The Transmigration of Timothy Archer

I have read the other reviews of this book and, quite frankly, they all missed the point of this book. To start with it is written from the female perspective, which is not an easy task for a man, and yet PKD pulls it off briliantly. This is not a book about Dick trying to run his snobbery down our throats but an insightful and emotionally touching perspective of a man pursuing truth, with a zeal that leads to his death, as viewed by another party (female). Indeed, its very core reflects the Bible's condemnation of pride proceeding the fall, mixed with the emotional tenderness that Mary must have felt when she witnessed her sons death from pursuing his ideals. Dick began an introspective search for a meaning of God after his encounter with Valis, continued the journey, in The Divine Invasion, with a discussion of the modern God of the New Testament versus the ancient gods that existed before humans adapted monotheism, finishing with Transmigration. Don't pass this book over because you will miss Dick's best writing before he died. I also recommend Eye in the Sky and Clans of the Alphane Moon as two more of PKD's brilliance and humor.

Unlike "VALIS" and "The Divine Invasion", this novel dispenses with science fiction apparatus in its examination of religious and philosophical issues. Based on the life of controversial Episcopal Bishop James Pike, who was a close friend of the author's, this is one of Dick's best written novels. Many of his earlier works were produced at a blisteringly fast pace, without much time for revision; some of them are essentially first drafts. Here, in Dick's last work, he slows down enough to polish his prose and put events in their proper context. The result is a fascinating and deeply moving story. Although this novel is usually billed as part of a trilogy or series, its sole connection with "VALIS" and "Divine Invasion" is that the story has a religious theme. Otherwise there is no connection.

TTA has very little to do with either Valis or the Divine Invasion, despite it supposedly being the third in the Valis Trilogy. 'The Owl in Daylight,' the book PKD never wrote, was the third in that trilogy. TTA stands alone.I adore this book; it is simply one of my favourite PKD books. It is about love, empathy, and death. It is part biography of Bishop Pike, but more than that it is a profound study of life and death. The main character, Angel Archer, is one of PKD's best, and truly the best woman ever to inhabit a PKD novel. We have Ursula Le Guin to thank, and least in part, for that.This book is almost completely dialogue, both interior and exterior. The plot means little; it is a cover for the real issues at hand. This is not a biography. The biographical material provides the plot, but this is not where the heart of the novel lies. The best aspect of TTA is the characters: Archer Archer especially, but also Edgar Barefoot. Each character in this book is real, not in the sense that they exist in the real world, but in the sense that they are really real characters (I know this sounds awkward.)It is a book about sadness and pain, but in the end it is about love. Not love as in romantic love, but abstract love, love and understanding for all things. PKD was a truly good-hearted man, and this is the greatest testament to him.

I had read the first two books in PKD's 'trilogy', and so when I picked ths one up I was expecting another confusing muddle of religion-meets-drugs. I couldn't have been more wrong. While religion and drugs (in this case, a psychedelic mushroom representing both) are a central theme, this book is much more down-to-earth and understandable by the average reader. Gone are the hallucinations, the schizophrenia, the strange futuristic alien settings. What's left is a few average (yet extroardinary) people, struggling to cope with difficult events in their own private ways. This book made me think more than any other book I've ever read, and PKD's message comes across far more clearly than in his other novels, simply because the things in this book could happen to any of us. My all-time favorite novel, and an excellent book no matter what genres you prefer.

This is perhaps the most readable book by Philip K Dick, a science fiction writer whose driving ambition seems to have been to finally be recognized as a "real" writer. The character this book is organized around is based on Dick's real life friend, Bishop James Pike, who never seemed to care if he was considered orhtodox or not. Perhaps that's why he was brought up on heresy charges and almost excommunicated from the Episcopalian church. The character in the book seems to reflect the real Pike, who went around California getting little old ladies from Pasadena (literally) to sit on the floor of their churches and give Zen a chance. He also wrote a fairly controversial book, The Wilderness Revolt, painting Jesus as a Hebrew nationalist intent on driving out the Romans. Some real life events that led Pike to write his book The Other Side are outlined in PKD's book from his own perspective. This was supposed to be PKD's big mainstream novel, his breakthrough to the other side, but only he would decline Greek nouns in a "mainstream" novel, or claim that Jesus never existed and was a code-name for psychedelic mushrooms designed to throw the man, the Romans, off the track (he doesn't even have the good grace to call it "manna" but insists on some Hebrew verb for "I am"...). PKD writes from a woman narrator's perspective throughout, which makes it even more interesting. The central problem in the book revolves around transmigration really, or reincarnation as it is more commonly called, and deals with the unknowability factor. It mercifully allows the reader to draw his or her own conclusions, just as life does. In terms of style it almost achieves a kind of perfection all its own, a polishedness that gleams the way a well-used doorknob might, the thoughts of a man used to dealing with metaphysical happenings on an everyday basis. I highly recommend it.