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Solar Lottery
The operating principle was random selection: positions of public power were decided by a sophisticated lottery and when the magnetic lottery bottle twitched, anyone could become the absolute ruler of the world, the Quizmaster.
But with the power came the game – the assassination game – which everyone could watch on TV. Would the new man be good enough to evade his chosen killer? Which made for fascinating and exciting viewing, compelling enough to distract the public’s attention while the Big Five industrial complexes ran the world. Then, in 2203, with the choice of a member of a maverick cult as Quizmaster, the system developed a little hitch…
Solar Lottery was Philip K. Dick’s first published novel, brilliant and idiosyncratic, powerful and affecting.
But with the power came the game – the assassination game – which everyone could watch on TV. Would the new man be good enough to evade his chosen killer? Which made for fascinating and exciting viewing, compelling enough to distract the public’s attention while the Big Five industrial complexes ran the world. Then, in 2203, with the choice of a member of a maverick cult as Quizmaster, the system developed a little hitch…
Solar Lottery was Philip K. Dick’s first published novel, brilliant and idiosyncratic, powerful and affecting.
188 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1955
About the author
Philip K. Dick
1,755 books20.6k 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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December 12, 2020
Solar Lottery - Philip K. Dick's very first published novel. The year was 1955 and if the public only knew what the above first edition would eventually be worth, it would have sold for considerably more than 35 cents.
Back in 1955, PKD, age 27, already had dozens of published short stories to his credit as well as completing five manuscripts for novels that would eventually become famous titles among avid fans. This to say, the young American author racked up thousands of productive hours sitting at his typewriter when it came time to hammer out Solar Lottery. However, one thing he never had was a lot of money; matter of fact, poverty-stricken Phil was forced to pump out story after story to pay the bills. Subsequently, his writing possesses a edgy roughness and no-nonsense drive aficionados of the genre have come to know and love.
Solar Lottery also contains much signature PKD craziness later developed in such classics as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Ubik and Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. With so much craziness, I will not attempt to chart the story's arc; rather, I'll shift to highlighting key themes and characters our perceptive young author includes in his zany 200-page sf popper. Again, Philip K. Dick's very first published novel. What a marvel to have such explosive talent at a young age.
Luck of the Draw: Who would have guessed in the year 2203 an entire world civilization would place such an emphasis on games and quizzes? “The economy was propped up for decades by elaborate give-away devices that dispensed tons of glittering merchandise. But for every man who won a car and a refrigerator and a TV set there were millions who didn’t.” Sorry to say, the society in PKD’s novel has degenerated to the point where people maintain zero faith in natural law or any sense of stability – all that remains is counting your odds in a universe of random chance; in a word, life has become a colossal crap shoot.
Top Dog: According to Minimax, the prevailing game theory invented by mathematicians back in the twentieth century, the head of world government is chosen by lottery - in the novel’s futuristic lingo, “twitched by the random motion of the bottle to the number One class-position.” And what, you may ask, is the title given to the person holding this glorious position? Perhaps predictably in a dystopianish culture dedicated to randomization: the Quizmaster.
Ferocious Fun: It should be noted that being Quizmaster does have its downside. Forever starving for entertainment, the general public can tune in to get the latest update on the brutal game of assassin versus Quizmaster. According to the rules of this futuristic blood sport, only one assassin at a time can hunt to kill the Quizmaster. And how does a man get to be an assassin? Of course – a lottery! Sidebar: a young woman was saddened as a little girl when she discovered only men can be assassins. What a bummer!
Telepaths: Mind reading, one of PKD's abiding themes, makes its appearance in Solar Lottery. A prime defense for a Quizmaster to protect themselves against an assassin's attack: an entire fleet of telepaths. Interest in such telepathic ability was big back in the 1950s - Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man is another classic of science fiction featuring a special class of people who can read minds.
Android Antecedent: Solar Lottery features MacMillan robots as taxi drivers and servants. Not nearly as humanoid as his androids, these robots nevertheless render many humans obsolete. A close corollary is this future society devaluing “blue collar” workers, people working with their hands not their heads; indeed, people who can do things such as grow plants, repair machinery, cook meals or weave clothing are judged complete failures. A reader can sense Phil seething as he wrote these words since the author placed a high value on skills involving direct contact with objects. This theme is picked up most directly in his Galactic Pot-Healer.
Ted Benteley: Thirty-three year old biochemist fired after thirteen years of service with one of the world’s largest technology organizations. Ted is thus released from his fealty oath (such swearing an oath to a company or high ranking individual serves as an anchor in this haphazard future world gone mad). Soon thereafter, Ted swears an oath to Reese Verrick, the current Quizmaster but unfortunately minutes after his pledge, Verrick has been “quacked by a twitch of the bottle” or, in other words, Verrick is kicked out of the number one position.
Ted Benteley is the novel’s hero, a man of high ideals but made cynical by unending tawdriness and superficiality. Ted recognizes world dominating companies such as his former employer do little to truly improve the lives of individuals or uplift society; rather, they are solely concerned with profits. Does this sounds like PKD has prophesied our present day multinational corporations? Likewise, Ted also has a jaundiced view of popular culture: TV ads are the highest art form and “those ads are like bright shiny sewer-bugs.” Bullseye, Ted! Bullseye, PKD!
Leon Cartwright: A sixty-something electronics repairman with a strong sense of right and wrong is chosen as the new Quizmaster, an “old school” kind of guy who is considered a crank by most since he’s a follower of astronomer/visionary John Preston. Cartwright leans on the guidance of his attractive young niece Rita O'Neill and telepaths like Peter Wakeman to fight off the assassin and keep his position.
Reese Verrick: Reese is the prototypical 1950s captain of industry or government – tall, broad-shouldered, confident, cunning, egotistical. Having been quacked, the former Quizmaster’s first goal is to have an assassin kill Leon Cartwright so he can reclaim his former position. Being a seasoned schemer and manipulator, Reese rigs the lottery to pick exactly who he himself wants as the next assassin.
Keith Pellig: The next assassin chosen by lottery, a highly developed, nearly indestructible android shell that can be inhabited by multiple individuals to perform his duty as assassin. One of the more inventive, intriguing bits of the novel.
Topless Beauties: Two gorgeous ladies, Rita O'Neill and Eleanor Stevens, are central to the unfolding story. They also take center stage as eye candy: even fully dressed, their breasts are bare. Young author Phil takes every occasion to detail the luscious pair (no pun intended!).
Scintillating Subplot: Leon Cartwright sends a crew to search for John Preston's mysterious tenth planet known as the "Flame Disc." Hey, what's a PKD novel without a mingling of plots? And at the book's end, the author pulls everything together. How does he do it? I encourage you to read Solar Lottery and blast off with young Phil. Your imagination will expand to dimensions beyond the Flame Disc.
Photo of author Philip K. Dick taken around the time he wrote Solar Lottery
April 16, 2017
an ingenious, frenetically paced book crammed full of fascinating ideas. this was Dick's first published novel yet it doesn't feel like it. he jumped into writing with his style and his themes fully formed. that's not to say this isn't rough - but all of his stories are rough. for me that is a big part of their appeal. it feels like he wrote this in a white heat and then immediately had it published, screw any rewriting. it has so much energy! and talent to burn. I've always found it hard to write about Dick (but not about dick) because anything I'd want to tease out or explore is already right there between the pages, blatant. his ideas are front and center: the human struggle to be an individual rather than a cog in the machine and the equally human desire to just have a relaxed, pleasant life; mega-structures like governments and corporations that hold complete dominion but still function like slot machines or a roulette wheel or a bad yet very funny dream; a world of predetermined lives where everyone, high and low, is still prey to luck and randomization - it is the person who can figure out a system deciphering that randomness who often wins.
my favorite part of the book was an outstanding sequence in which an android assassin attempts to carry out a hit - a blank slate of an assassin whose decisions are made by a multitude of minds jumping in and out of its body, changing directions and plans abruptly with each new mind, confounding its telepathic pursuers with every new and surprising decision. a breathless and very exciting scene.
synopsis: in the year 2203, at the start of a shocking regime change, irritable everyman Ted Benteley gets a new job.
my favorite part of the book was an outstanding sequence in which an android assassin attempts to carry out a hit - a blank slate of an assassin whose decisions are made by a multitude of minds jumping in and out of its body, changing directions and plans abruptly with each new mind, confounding its telepathic pursuers with every new and surprising decision. a breathless and very exciting scene.
synopsis: in the year 2203, at the start of a shocking regime change, irritable everyman Ted Benteley gets a new job.
April 3, 2023
An alternate future reality where almost every thing is based on logic and numbers is turned on its head when an incumbent leader is replaced by the new leader lottery winning 'radical'. Riveting read especially when you consider that it was Dick's debut published work setting out many of themes he would focus a lot of his future work on. 6 out of 12, Three Stars for this debut work.
2010 read
2010 read
January 31, 2017
I like the Irish rock band U2, but especially like the early music. Songs like “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Pride” had an edge (pun intended) and a spiritual, raw vitality that was more than just appealing, it was hypnotic and mesmerizing. Whatever it was these young musicians were selling, I was buying into it and I felt more alive and potent while I listened to and became a part of the song. The later music was good, the members of the band are talented artists and the product is well crafted, but the buying and selling seem more adept and the product is too fashionably marketed.
Solar Lottery was Philip K. Dick’s first published novel, released in 1955. One thing that cannot be said of PKD was that he ever sold out, his life until the very end was a catastrophe of poverty and misunderstanding. What his peers had seen from the beginning took the public beyond his lifetime to grasp. Just like the early U2 songs, this very early PKD offering, published when he was just 27, is alive and vibrant and edgy with an abstract sci-fi signature that was only just developing.
A good read all by itself and a must read for a fan.
Solar Lottery was Philip K. Dick’s first published novel, released in 1955. One thing that cannot be said of PKD was that he ever sold out, his life until the very end was a catastrophe of poverty and misunderstanding. What his peers had seen from the beginning took the public beyond his lifetime to grasp. Just like the early U2 songs, this very early PKD offering, published when he was just 27, is alive and vibrant and edgy with an abstract sci-fi signature that was only just developing.
A good read all by itself and a must read for a fan.
July 22, 2020
Solar Lottery is Dick’s first science fiction novel and the last book on my PKD 1950’s reading list. Of the six novels published in the 50’s, I liked this one the least. But I’m not too disappointed. After all, it’s only Dick’s first. It will be followed by much better novels in the years to come.
The primary story concerns a social system that is based on chance. The secondary story concerns a mysterious tenth planet prophesied by an enigmatic visionary. The secondary story was more to my taste, but it was a small part of the book, it doesn’t really go anywhere, and it isn’t necessary to the main plot.
The society that Dick depicts in the main plot is based on the mathematical theory of Minimax. In game theory, Minimax minimizes the maximum loss in an uncertain situation. Leadership in this society is determined randomly so that no one may strategize. The result of this is a society of people who wear good luck charms and try to read the future in portents of nature.
If Dick had focused on this, I think Solar Lottery would be a better story, but instead he focuses on the feudal relationship between serfs and their protectors. Serfs swear fealty to their protectors. They are the property of their protectors who have the authority to kill them if they violate their oaths.
Ted Benteley is dissatisfied with his society. He doesn’t necessarily object to the feudal system itself. He receives a good salary and good benefits. He admits that he has no cause for complaint, but he is frustrated that his work does no good. As the corruption in his society becomes more and more apparent to him, he faces a moral dilemma: “Are you supposed to obey corrupt laws” (158)? He wants his society to be one in which he can obey the laws.
The highlight of this story is a conversation he has with Eleanor Stevens, a young woman loyal to the former leader. She rejects the notion of being loyal to an ideal. For Eleanor, it only makes sense to be loyal to a person. “It’s people who are real, not institutions and offices” (84).
“Everything else in the universe has collapsed . . . shifting, random, purposeless gray smoke you can’t put your hands on. The only thing that’s left is people” (84).
Benteley takes the opposing position: “ . . . a person should be loyal to an ideal” (85).
“That’s all we have left . . . . Our oaths. Our loyalty. That’s the cement that keeps this whole thing from collapsing” (85).
It is a perennial argument, but I can’t help thinking about the current political climate in America. Politicians and ordinary citizens alike are facing a choice: whether to be loyal to an ideal or a person. In the best possible world, this choice would be merely academic, for the leader himself would be loyal to an ideal, in this case, the ideal of a democratic republic. But what happens when the leader is not loyal to the ideal? When that happens, the people face a dilemma.
Unlike the Prestonites in Dick’s novel, we can’t blast off to a mysterious tenth planet and start over, so we have to make a collective choice. Will we be loyal to the ideal that informed our country since its birth in the eighteenth century, or will we be loyal to a person who believes his own self-interests trump that ideal?
The primary story concerns a social system that is based on chance. The secondary story concerns a mysterious tenth planet prophesied by an enigmatic visionary. The secondary story was more to my taste, but it was a small part of the book, it doesn’t really go anywhere, and it isn’t necessary to the main plot.
The society that Dick depicts in the main plot is based on the mathematical theory of Minimax. In game theory, Minimax minimizes the maximum loss in an uncertain situation. Leadership in this society is determined randomly so that no one may strategize. The result of this is a society of people who wear good luck charms and try to read the future in portents of nature.
If Dick had focused on this, I think Solar Lottery would be a better story, but instead he focuses on the feudal relationship between serfs and their protectors. Serfs swear fealty to their protectors. They are the property of their protectors who have the authority to kill them if they violate their oaths.
Ted Benteley is dissatisfied with his society. He doesn’t necessarily object to the feudal system itself. He receives a good salary and good benefits. He admits that he has no cause for complaint, but he is frustrated that his work does no good. As the corruption in his society becomes more and more apparent to him, he faces a moral dilemma: “Are you supposed to obey corrupt laws” (158)? He wants his society to be one in which he can obey the laws.
The highlight of this story is a conversation he has with Eleanor Stevens, a young woman loyal to the former leader. She rejects the notion of being loyal to an ideal. For Eleanor, it only makes sense to be loyal to a person. “It’s people who are real, not institutions and offices” (84).
“Everything else in the universe has collapsed . . . shifting, random, purposeless gray smoke you can’t put your hands on. The only thing that’s left is people” (84).
Benteley takes the opposing position: “ . . . a person should be loyal to an ideal” (85).
“That’s all we have left . . . . Our oaths. Our loyalty. That’s the cement that keeps this whole thing from collapsing” (85).
It is a perennial argument, but I can’t help thinking about the current political climate in America. Politicians and ordinary citizens alike are facing a choice: whether to be loyal to an ideal or a person. In the best possible world, this choice would be merely academic, for the leader himself would be loyal to an ideal, in this case, the ideal of a democratic republic. But what happens when the leader is not loyal to the ideal? When that happens, the people face a dilemma.
Unlike the Prestonites in Dick’s novel, we can’t blast off to a mysterious tenth planet and start over, so we have to make a collective choice. Will we be loyal to the ideal that informed our country since its birth in the eighteenth century, or will we be loyal to a person who believes his own self-interests trump that ideal?
March 2, 2016
"I'm a sick man. And the more I see, the sicker I get. I'm so sick I think everybody else is sick and I'm the only healthy person. That's pretty bad off, isn't it?”
― Philip K. Dick, Solar Lottery
I figured Super Tuesday was an appropriate time to read PKD's first novel about lottery elections, random assassins, autocratic leaders, corruption, serfs, mad women, social control, telepathic security, idealism, cults, and the search for our galaxy's 10th planet.
It is hard to believe this was Dick's first novel. It seems so grown up; not quite ripe, but close enough to still be edible and enjoyable. It combines Dick's early space novels with his later, funky techno-politico-religious cynicism.
01 function minimax(node, depth, maximizingPlayer)
02 if depth = 0 or node is a terminal node
03 return the heuristic value of node
04 if maximizingPlayer
05 bestValue := −∞
06 for each child of node
07 v := minimax(child, depth − 1, FALSE)
08 bestValue := max(bestValue, v)
09 return bestValue
10 else (* minimizing player *)
11 bestValue := +∞
12 for each child of node
13 v := minimax(child, depth − 1, TRUE)
14 bestValue := min(bestValue, v)
15 return bestValue
Probably my favorite bit of this whole novel was Dick's bending of the idea of Minimax, a form of Nash Equilibrium and game theory. The election of a leader by random is offset by the almost simultaneous election of an assassin. In Dick's Zero-sum future, the random probability of a stupid leader is offset and minimized by the election of an average (or better than average) assassin. Thus, dumb leaders die quickly, good leaders last longer.
The climax of this novel involves both the epitome of game theory and the inevitable corruption. This might have been just a three-star novel, but for someone who loves economics, game theory, and good SF, this one needed/demanded a one-star upgrade.
― Philip K. Dick, Solar Lottery
I figured Super Tuesday was an appropriate time to read PKD's first novel about lottery elections, random assassins, autocratic leaders, corruption, serfs, mad women, social control, telepathic security, idealism, cults, and the search for our galaxy's 10th planet.
It is hard to believe this was Dick's first novel. It seems so grown up; not quite ripe, but close enough to still be edible and enjoyable. It combines Dick's early space novels with his later, funky techno-politico-religious cynicism.
01 function minimax(node, depth, maximizingPlayer)
02 if depth = 0 or node is a terminal node
03 return the heuristic value of node
04 if maximizingPlayer
05 bestValue := −∞
06 for each child of node
07 v := minimax(child, depth − 1, FALSE)
08 bestValue := max(bestValue, v)
09 return bestValue
10 else (* minimizing player *)
11 bestValue := +∞
12 for each child of node
13 v := minimax(child, depth − 1, TRUE)
14 bestValue := min(bestValue, v)
15 return bestValue
Probably my favorite bit of this whole novel was Dick's bending of the idea of Minimax, a form of Nash Equilibrium and game theory. The election of a leader by random is offset by the almost simultaneous election of an assassin. In Dick's Zero-sum future, the random probability of a stupid leader is offset and minimized by the election of an average (or better than average) assassin. Thus, dumb leaders die quickly, good leaders last longer.
The climax of this novel involves both the epitome of game theory and the inevitable corruption. This might have been just a three-star novel, but for someone who loves economics, game theory, and good SF, this one needed/demanded a one-star upgrade.
July 30, 2013
Although the Philip K. Dick novel "Solar Lottery" is correctly cited as being the writer's first full-length piece of fiction to see the light of day, it was hardly the first time the budding author saw his name in print. The 26-year-old Dick had already seen some 35 short sci-fi stories published between 1952 and '53, beginning with his first sale, "Beyond Lies the Wub," in the July '52 issue of "Planet Stories"; he would see 27 stories go into print in 1953 alone! In addition, Dick, who only turned to sci-fi when his several mainstream novels remained unpublished, had no less than four such works languishing in his files at home by 1955, including "Gather Yourselves Together" (written in '49) and "Voices From the Street" ('52), not to mention his fantasy novel "A Glass of Darkness" (released in 1956 as "The Cosmic Puppets"). Spurred to try his hand at the longer sci-fi form by editor Anthony Boucher, Dick had "Solar Lottery" ready by March '54, editing it considerably after its sale to Ace paperbacks editor Donald Wollheim. (Dick's original title for the book, "Quizmaster Take All," was changed by Wollheim.) Thus, the author's first sci-fi novel was released in May 1955 as one half of one of those cute little "Ace doubles" (D-103, for all you collectors out there), backed with Leigh Brackett's "The Big Jump," and with a cover price of...35 cents. It was an auspicious debut for the tyro novelist; an imaginative, complex, swift-moving and continually surprising piece of work that offers just a hint of the greatness to come.
The book takes place in one of the author's typically wacky future settings, the Earth of 2203; the type of scenario that has come to be known as "phildickian." In this world of several centuries hence, the planetary leader is not elected, but rather chosen at random by the magnetic twitch of some kind of subatomic bottle gizmo. A leader who has just been ousted may legally try to assassinate his/her replacement, however, if he/she can breach the defenses of the new leader's telepathic corps (kind of like a mind-reading Secret Service). Thus, in Dick's novel, we meet the 32-year-old Ted Benteley, a biochemist who signs on as a "vassal" to world leader Reese Verrick, just as Verrick is deposed and 63-year-old Leon Cartwright is twitched into the top-dog spot. The action jumps from the world capital of Batavia (given that Indonesia is one of the world's most densely populated countries, it is no wonder that Dick chose it as his seat of Earth government), to Cartwright's base in London, to Verrick's holdings in Berlin, and on to a pleasure resort on the lunar surface, where Keith Pellig, a synthetic man remotely controlled by 24 alternating human minds, attempts to do away with the new world leader. And as if these political machinations and techno homicide attempts weren't enough, as a subplot of sorts, Dick gives us a small band, called the Prestonites, who fly out beyond Pluto in search of the legendary 10th planet, known only as the Flame Disc....
"Solar Lottery" does not feature any of the frequent bursts of humor or the preoccupation with divorce, the German language, cigars, opera, classical music, and literature to be found in so many of the author's later works. Likewise absent are the numerous drug references and abnegations of "reality" that would appear so prominently in many of Dick's future sci-fi novels, but there ARE nevertheless assorted bits of strangeness. For example, in one scene, an understandably disoriented Benteley, already stoned on a Callistan drink called a "methane gale," finds his consciousness suddenly plopped into the Pellig construct, leading to one decidedly schizophrenic interlude. And in another instance of startling strangeness, the Prestonites hear the voice of their 150-year-dead messianic leader, John Preston, issuing from their ship's speakers! The book also features the first of a long line of Dickian precocious teenage girls who are wise beyond their years and who become sexually involved with the central character; here, it is redheaded, formerly telepathic Eleanor Stevens, a vassal of Verrick's who suffers a memorably grisly demise. And yes, the book does sport a surprising amount of risque content: The lovemaking between Ted and Eleanor is pleasingly described by Dick; Cartwright's niece, Rita O'Neill, is said to have "supple lines of flesh moulded firm and ripe in the vigor of youth"; and, as in many other Dick books, female toplessness is the fashion. The novel offers up some prescient images (the purple-haired girl at the lunar resort, playing a game in which she forms combinations of colors, almost sounds like a woman I saw with her iPhone on a NYC subway last week!) and poses some interesting questions, such as when Benteley ponders out loud "Are you supposed to obey corrupt laws? Is it a crime to break a law that's a rotten law, or an oath that's rotten?...How do you know when it's right to stop obeying the laws?" Perhaps best of all, though, is the book's relentless pacing, dishing out one impressive scene after another in rapid succession (the Pellig robot's rampage through the Batavia offices is quite thrilling), growing wilder and wilder as they proceed. The novel is far from perfect, and first-timer Dick is guilty here of some fuzzy writing on occasion, a few awkward turns of phrase (such as "Rita was eyeing Benteley intently"; guess Phil couldn't resist that one!), and some misstatements of fact (though the book takes place during the summer of 2203, London, for some reason, is in the middle of what seems to be winter!). Quibbles aside, though, this remains a most pleasing debut from an author who would go on to deservedly become one of the sci-fi genre's most respected and beloved cult figures. From its opening line "There had been harbingers"--and "Solar Lottery" functions itself as a harbinger of a great talent--to its closing statement regarding the manifest destiny of Man ("the highest goal of man...to spread out...live in an evolving fashion...to keep moving on"), it is a highly entertaining, certainly satisfying, even inspiring affair, although nothing great, or monumental, or mind-blowing, or consciousness expanding, or profound. For Philip K. Dick, those books would come later....
The book takes place in one of the author's typically wacky future settings, the Earth of 2203; the type of scenario that has come to be known as "phildickian." In this world of several centuries hence, the planetary leader is not elected, but rather chosen at random by the magnetic twitch of some kind of subatomic bottle gizmo. A leader who has just been ousted may legally try to assassinate his/her replacement, however, if he/she can breach the defenses of the new leader's telepathic corps (kind of like a mind-reading Secret Service). Thus, in Dick's novel, we meet the 32-year-old Ted Benteley, a biochemist who signs on as a "vassal" to world leader Reese Verrick, just as Verrick is deposed and 63-year-old Leon Cartwright is twitched into the top-dog spot. The action jumps from the world capital of Batavia (given that Indonesia is one of the world's most densely populated countries, it is no wonder that Dick chose it as his seat of Earth government), to Cartwright's base in London, to Verrick's holdings in Berlin, and on to a pleasure resort on the lunar surface, where Keith Pellig, a synthetic man remotely controlled by 24 alternating human minds, attempts to do away with the new world leader. And as if these political machinations and techno homicide attempts weren't enough, as a subplot of sorts, Dick gives us a small band, called the Prestonites, who fly out beyond Pluto in search of the legendary 10th planet, known only as the Flame Disc....
"Solar Lottery" does not feature any of the frequent bursts of humor or the preoccupation with divorce, the German language, cigars, opera, classical music, and literature to be found in so many of the author's later works. Likewise absent are the numerous drug references and abnegations of "reality" that would appear so prominently in many of Dick's future sci-fi novels, but there ARE nevertheless assorted bits of strangeness. For example, in one scene, an understandably disoriented Benteley, already stoned on a Callistan drink called a "methane gale," finds his consciousness suddenly plopped into the Pellig construct, leading to one decidedly schizophrenic interlude. And in another instance of startling strangeness, the Prestonites hear the voice of their 150-year-dead messianic leader, John Preston, issuing from their ship's speakers! The book also features the first of a long line of Dickian precocious teenage girls who are wise beyond their years and who become sexually involved with the central character; here, it is redheaded, formerly telepathic Eleanor Stevens, a vassal of Verrick's who suffers a memorably grisly demise. And yes, the book does sport a surprising amount of risque content: The lovemaking between Ted and Eleanor is pleasingly described by Dick; Cartwright's niece, Rita O'Neill, is said to have "supple lines of flesh moulded firm and ripe in the vigor of youth"; and, as in many other Dick books, female toplessness is the fashion. The novel offers up some prescient images (the purple-haired girl at the lunar resort, playing a game in which she forms combinations of colors, almost sounds like a woman I saw with her iPhone on a NYC subway last week!) and poses some interesting questions, such as when Benteley ponders out loud "Are you supposed to obey corrupt laws? Is it a crime to break a law that's a rotten law, or an oath that's rotten?...How do you know when it's right to stop obeying the laws?" Perhaps best of all, though, is the book's relentless pacing, dishing out one impressive scene after another in rapid succession (the Pellig robot's rampage through the Batavia offices is quite thrilling), growing wilder and wilder as they proceed. The novel is far from perfect, and first-timer Dick is guilty here of some fuzzy writing on occasion, a few awkward turns of phrase (such as "Rita was eyeing Benteley intently"; guess Phil couldn't resist that one!), and some misstatements of fact (though the book takes place during the summer of 2203, London, for some reason, is in the middle of what seems to be winter!). Quibbles aside, though, this remains a most pleasing debut from an author who would go on to deservedly become one of the sci-fi genre's most respected and beloved cult figures. From its opening line "There had been harbingers"--and "Solar Lottery" functions itself as a harbinger of a great talent--to its closing statement regarding the manifest destiny of Man ("the highest goal of man...to spread out...live in an evolving fashion...to keep moving on"), it is a highly entertaining, certainly satisfying, even inspiring affair, although nothing great, or monumental, or mind-blowing, or consciousness expanding, or profound. For Philip K. Dick, those books would come later....
April 21, 2023
3.5 overall.
My 14th PKD novel. The 6th that he wrote (both sf and non-sf); the 1st that was published. He apparently had felt that, if 'Solar Lottery' hadn't sold, he would have returned to just writing short stories. There would have been no other novels. Ever. Think of that: no 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'!... etc.
But... that did not happen. Big Sigh!
Just because I have decided to make my way through all of PKD's sf work (anything he wrote alone), that doesn't mean it's a project I would strongly encourage others to take on... not unless your fascination with the author (and the course of his development) is particularly intense.
The experience of tracing his growth can be uniquely rewarding. It can also be one of diminishing returns. You'll have to be prepared for how quality fluctuates in the early work. Take 'Solar Lottery', for example...
What largely got me through the book was the strength of its premise - which is rich with possibility. In 2203 - with something of a revolving door-ethic in place - a capricious progression of Universe Rulers is still determined by lottery. Each time a new World Leader ascends (which is usually fairly often, except currently), the job description includes outwitting an appointed assassin.
The assassin we meet in 'SL' is far from typical, far from human as usual, and very very far from having just one personality. Incapable of being properly monitored, the nemesis is a walking / running clusterf**k.
A good deal of the book's second half is enveloped by the manhunt. PKD more or less geeks out as he capitalizes on every shading of the complicated set-up. (My take is that it all becomes exhausting and repetitious; but that's me and others may get into it more than I did.) A whole sidebar explores 'levels of loyalty' - and an adjacent subplot sort of confounds with its possibly negligible relevance.
The read left me of two minds: I could appreciate how PKD was launching his imagination but I also thought the waywardness of what I was reading might have been more effective on-screen (and perhaps shortened). So, for me, 'SL' is mid-range.
I'm learning that PKD fans can have their individual levels of eccentricity. ~ meaning, there can be interesting discrepancies re: which PKD novels are better than others - and which might be flat-out awful. Fair enough - as long as you don't let anyone tell you which ones should personally resonate.
My 14th PKD novel. The 6th that he wrote (both sf and non-sf); the 1st that was published. He apparently had felt that, if 'Solar Lottery' hadn't sold, he would have returned to just writing short stories. There would have been no other novels. Ever. Think of that: no 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'!... etc.
But... that did not happen. Big Sigh!
Just because I have decided to make my way through all of PKD's sf work (anything he wrote alone), that doesn't mean it's a project I would strongly encourage others to take on... not unless your fascination with the author (and the course of his development) is particularly intense.
The experience of tracing his growth can be uniquely rewarding. It can also be one of diminishing returns. You'll have to be prepared for how quality fluctuates in the early work. Take 'Solar Lottery', for example...
What largely got me through the book was the strength of its premise - which is rich with possibility. In 2203 - with something of a revolving door-ethic in place - a capricious progression of Universe Rulers is still determined by lottery. Each time a new World Leader ascends (which is usually fairly often, except currently), the job description includes outwitting an appointed assassin.
The assassin we meet in 'SL' is far from typical, far from human as usual, and very very far from having just one personality. Incapable of being properly monitored, the nemesis is a walking / running clusterf**k.
A good deal of the book's second half is enveloped by the manhunt. PKD more or less geeks out as he capitalizes on every shading of the complicated set-up. (My take is that it all becomes exhausting and repetitious; but that's me and others may get into it more than I did.) A whole sidebar explores 'levels of loyalty' - and an adjacent subplot sort of confounds with its possibly negligible relevance.
The read left me of two minds: I could appreciate how PKD was launching his imagination but I also thought the waywardness of what I was reading might have been more effective on-screen (and perhaps shortened). So, for me, 'SL' is mid-range.
I'm learning that PKD fans can have their individual levels of eccentricity. ~ meaning, there can be interesting discrepancies re: which PKD novels are better than others - and which might be flat-out awful. Fair enough - as long as you don't let anyone tell you which ones should personally resonate.
July 24, 2020
Retro társadalmi sci-fi kizárólag gyűjtőknek.
Klassz dick-es ötletek, alacsony szintű kidolgozottság, szövegesztétikailag pedig nem is igazán tudnám értékelni.
Mint életműkiadási kötelező, illetve irodalomtörténeti izémizé, elmegy.
Klassz dick-es ötletek, alacsony szintű kidolgozottság, szövegesztétikailag pedig nem is igazán tudnám értékelni.
Mint életműkiadási kötelező, illetve irodalomtörténeti izémizé, elmegy.
August 24, 2020
Annyira jól megfigyelhető, hogy miképp változnak a PKD-regények attól függően, mikor íródtak. Az Űrlottó ¬ ha minden igaz ¬ első kiadott regénye volt, amely 2020-ban jelent meg először magyar nyelven. Lehet érezni, hogy ez a regény nem olyan különleges és egyedülálló, mint későbbi művei, nem omlik össze kezeink és szemeink között az egész Dick teremtette világ. Az is szimbolikus, hogy ugyan már a Naprendszer bolygóit belakta az emberiség, egyelőre azon túl nem jutott, a galaxis ismeretlen számára. A regények teltével az alaphelyzet is folyamatosan változik, egyre nagyobb távlatokban gondolkodva, miközben a helyzet egyre reménytelenebbé válik, egyre megoldhatatlanná.
Az Űrlottó még egy másik világot ábrázol, egy olyan világot, ahol az elveszettségből, az értelmetlenségből még van visszaút.
Az Űrlottó még egy másik világot ábrázol, egy olyan világot, ahol az elveszettségből, az értelmetlenségből még van visszaút.
November 13, 2022
That was fun.
I have the Collier Books paperback reprint from 1990. I bought and read it at that time. Late 2022 is the first time I’ve revisited it since then.
Philip Dick’s first novel and already quite recognizable as a Philip Dick book with his characteristic abrupt revelations and big surprises. Lesser among his novels, still a worthwhile read. It would have earned an extra star from me except for an incident of straining credulity/jumping the shark on page 128 of my edition.
First published in 1955 Dick posited a future wherein employment was controlled by a small group of mega-corporate Hills. Each employee signing a loyalty oath to their employer. The employer assumes financial responsibilities but also has the literal power of life and death over employee. Not so far removed from Dick’s world of 1955 and even less so from our own 2022. Surely my boss can’t simply shot me but is able to slowly poison me to death by repeated exposure to known toxins, etc...
I have the Collier Books paperback reprint from 1990. I bought and read it at that time. Late 2022 is the first time I’ve revisited it since then.
Philip Dick’s first novel and already quite recognizable as a Philip Dick book with his characteristic abrupt revelations and big surprises. Lesser among his novels, still a worthwhile read. It would have earned an extra star from me except for an incident of straining credulity/jumping the shark on page 128 of my edition.
First published in 1955 Dick posited a future wherein employment was controlled by a small group of mega-corporate Hills. Each employee signing a loyalty oath to their employer. The employer assumes financial responsibilities but also has the literal power of life and death over employee. Not so far removed from Dick’s world of 1955 and even less so from our own 2022. Surely my boss can’t simply shot me but is able to slowly poison me to death by repeated exposure to known toxins, etc...
December 20, 2013
This is my first encounter with PKD and I was pleasantly surprised by his work, which kept me turning the pages. Solar Lottery is his first published novel and is quite good for a debut. He creates a fairly complete and believable world with consistent rules and norms and he does so skillfully and convincingly. His descriptions create good visual images, and of course, I couldn't help seeing some of the film images from Blade Runner.
PKD creates an interesting frisson of sexual tension in his descriptions of the women although he does mention Eleanor's shiny hair and sparkly bare breasts a few times more than is necessary, but I guess back in the 1950's, that would have helped book sales.
Overall, a good read and a good introduction to his work. Based on this novel, I'm motivated to read more of his oeuvre.
PKD creates an interesting frisson of sexual tension in his descriptions of the women although he does mention Eleanor's shiny hair and sparkly bare breasts a few times more than is necessary, but I guess back in the 1950's, that would have helped book sales.
Overall, a good read and a good introduction to his work. Based on this novel, I'm motivated to read more of his oeuvre.
December 23, 2011
read this book again for the first time in fifteen years... i remember liking it before but not nearly as much as this. it's pkd's first novel and you can tell... it's obviously been carefully laid-out and makes perfect sense; there's not that manic semi-psychedelic flight forward that you get in his later stuff (which i love)... but it's very well-balanced and is quite touching at the end... much more optimistic than his later stuff. at the same time, it somehow doesn't feel quite as human; the main character is at best a grump and there's more of a schematic feel to the other characters as well... definitely A Science Fiction book... he hasn't quite busted out into His Very Own Thing. still, though, a hell of a read, and as always, his imagination puts everyone else's to shame.
September 24, 2020
Egyébként neagyon nem bírom ezeket az új PKD- és Bradbory-borítókat, de ez kivételesen tetszik is, találó is.
October 19, 2009
In 1955 Ace Books published Philip K. Dick’s novel Solar Lottery; which was his first published novel and the beginning of a career that changed his life and thousands more - decades and decades later... a brilliant novel that gives one a glimpse through an imaginative eyes; before the pupils dilated to become psychedelically wild to become the master of speculative-reality bent literature.
Solar Lottery is clever and exciting with a lot of action. It’s a novel that shows that government can get too big too quick, with your only role being the pawn. You are a tool and will be used in anyway for a leader to come out on top. People sacrifice their freedoms because that is what everyone else does. Everyone has a sheepish role, except one in particular. He disobeys his oath because it is wrong and he was tricked. How do you know what is wrong though, especially when the six billion other people are obeying the laws and being good little serfs? Could a law possibly be wrong when more than 99% or the people are following it? How does one tell when it is time to disobey a bad law? Would you break your oath if you find out later that your oath against all your morals? All of these questions and more are brought up in this amazing piece of literature. It brings up several thought provoking questions about are own government and our own laws… and who I am as a person or who we are as people (collectively) and what would we do when our own moral compass was tested.
Solar Lottery is clever and exciting with a lot of action. It’s a novel that shows that government can get too big too quick, with your only role being the pawn. You are a tool and will be used in anyway for a leader to come out on top. People sacrifice their freedoms because that is what everyone else does. Everyone has a sheepish role, except one in particular. He disobeys his oath because it is wrong and he was tricked. How do you know what is wrong though, especially when the six billion other people are obeying the laws and being good little serfs? Could a law possibly be wrong when more than 99% or the people are following it? How does one tell when it is time to disobey a bad law? Would you break your oath if you find out later that your oath against all your morals? All of these questions and more are brought up in this amazing piece of literature. It brings up several thought provoking questions about are own government and our own laws… and who I am as a person or who we are as people (collectively) and what would we do when our own moral compass was tested.
May 26, 2021
La primera novela publicada de Dick, presenta muchos de sus temas habituales. No es de las mejores, pero no deja de ser una lectura entretenida y rápida.
January 4, 2022
Her bilimkurgu eserin anlattığı bir dönem, mekân ve kendine has kuralları olan bir dünyası vardır. Toplam 250 sayfalık bu tarz romanlarda tüm bu kurallara, terimlere alışmak elbette sorun olabilir.
Bu kitabın başları da bu sebeple çok karışık geldi. İlk yarısından sonrasıysa tamamiyle bir aksiyon filmi tadında, birden yokuş aşağı hızlanıyor. Siz de dünyayı anlamayı bir kenara bırakıp bu aksiyona odaklanıyorsunuz. Bu ikinci yarı kitabın çok daha akıcı ve iyi olan kısmıydı. Dick'in o tanıdık polisiye-bilimkurgu-aksiyon tarzı bu bölümde ortaya çıktı. Kitaplarını sıkılmadan ve vazgeçmeden okumaya devam etmek lâzım. Sizi de mutlaka yakaladığı bir nokta olacak. İşte o trene biner binmez tadını çıkarmaya bakın.
Bu kitabın başları da bu sebeple çok karışık geldi. İlk yarısından sonrasıysa tamamiyle bir aksiyon filmi tadında, birden yokuş aşağı hızlanıyor. Siz de dünyayı anlamayı bir kenara bırakıp bu aksiyona odaklanıyorsunuz. Bu ikinci yarı kitabın çok daha akıcı ve iyi olan kısmıydı. Dick'in o tanıdık polisiye-bilimkurgu-aksiyon tarzı bu bölümde ortaya çıktı. Kitaplarını sıkılmadan ve vazgeçmeden okumaya devam etmek lâzım. Sizi de mutlaka yakaladığı bir nokta olacak. İşte o trene biner binmez tadını çıkarmaya bakın.
February 22, 2010
For the sake of full disclosure: I am a huge Philip K. Dick fan. I think Valis is one of the great novels of the 21st century. I think Dick's short stories are imaginative and well suited to his almost fractured writing style.
Unfortunately, Solar Lottery just failed to deliver. It came so close that as I reached the last page I wondered if two chapters had been ripped out of the edition I was reading. No such luck.
Unfortunately, Solar Lottery just failed to deliver. It came so close that as I reached the last page I wondered if two chapters had been ripped out of the edition I was reading. No such luck.
February 3, 2011
I have decided that 2011 will be the Year of Philip K. Dick. (Early 2010 was the Year of J G. Ballard) I have laid in a supply of novels, non-fiction writings, a biography, a french intellectual's analysis of the work, and four, over-priced volumes of his letters. I am set to go.
I like to start at the beginning. Volume One of the Collected Short Stories proves a chore to get through, but Vol. 1 of letters contain a the truest voice of Dick anyone is likely to find. Solar Lottery is the first novel, published in 1955, by which time he as already cranking out short stores for a variety of sf pulp magazines. (I suspect I will fall back on the phrase "cranking out" fairly often when writing about Dick;'s output, but I do jot mean it deargatorialy. Dick wrote fast. He also rewrote fast, and as someone who has done only journalism I am appalled at how many times a 5000 word short story, for which he is maybe getting paid a dime a word, goes back and forth between the editor and author. But he was lucking to have Anthony Boucher as an early editor. I don't think Boucher's influence on the shape of the early stories has been fully investigated.
Solar Lottery takes place in what will become the prototypical Dicksian wold -- an illogical totalitiarn state, where the population scrambles to maintain their "ratings" by working in the HIlls, which seem to be form of international conglomerates spaced around the earth, the capital of which is now Batavia, Indonesia. The whole society is controlled by the twitches what is called "The Bottle," a lottery device for which the populace hangs on to their P-cards that promise them a one in six million chance to become quizmaster, an enviable top spot that also involves an army of telepaths to protect the winner from constant, and legally sanctioned assassination attempts. As the song says, "Paranoia runs deep,." Everyone with any sense wears good luck charms.
Our hero, Ted Benteley, has been laid off from his Hill. He is an 8 -8 classified Biochemist and flies to Batavia in an attempt to get a job with the current quizmaster, Reese Verrick. What he doesn't know is that he is joining the team of a man who has just been replaced, after ten years, by a twitch of the bottle that has transferred the role to Leon Cartwritght, an unclassified leader of a the Prestonites, a scraggly religious cult based on the teachings of one John Preston, who disappeared over a century before into the world beyond the nine planet system in search of the flaming disk.
But wait, I am falling into the thankless task of attempting to summarize a Philip K. Dick novel. The pleasures of the novel, which he wrote when he was twenty-five years old, lies in Dick's ability to immerse you in this future world, where, as a reader, it is best to not ask any questions and just enjoy the ride. Events race along, but overall they make sense and follow the logic of 23rd century Earth. Dick seldom defines much of his invented nomenclature, but most is easy to follow. "Teeps" are the telepathic corpsmen protecting the quizmaster, When Varrick looses that role, he's been "quacked." "Unks" are the unclassified masses. The bubble-like resort on the moon is protected from the atmosphere-free exterior by "exit sphincters." And as in all the Dick novels I ever read, he proves to be quite the tit man. Standard female 23rd century dress tends to leave the breasts exposed, and Dick seldom fails to comment on those of each major female character.
The most obvious "first-novel" elements in The Solar Lottery come towards the end, when Benteley does some of the type of soul seaching that was in the Berkeley air at the time Dick wrote it. For example:
Good luck with that.
Dick will write better novels in the decades that follow, as he becomes more cynical but unfortunately also more delusional and paranoid. There is quite a cult surrounding Dick, which I am by no means a part of. I have not read enough of the work to know how I feel about it. That's the purpose of the current project.
I like to start at the beginning. Volume One of the Collected Short Stories proves a chore to get through, but Vol. 1 of letters contain a the truest voice of Dick anyone is likely to find. Solar Lottery is the first novel, published in 1955, by which time he as already cranking out short stores for a variety of sf pulp magazines. (I suspect I will fall back on the phrase "cranking out" fairly often when writing about Dick;'s output, but I do jot mean it deargatorialy. Dick wrote fast. He also rewrote fast, and as someone who has done only journalism I am appalled at how many times a 5000 word short story, for which he is maybe getting paid a dime a word, goes back and forth between the editor and author. But he was lucking to have Anthony Boucher as an early editor. I don't think Boucher's influence on the shape of the early stories has been fully investigated.
Solar Lottery takes place in what will become the prototypical Dicksian wold -- an illogical totalitiarn state, where the population scrambles to maintain their "ratings" by working in the HIlls, which seem to be form of international conglomerates spaced around the earth, the capital of which is now Batavia, Indonesia. The whole society is controlled by the twitches what is called "The Bottle," a lottery device for which the populace hangs on to their P-cards that promise them a one in six million chance to become quizmaster, an enviable top spot that also involves an army of telepaths to protect the winner from constant, and legally sanctioned assassination attempts. As the song says, "Paranoia runs deep,." Everyone with any sense wears good luck charms.
Our hero, Ted Benteley, has been laid off from his Hill. He is an 8 -8 classified Biochemist and flies to Batavia in an attempt to get a job with the current quizmaster, Reese Verrick. What he doesn't know is that he is joining the team of a man who has just been replaced, after ten years, by a twitch of the bottle that has transferred the role to Leon Cartwritght, an unclassified leader of a the Prestonites, a scraggly religious cult based on the teachings of one John Preston, who disappeared over a century before into the world beyond the nine planet system in search of the flaming disk.
But wait, I am falling into the thankless task of attempting to summarize a Philip K. Dick novel. The pleasures of the novel, which he wrote when he was twenty-five years old, lies in Dick's ability to immerse you in this future world, where, as a reader, it is best to not ask any questions and just enjoy the ride. Events race along, but overall they make sense and follow the logic of 23rd century Earth. Dick seldom defines much of his invented nomenclature, but most is easy to follow. "Teeps" are the telepathic corpsmen protecting the quizmaster, When Varrick looses that role, he's been "quacked." "Unks" are the unclassified masses. The bubble-like resort on the moon is protected from the atmosphere-free exterior by "exit sphincters." And as in all the Dick novels I ever read, he proves to be quite the tit man. Standard female 23rd century dress tends to leave the breasts exposed, and Dick seldom fails to comment on those of each major female character.
The most obvious "first-novel" elements in The Solar Lottery come towards the end, when Benteley does some of the type of soul seaching that was in the Berkeley air at the time Dick wrote it. For example:
"I played the game for years," Cartwright said. "Most people go on playing the game all their lives. Then I began to realize the rules were set up so I couldn't win. Who wants to play that kind of game? We're betting against the house, and the house always wins."
"That's true," Bentely agreed. After a time he said, "There's no point in playing a rigged game. But what's your answer?"
"You do what I did. You draw up new rules and play by them. Rules in which all the players have the same odds."
Good luck with that.
Dick will write better novels in the decades that follow, as he becomes more cynical but unfortunately also more delusional and paranoid. There is quite a cult surrounding Dick, which I am by no means a part of. I have not read enough of the work to know how I feel about it. That's the purpose of the current project.
August 7, 2021
Lavoro d'esordio di Dick. La narrazione e' discontinua e molto spesso si ha l'impressione che l'autore stesso non sappia dove vuole andare a parare. Ma Dick e' sempre Dick, o meglio, in questo caso, Dick e' gia' Dick! In un remoto futuro(?), il governo dell'intero sistema solare e' lasciato al caso, all'indeterminatezza quantistica. I governanti vengono estratti a sorte, in maniera apparentemente democratica e casuale, con estrazioni della lotteria. La societa' in realta' e' tutto men che democratica, divisa in caste di merito tecnico-intellettivo. Curioso che la discriminazione sia, per cosi' dire, lavoristica. Si e' discriminati in base alla qualifica professionele (o all'assenza della stessa). La professione detemina in perennis il destino dell'individuo, salvo improbabili sotterfugi per ottenere un'agognata qualifica avanzata. La critica all'impianto capitalistico e' abbastanza evidente, cosi' come lo e' la sarcastica presa in giro dell'opportunita' di emancipazione, della chance di successo apparentemente garantita ai sottoposti e che e' soltanto un sofisticato metodo di controllo sociale. Una riflessione a parte potrebbe essere fatta sulla legalizzazione dell'omicidio politico. La possibilita' statutaria di usurpare il potere del "casualmente eletto" per prenderne il posto in maniera altrettanto arbitraria. Quasi una posizione fanta-machiavellica, dove ogni ipocrisia perbenistica cade, per lasciare trasparire l'essenza ultima della lotta per il potere.
February 25, 2008
Solar Lottery was Philip K. Dick’s first novel, published back in the mid-1950s before the psychedelic drugs he became addicted to plagued his work. He has used similar threads in several works, the dehumanisation of contests and lotteries. Were it not for the futuristic setting, this could so easily have seen Dick writing riveting novels of social horrors - if only he hadn’t sided with Donald A. Wollheim at Ace Books.
Philip K Dick could have been one of the greats - a true mass-market writer of contemporary literature showing horrors that none of us thought possible. Unfortunately, this wonderfully gifted writer ended up in the sci-fi ghetto ready to be forgotten, were it not for Hollywood.
I don’t remember Solar Lottery being this action packed, this heart thumping alive or this trippy when I first read it nearly 10 years ago. I am lying here in my bed, my frantically scrolling eyes riveted to the mad rush of words - the script, the mood. The broken-linear-extrapolative future is so truly contemporary - how on earth could the average reader of 1950s’ sci-fi have coped with this crazy dash through the lives and minds of those with such an overpowering political persuasion? It must have seemed like some berserker had taken a break from the battle to jot down a few hundred emotionally poisoned pages.
Definitely a five star book!
Philip K Dick could have been one of the greats - a true mass-market writer of contemporary literature showing horrors that none of us thought possible. Unfortunately, this wonderfully gifted writer ended up in the sci-fi ghetto ready to be forgotten, were it not for Hollywood.
I don’t remember Solar Lottery being this action packed, this heart thumping alive or this trippy when I first read it nearly 10 years ago. I am lying here in my bed, my frantically scrolling eyes riveted to the mad rush of words - the script, the mood. The broken-linear-extrapolative future is so truly contemporary - how on earth could the average reader of 1950s’ sci-fi have coped with this crazy dash through the lives and minds of those with such an overpowering political persuasion? It must have seemed like some berserker had taken a break from the battle to jot down a few hundred emotionally poisoned pages.
Definitely a five star book!
August 8, 2016
-Marcando rumbos de forma dubitativa.-
Género. Ciencia ficción.
Lo que nos cuenta. El ingeniero experto en bioquímica Ted Benteley aprovecha su despido para intentar formar parte del grupo que rodea al Gran Presentador Reese Verrick, que rige la política de la Federación de los Nueve Planetas desde su sede en Batavia, pero lo consigue cuando éste pierde su puesto y es Leon Cartwright, miembro de una secta en desacuerdo con las líneas generales de gobierno, quien ocupa su lugar. Las Brigadas Telepáticas protegerán a Leon, eliminarán a sus opositores y tendrán que hacer frente a la amenaza de Benteley, que usará la ley con intenciones homicidas para recuperar su posición.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
https://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com...
Género. Ciencia ficción.
Lo que nos cuenta. El ingeniero experto en bioquímica Ted Benteley aprovecha su despido para intentar formar parte del grupo que rodea al Gran Presentador Reese Verrick, que rige la política de la Federación de los Nueve Planetas desde su sede en Batavia, pero lo consigue cuando éste pierde su puesto y es Leon Cartwright, miembro de una secta en desacuerdo con las líneas generales de gobierno, quien ocupa su lugar. Las Brigadas Telepáticas protegerán a Leon, eliminarán a sus opositores y tendrán que hacer frente a la amenaza de Benteley, que usará la ley con intenciones homicidas para recuperar su posición.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
https://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com...
May 25, 2022
Philip K. Dick's first novel has a lot of cool things going on in it, and even though not everything gets explained enough or entirely resolved, it's still a good book.
The year is 2203; Society is governed by the rule of chance. A computerized lottery system selects the leader of the solar system (called Quizmaster, for some reason), at which point an assassin is also randomly selected to try and kill the newly appointed leader for the entertainment of the populace. The Quizmaster also has a team of "teeps" (telepaths) at his disposal to warn and protect him. If the assassin is killed, a new one is drawn. If the assassin succeeds, a new Quizmaster is drawn.
An individual's status is determined by their skillset, and they are given numerical classification. There are also loyalty oaths, which can be sworn to either a position or person, and all working persons must make one. If a person breaks an oath, they can either become an "unk" (unclassified), losing their status and rights, or be killed. An exception is made if it can be proven that the pledgee has betrayed the pledger. There must be more exceptions, because the book begins with one "Hill" (factory or corporation, I gathered) laying off half of its employees (perhaps this is legal because "unexplained fires demolished half the Oiseau-Lyre Hill"), which is how we meet our protagonist: Ted Benteley, recently released from his fealty oath.
Benteley, sick of working for a Hill, goes straight to the current Quizmaster's office to pledge an oath. Current Quizmaster Reese Verrick's secretary Eleanor Stevens and head biochemist Herbert Moore trick Benteley into pledging a personal oath to Verrick, who, unbeknownst to Benteley, has just been ousted as Quizmaster by the lottery system. Thus, Benteley gets wrapped up in a plot to assassinate the new Quizmaster, Leon Cartwright (who happens to be a poor low-class repairman and follower of a cultish religion founded by a man who preached the existence of a tenth planet far out beyond Pluto. There's a subplot about a ship traveling out to try and locate the planet... I told you there's a lot going on).
All of these components are explained just enough for the purpose of the novel, but I found myself wanting more specifics and logistics. Benteley is a decent representation of the common man, but for the most part he just gets pushed along with the plot instead of directing it, and we don't see much personal growth in him. I did appreciate how PKD contrasted the two Quizmasters though, and the shift in perception of Cartwright in particular was excellent.
On the one hand, PKD's imagined future seems too far removed and/or implausible, but on the other hand, there are plenty of examples of how we today accept chance and randomization as equality, allow employees to be treated as serfs, and embrace superstition. There are definitely some things that PKD could've ironed out and/or done more with, but it's a strong effort nonetheless. Not only that, but the uncharacteristically optimistic note it ends on is refreshing.
The year is 2203; Society is governed by the rule of chance. A computerized lottery system selects the leader of the solar system (called Quizmaster, for some reason), at which point an assassin is also randomly selected to try and kill the newly appointed leader for the entertainment of the populace. The Quizmaster also has a team of "teeps" (telepaths) at his disposal to warn and protect him. If the assassin is killed, a new one is drawn. If the assassin succeeds, a new Quizmaster is drawn.
An individual's status is determined by their skillset, and they are given numerical classification. There are also loyalty oaths, which can be sworn to either a position or person, and all working persons must make one. If a person breaks an oath, they can either become an "unk" (unclassified), losing their status and rights, or be killed. An exception is made if it can be proven that the pledgee has betrayed the pledger. There must be more exceptions, because the book begins with one "Hill" (factory or corporation, I gathered) laying off half of its employees (perhaps this is legal because "unexplained fires demolished half the Oiseau-Lyre Hill"), which is how we meet our protagonist: Ted Benteley, recently released from his fealty oath.
Benteley, sick of working for a Hill, goes straight to the current Quizmaster's office to pledge an oath. Current Quizmaster Reese Verrick's secretary Eleanor Stevens and head biochemist Herbert Moore trick Benteley into pledging a personal oath to Verrick, who, unbeknownst to Benteley, has just been ousted as Quizmaster by the lottery system. Thus, Benteley gets wrapped up in a plot to assassinate the new Quizmaster, Leon Cartwright (who happens to be a poor low-class repairman and follower of a cultish religion founded by a man who preached the existence of a tenth planet far out beyond Pluto. There's a subplot about a ship traveling out to try and locate the planet... I told you there's a lot going on).
All of these components are explained just enough for the purpose of the novel, but I found myself wanting more specifics and logistics. Benteley is a decent representation of the common man, but for the most part he just gets pushed along with the plot instead of directing it, and we don't see much personal growth in him. I did appreciate how PKD contrasted the two Quizmasters though, and the shift in perception of Cartwright in particular was excellent.
On the one hand, PKD's imagined future seems too far removed and/or implausible, but on the other hand, there are plenty of examples of how we today accept chance and randomization as equality, allow employees to be treated as serfs, and embrace superstition. There are definitely some things that PKD could've ironed out and/or done more with, but it's a strong effort nonetheless. Not only that, but the uncharacteristically optimistic note it ends on is refreshing.
January 3, 2023
4'5/5
Esta es una sociedad justa y sin favoritismos en la teoría; sin embargo, en la práctica, es corrupta, brutal y vacía.
El líder social se elige por sorteo y existe un sistema que elimina a los líderes inútiles e inservibles. Los encargados de ��sto son los asesinos: un puesto de trabajo tan codiciado como aclamado. La gente se presenta para ser elegido como el asesino del Gran Presentador. No todo es tan fácil, pues existen telépatas que trabajan para él, le protegen y evitan su muerte. Todo este sistema se verá en la cuerda floja cuando se intenta manipular el mecanismo.
Esta es una historia de lealtad, de conformismo e incorformismo, de lucha de poder y de esperanza. En esta ocasión, se puede seguir la trama, aunque en ocasiones su pluma tergiverse la historia. Para mí, una de las historias más disfrutables de PKD: cuestionando lo justa que puede llegar a ser una sociedad y lo que pasa cuando vas a contracorriente.
Esta es una sociedad justa y sin favoritismos en la teoría; sin embargo, en la práctica, es corrupta, brutal y vacía.
El líder social se elige por sorteo y existe un sistema que elimina a los líderes inútiles e inservibles. Los encargados de ��sto son los asesinos: un puesto de trabajo tan codiciado como aclamado. La gente se presenta para ser elegido como el asesino del Gran Presentador. No todo es tan fácil, pues existen telépatas que trabajan para él, le protegen y evitan su muerte. Todo este sistema se verá en la cuerda floja cuando se intenta manipular el mecanismo.
Esta es una historia de lealtad, de conformismo e incorformismo, de lucha de poder y de esperanza. En esta ocasión, se puede seguir la trama, aunque en ocasiones su pluma tergiverse la historia. Para mí, una de las historias más disfrutables de PKD: cuestionando lo justa que puede llegar a ser una sociedad y lo que pasa cuando vas a contracorriente.
February 17, 2023
Il romanzo ha in sé spunti interessanti ma l'autore sembra piuttosto confuso sulla strada da prendere. Sui dialoghi non ha investito granché e la trama è piuttosto ingarbugliata, in qualche punto anche forzata e poco credibile. Vogliamo poi parlare del "pollice atomico"?
April 24, 2018
Broke down this book on the Dickheads podcast Follow us at @Dickheadspod on twitter.
https://soundcloud.com/dickheadspodca...
The Solar Lottery is the first released novel by PKD and as such it is a genius first novel that shows glimpses of what makes him one of the greatest science fiction writers ever. That said, this is his first novel and most of the amazing elements that make Dick special are not fully formed at this point. As a work of political sci-fi it is amazingly forward thinking, I can't imagine that many of of the readers in 1955 who bought the Ace double for the latest Leigh Brackett novel fully got the levels of message that PKD was laying down.
The novel takes place in the year 2203, and human society has slowly started to spread to the stars. To avoid the chaos that can come by letting voters decide who becomes president the ruler of humanity is chosen by a computer over seen by someone called the quizmaster. The idea is everyone submits a profile and the computer chooses the person most likely to do a good job. The story follows Ted Bentley who is just starting to work for the Quizmaster. Once he starts the job the computer suddenly decides to start a new quiz and everyonbe is shocked when a man named Leon Cartwright is chosen to take over.
This is where the Dick streak for the the paranoia shows up. Part of the job is that a reality show style game is started. An assassin is sent to kill Cartwright as a part of televised event. Normally it is set up to make the new leader look like a hero, he has a force of psychic police that protect him. Normally that would work except this assassin is a robot shell used as an avatar by a team of 24 rotating minds that control it remotely. By far the coolest concept of the book.
As a Dickhead it makes you wonder if that pink lazer beam that Dick claimed showed him the secrets of the universe didn't show him the results of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Certainly this book is a statement on leadership, but it goes deeper. Written in 1954/55 this was a time of nuclear attack drills. There is a throw-away reference the book to Minimax strategy. That is the worse case strategy that leaders in the nuclear arms race were dealing with. Certainly it was easy to think that no one who got the vote deserved to control buttons that could end civilization. That is the window that Solar Lottery is peaking out of.
Compared to later Dick books the concepts are simple and not nearly as mind bending, but compared to the space opera of the day and even the traditional works of the greats publishing at the time this book was staggeringly original.
https://soundcloud.com/dickheadspodca...
The Solar Lottery is the first released novel by PKD and as such it is a genius first novel that shows glimpses of what makes him one of the greatest science fiction writers ever. That said, this is his first novel and most of the amazing elements that make Dick special are not fully formed at this point. As a work of political sci-fi it is amazingly forward thinking, I can't imagine that many of of the readers in 1955 who bought the Ace double for the latest Leigh Brackett novel fully got the levels of message that PKD was laying down.
The novel takes place in the year 2203, and human society has slowly started to spread to the stars. To avoid the chaos that can come by letting voters decide who becomes president the ruler of humanity is chosen by a computer over seen by someone called the quizmaster. The idea is everyone submits a profile and the computer chooses the person most likely to do a good job. The story follows Ted Bentley who is just starting to work for the Quizmaster. Once he starts the job the computer suddenly decides to start a new quiz and everyonbe is shocked when a man named Leon Cartwright is chosen to take over.
This is where the Dick streak for the the paranoia shows up. Part of the job is that a reality show style game is started. An assassin is sent to kill Cartwright as a part of televised event. Normally it is set up to make the new leader look like a hero, he has a force of psychic police that protect him. Normally that would work except this assassin is a robot shell used as an avatar by a team of 24 rotating minds that control it remotely. By far the coolest concept of the book.
As a Dickhead it makes you wonder if that pink lazer beam that Dick claimed showed him the secrets of the universe didn't show him the results of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Certainly this book is a statement on leadership, but it goes deeper. Written in 1954/55 this was a time of nuclear attack drills. There is a throw-away reference the book to Minimax strategy. That is the worse case strategy that leaders in the nuclear arms race were dealing with. Certainly it was easy to think that no one who got the vote deserved to control buttons that could end civilization. That is the window that Solar Lottery is peaking out of.
Compared to later Dick books the concepts are simple and not nearly as mind bending, but compared to the space opera of the day and even the traditional works of the greats publishing at the time this book was staggeringly original.
November 22, 2011
I have always steered clear of this author. Somehow I had gotten the impression that he was insane in some way or at least egregiously weird. But I read a review or two of the recently released The Exegesis of Philip K Dick, noting that Jonathan Lethem was one of the editors, and decided to give him a try. He wrote 44 novels! Solar Lottery is his first.
I did not get any impression of insanity or weirdness at all. He seemed to be fitting right in with the way science fiction was in the 1950s. In fact, I thought I got a glimpse of a theme that I found while reading The Hunger Games.
The ruler of the Universe in 2203 is chosen by random. Everything runs on games of chance which are wildly popular among the general populace. Workers have to sign up via fealty oaths to the various companies available. A huge proportion of people are just, as Margaret Atwood called them in Oryx and Crake, plebes: semi-homeless, unemployed folks who are cared for by social welfare programs. Honestly, I felt right at home.
The big surprise for me in the novel was the overall theme; that self determined individuals who can think for themselves have the power to bring things back to rights. Now that is a rather 1950s concept but it is also one of the major themes of literature all through the ages.
Hm. Maybe he got weird later? Who said he was weird anyway? I like this author. I added all 44 novels to My Big Fat Reading Project list. That will slow me down some but I look forward to a nice counterbalance to the increasing deterioration in the quality of the bestsellers in the coming decades of the project.
I did not get any impression of insanity or weirdness at all. He seemed to be fitting right in with the way science fiction was in the 1950s. In fact, I thought I got a glimpse of a theme that I found while reading The Hunger Games.
The ruler of the Universe in 2203 is chosen by random. Everything runs on games of chance which are wildly popular among the general populace. Workers have to sign up via fealty oaths to the various companies available. A huge proportion of people are just, as Margaret Atwood called them in Oryx and Crake, plebes: semi-homeless, unemployed folks who are cared for by social welfare programs. Honestly, I felt right at home.
The big surprise for me in the novel was the overall theme; that self determined individuals who can think for themselves have the power to bring things back to rights. Now that is a rather 1950s concept but it is also one of the major themes of literature all through the ages.
Hm. Maybe he got weird later? Who said he was weird anyway? I like this author. I added all 44 novels to My Big Fat Reading Project list. That will slow me down some but I look forward to a nice counterbalance to the increasing deterioration in the quality of the bestsellers in the coming decades of the project.
February 9, 2017
While a far cry from five star, memorable, classic material, Solar Lottery very recognizably shows the mark of what made Dick such a unique writer. Surprising to me was that Solar Lottery is somewhat more complex in its mechanics than many of his novels that followed... while I would have expected the reverse.
Regardless, it's a fairly unpredictable read, which I always find admirable. This alone does not, sadly, make it a great read... it's still fairly basic genre-writing and shows that Dick had a long ways to go to truly establish his own unique style. But, it's still a very serviceable novel, and I enjoyed it - though it certainly would not be the first (or even in the top ten) of his works I'd recommend.
A 3/5 may even be a bit generous, but it's fun, and fairly insightful regarding the excellent work to come.
Regardless, it's a fairly unpredictable read, which I always find admirable. This alone does not, sadly, make it a great read... it's still fairly basic genre-writing and shows that Dick had a long ways to go to truly establish his own unique style. But, it's still a very serviceable novel, and I enjoyed it - though it certainly would not be the first (or even in the top ten) of his works I'd recommend.
A 3/5 may even be a bit generous, but it's fun, and fairly insightful regarding the excellent work to come.
November 14, 2020
En esta, la primera novela de Dick, ya están presentes los principales elementos habituales del escritor, en especial los absurdos. Se apoya mucho en la aventura, desarrolla una política de ciencia ficción y asombra con cada truco que saca de la galera, con niveles de inverosimilitud de los que solo Dick sale impune. Pero hay algo en la construcción del universo que no parece funcionar, al menos no como en sus mejores novelas, y falla en atrapar al lector. Con seguridad no es una novela recomendada para entrar al autor.
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