VALIS (Valis Trilogy)

Valis is the product of a few things: Dick's 1974 hallucinatory experiences, his belief that whetever the eye sees is reality on some level, and his own zany brand of writing.
The book consists of a mix of autobiography, Dick's Gnostic philosophies, his interpretations of his 1974 experiences, and a fictional story of schizophrenically-projected Horselover Fat (projected by none other than "Phil" who has written himself into the story ala 'Radio Free Albemuth') so it's not really a fictional novel, it's not really an autobiography and it's not really a philosphical treastise.
However, Valis does makes for a pretty good read, it would certainly make an odd member of anyone's book collection. While reading the book it's tempting to say that Dick's mind was fried but by the end it seems he had his head screwed on straight enough. He might have been on the wrong track in trying to explain what he saw in 1974, but from a spiritual viewpoint he's come up with some very novel and interesting ideas (and ideas were always Dick's forte). Valis is a tripped-out book but it isn't much worse than say, 'Counter Clock World' or 'Flow My Tears' on the fried-brain meter.
In conclusion if you're a PKD fan, don't stay away from this one, welcome it with open arms. I suggest reading 'Radio Free Albemuth' and 'The Shifting Realities of Phillip K. Dick' edited by Lawrence Sutin beforehand to gain a clearer understanding of where Dick was coming from.

This novel is to me one of those things that you want people to understand, you want people to see in it the same things you do. It hurts me that this thing that I love so might be considered insignificant to someone else. Such is the nature of our experience. VALIS will expose you to many interesting ideas regarding philosophy, religion, and reality. It is not the end all be all with regard to these things, but more a good primer. I don't follow the "zaney romp" or "fools search for God" school of thought on this book at all. It is quite funny, but I find the subject matter at its heart to be very serious and compelling, as one would expect the search for God to be. Phil Dick isn't joking around here. I don't have the words to convey to you all that VALIS means to me. I guess I can only say that touched me, moved me, made me laugh, and frightened me, and does so every time I read it. I become sad whenever I finish it, knowing I'm no longer participating in Horselover Fat's quest.

You'll be able to tell from the other reviews here that this novel is one of those that people will either love or hate. I can appreciate and understand that. It is one of those books. Having said that, I think that if it's read with the reader forewarned that this is not a conventional sci-fi novel, then there is a greater chance of enjoyment.
I read this many years ago having borrowed the entire Valis trilogy from a friend thinking - "Philip K. Dick, yeah, he writes science fiction, therefore this must be science fiction". It is, no doubt about it, but it's quite unlike any other sci-fi I've read. The first time I read this, it was an effort and for the most part I didn't enjoy it much. I didn't really think that it was sci-fi then, and felt cheated.
Then I got to the last few chapters and it all began to gell for me. The exegesis which is liberally littered throughout the main body of the novel was re-printed at the end, and it all made sense to me there, when it hadn't in the piecemeal form.
Subsequently reading about PKD and the problems he faced from 1974 onwards just makes this book even more special. Once you realise that it's semi-autobiographical it almost becomes something different. This actually prompted me to read Valis again, and this time it completely blew me away.
I've read it again since that, and I think it was the most enjoyable yet. The only problem(??) then was having to continue on to read the Divine Invasion and the Transmigration of Timothy Archer, which complete the trilogy.
It's not a good place to start if you've not read PKD before, but it is one of his best (IMO). His dark wit shines through at times, and so do the moments of dark depression. It comes across to me as a work of love, and also a catharsis. Valis was certainly something that obsessed PKD for many years. I understand why, I almost find myself looking for signs of Valis sometimes, especially after a particularly unlikely coincidence or synchronous event.
All that said I'd just like to re-iterate that this is not a conventional sci-fi novel. It can be read on many different levels, but be prepared to jump into the deep end of the philosophical pool. Otherwise, stay down the shallow end and read Harry Potter or Dr. Who novels instead.

As an loyal fan of Philip K. Dick, I'm well aware that his work can sometimes go off the deep end, plunging into insanity, oddness, and assorted strangeness. I'm used to that.

Yet Valis is the most obtuse Dick I've read to date yet. Very difficult to pin down, and very autobiographical (the author went somewhat insane in real life and thought God spoke to him through a pink laser), the first portions of this book are utterly DENSE with philosophical ramblings and viewpoint switches. It takes its sweet time settling into an actual story.

It's also something of a masterpiece.

Valis, despite my early concerns when I first read it, ended up being pretty much excellent. It's about madness, the search for god, religion and faith, insanity, loss, death, and coping with pain. There are layers here just asking to be peeled back and examined. Very autobiographical, which makes this all the more powerful if you're aware of PKDick's history. This is a book that is both baffling and wonderful, one of the most confused and interesting Philip K. Dick's I've read to date.

If you're new to his work you may want to tackle something a little more accessible first - maybe The Man Who Japed, or Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - but if you're comfortable with his style and haven't tackled this yet, be prepared for a heady, dense, thought-provoking ride.

Do you enjoy meticulously presented complex philosophical-theological theories of infinite subjectivity and maze-like meanderings that JUST WON'T QUIT? Then you'll love VALIS. The book filled me with wonder. Specifically: I wondered 2/3 of the way through why the hell I was reading this thing.

I'm told this novel intersects with Philip K. Dick's biography in some interesting ways, but as someone who knows little about the man but has enjoyed a number of his novels and stories ("The Man in the High Castle" is one of my favourite novels in any genre), I found "Valis" to be an engaging work in its own right. Dick's themes here are the nature of religious faith, the pitiless contradictions of a universe supposedly designed by a deity, and the nonetheless remarkable consistency of religious revelations throughout all time. There are any number of plausible explanations for all of this: God exists and has manifested in numerous forms; religious faith is entirely unjustified, but is a more or less constant aspect of human nature; space-time does not exist, we are devolved aliens, and "God" is a satellite broadcasting laser-driven epiphanies and inspiring subliminally affecting films (and novels?). Lovers of SF will enjoy this immensely, but so will lovers of good literature, and those interested in the philosophy and psychology of religion. If, like me, you happen to enjoy all three then you're in for quite a treat. Of course, it's the nature of the material that "Valis" can offer no final answers, but it's the way Dick raises the questions that makes it such an appealing novel. There is a tenderness and humanity to the characters - quite an achievement given the "way out" nature of the material. With its insoluble theological-philosophical themes, drug-culture setting, and interestingly unreliable narrative viewpoint, I'm sure "Valis" would be right at home on the Literary Studies curricula of any number of liberal arts colleges. Not before time, too. Hollywood is so far the only "institution" that has caught on to the tantalizing genius of Philip K. Dick. It's about time the rest of them caught up.

Emotionally crushed by the death of a friend, California dreamer Horselover Fat has a (borderline) religious experience that convinces him that reality is not what it appears to be. Is he teetering on the brink of insanity, or is he the only who really understands what's actually going on in this world, and either way, how will he know? Perhaps a good movie will clarify things...

The first half of this book is not so much a science fiction story as an exercise in obscure theosophical speculation. Dick obviously incorporated a lot of autobiographical material in this volume, but one wonders if he ever believed half of the ideas he espouses here. And as to Dick's myriad theosophical references, one assumes they're largely the product of the author's invention, but it doesn't really matter much either way. Unless you're looking to this novel for answers to the big questions, the points being made here don't add up to much more than some fairly tedious reading. Of course, as is typical of Dick, the book takes a totally unexpected turn about halfway through, with some major surprises, which is why this book merits four stars despite its many weak points. Dick's fans will certainly be pleased, and readers open to radically new conceptions of religion may find it thought-provoking, but it's not really for science fiction fans, and skeptics may be inclined to dismiss the whole book as hokum.

Philip K Dick experienced something profound in 1974 after a long battle with drug addiction, depression, and paranoia . . . what that experience was can best be described as a hallucinatory encounter with God. This book may be fiction as it's labeled, but more likely it's as close to autobiography as Dick could remember of his life from 1974 to 1978.

Many people consider this to be an unreadable volume because of its surreal journey through the mind of one with some sort of severe psychosis, and of its wild switches from first to third person, not to mention the confusion with which Dick puts himself in the plot as both the protagonist and narrator, but those being two different people. Add to that a heavy dose of gnostic gospel and widely varied obscure theological elements from many cultures, and you have a book few can even understand in the first reading.

That said, I loved it. Why? Because its actually a journey of awareness through a universe where time doesn't really exist, chaos reigns because the creator is insane, and Philip K Dick has trouble keeping it together yet manages to birth an entire religious awakening at the same time.

Before reading it, please familiarize yourself with Taoism, Buddhism, Gnosticism and even Jungian Psychoanalysis as well as various creation mythologies - perhaps a little light reading in the Joseph Campbell library - then dive in and see what can happen when this is all revealed to one man in a beam of light.

- CV Rick

Too much dose, not enough reflection. I made it 200 pages and tried to be interested the whole time. But wasn’t. It was booooring. Philip K Dick seems like he just at a ton of dose and wrote the entire thing tripping balls >___< Not the way to do it I would say. Close to random jibberish but just a really bland story of a guy(Philip k?) who took some dose that was legit Delysid from a lab and it changed his life and gave him clairvoyance into another life from another time. Cool conceptually, very poorly written.

This is a very funny, strange, and thought-provoking book. Philip K. Dick's world is somewhere between those of Umberto Eco (there is a lot of theology here) and Kurt Vonnegut (surreal 1970s setting). The main character, with the unlikely name of Horselover Fat, is confronted with the fact that the universe is fundamentally irrational when a friend of his commits suicide. This flaw in the universe then proceeds to destroy Fat's sanity. He believes he has an encounter with god -- a perfect, gnostic god who exists outside of the flawed universe who has transmitted knowledge directly into his head by means of a pink laser.
The ideal reader for this book should be a person who has studied theology at the college level, and who has an open mind. It is a very entertaining book with a lot of insight into our strange world, but it is by no means easy.

In 'Valis' Philip Dick takes us on another journey into the very soul of being. He explores ideas that many of us shove into the back of our mind as too complex or too distressing to spend any time with - they might clutter our lives too much. But they are there always, nagging away in the background - how do you decide what is real? was that smile from a pretty girl really an encouragement to me, or am I fooling myself? how can I tell? does my wife really love me? do my children? is there a God? and how can I manage the terror of death - my own and the death of those I love?
This novel is more than an exploration of the ideas that Philip Dick worried about that we all do (Dick is forever quoting other worriers - Mahler, Dowland, the I Ching etc etc) - it is a very personal almost autobiographical sharing. I read the novel, and read it again. I don't believe I will understand all of it ever. Perhaps some of it is not understandable in any meaningful way (Clifford Simak wrote a wonderful short story about things that may not be understood, called 'Limiting Factor') but it is such a wonderful trigger for my own racing mind as it explored its own journey amongst ideas.
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Wow! This novel is akin to a beautiful train wreck. Unnerving, intriguing, bizarre, and potentially relatable. There are fleeting moments of lucidity intermingled with delusional streams of religious prattling. Admittedly, something I can rarely stomach, but appealing when combined with a historic, educated slant. The characters are interesting, with dimension to their actions, but most of the time regurgitating Dick's own newfound religious conclusions. Currently, and I'll explain why I say "currently" in a moment, my overall impression is that it was too tangential to vigorously enjoy. Some parts I found fascinating, others redundant and irrational. But, I can't help but feel that this was intentional. Though the real question is whether it was an enjoyable read. The short answer is yes, to a point. I found it fascinating to watch a great writer descend into madness, which seems to be the case from the biographical material I've come across about him during the time of this book's completion.

It occurred to me throughout the reading that Dick was not only weaving an intricate plot line, but purposely involving the concepts thematically into his own life. Like Dali and his egregiousness behavior in the public eye, purposely falling out of windows, obvious attempts at gaining attention. It occurred to me that perhaps Dick was performing a show of his own. One which would leave a lasting impression on those who studied him beyond his death. If intended, I concur that it worked. If not, opinion concludes he truly was on the brink of insanity.

Upon finishing the book I feel a bit let down, compared to my responses regarding the two other PKD works I've read. The Man in the High Castle and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. Though, reflecting over it now, I feel I may be coming to the conclusion that my initial responses to those other two novels weren't held in as high regard as my current opinion. I feel a comparison to Asimov's writing would help fit my impression. Asimov is a renowned sci-fi author because of the ideas he has written about, not necessarily the prose. This is something I've read in other reviews of his work upon many occasions. Dick on the other hand, has magnificent prose, and well structured writing. I'm not going to reverse the analogy and state that his concepts don't compare to Asimov's. Absolutely not. But I feel that Dick's ideas aren't immediately noticeable. Like a pebble's wake in a pond, there is a delayed wave effect as to when Dick's concepts hit you, and they repeat (congeal) this with each introspection. Perhaps I will leave this novel thinking it was decent and be content with my immediate impression, only to find a year from now that I'm able to see its genius. Either that, or I'm really just a romantic who is a bit disappointed in an author previously held in such high regard.

This was the first PKD novel I'd read. I picked it up when I was 15 years old; I probably got it because it was cheap and because Ursula K. LeGuin's blurb on the cover compared PKD as "our own home-grown Borges" (whom I was also just getting into at the time). And boy, was it a doozy. I ate it up. It was hilarious satire, it was heartbreaking grief, it was postmodern narratological mind-effing, it was religious exploration, and it was a book filled with discovery upon discovery, epiphany upon epiphany, that a boy like me at that age exactly needed. I can't tell you how many times that the phrase "You're the authority" has been of help to me, especially when I went off to Santa Cruz and the Bay Area and experienced some of the experiences related in the book. Because what VALIS is, ultimately, is about a group of friends bonding together and helping one another weather some really freaky stuff. I would press this book upon every adolescent about to go off to college.

VALIS is one of my favorite books ever, although its language is not exactly fluid even to someone who's reread it a number of times. It has a lot of loose ends. The narrator has a split pesonality, which Christ heals, but only temporarily. Philip K Dick is possessed by the idea of secret information. He believes the Gnostics knew the truth, which is our real situation, but that the information was rooted out and had to go underground for almost 2000 years. Philip K. Dick the author/narrator calls it strange that Jung should find the idea of a hidden god notorious. In PKD's case, if there were no hidden god, he'd have to create one, but he's never quite sure if that's what he's already done or not. It makes for some neurotic reading, but the general conclusions PKD makes about his mystical experience seem sound: god speaks in the humble voice of that fly on your window pane, not in the booming asexual voice of the Han emperor. He says we must be alert to our surroundings, watchful. He projects his dillema regarding the diety onto humanity in general and wonders outloud if perhaps we aren't the saviour who needs saving ourselves. Towards the end of his life PKD came to see the biosphere as the living body of God, and the next saviour as "green."
Whatever the style and merits of his final meisterwerk, the questions he raises therein are surely worth the reader's attention.

Strange that no one has raised the etymology of VALIS (as far as I know). The word seems to be a real word in the IE family of languages. The word should mean a round object used for rolling, like modern Lithuanian "volas," but also it has the connotation of will, akin in meaning perhaps to German "schaft," see Latvian "velu" "I wish" and "volvo" in Latin. In short, the word meant something like "magic wand" I guess. Remote control may be more like it.

Valis is at once sublime and unsettling. From the schizophrenic changes from third to first person point of view ("I am writing this in the third person to gain much-needed objectivity", the narrator reminds himself as much as the reader) through the brilliant Tractates: Cryptica Scriptura that comprise the appendix, we see a work that goes beyond mere science fiction and attempts to wrestle with the insane story of life itself. This is a novel that seeks no less than the ultimate answers to life's biggest questions. Philip Dick in attempting to make sense of his own life gives us a work that is at once thrilling, empassioned, beautiful, funny, and sad.
This is truly one of the greatest (and least appreciated) works of American literature. I can't say it gave me all the answers, but it raised many questions and new ideas as well as inspiring me in my own writing. Isn't that what great literature is about? Thank you, PKD, wherever you are.

Phil Dick had made his early reputation writing SciFi that challenged our notions of humanity and reality. In this late, semi-autobiographical novel, Dick departs almost entirely from the SF genre with a poignant and philosophical investigation of the nature of divine revelation coupled with an inquiry into his own mental illness. In doing so, Dick also plays with the conventions of narration, employing an alter ego (Horselover Fat) that he reminds us from time to time is himself. He lifts the curtain of narration with a wink and a nod, but there is no self-consciousness in his writing. Instead, the writing in VALIS is as heartfelt and personal as Dick ever achieved. His story also provides Dick's commentary on the detritus of the '60s from the perspective of the mid-'70s.

The narrative thread, though, concerns a semi-autobiographical encounter with something that Dick believed to be a religious epiphany. As the story spins further and further out of control in a classic paranoid fantasy, we are treated to Dick's ruminations on Gnosticism, the nature of divinity and the question of how to validate any encounter with the divine as genuine. As the story ends, we are left with no answers, only questions. As others have mentioned, this novel presages the later "Transmigration of Timothy Archer," but in my estimation the story of VALIS is the more compelling, and the questions addressed are more profound. Ultimately, this is a philosophical treatise masquerading as light fiction, and woe be unto the reader who thinks that it'll be another "Man in the High Castle." VALIS is far more than a standard SciFi novel; it stands alongside "Do Androids Dream..." as the finest fiction produced by a very fine author.

This is not only a great written work (and a fun and gripping) read) which transcends genre, it is full of fascinating theological and philosophical insights. I've seen other reviews which describe the book as inscrutable or hard to penetrate, but I didn't find it to be so at all. It helps to have a little background with the Gnostic Gospels (both the texts and Elaine Pagel's analysis are fascinating reads), and/or some other background with nondualistic religious systems such as Buddhism, advaitin Hinduism, or "A Course in Miracles." It's not that you need these as references -- they just provide a background that helps Dick's ideas to feel more familiar.
Anyhow -- one of my favorite books, ever. It's hard not to view it as a book of revelation, as much as a book of fiction.

This is perhaps the densest, hardest to penetrate book I've ever read. And I've read a lot. Essentially autobiographical, sprinkled with fictional elements to create a small semblance of "plot", Valis is Philip K. Dick trying, through writing, to find out what the hell happened to him in the 70's. It can be nearly impossible to follow at times. And reading the Tracate sprinkled throughout the book (and in an appendix at the end of the novel) one truly has to wonder if the man was insane. But if you dig below the surface, and see what Dick's really getting at here, you will find that the book is worth the trouble it takes to read it. No doubt you'll never understand all of it. That's not the point. I would not recommend this book for everyone, it's dense and hard at times to follow and not at all written in a conventional style (not that much PDK is.) However, if you are tired of mainstream literature and long for something more, or perhaps answers to the BIG questions, then this book is for you. Also, an absolute must-read for Dick fans, personal and wonderful as it is. If Valis turns you off at first, don't worry, stick with it, it's worth the rollercoaster ride it takes you on.

Valis is like Matrix - a documentary disguised as fiction.

Everyone who cares to know already knows the PKD _is_ Horselover Fat, and that the pink-beam actually happened to PKD, and was the genesis event of his writing career.

But the thing is - the cosmogony, philosophy, theology, and psychology expressed in Valis are mature themes, they are, for all intents, "real".

Valis is a popularized dissertation on the state of humanities understanding of itself.

The nature of reality given in Valis is as close to the "true" nature of reality as we can get.

It is, like Matrix, a modern Human Exegesis.

I do not recommend this book for anyone without at least a survey understanding of esotericism, theological history, edge physics, and metaphysics.

that said - if you are interested in the history and future of life in this Samsara - this book is indispensable.

I also can recommend the audio book version. It is well done.

I think most of the previous reviewers have done a good job of covering the book itself, so in this review I'd just like to point out a couple of things:

1. If you are intereseted in what silicon valley was like BEFORE the sucessions of booms and busts happened, this is a good resource. Dick here wonderfully captures the essance of a time gone by.

2. Dick's whole 2-3-74 experience started whe he saw what he describes as an other-wordly, pink light, utterly unlike any other light he had seen before. I wonder, did perhaps a few precoccious engineers-to-be in the valley cobble together a homemede laser and play pranks on unsuspecting passersby?

I'm giving this book five stars because I really enjoyed it, not because I'm sure you will. It was a quick and gripping read for me because I was ready for all the material, but I admire those who have been unable to get through it the first time and then kept coming back until they could finish the book. It's worth the effort.

You should prepare to read this book. I hope that doesn't discourage you. All of these topics are a pleasure in and of themselves: Read up on gnosticism in your favorite encyclopedia. Understand the basic ideas and stories/parables of Christianity (if, for example, you weren't raised with them). Read some of Philip K. Dick's other works, or at least watch Blade Runner in order to understand what kind of SF author he is. This is not SF, but the author himself is a character in the book. Read the Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky. Specifically, Dostoevsky's treatment of the suffering of children. At the very least understand the term Theodicy. Read Faust. Maybe more than one version. Read something with an unreliable narrator (Lolita, or Pale Fire by Nabokov come to mind, but those can be difficult works too). The point is that you have to be used to not trusting everything the narrator says. Read something more or less autobiographical by someone suffering mental illness, say The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath. For some reason, the SF movie The Man Who Fell to Earth kept coming to mind for me. There is a movie described in the book, and that's definitely NOT it, but it's the same sort of counter-culture oddball film with a rock star. Finally, look up the term 'Holographic Universe'. I think those people are out to lunch, but I find it curious that PKD had latched onto the same ideas.

The above recommendations will give you a grounding that makes VALIS even richer. You could read the book without all that, but why not go down some of the same paths PKD did first?

While in the desert one night, Philp K. Dick has a religous awakening (some would say a psycotic break, but who am to question his perception) in which he felt he had come to an understanding of the godhead. Valis is the semi-auto biographical story of this encounter and its ramifications.]
Heavy with a alegory and vivid images, K. Dick takes us on a strange, often seemingly drug induced journey through his understanding of what the world is, who we are, and what is our place in the cosmos. He ties together vast amounts of science, myth, and philosphy on this wonderous journey.
Is the book weird? Absolutely! Is it beautifully written and provacitive? Absolutely! Is it worthy your time to read? I suspect you can guess my answer.

What this lackin plot it made up for in idea flow and comical instances. Especially funny yet powerful was the idea that Nixon was the head of some evil Empire and his real name was Ferris F. Fremont (sort of) and the forces of good were resonsible for dethroning the King. Kevin the cynical friend and his dead cat was hilarious. I agree it was a strange almost uncomprehendable tale but if you do put the effort into understanding it then the results will be satisfying. The end wasn't that great though. It left the door open for a sequal but he (PKD) should have at least made it look like he was going to shut the door, rather than not try at all.

This is not a novel. This is a thinly veiled attempt by Philip K. Dick to account for a strange happening that occurred in 1974. It is turgid as hell, packed with Horselover Fat's essays about who God really is. One good point is that he never completely takes himself seriously. This is strange stuff and he knows it. I just wish it could have had a bit more cohesive flow. It isn't until the middle when Fat and his amateur philosopher friends decide to get off their rears and go see the film VALIS that the plot picks up. My suggestion to him would have been, if some mystical experience happens to you, don't write a series of essays thinly disguised as novel, just write the essays.
Divine Invasion is much better as Dick seems to have gotten a second wind playing Biblical Games and making great use of parodying characters from the Bible. God even has a funny personality. As many have mentioned, the VALIS trilogy isn't really a trilogy more than a confederacy of novels that have to do with Dick's take on religion. Granted, reading it will help you understand some terms used in Divine Invasion.
If you have a great deal of time and don't mind hearing the words "The Empire never ended" repeated thousands of times between contradictory declarations about who God is, then by all means take up VALIS. By the way, is Eric Lampton supposed to be Eric Clapton?

The first time I tried to read this, I made it to about page fifteen before giving up. I couldn't get past the fact that there were two characters (Dick and Fat) inhabiting the same body. Okay, I could understand that there was one guy with another guy living inside his head, but the other characters talked to both of them!
I picked it up a year later after experimenting with some mind altering substances, and what can I say? This book changed my life. This is the ultimate exploration of schizophrenia, not multiple personality disorder, but split personality disorder, the theme that dominates most of Dick's great works (Scanner Darkly, Flow my Tears).
This book is about identity, the ultimate philosophical question. Not the identity of the main character, but identity in general, what is it?
This is Dick's most important work, even though I found Palmer Eldritch and High Tower to be better overall fiction. As has been noted, this is almost a religious treatise, although the religion it describes is unique to Dick. The numbered notes scattered throughout the book and collected in the end are amazing enough to buy this book solely for the purpose of analyzing them. For example, his idea that we're all moving backward in time except for men like St. Paul is fascinating, and explains why Paul would have such a unique view of God that so few can seem to relate to.
Also, his Black Iron Prison concept is DEAD ON, and we are living in it, my friend. The Roman empire still exists, it's called the USA, and another term for it would rightly be the Fourth Reich.
Read Radio Free Albemuth first to warm up to the general concepts framed in a more conventional novel, then read VALIS to blow yourself away.

This book comes from the later stages of PKD's career, when he probably didn't even care about making his books accessible to the masses. That's something that up-and-comers have to do, and by this point PKD was surely trying to sort out his own personal philosophies in narrative form. You can see the websites for several different PKD fan clubs for speculation on what was going through his mind when he wrote this one. Here we have musings on religious visions, spiritual quests, and arcane ancient Greek and Gnostic Christian philosophies. Obviously one would also suspect experimentation in the arts of mind expansion, though in real life (if such a thing exists) PKD hated to be branded in that way. These are all played out by the typically off-center characters and curveball speculative plotlines of classic PKD.
This book can be quite frustrating at times, with long philosophical passages that are merely a mishmash of ideas PKD had come across in his personal studies, and that lead to philosophy overload but with little direction or grand overall insight to be found. Plus you have to wonder if this book is a literal or merely mental autobiography, or not an autobiography at all but one of PKD's subversive storytelling techniques, designed to warp the reader's mind. This book is told in both first and third person by the same character, a schizophrenic with two personalities that operate simultaneously and even interact with each other (a feature of several PKD stories). Here one of the two selves is the increasingly insane Horselover Fat and the other is his sane alter ego, who happens to be the author PKD himself. Ultimately, the mass philosophical confusion of this novel morphs into sheer fascination, albeit in a pretty cluttered way.
Note that the make-believe movie seen by the characters in this book was expanded by PKD into another novel - *Radio Free Albemuth* - which was not published during his lifetime. A story within a story within a quasi-mental-autobiography, as it were.

When I read the back cover of this book at my local bookstore, I was intrigued. "VALIS is a theological detective story, in which God is both missing person and the perpetrator of the ultimate crime." Whoa. That sounds awesome. And, having read the book, I must say: it IS awesome. VALIS is one of the finest books I've read.
Now, I admit, it is a refined taste. It is a book that you ever love more than anything or totally despise (Catch-22, anyone? I love it, but I know people who... don't. LOL). I can't say that I truely understood what, well, the first 85 pages or so are COMPLETELY about, but if you stick with it and read it through, I believe you'll find, as I did, that it all begins to gradually fall into place. I'm not exaggerating when I say that the last two chapters or so had a sizable impact on the way I look at myself, God, and the universe.
I would recommend this book to anyone who dares to question himself and his surroundings. It challenged the way I think and I believe myself to be a better person because of it.

A very strange book. Not really sure what to think, I really don’t want to give a full review until I read the sequel. Having said all that I can say this is by far the most personal story By Philip K Dick that I have read. Interested in seeing where it goes in the second book.

This is my first book by Philip Dick. I am now reading the follow up to Valis, "The Divine Invasion". I was motivated to pick it up because of the several references to Dick's work in another amazing (non-fiction) work by John Lamb Lash, "Not In His Image: Gnostic Vision, Sacred Ecology and The Future of Belief". If Dick blows your mind, this book by Lash will also, and it provides a lot of insight into Dick's at times bizarre ideas. Dick incorporates images, ideas and narrative (myth) from the gnostic "Sophia" myth. He obviously takes these ancient myths very seriousy, using stories and motifs from the myth to populate this book and perhaps many other of his works. If you are open to some ancient ideas that will seem new and fresh, Valis is sure to intrigue you.

I've only read a few other Philip K. Dick novels (Ubik and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch) which I was a huge fan of both books. So I decided to read Valis. I wound up forcing myself to read the whole thing in hopes that it might pull me in at any moment, but that moment never came. It seems to ramble on and on without any real plot going on.

This book is PKD's story based on gnostic Christianity, or at least attempt to combine SF genre and give some kind of explanation of time, space,philosophy, closer to science.

I read it twice and enjoyed it, although some of the last events in the book require maximum attention !!!

Although story is elusive, you must get this one, it makes you think, and gives you references to Greek classic philosophers.

NO OTHER AUTHOR CAN FILL THE PAGES OF A BOOK WITH RAW HUMANITY BETTER THAN THIS MAN AND I DOUBT ANY EVER WILL. UNDOUBTEDLY THE BEST OF DICK'S WORK BESIDE MAYBE RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH. DON'T BELIEVE IT IF ANYONE TELLS YOU PARTS DON'T MAKE SENSE OR ENDS ARE LEFT LOOSE. THIS IS LIKE SAYING CONCIOUSNESS SHOULD HAVE A DECISIVE TRACKABLE PLOT LINE. IT SIMPLY ISN'T SO. THE FIRST THREE PARAGRAPHS OF THE BOOK INTRANCE AND INSTANTLY DEMAND ATTENTION IN THIER SCOPE OF HONEST HUMAN EMOTION. WE FOLLOW HORSELOVER THROUGH HIS OWN STREAMS OF CONCIOUSNESS THAT AT TIMES ARE SO GENUINELY REAL THAT ONE FEELS LIKE THEY ARE INVADING SOMEBODY'S PRIVATE PLACE IN SPACE. THE BOOK ISN'T SCIENCE FICTION IT'S A TESTIMONY TO THE HUMAN STRUGGLE (THAT MOST HUMANS SEEM OBLIVIOUS TO AND WOULD GO MAD IF THOUGHT TO LONG ON) TO MAKE SENSE OF THE TRUE PURPOSE OF ANYTHING WE DO. IT'S HARDER TO DESCRIBE WHAT IT IS THAN WHAT IT ISN'T. IT ISN'T THE RAVINGS OF A PARANOID (THOUGH HE WAS), OR THE DISJOINTED THOUGHTS OF A NEO-HIPPIE, NEW AGE WRITER DRIBBLED ACROSS PAGES WITHOUT REASON, IT IS A CRAFTED SLICE OF OUR LOST HUMANITY IN A MODERN WORLD. IT IS A WORK TO BE DEVOURED AND REREAD FOR EACH TIME BRINGS NEW INSIGHTS. DON'T WRITE IT OFF AS RAVINGS BUT INSTEAD LET IT SOAK IN AND I'M POSITIVE IT WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU. PHILIP K. DICK IS THE MOST UNDERAPPRECIATED MODERN WRITER OF OUR TIME. PEOPLE WANT FLUFF AND LINEAR PLOTS WITH A BEGINNING AND AN END. THIS BOOK IS NEITHER, IT'S A JOURNEY THAT YOU SHOULD NEVER STOP TAKING AND IS (IN MY BIASED OPINION) THE BEST EXAMPLE EVER OF THE HIEGHTS THE ART OF WRITING CAN REACH TO ILLUSTRATE THE HUMAN CONDITION.

It's a long-winded rambling of an insane person with little to not plot. Even the religious ideas are all over the place with no cohesion. There isn't much story here, and certainly nothing of any entertainment or joy. It's a dark journey into madness.

Audiobook narration: The narrator did a great job.

NOTE: I received this for free in exchange for an honest review.

As a few other reviewers have noted, Dick is an extremely inconsistent author. He never wants for interesting ideas but the execution can be hit or miss. VALIS is a direct hit. This is by far my favorite PKD novel and it is one of my favorite books by any author. Dick delves heavily here into pre-Socratic philosophy and ancient Christianity. Somehow through PKD's madness the potentially dull subject matter is fascinating and compelling.

I have become, in the last few years, a great fan of Philip K. Dick. I find his unconventionally stuctured stories to be both refreshingly honest and thought-provoking. Valis exhibits the most extreme examples of both of these traits in any of Dick's works that I have read. It is an incredibly personal work. The emotion that Dick felt as he was writing is almost palpable. As well, the philosophies that Dick struggles with are wonderfully surreal, especially since they appear to be completely truthful statements from Dick's personal religious journey. Ultimately, however, I feel that the intensely personal nature of the book is to its detriment. Dick struggled to reconcile his Valis experience with his philosophy and was often bewildered. Readers, learning about them second-hand, will be even more confused. I feel that unless you are willing to read this book several times and perhaps do an in-depth study of Dick's life, this book will end up leaving you feeling somewhat shortchanged.

In the good old days books like this would be published in installments to make up the printed word minimum that qualified pornos as magazines and not art (which has a higher shipping cost). These days guys like PKD get awards named after them! They get compared to Kafka and are credited with revolutionizing entire industries of thought! Vonnegut fans: this guy IS Kilgore Trout. Great ideas... Sorry delivery. Still, this is his best work. Valis is what happens to a smart, paranoid sci-fi writer who is abducted by aliens: even smarter, more paranoid sci-fi! It's about this guy who, in meeting with an extraterrestrial, decides that he's unlocked the secret to modern human history. And it's a hell of a secret. The Roman Empire... it never ended. Here's proof. Sort of.

I bought this book by accident instead of Ubik. I guess it was worth reading, but I didn't think so until about 125 pages into it. First I'm not religous or spiritual so the begining was pretty bland, being written from the perspective of a crazy guy who thinks god is sending him messages. To be honest I felt really dumb because I had to reread alot of it for it to make sense as a story. When it did pick up half way through and start to make sense it was a good read worthy of 4 stars. Valis did have many really original ideas in it, which does make me want to read more of Phillip Dick's books.

If the canon of the Bible had not been prematurely closed (as if God has really stopped talking to people? ), Valis would surely take its place amongst its pages. Very few modern people could qualify as a prophet, and PKD stands among them. Valis is essentially autobiography -- though, since Dick is a master at questioning What is real? -- he never does decide exactly what happened to him. He knows how easily imagination can distort our view of reality. Nonetheless, some kind of profound experience radically changed his way of thinking, and made him wonder if -- in some sense -- the Roman empire never ended, and all of our reality is a sham, waiting for God to once again intervene. When you look at the sad state of what passes for Christianity these days, it's hard not believe that PKD was on to something.
If you're a fan of Valis, be sure to look into Tod Machover's electronic opera based upon it, in the classical music area.

This one gets me every time. I don't read it for a while, then I read it again... and find myself thinking, "2 am, already? I've got to put this down."
Don't buy this one for good clean SF, but then you'd never come to Philip K. Dick for that, now would you? His other stories may leave you standing aside, looking on as horrible things happen to nearby protagonists. Here he really helps you identify with Fat, right as Fat goes drifting over his head into the deep end.

The opening chapters of Valis represent some of Dick's finest writing, hands-down. If you read only that much of the book, it will still be worth the full price.

This obliquely autobiographical journey synthesizes the marvelous introspections of a man better able to examine himself that most of us are, and what winds up on the page is a joy to witness. Dick's choice of dual/single narrator is effective and clever, predating many other authors' Postmodernist experiments along these lines, and Dick manages to wrap it around a poignant and heartfelt quest for meaning and redemption.

For my money, the book is Dick's best, certainly the finest of the so-called Valis Trilogy.

The man's staggering combination of imagination, genius, story telling and writing prowess are something I've not experienced with any other author. VALIS was the first of his works I've encountered, but it certainly will not be the last.

Although PKD is lumped in with Sci Fi/Fantasy it would appear that's simply because nothing else comes close. That said, he transcends any sort of categorization by any measure. He tells a compelling story with complex characters all the while bending the reader's mind with questions of self, reality and man's relation to God, if he exists.

Anyway, I would place this in the "must read" category of your "waiting to read" list.

Before this, he had written about a robot-hunter who suspects he may be a robot himself and a world in which people age in reverse, but Valis is the point where Philip K. Dick really got weird. Based on a supposed experience of the author himself, Valis is the story of Horselover Fat, a man who God (or some being of the sort) contacted using a pinkish ray of light. Fat is a 60s burnout trying to survive in the 70s and this encounter encourages him to write an exegesis, explaining the workings of the universe which apparently include a race of three-eyed creatures and an elaborate system of holograms. Fat is egged on by a group of friends including the Catholic David, the cynical Kevin, the cancer-ridden Sherri and a science fiction named Philip K. Dick, who freely admits he is also Horselover Fat (It will almost make sense after you have read it). Valis is part postmodern experiment, part philosophical treatise and even part science-fiction novel. For people who like their literature inventive, pensive and consciously bizarre (and that is how most Dick fans like their literature), Valis is sure to be a winner.

I'm not religious at all, nor do I know much about any of the religions, so a lot of stuff went over my head, but you don't need to know that information to understand the story. The first half took me a while to get through, but get through it because when the characters discover the movie, "VALIS," the story gets really good and interesting up until the end. If you're into other PKD, I bet you'd like it.

Smarties and good friends have recommended this book to me. However, halfway through it I had to simply give up and admit defeat. Nothing makes any sense, the characters are only warped peices of their true selves as seen by the main lunatic--er, character. The religious stuff was the most irreligious rambling I've ever run across, and it usurped the space in which a plot might have neatly fit. In short, I didn't get it, and I think I probably wouldn't want to anyway. This is not so much speculative fiction as it is something which causes you to speculate about whether it should even be called fiction.

I don't care for the fact that the Kindle edition of the trilogy is $30. This is only the first book, while the print version sells all three books for $13. Instant gratification isn't worth a 250% markup, so I think I'll go look in the library or run down to Barnes & Noble.

If you found VALIS a profound emotional experience, you might be surprised to discover that much of the material was based on Philip Dick's real-life experiences. To dig deeper into the "mystical experiences" that changed PKD's life, I'd suggest Lawrence Sutin's biography "Divine Invasions," available from the store.com, and the book "Philip K. Dick: The Dream Connection," a small press book featuring a long interview with PKD in which he describes these experiences more completely than in any other non-fictional source. This book is available from Impermanent Press (you can guess the web address). Together, they add depth and reality to VALIS.

If you went thru the 60's and are interested in alternate theories for the nature and meaning of God you should partake in this rollercoaster ride.Parts are still a total mystery to me, but what a ride. You will either absolutely love this or scurry back to traditional views real quick.

I consider myself a Dick fan. I really enjoyed Electric Sheep, Martian Time-Slip, A Scanner Darkly, Man in the High Castle, Crap Artist, etc. Those books actually had plot and setting, and Dick was great at creating alternate worlds.
Not so much here. The vast majority takes place in Horselover Fat's (Philip Dick's) drug-addled mind. He ruminates endlessly on a bizarre theological system that throws together every major religion, sixties anti-establishment fervor, and whacked-out science fiction. He adds little but three-eyed aliens and mind-controlling satellites... cool ideas, but not enough to hold up an entire book. (I first read about the mind-controlling satellite in Radio Free Albemuth anyways, and that book actually has plot and setting). Then again, Phil has always borrowed heavily. The Mercer cult in Electric Sheep was taken straight from Camus' Myth of Sisyphus.
This book is most interesting as a slide into madness, especially in light of the fact that Dick actually seemed to believe that Valis was beaming information at him (see The Dreams Our Stuff is Made Of by Thomas Disch). Dick was coming off meth addiction, and hallucinations are common, but he refused to see these images as internally created. All I got from this book was a drug-addled, isolated mind attempting to make sense of its own madness. Anyone who's had a bad trip on acid has been here before. I would recommend Crap Artist more, as there the idiot savant is actually trying to cope with the external world, whereas in Valis we get primarily the abstract madness in isolation. The only character who made sense to me was Kevin, and even he bought into the Valis cult at the end.
The fact that Dick actually believed this stuff was a little scary; it made me feel like I was reading L. Ron's Dianetics. If you are interesting in seeing just how weird Dick can get, or find religious rumination to be interesting, you'll probably get a lot more out of this book.

The key to understanding Valis is to understand that the author was insane. A mad sheep sees wolves everywhere. A mad carpenter sees hammers. When an introspective hack science fiction writer goes insane, all hell breaks loose. Reading Valis lets you watch the chaos from a ringside seat. Having read Valis in both English and French (and also having read the entire trilogy, Radio Free Albemuth, and nearly every accesible piece of work by PKD and having visited the dual gravesite of he and his twin sister, who died shortly after birth, in Fort Collins) I can say that this novel is tied only by the Three Christs of Ypsilanti as an entertaining narrative of delusional messianism. And that's not easy for me to say.

Valis is addictive but strangely alienating to read. PDK's alter ego Horselover Fat spends most of his time in endless documentation of sci-fi/religious analysis, and the plot is very, very difficult to summarize. If you like PDK, you may not necessarily like this. But, as I said, I couldn't put it down.

Although I found some of this hard going, it is a wonderful book. For Dick fans everywhere it reveals further insights into the workings of this great authors mind. What I found the greatest accomplishment was the complete retro feel to the novel. I'm still left wondering wether this is a serious treatise on late 20th century philosphy or the derranged meanderings of a schizophrenic.
Don't expect an adventure sci-fi....do expect a first class read.

This is the best, and most unhinged, book Philip K Dick ever wrote. This is not a conventional story, but revolves around the philosophical musings of PKD, and includes excerpts from his Exegesis. Indeed, he wrote himself into the book as a character.

To understand why the book is so insane, it helps to remember that PKD was on drugs and slowly losing his mind during this period of his life. Many of the events in VALIS are autobiographical (well from PKD's point of view, anyway).

After reading this book it is easy to see that Grant Morrison was heavily influenced by Philip K. Dick. As an Invisibles fan, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I am now also a Philip K. Dick fan. I liked this book so much that I just ordered the next two in the "trilogy". This is a must have for anyone who has experienced brief moments of enlightenment or had experiences that they couldn't readily explain.

Half the time I was reading this book I was confused. The other half I was annoyed. Despite this, I was unable to put it down. This book twisted my mind in every direction and left me disoriented and wanting more.

I've read this book at least once a year every year since 1989 when it was first recommended to me by some college friends. Started my quest to read all of PKD's works.

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away." That quote alone makes the whole trip worthwhile.

VALIS is difficult to understand. It doesn't develop into the semblance of a story until the hundredth page. It's a deep book, full of spiritual underpinnings. If you're an easily offended Christian, don't pick up this book.

Surely the bible of schizophrenia: the main character is an I and a HE. Penetrating, an extraordinary book with an annexed Scriptura which is a cosmic theory created by Philip K. Dick, a visionary and philosophic text which brings the reader to conceive the universe as an hologram, quoting lines from the story of Horselover Fat. So much could be said about this book, it's an hologram in itself...

amazing master of sarcasm and symbolism, blended with a host of themes and ideas that occasionally make sense. the first time through the book was less a intellectual exercise for me than it was an emotional one. i really enjoyed some of his other, more coherent novels such as flow my tears and 3 stigmata, but this is a jewel in its own way. read it and let pkd play with your mind for a while.

I was reading PKD before most people had ever heard of him, probably before most people reading this were even born. I'm talking back when you had to buy a PKD novel within six months of the release date because it would go out of print and you couldn't get a copy.

I was a member of the Philip K. Dick Society back in the day.

'Nuff said. I read this back when it was first published and recently got it on Kindle to re-read. When I was much younger, this probably seemed cool and profound, but now it reads as so much self-indulgent twaddle. According to Kindle, I read 5 percent before I gave up.

Valis is an all out mind jacking. The theology is a splinter that will detonate like a grenade in your brain and leave nasty scars. I have also read the other parts of the Valis trilogy, and I believe this is the best. Beware though, this is the type of book that can and will hurt your conceptions of the world around you.

Call me a fool, that's fine. I love Philip K Dick's entire catalogue. But Valis is my absolute favorite (with Radio Free Ablemuth a close 2nd) perhaps it's because of my personal life when I read it the first time. I had been reading Dick for years and somehow never read Valis until college. I can honestly say that this was one of the few books that ever changed my life, I've read dozens of times. If you don't get that's your problem!

I LOVE Philip K Dick, but found this book near unreadable for my tastes. I refuse to not finish a book once I've started, so I finished... But in the meantime read five other books while I trudged through Valis. It is filled with barely coherent self babble and arguments with himself and his alter-self. I can see how some people would really enjoy it, but not this reader.

I thought the novel had a great premise. I am insane. I know I am insane, but I am going to prove what I am thinking. Then if you believe me, maybe your not as sane as you think. I read the novel...

This book is an OBNOXIOUS RAMBLING of a man with MAJOR problems. And it is rendered even more inpenetrable via its form as a pseudo sci-fi novel. If you need a book that describes PKD Becoming a lecherous old man, and the insanity that escorted him to an early mortal stroke, Read one of the biography's about him by another author. They are more interesting and probley more truthful because PKD was extremely paranoid (Amp?), which was the creative juice of his heyday novels but was his undoing after '72. Also he tended to either lie or misfire regarding personal information. The book Valis is less digestable than the worst ramblings of an average madman. I dont see how it was accepted for publication at all( Mabey they figured after such a long hiatus, they could sell copies of a "new anything" by the original master of 'noid sci-fi). I found the originally rejected prototype of this novel called " radio free albumuth "(1976) much more enjoyable, even with its hokey mystery plotline. Poor Philip, the ladies man, doomed from the start
.

I really love PKD. A Scanner Darkly is one of my absolute favorite novels, and I've enjoyed everything else I've read by him (though some of his short fiction is a little weak), but I just couldn't get into this book because of the writing style. I get why he wrote the way he did, all disjointed and surreal/postmodernistic, since it is a story of mental illness, addiction, theology, paranoia, conspiracy, and philosophy. But I've never been able to get into this style of writing (I really tried to read Burroughs). I need more of a storyline or at least something more linear.

I remain an unconditional fan of PKD's novels, so it grieves me that I have here encountered the low point of his career. This is Philip K. Dick at his most narcissistic, bigotrous, meaningless navelgazing. If he did indeed have this personal religious experience in 1974, he should have kept his dazed ranting about it confined to the opium parlour of his choice, instead of endlessly elaborating on it in this autobiographical drivel.

This book might be vaguely palatable for a dope fiend with a theosophical penchant, even one other than Philip K. Dick himself, but all other readers should abstain from it. This works only underscores the fallibility of one of the greatest 20-th century authors, who made such witty observations in all his other writings. My assessment of PKD could have remained romantically nicer (and less realistic), if I hadn't come across this self-inflicted libel that he insisted on committing to posteriority. Oh, if only the notorious burglary in his home, in the later part of his life, could have led to the theft and utter disappearance of VALIS.

VALIS is PKD's quasi-autobiographical crazy mystical science fiction speculations about God. This isn't a piece of fiction as much as it is a bunch of nonsensical fantasies about the nature of god pulled from nowhere. This work is nowhere near the quality of PKD's *actual* science fiction, and I don't recommend that anybody bother reading this book. Stick to the earlier stuff.

This book did not appeal to me at all. I was expecting Science Fiction insted i got some guy ranting about sorts of psychobabble and mumbo jumbo. I guess you have to be high when you read this since it's mostly incomprehensible religioious gibberish, at least it's more readable then that masterpiece of nonsence Finnigin's Wake.

But still this book would appeal to hippy dippy tree hungin crystal worshippers. It's sad that Philip K Dick's talent was wasted on this. He wrote some real science fiction classics.

I bought this book because I had heard that the author was one of the best sci-fi writers ever. I was hugely disappointed and managed to read no further than page 47. This book is nothing but pseudo-philosophical ramblings with very little in the way of plot. It's UTTER RUBBISH.

What, do people like this book because it has endless references to old old old writers strung together superficially (oh, sorry--"Deeply") as an attempt to explain the world and God(s)--or lack thereof?

It's a sad, depressing book. It's not hard to read--it's easy. It's not convoluted. It's easy to understand. It's full of references. It's paranoid about life. It's not mysterious. It's not humorous. It makes perfect sense, and that sense is shallow.

I dismiss it. Boring. I started it with hope that it would get interesting, which ebbed quickly. Old gnostic ideas set in modern California. If I were in this book I'd want to commit suicide too--just to get out of this book. That's probably the point of the book, come to think of it.

The idea of searching and/or hoping for a messiah or a god--what an expression of despair!

That's the one thing the toddler character Sophia is right about.