Eye in the Sky
By Philip K. Dick; Performed by Dan John Miller
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
8 hours [UNABRIDGED]
Themes: / theology / altered reality / science fiction / particle accelerator / dystopia /
Publisher summary:
When a routine tour of a particle accelerator goes awry, Jack Hamilton and the rest of his tour group find themselves in a world ruled by Old Testament morality, where the smallest infraction can bring about a plague of locusts. Escape from that world is not the end, though, as they plunge into a Communist dystopia and a world where everything is an enemy. Philip K. Dick was aggressively individualistic, and no worldview is safe from his acerbic and hilarious takedowns. Eye in the Sky blends the thrills and the jokes to craft a startling morality lesson hidden inside a comedy.
Eye in the Sky is Philip K. Dick’s 5th published novel, and although his earlier work touched on many themes that would continue throughout his career, this book is one of the first to develop these themes in full. The focus is on a technological mishap that sends Jack Hamilton and 7 other individuals into what amounts to a shared consensual hallucination. The characters quickly find their mutual realities at odds with one another. During the first of these alternate worlds, Philip K. Dick has fun with another of his favorite topics – theology, and it is from this segment that the title Eye in the Sky originates.
Dick’s humor is also more present in this novel than in his previous works. Narrator Dan John Miller is very successful in capturing the sarcasm found in character Jack Hamilton’s dialogue. In addition to humor, horror elements can also be found during another segment late in the story involving a haunted house of sorts. With all of the mind-bending excitement throughout most of the book, the ending may seem anti-climactic; however, I felt the ending was consistent with the author’s own philosophy and would recommend Eye in the Sky as a great place to start for someone interested in the earlier work of Philip K. Dick.
Posted by Dan VK
