Dr. Bloodmoney or How We Got Along After the Bomb

Can the world recover from a massive nuclear war or is the human race doomed to die out. The United States of America had set of tons of nuclear warheads on itself which had sparked nuclear warfare, but a lot of people in the word had escaped immediate death. Before the nuclear war started or E-day the U. S. was attempting to start a civilization on Mars. The space shuttle sent up with the Dangerfield couple never made it out of orbit. Mr. Dangerfield had watched the explosions from the spaceship and still had communication with certain places afterward. The people on Earth now relied on him to give them the news of what was going on around the world and entertain them. The only problem was Mr. Dangerfield was getting sick and once he died all communications left on the world would be gone and all entertainment too. Hoppy Harrington is a phoce, person born without arms and legs, which had survived E-day. He was very smart and had some telekinetic powers and stuff. Hoppy, although nobody knew it but him, was the one that was making Dangerfield sick. Hoppy had the technology to reach all the transmitters Dangerfield could and even imitate his voice. He had decided once Dangerfield died he would take over and none could tell the difference. Unfortunately for Hoppy there was a little girl that did know his plan and with abnormal baby lodged in her stomach she killed Hoppy and Dangerfield got better. Dr. Bloodmoney by Philip K. Dick was a creative, disgusting in the way that makes you keep reading, and revealing book that tells you some possible results from nuclear warfare. This book was creative and weird the whole way through. When after E-day they where talking about animals one could talk and one could play the flute. Also the idea of having an astronaut constantly circling the Earth to give news and entertainment was creative and the thought of a person being born without arms and legs and with mechanical limbs instead in there place is kind of weird and creative. The way that Stuart McConchie after the war had killed a rat running around and ripping the skin off with his hands, only to eat it raw was quite a disgusting thought. The way that Hoppy Harrington killed a man by picking him up thousands of feet into the air and smashing him into the ground was gruesome, and when they described how after Stuart McConchie left his horse for a couple of minutes to go look for stuff and all that was left when he got back was the bones because a group of men had eaten it was very nasty. In the book there are many creative ideas on what it would be like after a nuclear war. The idea of having special and different types of animals being born is a possibility. Also the way that everyone values a handyman like Hoppy who can fix mechanical stuff is probably right, and also the way that some people start up businesses like before the war, like making cigarettes, but of course not real cigarettes because they can't grow tobacco, or traps meant to catch these ne

I have been aware of the work of Philip K. Dick for a very long time; I can recall seeing the Ace Double with _Dr. Futurity_ on one side on the racks when it was new. The same is true with _Dr. Bloodmoney_. I think I made my first attempt at reading a Dick novel when I was in junior high school, and over the ensuing 40 years or so have periodically made more attempts at enjoying the work of Dick, with infrequent success. Now it is as though I have discovered a new writer, and in some ways it's like being in elementary school and discovering Heinlein, van Vogt, Poul Anderson etc. again. In the case of this particular book, it is indeed new to me, as I never tried _Dr. Bloodmoney_ before. This book starts out just like a mainstream novel, and slips into the stfnal mode gradually, by stages. At the beginning, it's just a normal day at a TV store in Berkeley, CA. But after a bit, things start to get a little strange, when it is revealed that the phocomelus is not only telekinetic, but also can see the future, if he drinks a bottle of beer. By the end of the book things have gotten stranger than you're likely to expect, which is part of what I love about this book. Another part is that the characters are still very believable, even when they are doing convincing telepathic impersonations of the dead, or the like. Dick's strengths are not the strengths of most science fiction writers. His science tends to be weak, while he excels in plotting and characterization. His strongest point is his ability to juxtapose extremely weird ideas with convincing characters and plotlines. It all actually makes sense, at least if the reader has mental flexibility. If you're a fan of Dick, I think you would like this book very much. If you're familiar with sf, but not with the work of Dick, you can expect it to not be anything like the other authors you've read. Philip K. Dick is in his own way even more idiosyncratic than Jack Vance, which is saying something! I highly recommend this book.

Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb, was published in 1965, and owed its title to the inspiration of Stanley Kubrick's film Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. However, it has no relationship to the film other than the coincidental presence of a mad scientist and a nuclear war. The first third of the novel takes place on the day nuclear bombs strike the San Francisco area; the rest is set years later in western Marin County, where a small community of survivors has adapted to the post-holocaust environment. Perhaps the most surprising feature of this world is how much life is proceeding as normal. There is a large cast of characters through whose eyes we alternately view the events of the story. Among them is Bluthgeld, the scientist who helped create the Bomb, who in his paranoia and solipsism massively affects the reality of the other characters. But each of them subtly touch the lives of all others. Everyone in the book can and does have the power to affect each other's universe, warping each other's everyday reality in many little ways. The post-holocaust setting has its greatest significance in presenting a community, a microcosm of humanity, forming a common reality as the sum of their mutual interexperience.

Granted, I have only read 7 Philip K. Dick novels, but out of those 7 this one stands out as the best. This novel contains fascinating insights into the concepts of solipsism, megalomania, and paranoia (the self is everything). Dr. Bloodmoney percieves himself to be at the center of the universe, the author of all things, the entire world being a mere projection of his personal subjectivity. Using his power, he creates a nuclear war. So is he crazy, or is he really somehow behind this catastrophe? This is just one of the many interesting subplots we are presented with in this story. There are a number of other characters in this book whose situations are also very compelling, and Philip K. Dick weaves their lives together with the skill of a master storyteller. Dick has an amazing ability to seamlessly meld the tragic and the hilarious, and the end result is one of the greatest sci-fi novels ever written.

I cannot understand why this Dick book has been out of print for years. Some of his most interesting characters and concepts found in later books evolved from this one, his most intelligent post-bomb novel. His flare for the unusal and his this -ain't -quite -what -it -seems twists keeps the reader guessing throughout. Even though we get just a glimpse of who the characters are before the nuclear destruction, we are sympathetic to their attempt to eek out an existance and share their hopes for a new world. Their personal evolution is wonderfully illustrated.