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trilbynorton's review
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Like a lot of books from Dick's "middle period", this contains a veritable hoard of good ideas that never really get developed. The Earth has been occupied by worm-like beings from Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon. The occupation is opposed by a small resistance force comprised mostly of America's black population. The rest of the US seems to have reverted to something resembling the antebellum south, complete with the return of slavery. A cache of weapons is found that can create persistent and physical hallucinations, with a purported mega-weapon that can allegedly detach the Earth's entire population (and anyone telepathically linked with them - oh yeah, the worms are telepaths) from reality. One of the worm overlords goes native and becomes obsessed with 20th century fighter planes.
It's impossible to dislike a book that has this much stuff in it.
It's impossible to dislike a book that has this much stuff in it.
jimmypat's review
3.0
While this isn't Dick's best work, I really enjoyed it. The first quarter is especially strong, with some great absurdist humor regarding the Ganymedian worms (the worm military leader has the best lines and was my favorite character by far). It's well worth the read, especially if you are a PKD fan.
lamijka's review against another edition
3.0
Mimo wspoautorstwa Raya Nelsona, książka jest bardzo dickowska. Na poziomie jezyka, fabuły i filozofii. Myślałam że to będzie totalna klapa, więc jestem mile zaskoczona.
david_agranoff's review against another edition
4.0
My review in the form of a podcast I co-hosted.
https://soundcloud.com/dickheadspodcast/episode-32-the-ganymede-takeover
The world has been conquered by space worms and humanity's last hope lies with a psychic revolutionary hiding from the law in the mountains of the worst place on earth, Tennessee. The Ganymede Takeover is the first of only two novels Philip K. Dick coauthored and the only one (of a planned 3) to be written with Ray Nelson. Plus: The guy who invented the propeller hat. Privileged modern babies. And Overbaked Brownie scout club of death cookies.
marissavu's review
4.0
Wow... OK so here's my theory on the genesis of this novel, based on vague recollections of PKD's biographical details and the content of this book.
Philip K Dick is sitting at home working on the sequel to The Man in the High Castle, a little preoccupied with the smell from the cat litter box and having his usual bit of relationship stress with his (current) wife. Ray Nelson turns up, hears all about this manuscript in progress, and finally convinces PKD to drop acid. They have a grand and terrifying time and then PKD decides to never do acid again and also to toss out the High Castle sequel he was working on and instead co-write a different novel with Ray, salvaging random parts of the work he had in progress... and this is the wild-ass result. It's flawed, bizarre, funny, disturbing, psychedelic, silly but somehow deep at the same time. Includes elements such as a Bureau of Psychedelic Research, simulacra, precogs, telepathic thought amplifiers, and a mission called Operation Cat Droppings. I'm also gonna guess that Ray Nelson did an edit because it seems a bit more polished than PKD's usual style.
It's not PKD's finest novel and I wouldn't start here if you're newish to his writing, but if you already love his style and weird ideas, it's such a treat. He and Nelson make a good team. In case you don't know him, Ray Nelson wrote the kickass short story "Eight O' Clock In the Morning" that was adapted into one of the greatest 80s films, John Carpenter's THEY LIVE!
My fav characters in this novel:
- The dilapidated, sentient hotel that accuses guests of trying to leave without paying when it catches them looking out the window. lol.
- The ancient flying taxi cab that works for the resistance and proudly tells customers, "I do what I like." (Would it even be a PKD novel without a talking cab?)
- Joan, the novel's only woman, who all the men are creepily fascinated by (or worse) and who has an entire scene just standing watching a dead leaf hanging on a tree for about 12 hours until she almost gets hypothermia. Go Joan.
Overall a fun, nutty novel that comes out of what I think is PKD's best phase: 60s-ish, when his novels all seem so exuberant, funny, empathetic and psychedelic. The "talking-household-items era".
Philip K Dick is sitting at home working on the sequel to The Man in the High Castle, a little preoccupied with the smell from the cat litter box and having his usual bit of relationship stress with his (current) wife. Ray Nelson turns up, hears all about this manuscript in progress, and finally convinces PKD to drop acid. They have a grand and terrifying time and then PKD decides to never do acid again and also to toss out the High Castle sequel he was working on and instead co-write a different novel with Ray, salvaging random parts of the work he had in progress... and this is the wild-ass result. It's flawed, bizarre, funny, disturbing, psychedelic, silly but somehow deep at the same time. Includes elements such as a Bureau of Psychedelic Research, simulacra, precogs, telepathic thought amplifiers, and a mission called Operation Cat Droppings. I'm also gonna guess that Ray Nelson did an edit because it seems a bit more polished than PKD's usual style.
It's not PKD's finest novel and I wouldn't start here if you're newish to his writing, but if you already love his style and weird ideas, it's such a treat. He and Nelson make a good team. In case you don't know him, Ray Nelson wrote the kickass short story "Eight O' Clock In the Morning" that was adapted into one of the greatest 80s films, John Carpenter's THEY LIVE!
My fav characters in this novel:
- The dilapidated, sentient hotel that accuses guests of trying to leave without paying when it catches them looking out the window. lol.
- The ancient flying taxi cab that works for the resistance and proudly tells customers, "I do what I like." (Would it even be a PKD novel without a talking cab?)
- Joan, the novel's only woman, who all the men are creepily fascinated by (or worse) and who has an entire scene just standing watching a dead leaf hanging on a tree for about 12 hours until she almost gets hypothermia. Go Joan.
"Joan Hiashi had returned to normality, if by normality one meant this leafless world in which humans normally live."
Overall a fun, nutty novel that comes out of what I think is PKD's best phase: 60s-ish, when his novels all seem so exuberant, funny, empathetic and psychedelic. The "talking-household-items era".
arthurbdd's review
2.0
Fairly simplistic stuff, especially by the standards of Dick's mid-1960s material. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/2020/04/23/do-androids-dream-of-electric-dick/
larsinio's review against another edition
3.0
A pretty cohesive alien takeover then rebellion novel, albeit with a big PKD bent as well as a racial politics/satire bent. Its interesting to compare this to PKD's A Crack in Space, which also features strong civil rights theme.
Lots of psychic/precog stuff - i thought the alien race was rather alien and strikingly different.
I enjoyed the rather holistic resolution to the plot and the characters - uncharacteristic of PKD, who usually stops his novels on a whim.
Lots of psychic/precog stuff - i thought the alien race was rather alien and strikingly different.
I enjoyed the rather holistic resolution to the plot and the characters - uncharacteristic of PKD, who usually stops his novels on a whim.
erosionyeah's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
lukerik's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
Two authors. Both of them on drugs and a least one of them insane. This is an incompetently written novel.
The premise is that alien space worms have taken over the earth. The last hold-out against the invaders is a band of Nation of Islam guerrilla fighters who are holed up in the hills of Tennessee.
The novel is chock full of ideas, any one of which could be expanded in to novel of it’s own, but none of which appear to have any real connection to the plot in a way which brings meaning to the book. The most developed theme (if theme is a word that can be applied to this novel) is that of American racial politics. Do the authors have anything to say on the matter? I have no idea, and I’ve literally just finished reading it. You can look for meaning, but just when you think you’ve found it the authors will contradict themselves. They appear to be in as great a state of confusion as I am. Looking for meaning here is like looking for canals on Mars.
Early on in the novel we’re told that a precog has predicted that the occupation of earth will fail. So we’re in a deterministic universe. This immediately sucks all tension out of something about a struggle for survival. And we’re told this very early on so it must be important, yet it never has any impact on anything ever again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Colonisation, War, and Genocide