Name: The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
ISBN: 9780547572550

Philip K. Dick

Palmer Eldritch returns from the edge of the universe with a drug called Chew-D for the colonists of Mars who are under threat of god-like or satanic psychics that threaten to wage war against the human soul.

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

里森

He offered Hnatt the stack of brown, wrinkled, truffle-skins which served as tender in the Sol system: the only molecule, a unique protein amino acid, which could not be duplicated by the Printers, the Biltong life forms employed in place of automated assembly lines by many of Terra's industries.

They could fly to the Germanies and enter one of Dr Willy Denkmal's E Therapy clinics. Wowie, he thought.

I want you to understand; every now and then this therapy—what do you say?—blasts back. Backfires,' Hnatt said gratingly. 

‘How goes it?’ Denkmal demanded, peering at him. 'Broad, all-inclusive preoccupations?’

It takes a certain amount of courage, he thought, to face yourself and say with candor, I’m rotten. I’ve done evil and I will again. It was no accident; it emanated from the true, authentic me.

Yes, he realized. I’d have gone but at some point I’d have pulled out. Once I had firmly established that they’d give me the job.

‘We all make mistakes,’ the cab said piously. ‘But some of us,’ Barney said, ‘make fatal ones.’

‘Honest,’ Barney said. ‘I believe it. Whatever that is.’

‘Well, it’s apartment, cars, sunbathing on the beach, ritzy clothes . . . we enjoyed it for a while, but it’s not enough in some sort of unmaterialistality way. You see at all, Mayerson?’

‘You learn to get by from day to day,’ Sam Regan said sympathetically to him. ‘You never think in longer terms. Just until dinner or until time for bed; very finite intervals and tasks and pleasures. Escapes.’

Evidently subject matter had no bearing; he had never realized this before.

Barney, dutifully, said, ‘You insert one of the Great Books, for instance Moby-Dick, into the reservoid. Then you set the controls for long or short. Then for funny version, or same-as-book or sad version. Then you set the style-indicator as to which classic Great Artist you want the book animated like. Dali, Bacon, Picasso . . . the medium-priced Great Books animator is set up to render in cartoon form the styles of a dozen system-famous artists; you specify which ones you want when you originally buy the thing. And there are options you can add later that provide even more.’

‘I was going to suggest Augustine’s Confessions in the style of Lichtenstein - funny, of course.’

“Think the least gift that he giveth is great; and the most despisable things take as special gifts and as great tokens of love.”

Isn’t a miserable reality better than the most interesting illusion?

Did you ever read Paul?’ ‘Paul who?’

The time, then, had come for him to poison himself so that an economic monopoly could be kept alive, a sprawling, interplan empire from which he now derived nothing.

Bouke van der Bijl

This book is super weird, the premise is that a wealthy person returns from another galaxy carrying with him a new drug, which ends up controlling people’s minds and altering their reality. The fun part is that the protagonists also undergo this drug, which means that there are a lot of parts in the book where you don’t know what’s real or not. My first PKD read and o really enjoyed it. Also funny was the ‘retro-futurism’ with everyone smoking all the time and the power imbalance between men and women which is different now.

Palmer Eldritch returns from a distant galaxy with a new drug called Chew-Z, which claims to deliver eternal life. Barney Mayerson confronts questions of loyalty, judgement and love, as well as his own insecurities about his ex-wife. His addictive personality thrusts him in the middle of a mystery as to the true nature of Chew-Z and what it means for the future of the galaxy. Palmer Eldritch is omnipresent throughout the novel as the reader tries to figure out his intentions.

Tamara Al-Qaisi-Coleman

Not my favorite Dick novel. It kind of lost me there at the end, but still a great commentary on post WW2 society and Mass Culture.

Gabriel H

What a wild ride… PKD is un genio. Unbelievably creative and surprisingly philosophical.

Ben Nathan

It was good, but definitely not for everyone. I've enjoyed the other Dick books I've read more, though this was still very smart and engaging. Had a very trippy vibe to it. If you enjoy his books, give it a shot

Kamil Pomykała

Achraf Benhamou

Alex Stelzhammer

Geese Fish

François Declercq

Count Dracula

Eduardo Marques Correa

“A psychedelic odyssey of hallucinations-within-hallucinations from which no reader emerges unscathed.”—Boston Globe On Mars, the harsh climate could make any colonist turn to drugs to escape a dead-end existence. Especially when the drug is Can-D, which translates its users into the idyllic world of a Barbie-esque character named Perky Pat. When the mysterious Palmer Eldritch arrives with a new drug called Chew-Z, he offers a more addictive experience, one that might bring the user closer to God. But in a world where everyone is tripping, no promises can be taken at face value. This Nebula Award nominee is one of Philip K. Dick’s enduring classics, at once a deep character study, a dark mystery, and a tightrope walk along the edge of reality and illusion.