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Phillip K Dick
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Book
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Publisher | Gollancz | ||
ISBN | 978-057507994 | ||
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Reviewer
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Gareth
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Synopsis
Seven years after the day of the bombs, Point Reyes was luckier than most places. Its people were reasonably normal -- except for the girl with her twin brother growing inside her, and talking to her. Their barter economy was working. Their resident genius could fix almost anything that broke down. But they didn't know they were harbouring the one man who almost everyone left alive wanted killed ...
Review
Philip K Dick, like Neil Gaiman and Clive Barker, travelled on the very edges of sanity. With Gaiman and Barker their chosen fields are fantasy and horror, respectively, where they traverse the very boundaries where dreams and nightmares cross over into reality - such is the stuff of Dick's science-fiction.
Dr Bloodmoney is set in the years following a nuclear war and the survivors are struggling; not only with the fallout but also with the emergence of a new species of mutant with unknown powers. Nothing overtly strange there; indeed it seems like average sci-fi territory. Lets take a look at some of the characters then, for this is where Dick really makes his mark.
Dr Bruno Bluthgeld (the titular Dr Bloodmoney himself). Not only is he an atomic physicist whose miscalculations caused the pre-war emergency and is now the object of universal hatred, he may or may not have magical powers. He suffers from severe paranoia and megalomania and believes that because he caused the nuclear accident he can use his powers to heal and restore the world.
Hoppy Horrington is a phocomelus -a condition similar to thalidomide- who has psychokinetic powers and can mimic other peoples voices perfectly.
Bill and Edie Keller: Bill is Edie's brother - with one difference. He is a fetus in fetu, within her body; that is, he lives inside her as a sentient tumour, and also has telepathic contact with the dead!
No one wrote science fiction like Philip K. Dick, he was the king of the comic, edgy and disturbing borders. Dr
Bloodmoney is one of his warmest, most humane novels and well worth a read!
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