This book was first published by Ace as a novella. PKD submitted a 32,000 word book, based on a serialized novel in a magazine, to Ace for review, the editors liked it but felt that it was too short so they asked PKD to expand it into a novel. PKD agreed to do so and a few months later came back with a manuscript that was some 25,000 words longer. On reading it, however, Ace concluded that PKD's additions were not good and they went ahead and published the original novella instead. Much later, Berkely published the book in its full and added an introduction that was highly critical of Ace for not publishing the full novel in the first place.
The book fits, I think, into the alternative history science fiction genre. Unlike The Man in the High Castle where the Germans actually win World War II, in this story the Germans lose the war but regain worldwide political power and eventually end up controlling both the United Nations and the one of the world's largest and most powerful corporations (there are only a few corporations left). This company, called THL, develops a telportation system which, they claim, is only capable of teleporting people to the destination but not back. Because the world is severely over populated and because someone has discovered a far off planet that is much like the earth, THL gets a concession to develop and colonize that planet which they call Whale's Mouth. In addition, the Germans running the UN don't really question THL since they are both run by Germans. THL sets up its teleportation machines in hundreds of outlets throughout the world and runs a captivating advertising campaign which shows off the wide open spaces and pastoral beauty fo Whale's Mouth. By the start of the book some forty million people have moved to Whale's Mouth.
The teleportation machine puts an inter-planetary shipping and travel company out of business. The stress of the bankruptcy ends up killing the founder of that company. His son, Rachmael ben Applebaum, takes over and begins the dissolution of the company. He is suspicious of THL and what they are doing in Whale's Mouth though and he holds on to his last inter-planetary ferry and plans on making the 18 year long journey over to Whale's Mouth to see what is actually going on there. He enlists the head of another large corporation, called LIES, Inc., to help him in this effort. LIES is a private spying and security firm which has grown to be so powerful that it is accepted by the authorities. Instead of joining ben Applebaum on his ship the head of LIES decides to send 2,000 of his agents across to Whale's Mouth through the THL telportation machines to start a coup instead. Days into his journey, after hearing about LIES' plans Appelbaum also abandons his plan and follows the agents across.
When they get there they are confronted by the horror of THL's actions. Instead of a beautiful spacious pastoral land Whale's Mouth is a barracks fenced in by high barbed wire trimmed fences. The forty million colonists are being trained as an army which will eventually invade earth. When the LIES agents arrive the THL army is one million strong. The story briefly covers the ass kicking that the LIES agents are receiving but then quickly focuses on ben Applebaum who, on arrival, is almost immediately engaged in combat by one of the members of the THL army. He loses that fight when he is hit by an LSD tipped dart. The next part of the book is the part that Ace found too stupid to publish.
For the next 50 plus pages PKD describes ben Applebaum's acid trip like only someone who has taken a lot of acid could do. The narrative is brilliantly written in such a twisting logic that someone who isn't high has a difficult time following along. I differ with Ace, while the added material is certainly a little incongruous it is also an imaginative description of an acid trip. Once the acid trip narrative ends the book returns to its original plot and the story unfolds much as it should.
I would highly recommend this book to my few readers as I know that they would find it just as interesting as I did.
3 comments:
That does sound cool! I love the freaky unknown of teleporting to this world but not being able to come back or really know what is going on over there.
And thanks for that context. How cool was Philip K. Dick? They ask him to expand the novel and he throws in an acid trip. I'll have to check this out.
Right-o. Good context. This story had such a convoluted publication history that it tends to be quickly dismissed from the Dick canon (they won't be putting it in the next Library of Congress volume).
I think I have the Ace dos-a-dos which is about 100 pages. Think I should read that one or look for the expanded acid trip version?
If you are just going to read one of them then I think you should read the expanded version. It would be interesting to read the shorter version though.
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