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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A typical Philip K. Dick story - and one of his best, 15 Jan 2003
I regard "The game-players of Titan" as one of Philip Dick's top... say 5 books. It is certainly hard to discriminate, especially with so many criteria on which to judge such an author's work, but this book contains everything, in good quantities and excellent quality.Seasoned readers will feel immediately familiar with the story's opening with the hero 'going down' already. All the landmarks of the author's style are there: the suicidal hero, his equally problematic close circle, the vague overwhelming threat, the public figure who steps in, precogs, telekinetics, aliens, a novel social structure, various states of mind (drug-induced and otherwise) and the strange sense of satisfaction that comes at the end of the book when nothing seems to have been resolved proper. It is quite a strange world in which Pete Garden lives: he wins and loses land titles on, and has his marital life directed by, a board game much like monopoly, but with the element of bluff added in. This game has been introduced or, rather, enforced by the Titanians although they apparently lost the war with the Earth. Moreover, they seem to be taking over again, but by much more subtle means this time. But does this make the game, which all Terran landowners are obliged to play, more or less important? The plot twists, which mean you can never know for sure what has really happened or who is telling the truth, start very early in this novel and continue throughout. There is subtle humour/irony as well as outright hillarious scenes (Pete Garden fighting with his drug cabinet in order to get enough pills off it to commit suicide without it calling for help being a handy example), and one of the most ingenious solutions to a seemingly insurmountable problem, which is most notable about the book. The scenery is a rapidly degrading world, more suggested than described, which is usually what books win over films about. Overall, and this is the part the non-Philip-Dick-fan will find less unfamiliar, it could be adequately described as a 'fast-paced thriller' (probably by some Hollywood nut) with various strange, sometimes unforeseen and a few bewildering elements interacting in a way as to have the reader constantly guessing, sometimes as often as about a new thing in each paragraph, in order to bring the plot to a conclusion of revelation in a rather anti-climactic way. If this last is contradictory, it's a credit to the literary and imaginative genius of the author that it is, also, precisely so.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A typical Philip K. Dick story - and one of his best, 19 Dec 2002
In contrast to the previous review, I'd like to state right away that I regard "The game-players of Titan" as one of Philip Dick's top... say 5 books. It is certainly hard to discriminate, especially with so many criteria on which to judge such an author's work, but this book contains everything, in good quantities and excellent quality.Seasoned readers will feel immediately familiar with the story's opening with the hero 'going down' already. All the landmarks of the author's style are there: the suicidal hero, his equally problematic close circle, the vague overwhelming threat, the public figure who steps in, precogs, telekinetics, aliens, a novel social structure, various states of mind (drug-induced and otherwise) and the strange sense of satisfaction that comes at the end of the book when nothing seems to have been resolved proper. It is quite a strange world in which Pete Garden lives: he wins and loses land titles on, and has his marital life directed by, a board game much like monopoly, but with the element of bluff added in. This game has been introduced or, rather, enforced by the Titanians although they apparently lost the war with the Earth. Moreover, they seem to be taking over again, but by much more subtle means this time. But does this make the game, which all Terran landowners are obliged to play, more or less important? The plot twists, which mean you can never know for sure what has really happened or who is telling the truth, start very early in this novel and continue throughout. There is subtle humour/irony as well as outright hillarious scenes (Pete Garden fighting with his drug cabinet in order to get enough pills off it to commit suicide without it calling for help being a handy example), and one of the most ingenious solutions to a seemingly insurmountable problem, which is most notable about the book. The scenery is a rapidly degrading world, more suggested than described, which is usually what books win over films about. Overall, and this is the part the non-Philip-Dick-fan will find less unfamiliar, it could be adequately described as a 'fast-paced thriller' (probably by some Hollywood nut) with various strange, sometimes unforeseen and a few bewildering elements interacting in a way as to have the reader constantly guessing, sometimes as often as about a new thing in each paragraph, in order to bring the plot to a conclusion of revelation in a rather anti-climactic way. If this last is contradictory, it's a credit to the literary and imaginative genius of the author that it is, also, precisely so.
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1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
particularly horrid, 17 Aug 2001
By A Customer
The Chinese used chemical arms in the last war and presently foreign creatures called Vugs now run the planet. Earthlings now are living but very weak. To enlarge the opportunities of this sterile population children that have card games for people of Earth to rotate to its sexual associates. This it will produce optimal chance to make the child. The protagonist is Pete Garden. The story begins-- Pete is absorbed in his mind, reminiscing of his lost crib in Berkeley. This launches an entire series of the events to illuminate what should be diabolical: a conspiracy by the Vugs to assume control over the humans' birth rate. Pete himself gets down with a precog called Patricia McLain and also her fine daughter Mary Anne. A precog is a person who can see the future. Would you believe such a thing? These precogs can read the future in your glimpse, but this ability tends to limit a persons chances for liberation. With Garden's help, Mary Anne and her comrades defeat the Vugs in serious battle, but the end the book stinks and in the final analysis my brother it is true the Vugs seem to poise themselves for a sluggish return. A good racing read, but not best from Mr. Dick. A flawed but ultimately amiable lead man is Pete Garden. A serious freedom fighter, he is not for the bling bling but a warrior for our liberty and all of Earth. There are many interesting concepts in the book, for example all over there exist intelligent machines (example is cars and a pharmacy that argue and nitpick with people) This provides some laughs in the belly, you believe that if you read it. This is worth time for the many fans of Philip Dick but there exist far better books by him.
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