Solar Lottery

Dick's first published novel, Solar Lottery (1955) is impressive and original. It was much influenced by several famous sf novels--A. E. van Vogt's complexly plotted World of Null-A, Kurt Vonnegut's dystopian black comedy Player Piano, and Alfred Bester's pyrotechnic novel of telepathic police The Demolished Man. Solar Lottery is not unworthy of being mentioned in their company. It is not quite a typical Dick novel: it lacks the humor of the later works, as well as the theme of reality breakdown, but it is quite effective on its own terms. Dick foresaw a world where all power is concentrated in the hands of the government and private corporations. A great quiz game which decides the leader, but it is rigged against the powerless. Furthermore, the system, with its built-in structure of killing its own leaders, decrees that nothing lasts or should last. In its dark, complex picture of power relationships, this novel is totally relevant today.

A nice short little novel that you can read in 2 days time. Not perfect. I'm not a huge sci-fi buff, and there were parts of it that bugged me, mainly the way it seemed very 1950's (when it was written) even though it's set in the year 2203. For example, women still have a fairly subserviant role to men, everyone smokes (even on airplanes) and drinks scotch at work. Nice to know that in the future we'll be able to smoke and drink scotch in the office! None of the characters are ever fully fleshed out (though Dick seems obsessed with describing all the female character's breasts) and their behavior is sometimes unnatural and unexpected, but overall an entertaining book with a nice little twist at the end.

First novel of Philip K. Dick, the 1955 SOLAR LOTTERY has very well stood the test of time and provides a peculiar pleasure to the sci-fi amateur or the PKD fan. In the mid-fifties, Dick had already written dozens of first rate novelettes and developed a certain number of themes one will encounter in his novels.In the year 2203, a new political philosophy rules the world ; to avoid dictatorship, scientists have proposed that the world leader should be chosen by the hazard. So, an atomic kind of clock moves at random and decides who will be the next master. This ideal form of democracy presents advantages but also danger. The world leader is protected by telepaths whose role is to stop and kill those who want to murder him.The action of SOLAR LOTTERY begins when Reese Verrick, the leader in charge, has just been evicted from his charge by a sudden move of the atomic clock. He wants his job back and sends an android to kill the new Master. This last idea lets Philip K. Dick develop one of his favorite themes ; the android is controlled by a dozen men who enter its mind at random and so are going to fool the poor telepaths. One of SOLAR LOTTERY heroes is Benteley, chosen with a few others to control the android and Dick plays masterfully with objective and subjective points of view when Benteley is "in" or "out" the mind of the android.SOLAR LOTTERY, apart of the pleasure to discover an already great PKD in his first novel, presents accurate theories about politics, morals or sociology. Furthermore, you can also consider the novel as a subtle variation of Isaac Asimov's FONDATION.A book deserving to be rediscovered.

This book is an amazing study on human psychology and the basis of any culture with political structure. This book covers the aspects of politics, sociology, science, technology, and human development. The basis of Mr.Dick's ideology for a community based on intelligence and technology are astounding. The story follows a very detailed and easy to entreat plot. Once you start you simply can't stop thinking of how the characters and situations relate to our own society and government. A must read for any fans of Orwell or Bradbury. Worth the time to pick it up and start with page one.