One of the stand-out novels in Philip K. Dick's career of wildly reality-bending SF, Martian Time- Slip (1964) convinces by placing its insanities in a quiet, even domestic context. Here colonised Mars has a flavour of grubby, struggling 1950s suburbia, where money (not to mention water) is in short supply, jobs are insecure, the humour's mostly black, and small tragedies like one minor character's suicide cause far-ranging ripples. The good old human comedy of lies, power-play, real-estate deals and extramarital naughtiness continues as ever....
Added by: il.crystal.li | Karma: 54.97 | Fiction literature | 25 October 2015
2
The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon
Modern ideas get tangled up with traditional ones in the latest intriguing installment in the beloved, best-selling N°1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series.
Saturday, February 15, 2003. Henry Perowne is a successful neurosurgeon, devoted husband, and father of two grown-up children. Unusually, he wakes up before dawn, troubled about impending war in Iraq, and the fear that his city and happy family life are under threat. Later, Perowne makes his way through London streets filled with anti-war protesters. A minor car accident brings him in to contact with Baxter, an aggressive young man who is to change his life irrevocably.
An astronaut in full spacesuit appears out of thin air in a busy shopping centre. Maybe it’s a publicity stunt. A photo shows an immaculately-dressed woman in her best shoes lying dead at the edge of a crater on the dark side of the moon – beside her beloved dog ‘Poochie’. Maybe it’s a hoax. But as the Doctor and Amy find out, these are just minor events in a sinister plan to take over every human being on earth.
While drying out in an Arizona alcohol rehabilitation center, J.P. Beaumont becomes the prime suspect in his roommate's death, and Beaumont must fight to clear his name.