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REVIEW
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"A classic that stands the test of time"
To control the aggressiveness of citizens living on top of
one another in crowded file cabinets like anthills in
overpopulated urban regions, Lies Incorporated uses
computer software to keep people sublimely quiet. A
metropolis is simply an industrial work zone with
contented "prisoners". The only escape from this drab
existence is through the services of Trails of Hoffman,
Inc. who can teleport a person to the paradise colony
planet Whale's Mouth, but this is a one way ticket. The Lies Incorporated SubInfo computers perform an
unnatural act for them by transmitting a ton of data on the
Oakland, California rat population to Rachmael ben
Applebaum, who knows something is not right. Rachmael
begins questioning "truths" now that he sublimely has
become the rat expert. He wonders about the Utopian
alternative and soon has evidence that the happy crowds are
a sham, a galaxy con game. He plans to become THE
UNTELEPORTED MAN and illegally take a spaceship to the
planet to ask who wants to come home. This futuristic dark vision that is mindful in many ways of
1984 is actually a rewriting of Philip K. Dick's 1960s
novella. THE UNTELEPORTED MAN. The deceased author paints a
future with little hope except for the utopian colony that
proves to be even more dismal than the hopelessness on
earth. The vivid descriptions such as bits of a
cheeseburger not a whole cheeseburger provides quite a
landscape. Rachmael is a terrific champion while the
intergalactic con game is brilliantly done. Fans of
exciting but bleak science fiction thrillers know that
Philip K. Dick has been one of the greats and that is no
lie or computer generated "truth". Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted June 27, 2004
Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted January 18, 2007
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| SUMMARY |
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A masterwork by Philip K. Dick, this is the final, expanded version of the novella The Unteleported Man, which Dick worked on shortly before his death. In Lies, Inc., fans of the science fiction legend will immediately recognize his hallmark themes of life in a security state, conspiracy, and the blurring of reality and illusion. This publication marks its first complete appearance in the United States. In this wry, paranoid vision of the future, overpopulation has turned cities into cramed industrial anthills. For those sick of this dystopian reality, one corporation, Trails of Hoffman, Inc., promises an alternative: Take a teleport to Whale's Mouth, a colonized planet billed as the supreme paradise. The only catch is that you can never comeback. When a neurotic man named Rachmael ben Applebaum discovers that the promotional films of happy crowds cheering their newfound existence on Whale's Mouth are faked, he decides to pilot a scapeship on the eighteen-year journey there to see if anyone wants to return.
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