' brilliant 100 Years of Solitude with a visual cacophony of characters or a very busy mural. The Beatles Sgt. Peppers album cover also comes to mind.
This is not one of his more laudable works but maybe it should be as this is solid PKD writing. We also see foreshadowing of addiction that would be better realized ten years later with the publication of A Scanner Darkly.
Not just for fans, this is good SF and might be a good introduction to his work.
August 23, 2024
My 26th PKD novel.
It would be silly to start by saying 'This is one of the more challenging Dick novels.' ~ mainly because, in their own ways, each of the author's books is challenging (for one reason or another). It can also be a matter of degrees.
That said... much like 'Ubik', 'NWFLY' (great title) can be particularly daunting in its opening chapters - which are dense. ~ and disorienting. But then, so is the world of the novel. Things will become clearer (or, let's say, you may have an easier time of it) as the novel progresses. But you still have to keep yourself sharper here than during a number of other PKD books. The logic can be... tricky.
It's 2055. Earth has aligned with the fascistic 'Starmen (of the planet Lilistar) in a waged war with the insectoid reegs. (That's a lot right there but that's the backdrop.)
Our protagonist - Eric Sweetscent - is an organ transfer surgeon brought in as personal assistant to Earth's leader Gino Molinari, the UN Secretary General (among Dick's most, um... vibrant creations; something of a megalomaniac who is something of a big baby as well as a savvy political strategist and - are you sitting? - an empath). Sweetscent's role ends up being more of a crisis management specialist since Molinari is always on the verge of physical collapse.
This status quo reaches its apex in what I think is the book's highlight (in chapter 9) - in which Molinari experiences such bodily disruption that he needs to be operated on while in conference with the intransigent 'Starmen leader. That may be the book's most humorous section.
Overall, there's scant humor in this book. In fact, the mood is mainly lugubrious. That's because the story's dark primary focus is constantly pushing in from the sidelines: the unpleasant deterioration of Sweetscent's marriage to Kathy (a specialist in antiques... with a personality disorder).
Early on, Kathy (a daredevil with drugs) indulges in a concoction known as JJ-180. ~ which is not just any drug. In fact, the drug's significance in the narrative is far-reaching; it largely controls the ups, downs and even sideways of certain characters' sidesteps into alternate universes. (~ which is mainly where the reader needs to stay sharp.)
Did I mention there's more than a fair amount of time travel (thanks to JJ-180)? That's how we get to know who wins the war... along with the speculation of possibly changing the future for the main characters as well as the world in general.
Unlike certain PKD books which are a lot more fragmentary / multi-level in structure (i.e., 'The Simulacra', 'The Crack in Space', 'Clans of the Alphane Moon'), 'NWFLY' is essentially single-minded in its narrative thrust. Personally, that's not the Dick method I prefer; I tend to get more satisfaction out of his work when it resembles a Rubik's Cube. Things here are more, well... focused, I guess.
I probably admire this particular book more than I actually love it. There's a bit of a coldly detached tone that sneaks in here and there - and a bleakness that threatens infection.
But there's also an unexpected conclusion. It left me of two minds - not unlike the book as a whole.
It would be silly to start by saying 'This is one of the more challenging Dick novels.' ~ mainly because, in their own ways, each of the author's books is challenging (for one reason or another). It can also be a matter of degrees.
That said... much like 'Ubik', 'NWFLY' (great title) can be particularly daunting in its opening chapters - which are dense. ~ and disorienting. But then, so is the world of the novel. Things will become clearer (or, let's say, you may have an easier time of it) as the novel progresses. But you still have to keep yourself sharper here than during a number of other PKD books. The logic can be... tricky.
It's 2055. Earth has aligned with the fascistic 'Starmen (of the planet Lilistar) in a waged war with the insectoid reegs. (That's a lot right there but that's the backdrop.)
Our protagonist - Eric Sweetscent - is an organ transfer surgeon brought in as personal assistant to Earth's leader Gino Molinari, the UN Secretary General (among Dick's most, um... vibrant creations; something of a megalomaniac who is something of a big baby as well as a savvy political strategist and - are you sitting? - an empath). Sweetscent's role ends up being more of a crisis management specialist since Molinari is always on the verge of physical collapse.
This status quo reaches its apex in what I think is the book's highlight (in chapter 9) - in which Molinari experiences such bodily disruption that he needs to be operated on while in conference with the intransigent 'Starmen leader. That may be the book's most humorous section.
Overall, there's scant humor in this book. In fact, the mood is mainly lugubrious. That's because the story's dark primary focus is constantly pushing in from the sidelines: the unpleasant deterioration of Sweetscent's marriage to Kathy (a specialist in antiques... with a personality disorder).
Early on, Kathy (a daredevil with drugs) indulges in a concoction known as JJ-180. ~ which is not just any drug. In fact, the drug's significance in the narrative is far-reaching; it largely controls the ups, downs and even sideways of certain characters' sidesteps into alternate universes. (~ which is mainly where the reader needs to stay sharp.)
Did I mention there's more than a fair amount of time travel (thanks to JJ-180)? That's how we get to know who wins the war... along with the speculation of possibly changing the future for the main characters as well as the world in general.
Unlike certain PKD books which are a lot more fragmentary / multi-level in structure (i.e., 'The Simulacra', 'The Crack in Space', 'Clans of the Alphane Moon'), 'NWFLY' is essentially single-minded in its narrative thrust. Personally, that's not the Dick method I prefer; I tend to get more satisfaction out of his work when it resembles a Rubik's Cube. Things here are more, well... focused, I guess.
I probably admire this particular book more than I actually love it. There's a bit of a coldly detached tone that sneaks in here and there - and a bleakness that threatens infection.
But there's also an unexpected conclusion. It left me of two minds - not unlike the book as a whole.
January 1, 2018
“The ethical understructure of medicine, he believed—and it was based on certain very real experiences in his own life—that if a man wanted to die he had the right to die. He did not possess an elaborated rationalization to justify this belief; he had not even tried to construct one. The proposition, to him, seemed self-evident. There was no body of evidence which proved that life in the first place was a boon. Perhaps it was for some persons; obviously it was not for others.”
That sounds depressing and funny at the same time. Philip K. Dick, if I remember correctly, was often unhappy but he also had a weird sense of humour that is always evident in his works and never fails to make me laugh. I usually read several PKD books a year, they are short, often mind-blowing and generally fun to read, this is my second one for 2017. Now Wait for Last Year was published in the 60s, a prolific time for him and my personal favorite PKD era. Stylistically he is at his most trippy, weird yet always accessible during this period. The Valis era 80s PKD is just not for me.
Now Wait for Last Year is mostly set in 2055 at a time when Earth is embroiled in an interstellar war between two alien species, a war not of our choosing. To make matters worse we seem to have allied with the wrong side, the human-like Lilistar, because of their resemblance to human beings, whereas the insectoid Reegs are actually the good guys. Humanity is led by Supreme Elected Leader Gino Molinari a hypochondriac who has had many artificial organs transplants already and is expected to need more. Dr. Eric Sweetscent is the world's leading artificial organs surgeon with marital problems, he is recruited by the Supreme Leader as his personal “artiforgs” surgeon. Meanwhile, his estranged Kathy makes the mistake of trying a new drug called JJ-180. This drug is immediately addictive, highly toxic and also has a weird reality warping and even time traveling effect. In a moment of mean-spiritedness, she slips some JJ-180 into her husband’s drink and makes him a fellow addict. However, the drug affects him differently and he is able to put its temporary time traveling side effect to good use. Meanwhile, Earth is on the losing side of the war and our own allies are set to invade our planet.
A scene depicting the Reegs and Dr. Sweetscent by byona
Now Wait for Last Year is vintage PKD, wonderfully weird, wacky and mind-blowing, with serious, thought-provoking themes woven into the narrative. What I love about PKD’s novels is how things usually start off quite normal but soon, for whatever reason, often to do with drugs, reality begins to bend out of shape. I love the idea of the JJ-180 drug which may be alien in origin and designed to be immediately addictive after the first usage. There is also a mystery surrounding the Supreme Elected Leader who may not be what he seems, may not be as sick as he seems, but also possibly much sicker! Now Wait for Last Year actually works well as a sci-fi espionage thriller, poor Dr. Sweetscent is often confounded by the shifting reality and situations around him, not only because of the JJ-180 in his system but also the inconstant identity of the Supreme Leader he is working for. Besides all these intrigues this book is also a tale of marital woes, a subject Dick seems to want to explore fairly extensively here. Dr. Sweetscent’s relationship with his wife is a complex one, what was once love turns into hatred but also with an indestructible element of love intractably buried at the core. Also worth mentioning are the starnge, philosophising—and sometimes avaricious—AI taxis.
PKD’s dialogue tends to be amusingly awkward and eccentric, I always find it hard to predict what his characters are going to say next. His characterization is not exactly profound but I like and sympathize with Dr. Sweetscent, the protagonist, I even feel some sympathy for his wife Kathy who does some appalling things and is very selfish, but what she goes through in this book is quite harrowing, even if she brought the misfortune upon herself. As for the title “Now Wait for Last Year” Dick is talking about people who want things to go back to the way they were instead of adapting to change strive for something better. This is the case with Dr. Sweetscent who tends to resist change until he finally learns to adapt.
I could not find any cover that is representative of the book, but this one looks nice.
I have not done a ranking of the many PKD books I have read but Now Wait for Last Year is definitely top 10 and may well be top 5. If you like PKD, particularly the early classics like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Ubik, Now Wait for Last Year is a must read. If you never read PKD before this book is also a good introduction to his wonderfully idiosyncratic brand of sci-fi.
Notes:
• Last book read in 2017, first review of 2018! Oddly appropriate title for a New Year read!
• A movie adaptation of this book has been in development since 2015!
Quotes:
“For these changes in herself and her world were not beliefs; they were authentic experiences, reported by the normal sensory channels, imposed on her consciousness against her will. As stimuli they could not be avoided. “
“In marriage the greatest hatred that is possible between human beings can be generated, perhaps because of the constant proximity, perhaps because once there was love. The intimacy is still there, even though the love element has disappeared. So a will to power, a struggle for domination, comes into being.”
“Your nipples seem to be watching me, or is that just my imagination? In any case it makes me decidedly uncomfortable.”
Hilarious Italian cover, featuring a steampunk Dalek! 🤣
That sounds depressing and funny at the same time. Philip K. Dick, if I remember correctly, was often unhappy but he also had a weird sense of humour that is always evident in his works and never fails to make me laugh. I usually read several PKD books a year, they are short, often mind-blowing and generally fun to read, this is my second one for 2017. Now Wait for Last Year was published in the 60s, a prolific time for him and my personal favorite PKD era. Stylistically he is at his most trippy, weird yet always accessible during this period. The Valis era 80s PKD is just not for me.
Now Wait for Last Year is mostly set in 2055 at a time when Earth is embroiled in an interstellar war between two alien species, a war not of our choosing. To make matters worse we seem to have allied with the wrong side, the human-like Lilistar, because of their resemblance to human beings, whereas the insectoid Reegs are actually the good guys. Humanity is led by Supreme Elected Leader Gino Molinari a hypochondriac who has had many artificial organs transplants already and is expected to need more. Dr. Eric Sweetscent is the world's leading artificial organs surgeon with marital problems, he is recruited by the Supreme Leader as his personal “artiforgs” surgeon. Meanwhile, his estranged Kathy makes the mistake of trying a new drug called JJ-180. This drug is immediately addictive, highly toxic and also has a weird reality warping and even time traveling effect. In a moment of mean-spiritedness, she slips some JJ-180 into her husband’s drink and makes him a fellow addict. However, the drug affects him differently and he is able to put its temporary time traveling side effect to good use. Meanwhile, Earth is on the losing side of the war and our own allies are set to invade our planet.
A scene depicting the Reegs and Dr. Sweetscent by byona
Now Wait for Last Year is vintage PKD, wonderfully weird, wacky and mind-blowing, with serious, thought-provoking themes woven into the narrative. What I love about PKD’s novels is how things usually start off quite normal but soon, for whatever reason, often to do with drugs, reality begins to bend out of shape. I love the idea of the JJ-180 drug which may be alien in origin and designed to be immediately addictive after the first usage. There is also a mystery surrounding the Supreme Elected Leader who may not be what he seems, may not be as sick as he seems, but also possibly much sicker! Now Wait for Last Year actually works well as a sci-fi espionage thriller, poor Dr. Sweetscent is often confounded by the shifting reality and situations around him, not only because of the JJ-180 in his system but also the inconstant identity of the Supreme Leader he is working for. Besides all these intrigues this book is also a tale of marital woes, a subject Dick seems to want to explore fairly extensively here. Dr. Sweetscent’s relationship with his wife is a complex one, what was once love turns into hatred but also with an indestructible element of love intractably buried at the core. Also worth mentioning are the starnge, philosophising—and sometimes avaricious—AI taxis.
PKD’s dialogue tends to be amusingly awkward and eccentric, I always find it hard to predict what his characters are going to say next. His characterization is not exactly profound but I like and sympathize with Dr. Sweetscent, the protagonist, I even feel some sympathy for his wife Kathy who does some appalling things and is very selfish, but what she goes through in this book is quite harrowing, even if she brought the misfortune upon herself. As for the title “Now Wait for Last Year” Dick is talking about people who want things to go back to the way they were instead of adapting to change strive for something better. This is the case with Dr. Sweetscent who tends to resist change until he finally learns to adapt.
I could not find any cover that is representative of the book, but this one looks nice.
I have not done a ranking of the many PKD books I have read but Now Wait for Last Year is definitely top 10 and may well be top 5. If you like PKD, particularly the early classics like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Ubik, Now Wait for Last Year is a must read. If you never read PKD before this book is also a good introduction to his wonderfully idiosyncratic brand of sci-fi.
Notes:
• Last book read in 2017, first review of 2018! Oddly appropriate title for a New Year read!
• A movie adaptation of this book has been in development since 2015!
Quotes:
“For these changes in herself and her world were not beliefs; they were authentic experiences, reported by the normal sensory channels, imposed on her consciousness against her will. As stimuli they could not be avoided. “
“In marriage the greatest hatred that is possible between human beings can be generated, perhaps because of the constant proximity, perhaps because once there was love. The intimacy is still there, even though the love element has disappeared. So a will to power, a struggle for domination, comes into being.”
“Your nipples seem to be watching me, or is that just my imagination? In any case it makes me decidedly uncomfortable.”
Hilarious Italian cover, featuring a steampunk Dalek! 🤣
June 19, 2020
თუ დიკი გიყვართ ეს წიგნი იმედებს არ გაგიცრუებთ. თუ არ გიყვართ იმედი მაქვს რომ შეგაყვარებთ.
ყველაფერი თითქოს უცვლელია. უიმედობა, დეპრესია, რობოტებში აღმოცენებული ადამიანური გრძნობები, სიგიჟე, ნარკოტიკები და ალტერნატიული რეალობა... და მაინც დიკი ყოველ ჯერზე ახერხებს ჩემს გაოცებას.
საინტერესო იყო ომის ფენომენიც ამ წიგნში. ასეა თუ ისე ეს დიკისგან მაინც ახალი იყო(თუ კაცი მაღალ კოშკშის არ ჩავთვლი და ვფიქრობ რომ არცაა ჩასათვლელი).. სადამდე შეიძლება მიგვიყვანოს და რეალურად რომ ვიფიქროთ „სადამდე მივალთ“ უფრო მოუხდებოდა.
ვფიქრობ დიდი აზრი არ აქვს ნარკოტიკს JJ-180 ერქმევა თუ სუბსტანცია D. მწერალი მაინც ახერხებს ჩაგითრიოს, შეგიყოლოს, მოგანდომოს და მაინც სრულად შეგაზიზღ���ს ნარკოტიკი.. ვინ იცის საკუთარი თავიც.
ამჯერად მინდა ისიც აღვნიშნო, რომ დიკს სულ ეტყობა რომ ფიქრობდა, ფიქრობდა, და კიდევ ერთხელ ფიქრობდა. მიდიოდა თითოეულ ნაწარმოებამდე წინასწარ გადაწყვეტილი ნაბიჯებით და ნელ-ნელა ალბათ იმ რეალობას კარგავდა თუ ვინ მიიღო ეს გადაწყვეტილება. და ბოლოს ვალისი შექმნა. ამ წიგნშიც შეიმჩნევა მონათესავე თემები სხვა წიგნებთან და ის მომენტები, რომელიც შემდეგ ვალისში სრულყოფილად გადმოგვცა.
ასეა ეს, კიდევ ერთი გამანადგურებელი სიგიჟე დიკისგან, ახლა კი გასულ წელს დაველოდოთ.
ყველაფერი თითქოს უცვლელია. უიმედობა, დეპრესია, რობოტებში აღმოცენებული ადამიანური გრძნობები, სიგიჟე, ნარკოტიკები და ალტერნატიული რეალობა... და მაინც დიკი ყოველ ჯერზე ახერხებს ჩემს გაოცებას.
საინტერესო იყო ომის ფენომენიც ამ წიგნში. ასეა თუ ისე ეს დიკისგან მაინც ახალი იყო(თუ კაცი მაღალ კოშკშის არ ჩავთვლი და ვფიქრობ რომ არცაა ჩასათვლელი).. სადამდე შეიძლება მიგვიყვანოს და რეალურად რომ ვიფიქროთ „სადამდე მივალთ“ უფრო მოუხდებოდა.
ვფიქრობ დიდი აზრი არ აქვს ნარკოტიკს JJ-180 ერქმევა თუ სუბსტანცია D. მწერალი მაინც ახერხებს ჩაგითრიოს, შეგიყოლოს, მოგანდომოს და მაინც სრულად შეგაზიზღ���ს ნარკოტიკი.. ვინ იცის საკუთარი თავიც.
ამჯერად მინდა ისიც აღვნიშნო, რომ დიკს სულ ეტყობა რომ ფიქრობდა, ფიქრობდა, და კიდევ ერთხელ ფიქრობდა. მიდიოდა თითოეულ ნაწარმოებამდე წინასწარ გადაწყვეტილი ნაბიჯებით და ნელ-ნელა ალბათ იმ რეალობას კარგავდა თუ ვინ მიიღო ეს გადაწყვეტილება. და ბოლოს ვალისი შექმნა. ამ წიგნშიც შეიმჩნევა მონათესავე თემები სხვა წიგნებთან და ის მომენტები, რომელიც შემდეგ ვალისში სრულყოფილად გადმოგვცა.
ასეა ეს, კიდევ ერთი გამანადგურებელი სიგიჟე დიკისგან, ახლა კი გასულ წელს დაველოდოთ.
December 21, 2011
ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.
Earth is allied with the planet Lilistar against the alien Reegs. Gino Molinari, the leader of Earth’s forces, has just hired Eric Sweetscent as his personal physician. For his new job, Eric has to leave his wife Kathy, who has just become addicted to a new hallucinogenic drug. Eric is glad to leave, though, because he and Kathy aren’t getting along.
When Eric arrives at Gino Molinari’s side, he finds that the man has some strange health issues. At first Eric thinks Mr. Molinari is a paranoid hypochondriac until he discovers that he has survived numerous bouts of cancer. Soon there are other strange discoveries about Molinari’s health that baffle Dr. Sweetscent. When he finds out that the drug that Kathy’s hooked on came from off-world and causes its users to travel through time, he wonders if her drug addiction and Gino Molinari’s bizarre symptoms could be related. He also starts to wonder if Earth is on the wrong side of the war.
You never know what you’re going to get with a story by Philip K. Dick. Well, that’s not exactly true. You can almost certainly expect aliens, spaceships, robots, drug use, paranoia, bad marriages, time warps, alternate universes, and badly inaccurate psychology. What I mean is that PKD’s stories vary greatly in quality — some of them are incredibly clever and innovative, while others are almost painful to read. This may be because, according to biographers, Dick’s novels reflect his own unhappy life and his struggles with drugs, divorce, and mental illness.
Now Wait for Last Year (1966) is definitely one of the better ones. Eric Sweetscent is a complex character with complex problems for which there are no obvious solutions. A wrong move could endanger all of humanity! There’s mystery, whimsy, and humor here, too — the scenes with the talking taxis are funny (humorous situations with automatons are a familiar PKD element).
What stands out most, though, is that Now Wait for Last Year is an unusually emotional novel for Philip K. Dick. Eric deals with a whole spectrum of feelings toward his wife: grief, love, hate, treachery, anger, disgust, and pity. I actually dissolved into tears during the final scene of Now Wait for Last Year when the talking taxi gives Eric some beautiful advice.
I listened to Brilliance Audio’s version of Now Wait for Last Year. Luke Daniels performed it perfectly, as usual. I love old science fiction and I love audiobooks, so I absolutely adore Brilliance Audio for putting so much old science fiction on audio this year!
Earth is allied with the planet Lilistar against the alien Reegs. Gino Molinari, the leader of Earth’s forces, has just hired Eric Sweetscent as his personal physician. For his new job, Eric has to leave his wife Kathy, who has just become addicted to a new hallucinogenic drug. Eric is glad to leave, though, because he and Kathy aren’t getting along.
When Eric arrives at Gino Molinari’s side, he finds that the man has some strange health issues. At first Eric thinks Mr. Molinari is a paranoid hypochondriac until he discovers that he has survived numerous bouts of cancer. Soon there are other strange discoveries about Molinari’s health that baffle Dr. Sweetscent. When he finds out that the drug that Kathy’s hooked on came from off-world and causes its users to travel through time, he wonders if her drug addiction and Gino Molinari’s bizarre symptoms could be related. He also starts to wonder if Earth is on the wrong side of the war.
You never know what you’re going to get with a story by Philip K. Dick. Well, that’s not exactly true. You can almost certainly expect aliens, spaceships, robots, drug use, paranoia, bad marriages, time warps, alternate universes, and badly inaccurate psychology. What I mean is that PKD’s stories vary greatly in quality — some of them are incredibly clever and innovative, while others are almost painful to read. This may be because, according to biographers, Dick’s novels reflect his own unhappy life and his struggles with drugs, divorce, and mental illness.
Now Wait for Last Year (1966) is definitely one of the better ones. Eric Sweetscent is a complex character with complex problems for which there are no obvious solutions. A wrong move could endanger all of humanity! There’s mystery, whimsy, and humor here, too — the scenes with the talking taxis are funny (humorous situations with automatons are a familiar PKD element).
What stands out most, though, is that Now Wait for Last Year is an unusually emotional novel for Philip K. Dick. Eric deals with a whole spectrum of feelings toward his wife: grief, love, hate, treachery, anger, disgust, and pity. I actually dissolved into tears during the final scene of Now Wait for Last Year when the talking taxi gives Eric some beautiful advice.
I listened to Brilliance Audio’s version of Now Wait for Last Year. Luke Daniels performed it perfectly, as usual. I love old science fiction and I love audiobooks, so I absolutely adore Brilliance Audio for putting so much old science fiction on audio this year!
November 16, 2021
(review in English below)
Este livro não me conquistou logo de início, de tal maneira que o interrompi na página 34 para ler outro. Mas quando recomecei a coisa até correu bem.
A história envolve extraterrestres que tentam dominar a Terra, um casal em crise, um líder mundial com objectivos pouco claros e uma droga que permite viajar no tempo (foi essencialmente esta parte que me levou a comprar este livro, tenho uma pancada por viagens no tempo...).
A narrativa ganhou ritmo, depois de um início algo morno, e acabei por me interessar pelo protagonista, Eric Sweetscent, e pelos seus dilemas pessoais e profissionais, a propósito dos quais o autor faz algumas reflexões filosóficas interessantes (exemplos nos updates).
Penso que esta história é mais densa do que parece e apresenta vários aspectos que merecem uma reflexão mais profunda, como por exemplo o facto de .
Obviamente tudo se passa nos Estados Unidos, enfim...
Recomendado a fãs de ficção científica.
I wasn't captivated from the start and I even put it aside when I reached page 34 and read another book. But when I picked it up again it went quite well.
The story includes aliens trying to dominate the Earth, a couple with marital problems, a world leader with an obscure agenda, and a drug that allows you to travel in time (this was the main reason I bought this book, I'm a sucker for time travel...).
The narrative picked up after a rather slow start and it made me become interested in the protagonist, Eric Sweetscent, and in his personal and professional dilemmas, around which the author weaves some interesting philosophical reflexions.
I think this story is denser than it looks and it presents some issues that are deserving of deeper thoughts, like .
Obviously, all of this takes place in the United States, oh well...
Recommended to science fiction fans.
Este livro não me conquistou logo de início, de tal maneira que o interrompi na página 34 para ler outro. Mas quando recomecei a coisa até correu bem.
A história envolve extraterrestres que tentam dominar a Terra, um casal em crise, um líder mundial com objectivos pouco claros e uma droga que permite viajar no tempo (foi essencialmente esta parte que me levou a comprar este livro, tenho uma pancada por viagens no tempo...).
A narrativa ganhou ritmo, depois de um início algo morno, e acabei por me interessar pelo protagonista, Eric Sweetscent, e pelos seus dilemas pessoais e profissionais, a propósito dos quais o autor faz algumas reflexões filosóficas interessantes (exemplos nos updates).
Penso que esta história é mais densa do que parece e apresenta vários aspectos que merecem uma reflexão mais profunda, como por exemplo o facto de .
Obviamente tudo se passa nos Estados Unidos, enfim...
Recomendado a fãs de ficção científica.
I wasn't captivated from the start and I even put it aside when I reached page 34 and read another book. But when I picked it up again it went quite well.
The story includes aliens trying to dominate the Earth, a couple with marital problems, a world leader with an obscure agenda, and a drug that allows you to travel in time (this was the main reason I bought this book, I'm a sucker for time travel...).
The narrative picked up after a rather slow start and it made me become interested in the protagonist, Eric Sweetscent, and in his personal and professional dilemmas, around which the author weaves some interesting philosophical reflexions.
I think this story is denser than it looks and it presents some issues that are deserving of deeper thoughts, like .
Obviously, all of this takes place in the United States, oh well...
Recommended to science fiction fans.
July 28, 2012
It's a strange feeling when you think you have an author pegged and then they go ahead and publish something straight out of left field. It's like Michael Jordan playing baseball, Lou Reed making a record with Metallica, or Michael Bay directing a Victorian drama. It just seems odd, like you've awakened in a world that is not entirely yours any more. This was entirely my feeling for the first hundred pages or so of Dick's Now Wait for Last Year, the third entry in his Library of America collection Five Novels of the 1960s & 70s.
Now Wait for Last Year is set in a future in which humankind has somehow embroiled itself in a galactic war the likes of which would make the Kree-Skrull War seem like a minor dust-up. The people of Lilistar are genetic forebears of humanity, having seeded Earth with life millennia ago (think of the opening of Prometheus), so humanity has naturally sided with them in their ongoing conflict again the Reeg, a race of aliens who are only able to communicate to humans via small boxes. You would think that humans would know from our own history not to trust ourselves, but then logic has rarely been our strong suit. The war has not been going well for humanity, the Reegs are strong and the Lilistarmen have continually pushed us to increase our production for the war effort and make vague hints that they're more than willing to step in and "manage" their descendant's resources for them. All that is holding a complete takeover at bay is the Mole, UN Secretary General Gino Molinari, a hypochondriac with a 17 year-old mistress who uses his ailments as excuses to hold back the Lilistarmen from completing the "negotiations" that would cede control to these aliens.
Based on that premise alone, I would not think this is a Philip K. Dick book. It sounds more like something that Heinlein would have cranked out in one of his not-really-trying moments. In fact, the first half of the book embraces more of the elements of a political thriller than I've ever seen in a Dick work before. Fortunately, that's not all there is in these pages. Enter Dr. Eric Sweetscent, an organ replacement specialist called on by the Mole to assist him in keeping him just-this-side of death, and Kathy Sweetscent, his estranged wife who has just been hooked on JJ-180, a deadly addictive drug that shorts out its users neurological pathways but also allows the user to travel back and forth through time.
This is where things begin to return to the Dick we all know and love. Within no time Eric is slipped some JJ-180 and is in a race against time to find a cure to the addiction before he succumbs to the necrotizing effects of the drug. At the same time he is flung forward through time to several different alternate timelines, all of which offer various bleak scenarios for humanity's future enslavement and the future of his marriage. Can Sweetscent (such a good name) find the cure, save his marriage, and stop the Lilistar-men from taking over his planet?
This was a really captivating read. Once Sweetscent begins yo-yoing through the 4th dimension and we are treated to multiple alternate realities (including a great meeting with a future version of himself that is just filled with toxic self-loathing) and the sheer scope of the conspiracy begins to be illuminated, I really could not put the book down. Dick is truly a master of the time travel scenario, painting his scenes clearly, even when the reader is unaware just what may be going on. Most interestingly, though, are the latter pages of the book when the conflict with the aliens recedes into the background and Sweetscent focuses on saving his wife from the effects of her drug abuse and his marriage from the effects of his wife.
This book was written during an amphetamine-fueled streak of writing that saw Dick finish writing three other books at a time when his marriage to his second wife, Anne, was teetering on the brink of failure. Knowing this, it was especially heart-rending to read Sweetscent's musings as to whether it was even worth trying to save his wife, or whether both parties would be better off apart. It's a human touch that added a lot to my enjoyment of the story and further solidified my view of Dick as a tragic hero in his own works, a man struggling to understand his own world through creating fantastic escapist scenarios.
Now Wait for Last Year is set in a future in which humankind has somehow embroiled itself in a galactic war the likes of which would make the Kree-Skrull War seem like a minor dust-up. The people of Lilistar are genetic forebears of humanity, having seeded Earth with life millennia ago (think of the opening of Prometheus), so humanity has naturally sided with them in their ongoing conflict again the Reeg, a race of aliens who are only able to communicate to humans via small boxes. You would think that humans would know from our own history not to trust ourselves, but then logic has rarely been our strong suit. The war has not been going well for humanity, the Reegs are strong and the Lilistarmen have continually pushed us to increase our production for the war effort and make vague hints that they're more than willing to step in and "manage" their descendant's resources for them. All that is holding a complete takeover at bay is the Mole, UN Secretary General Gino Molinari, a hypochondriac with a 17 year-old mistress who uses his ailments as excuses to hold back the Lilistarmen from completing the "negotiations" that would cede control to these aliens.
Based on that premise alone, I would not think this is a Philip K. Dick book. It sounds more like something that Heinlein would have cranked out in one of his not-really-trying moments. In fact, the first half of the book embraces more of the elements of a political thriller than I've ever seen in a Dick work before. Fortunately, that's not all there is in these pages. Enter Dr. Eric Sweetscent, an organ replacement specialist called on by the Mole to assist him in keeping him just-this-side of death, and Kathy Sweetscent, his estranged wife who has just been hooked on JJ-180, a deadly addictive drug that shorts out its users neurological pathways but also allows the user to travel back and forth through time.
This is where things begin to return to the Dick we all know and love. Within no time Eric is slipped some JJ-180 and is in a race against time to find a cure to the addiction before he succumbs to the necrotizing effects of the drug. At the same time he is flung forward through time to several different alternate timelines, all of which offer various bleak scenarios for humanity's future enslavement and the future of his marriage. Can Sweetscent (such a good name) find the cure, save his marriage, and stop the Lilistar-men from taking over his planet?
This was a really captivating read. Once Sweetscent begins yo-yoing through the 4th dimension and we are treated to multiple alternate realities (including a great meeting with a future version of himself that is just filled with toxic self-loathing) and the sheer scope of the conspiracy begins to be illuminated, I really could not put the book down. Dick is truly a master of the time travel scenario, painting his scenes clearly, even when the reader is unaware just what may be going on. Most interestingly, though, are the latter pages of the book when the conflict with the aliens recedes into the background and Sweetscent focuses on saving his wife from the effects of her drug abuse and his marriage from the effects of his wife.
This book was written during an amphetamine-fueled streak of writing that saw Dick finish writing three other books at a time when his marriage to his second wife, Anne, was teetering on the brink of failure. Knowing this, it was especially heart-rending to read Sweetscent's musings as to whether it was even worth trying to save his wife, or whether both parties would be better off apart. It's a human touch that added a lot to my enjoyment of the story and further solidified my view of Dick as a tragic hero in his own works, a man struggling to understand his own world through creating fantastic escapist scenarios.
December 13, 2019
In the deepest pointless anomy, a hint of hope for fulfilment and happiness.
The little robotic cart, the little being saved inadvertently by Eric in the very beginning comes back in the near end, and brings devastated Eric back to life.
Matching Soundtrack :
Ólafur Arnalds - Eulogy for Evolution
---------------
Dans le creux de la vague, au plus fort de la déprime, une chance de salut qui me bouleverse.
Le petit chariot, le petit être sauvé comme par mégarde en début de récit fait son retour et rend Eric à la vie.
Musique en sourdine :
Ólafur Arnalds - Eulogy for Evolution
The little robotic cart, the little being saved inadvertently by Eric in the very beginning comes back in the near end, and brings devastated Eric back to life.
Matching Soundtrack :
Ólafur Arnalds - Eulogy for Evolution
---------------
Dans le creux de la vague, au plus fort de la déprime, une chance de salut qui me bouleverse.
Le petit chariot, le petit être sauvé comme par mégarde en début de récit fait son retour et rend Eric à la vie.
Musique en sourdine :
Ólafur Arnalds - Eulogy for Evolution
May 7, 2020
Από τα πιο αδιάφορα βιβλία του αγαπημένου συγγραφέα. Συμβαίνει και στους καλύτερους.
October 17, 2021
He intentado escribir esta reseña varias veces y no logro plasmar el porqué me gustó este libro.
Quizá fue porque me gustan las historias de viajes en el tiempo, o tal vez fue simplemente el momento (mi momento). Aunque en términos generales, es fácil adentrarse en la historia, pues PKD, nos plantea temas clasicos de la ciencia ficción, guerra contra otras razas, conflictos morales y sociales, entre otros.
Sé que no es el libro más popular de PKD, pero se recomiendo a quien esté interesado en pensar en las repercusiones de todos sus actos.
Quizá fue porque me gustan las historias de viajes en el tiempo, o tal vez fue simplemente el momento (mi momento). Aunque en términos generales, es fácil adentrarse en la historia, pues PKD, nos plantea temas clasicos de la ciencia ficción, guerra contra otras razas, conflictos morales y sociales, entre otros.
Sé que no es el libro más popular de PKD, pero se recomiendo a quien esté interesado en pensar en las repercusiones de todos sus actos.
September 2, 2020
დანარჩენ წიგნებს გავს და როცა ერთიდაიგივე რეალობას და მსგავსი ხასიათის პერსონაჟებს მიჩვეული ხ��რ იმდენ სიამოვნებას ვეღარ იღებ რამდენიც შეიძლებოდა მიგეღო პირველად რომ წაგეკითხა დიკი. მაგრამ ერიკ სვიტსენტს თოქინგ ჰედსის სოლისტის გარეგნობით წარმოვიდგენდი სულ და ძააან სასიამოვნო იყო ❤
June 9, 2020
შეიძლება გაცვეთილი რაღაც უნდა ვთქვ���, მაგრამ ფილი�� დიკი ჩემი ერთ-ერთი უსაყვარლესი მწერალი იმიტომ არის, რომ მის წიგნებში ყოველთვის ნათლად ვხედავ შემაძრწუნებელ სევდასა და ადამიანურობას. დიდი ხანია, მისი არაფერი მქონდა წაკითხული და ახლა მივხვდი, რამდენად მაკლდა ცხოვრებაში.
საკუთრივ წიგნი ძალიან კარგი იყო, დეტალებზე არაფერს ვიტყვი, უბრალოდ დიდი სიამოვნებით მივირთმევდი ქეითის მომზადებულ ტოსტსა და ყავას და მერე „ლაკი სტრაიქსაც“ მოვწევდი. სწორედ მწვანე კოლოფიანს, მეორე მსოფლიო ომის წინა პერიოდში რომ იყო, ეგეთს.
საკუთრივ წიგნი ძალიან კარგი იყო, დეტალებზე არაფერს ვიტყვი, უბრალოდ დიდი სიამოვნებით მივირთმევდი ქეითის მომზადებულ ტოსტსა და ყავას და მერე „ლაკი სტრაიქსაც“ მოვწევდი. სწორედ მწვანე კოლოფიანს, მეორე მსოფლიო ომის წინა პერიოდში რომ იყო, ეგეთს.
August 17, 2011
A virtual compendium of many of Philip K. Dick's pet themes, tropes and obsessions, "Now Wait For Last Year," the author's 17th published sci-fi novel, originally appeared as a Doubleday hardcover in 1966. (As revealed in Lawrence Sutin's biography on Dick, the novel was actually written as early as 1963 and rewritten two years later.) Phil was on some kind of a roll at this point in his career, having recently come out with the masterpieces "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch" and "Dr. Bloodmoney," and "Now Wait For Last Year" is still another great one for this important writer. In it, the Earth of the year 2055 is in big trouble, fighting a protracted, losing war with the 6-foot-tall, antlike reegs of Proxima Centauri while being harassed and bullied by its allies from Lilistar. Against this typically bleak Dickian backdrop, we meet Dr. Eric Sweetscent, an "artiforg" (artificial organ) transplant surgeon who leaves his cushy post at Tijuana Fur and Dye. Co. to minister to no less a personage than Gino Molinari, the hypochondriacal, psychosomatically ill U.N. Secretary General who is head of the Earth forces in Cheyenne, WY. Sweetscent's life is severely recomplicated when his estranged wife, Kathy, gets herself hooked on a new military weapon, a drug called JJ-180, which has the power to cause instant addiction and to induce time-travel effects in the user. And as if Eric's life weren't troubled enough, Kathy has just decided to get her husband hooked on the drug as well....
I mentioned up top that "NWFLY" is a virtual compendium of Dick's themes and ideas, and as such, it would make a perfect introduction for any readers new to PKD. The subject of artiforgs had already been broached in Phil's "The Penultimate Truth," which novel also featured Cheyenne as the U.N. capital. (For that matter, the subjects of 1920s cowboy star Tom Mix AND St. George, Utah, both strangely figure in the two novels.) As in so many of Dick's other books, the topic of divorce is spotlighted prominently here (the author was himself married five times, before his death at age 52), as is the issue of a world leader who is not what he seems (dealt with in depth in "The Simulacrum" and "The Penultimate Truth"), although here, that leader is not a mechanical construct, but something much more ingenious. As in "The Crack in Space," the theme of alternate Earths with alternate futures is given an airing, as are Phil's ambivalent attitudes toward drugs (JJ-180 is seen as an abomination in this book, and Eric in one section ponders that anyone who addicts another "ought to be hanged or shot"); these attitudes would turn decidedly antidrug a decade later, in the author's "A Scanner Darkly." The issue of suicide is again touched on (I've lost count of how many Dickian characters have had suicidal thoughts; Phil made a few attempts himself during his troubled life), but here, the author treats us to a wonderfully life-affirming resolution that caps his book off very sweetly. The novel, I should add, just brims with invention and ideas on virtually every page, be it the women's fashions (ebony teeth, toenails painted to depict the Norman Conquest, public toplessness with nipples gilded with a Martian life form!), Tijuana Fur and Dye owner Virgil Ackerman's Wash-35 outpost on Mars (an exact replica of a few square blocks of Washington, D.C., in 1935), the ingenious political intrigue or the truly disorienting, drug-induced time traveling. This is a novel that grows wilder and wilder as it proceeds; hold on tight and prepare to be stunned! Here we have Phil Dick operating at the near peak of his powers, and modern sci-fi really doesn't get too much better, loopier or heartfelt than that.
"NWFLY," still, is not a perfect book, and nitpicker that I am, I was able to discern some small problems. In the Martian Wash-35, for example, is a replica of the Uptown Theatre...which didn't open until 1936. And that McComb Street in "D.C."? That should be "Macomb." And when Kathy spots a 1932 Model A Ford during her JJ-180 trip...well, the Model A was discontinued in 1931; the Model B started in '32. And while I'm picking nits, just how DOES one cut a drug CAPSULE in thirds? OK, enough of that. Truth is, I really did love this wild collection of Philip K. Dick's pet preoccupations. "A daft and delightful yarn," British critic David Pringle calls it in his "Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction," and ain't it ever the truth! How I wish that some major studio would spend $200 million to lovingly bring THIS ONE to the big screen!
I mentioned up top that "NWFLY" is a virtual compendium of Dick's themes and ideas, and as such, it would make a perfect introduction for any readers new to PKD. The subject of artiforgs had already been broached in Phil's "The Penultimate Truth," which novel also featured Cheyenne as the U.N. capital. (For that matter, the subjects of 1920s cowboy star Tom Mix AND St. George, Utah, both strangely figure in the two novels.) As in so many of Dick's other books, the topic of divorce is spotlighted prominently here (the author was himself married five times, before his death at age 52), as is the issue of a world leader who is not what he seems (dealt with in depth in "The Simulacrum" and "The Penultimate Truth"), although here, that leader is not a mechanical construct, but something much more ingenious. As in "The Crack in Space," the theme of alternate Earths with alternate futures is given an airing, as are Phil's ambivalent attitudes toward drugs (JJ-180 is seen as an abomination in this book, and Eric in one section ponders that anyone who addicts another "ought to be hanged or shot"); these attitudes would turn decidedly antidrug a decade later, in the author's "A Scanner Darkly." The issue of suicide is again touched on (I've lost count of how many Dickian characters have had suicidal thoughts; Phil made a few attempts himself during his troubled life), but here, the author treats us to a wonderfully life-affirming resolution that caps his book off very sweetly. The novel, I should add, just brims with invention and ideas on virtually every page, be it the women's fashions (ebony teeth, toenails painted to depict the Norman Conquest, public toplessness with nipples gilded with a Martian life form!), Tijuana Fur and Dye owner Virgil Ackerman's Wash-35 outpost on Mars (an exact replica of a few square blocks of Washington, D.C., in 1935), the ingenious political intrigue or the truly disorienting, drug-induced time traveling. This is a novel that grows wilder and wilder as it proceeds; hold on tight and prepare to be stunned! Here we have Phil Dick operating at the near peak of his powers, and modern sci-fi really doesn't get too much better, loopier or heartfelt than that.
"NWFLY," still, is not a perfect book, and nitpicker that I am, I was able to discern some small problems. In the Martian Wash-35, for example, is a replica of the Uptown Theatre...which didn't open until 1936. And that McComb Street in "D.C."? That should be "Macomb." And when Kathy spots a 1932 Model A Ford during her JJ-180 trip...well, the Model A was discontinued in 1931; the Model B started in '32. And while I'm picking nits, just how DOES one cut a drug CAPSULE in thirds? OK, enough of that. Truth is, I really did love this wild collection of Philip K. Dick's pet preoccupations. "A daft and delightful yarn," British critic David Pringle calls it in his "Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction," and ain't it ever the truth! How I wish that some major studio would spend $200 million to lovingly bring THIS ONE to the big screen!
November 29, 2021
Me encantó ese juego entre viajes en el tiempo y algunos otros elementos que agrega para darle coherencia a la historia sin complicarse demasiado. Eso junto con el contacto de la humanidad con otras razas y el juego político que se crea en el camino, hace que la historia fluya muy rápido.
Lo más desesperante para mí fue la relación de Eric Sweetscent y Kathy, pero es que eso es prácticamente el hilo conductor de todo lo que sucede después, así que puedo dejarlo pasar.
Lo más desesperante para mí fue la relación de Eric Sweetscent y Kathy, pero es que eso es prácticamente el hilo conductor de todo lo que sucede después, así que puedo dejarlo pasar.
October 30, 2021
Esperando el año pasado
Aquí en un futuro (2055) los humanos han hecho contacto con dos grupos de seres extraterrestres, los Ilistarianos y los Reegs, que han estado de siempre en guerra, y los humanos terminamos mezclados en ella. Y vamos a ver la historia de como dos personas se involucran en esto, y el desarrollo que hay ya que terminan involucrados con el Líder de las naciones unidas humanas, que decide sobre el rol de los humanos en la guerra.
Toma su tiempo en arrancar y llegar al meollo del asunto, lo interesante de este punto es ver el punto de vista de Kathy y lo que, se me hizo muy interesante, y me quede esperando más capítulos de ella , pero pues no, llegado a un punto todo se vuelca a Eric y su relación con Gino Molinari, el jefe de las Naciones Unidas, y aquí va a haber un poco más de juego con
Aquí en un futuro (2055) los humanos han hecho contacto con dos grupos de seres extraterrestres, los Ilistarianos y los Reegs, que han estado de siempre en guerra, y los humanos terminamos mezclados en ella. Y vamos a ver la historia de como dos personas se involucran en esto, y el desarrollo que hay ya que terminan involucrados con el Líder de las naciones unidas humanas, que decide sobre el rol de los humanos en la guerra.
Toma su tiempo en arrancar y llegar al meollo del asunto, lo interesante de este punto es ver el punto de vista de Kathy y lo que, se me hizo muy interesante, y me quede esperando más capítulos de ella , pero pues no, llegado a un punto todo se vuelca a Eric y su relación con Gino Molinari, el jefe de las Naciones Unidas, y aquí va a haber un poco más de juego con
May 8, 2011
Dick's misogyny is at full-bore here (PKD's works are so bound up in his own life and experiences that it helps, if you plan to read a considerable amount of his work, to get hold of a good biography like Lawrence Sutin's Divine Invasions and try and correlate the themes and issues in his books with what was going on in his rather messy and chaotic life at the time). So are his explorations of the nature of reality and time, the effects of weird drugs and his deep engagement with ethics, something that gets commented on less often than the first two themes. This is a gripping novel with a whole lot of really cool ideas, none of which are gadget-spec or extrapolation for its own sake. As always, some of the twists the story takes are unexpected and in retrospect truly brilliant. PKD learned well from that old SF master, Van Vogt the arts of building a story from ideas without letting the ideas overwhelm the plot, a tightrope walk that he manages better than most SF writers. I felt the conclusion of the novel was a bit weak and the story had already reached its crisis and climax a while back, and I am not sure that the lead character's final decisions mitigates or merely continues the misogynistic treatment of the major female character in the book, these two elements are the main reasons I'm giving this book 4 stars instead of 5.
July 2, 2023
02/2013
Now Wait For Last Year was the first of PKD's sci-fi books I read - oddly, I read two of his non-sci-fi "literature" novels first (Confessions of a Crap Artist was great, but then I came across Puttering About in a Small Land -is that the title?- which I found odd and oddly off-putting) so then it was some years before I read this- I was 30, I think, and I've since read a lot of his books, considering it hasn't been a whole decade. I also found Now Wait For Last Year odd, of course, and weirdly written. But there must have been something about it.
I was curious to reread this, I wondered if it would seem different having acquired the taste for PKD. It did and it didn't. Parts of it are amazing. Classic Dick drug paranoia merged with time travel. And parts are just ok, almost boring.
A couple of the selections in the Library of America's PKD books are strange to me. I didn't like Dr Bloodmoney so much and, while this was good, I've enjoyed some of the Vintage paperbacks - The Crack in Space - more.
Now Wait For Last Year was the first of PKD's sci-fi books I read - oddly, I read two of his non-sci-fi "literature" novels first (Confessions of a Crap Artist was great, but then I came across Puttering About in a Small Land -is that the title?- which I found odd and oddly off-putting) so then it was some years before I read this- I was 30, I think, and I've since read a lot of his books, considering it hasn't been a whole decade. I also found Now Wait For Last Year odd, of course, and weirdly written. But there must have been something about it.
I was curious to reread this, I wondered if it would seem different having acquired the taste for PKD. It did and it didn't. Parts of it are amazing. Classic Dick drug paranoia merged with time travel. And parts are just ok, almost boring.
A couple of the selections in the Library of America's PKD books are strange to me. I didn't like Dr Bloodmoney so much and, while this was good, I've enjoyed some of the Vintage paperbacks - The Crack in Space - more.
July 4, 2013
Come poteva non piacermi? Da brava fissata con i viaggi nel tempo, il tema del passato, i mondi paralleli... Beh, il mio ragazzo non è certo uno stupido e anche stavolta mi ha consigliata benissimo. La storia è perfetta. Perfetta, in ogni minimo dettaglio, sfumatura e parola. La trama non è la solita zolfa sul viaggio temporale (lasciamo stare che è un romanzo di Dick per il momento), o meglio, non c'è uno dei soliti meccanismi visti e rivisti (che io da brava fissata apprezzo comunque eh). No, c'è un gioco meccanico sensazionale, intelligente sopratutto. E sopratutto, tutto ciò è pieno di idee meravigliose. Il conflitto bellico "ambiguo", le varie dicotomie (Eric/Kathy, pace/guerra, Reeg/Stariani, malattia/ipocondria), tutto è combattuto tra due, ma anche tra più livelli, tra quel passo tra l'uno e l'altro che c'è e non c'è. E poi la droga, la droga che permette di viaggiare nel tempo. Perfetto. Ho davvero apprezzato trama e intreccio, perché ho dovuto prestare molta attenzione, mi sono resa conto di quanto fossi tesa a comprendere tutto ciò che succedeva.
E ora pensiamo al fatto che è un romanzo di Dick. Per ora io ho letto solo questo e "Ma gli androidi sognano pecore elettriche?", ma credo di poter dire che apprezzo molto l'utilizzo di certi temi, o meglio, come sono utilizzati. La guerra, gli androidi (che qui sono chiamati roboserventi), il conflitto marito e moglie, altra dicotomia, e sopratutto, tema non "palpabile", la continua necessità di una scelta. Quello che non mi va giù è lo stile narrativo. Ecco, diciamo che devo ancora imparare a digerirlo? Ma mi pare strano, solitamente non mi è difficile. Credo proprio che ci sia qualcosa nel modo di scrivere di Dick che mi tedi un po' (ecco perché la stellina mancante!), mi are, certe volte, sopratutto all'inizio di un romanzo, che butti tanta carne sul fuoco e che per ogni pezzo di carne voglia dirmi vita morte e miracoli. Vedremo col prossimo.
Questo, se non si fosse capito, stra consigliato.
E ora pensiamo al fatto che è un romanzo di Dick. Per ora io ho letto solo questo e "Ma gli androidi sognano pecore elettriche?", ma credo di poter dire che apprezzo molto l'utilizzo di certi temi, o meglio, come sono utilizzati. La guerra, gli androidi (che qui sono chiamati roboserventi), il conflitto marito e moglie, altra dicotomia, e sopratutto, tema non "palpabile", la continua necessità di una scelta. Quello che non mi va giù è lo stile narrativo. Ecco, diciamo che devo ancora imparare a digerirlo? Ma mi pare strano, solitamente non mi è difficile. Credo proprio che ci sia qualcosa nel modo di scrivere di Dick che mi tedi un po' (ecco perché la stellina mancante!), mi are, certe volte, sopratutto all'inizio di un romanzo, che butti tanta carne sul fuoco e che per ogni pezzo di carne voglia dirmi vita morte e miracoli. Vedremo col prossimo.
Questo, se non si fosse capito, stra consigliato.
October 30, 2018
Resenha publicada aqui: https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/ilustra...
September 25, 2014
Absolute favorite PKD. Experimental drugs, lucid (non physical) time travel, mental institutions, ahhh greatness. I would give a more thorough review, but its been a few years since Ive read it + someone perma-borrowed my copy
March 22, 2024
Цікава основна ідея розвитку часу, також начебто підіймаються соціальні питання політичних ігор. Але тяжко читалось, перша половина взагалі уввігнала мене у якийсь депресивний нечетун.
March 4, 2019
I read Philip K. Dick’s 1966 science fiction novel Now Wait for Last Year in trade paperback. I’ll just assume you already know who Philip K. Dick was. Strangely enough he is probably more revered among younger readers today, than he was while alive, perhaps because of all the mind-bending films that have been made based on ideas from his works. This is one of his lesser known novels (no film) and I had not read it before.
It starts as a commonplace story of a future corporate medical doctor, Eric Sweetscent, employed by an eccentric old coot, and trapped in a long-past-meaningful marriage. Once that is established, things take a step towards caricature when the business turns out to be an unlikely and bizarre venture based on the abuse of a Martian life-form to replicate spaceship control systems for our alien allies in an interspecies war that Earth has gotten swept up in. Finally, in true PKD style, a mind-altering drug (JJ-180) comes into the story. This drug is actually an instrument of the interstellar war (or maybe not), addicting its users on the first use (or maybe not), and inducing time travel between parallel universes (or maybe not). With frequent plot reversals and revisions of reality, it would be easy for this story to spin out of control. But masterfully, even though the character motivations get a little twisted, Dick does not let go of causality across the timelines. Right up to the end, there is a reality to be revealed. Top of form, in that regard.
However, Dick has written the wife Kathy Sweetscent, and women in general, as selfish shrews who despise men while taking advantage of them. Both Eric and the narrator’s voice, in turn despise them in all regards except for sex. Apparently, Dick was going through one of his embattled, hate-filled, and drug-fueled divorces while writing this, so vented his misogyny at his readers. Yuck. Get a therapist for that.
It starts as a commonplace story of a future corporate medical doctor, Eric Sweetscent, employed by an eccentric old coot, and trapped in a long-past-meaningful marriage. Once that is established, things take a step towards caricature when the business turns out to be an unlikely and bizarre venture based on the abuse of a Martian life-form to replicate spaceship control systems for our alien allies in an interspecies war that Earth has gotten swept up in. Finally, in true PKD style, a mind-altering drug (JJ-180) comes into the story. This drug is actually an instrument of the interstellar war (or maybe not), addicting its users on the first use (or maybe not), and inducing time travel between parallel universes (or maybe not). With frequent plot reversals and revisions of reality, it would be easy for this story to spin out of control. But masterfully, even though the character motivations get a little twisted, Dick does not let go of causality across the timelines. Right up to the end, there is a reality to be revealed. Top of form, in that regard.
However, Dick has written the wife Kathy Sweetscent, and women in general, as selfish shrews who despise men while taking advantage of them. Both Eric and the narrator’s voice, in turn despise them in all regards except for sex. Apparently, Dick was going through one of his embattled, hate-filled, and drug-fueled divorces while writing this, so vented his misogyny at his readers. Yuck. Get a therapist for that.
February 14, 2021
პლანეტთაშორისი ომები, დროში მოგზაურობა და ნარკოდამოკიდებულება წესით საკმარისად კარგი ტოპიკები უნდა იყოს sci-fi წიგნისთვის, მაგრამ იმდენად მშრალი ტექსტია, იმდენი პერსონაჟი და იმდენი დაუსრულებელი ისტორია, რომ არც გითრევს რა მოხდება.
ხო კიდევ, 280 გვერდია წიგნი და 560 “გაიფიქრა მან”, “გაიფიქრა ერიკმა” “გაიფიქრა ჯონმა” “გაიფიქრა ელდარამ”. მაცადე წარმოვიდგინო მე თვითონ. რა საჭიროა ამდენი გაიფიქრა ამან, გაიფიქრა იმან.
მაგრად არ მომეწონა.���🏻
ხო კიდევ, 280 გვერდია წიგნი და 560 “გაიფიქრა მან”, “გაიფიქრა ერიკმა” “გაიფიქრა ჯონმა” “გაიფიქრა ელდარამ”. მაცადე წარმოვიდგინო მე თვითონ. რა საჭიროა ამდენი გაიფიქრა ამან, გაიფიქრა იმან.
მაგრად არ მომეწონა.���🏻
January 11, 2022
დროსა და პარალელურ რეალობებში მოგზაურობის საინტერესო ამბავია აღწერილი, საკმაოდ გონებამახვილი პერსონაჟების ჩართულობით. საინტერესო საკითხავია, თუმცა ცოტა დეპრესიულია და მოწყენილი ამთავრებ კითხვას.. გულდაწყვეტილი. უფრო 3.5 ვარსკვლავს იმსახურებდა
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