Lies, Inc.

By: Philip K. Dick

Narrated by: Luke Daniels

When catastrophic overpopulation threatens Earth, one company offers to teleport citizens to Whale’s Mouth, an allegedly pristine new home for happy and industrious émigrés. But there is one problem: the teleportation machine works in only one direction. When Rachmael ben Applebaum discovers that some of the footage of happy settlers may have been faked, he sets out on an 18-year journey to see if anyone wants to come back.

Lies, Inc. is one of Philip K. Dick’s final novels, which he expanded from his novella The Unteleported Man shortly before his death. In its examination of totalitarianism, reality, and hallucination, it encompasses everything that Dick’s fans love about his oeuvre.

©1984 Phillip K. Dick (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Messy but good

Really a novella with an unfinished extension added in the middle. The novella has a quite uncomplicated plot and is straightforward, published originally in the 60s, but the extension is not. There are some inconsistencies and loose ends that I am sure PKD would have fixed if he had not died so untimely. However the extension adds much of the ingredients I like about the best PKDs books. It is an LSD trip into multiple nightmarish alternative realities and perhaps into the different options the author considered for the other side of the teleport. Different forces try to change reality ie the story. In the end of the extension the “garrison state reality” is decided on and a time warp weapon is triggered, restoring the story back to the original novella.

The Unteleported Man

"If you are wise, Matson said to himself grimly, you never take one-way trips. Anywhere. Even to Boise, Idaho...even across the street. Be certain, when you start, that you can scramble back."
-- Philip K. Dick, Lies, Inc.

The novel was originally published as a novella titled 'The Unteleported Man' in the Amazing-Fantastic back in 1964. The publisher rejected his original expansion idea, which was later added back in (about 1/2 through Chapter 8). If you are reading this going "WTF" you are probably reading the expansion. The novel itself deals with themes of fascism, control, death, technology. None of these themes are new to DIck. DIck was working this novella back into novel form right before he died and there were a couple (not huge gaps) left when he took his one-way trip. Not that it matters. When you are dealing with post "2-3-74" PKD, gaps and jumps and "WTF" moments are part of the literary landscape.

Anyway, If you are only going to read ONE Dick novel. Skip this one. If you are only going to read ten Dick novels, yeah, probably still best to skip this one too. But if you just can't get enough Dick, well, Lies, Inc., at its core is both an old and a new novel, both a traditional SF and a experimental novel written on ACID. But my warning stands. If you are new to PKD, this may just be a one-way trip out of PKD land.

One of his best - so good!!

If you liked UBIK you will like this one. It’s phantasmogorical to the extreme. Drink it in!

This will interest some PKD fans

This will interest some Philip K. Dick (PKD) fans. I don't recommend it as an introduction to the work of PKD. It is not a traditional story. The hero is shot with a hallucinogen spiked dart and the book that follows is a description of his adventures during a bad trip. Imagine a clean (not R or X rated) PKD version of the early cut-up-method books of William S. Burroughs (WSB), and Lies, Inc is what you might have. I'm inclined to believe the work of WSB may have been a direct inspiration for this book. That is my personal speculation from what I see in both authors, it is not from something I have read about either author from an authoritative source. Though PKD does compare similarities between what he and WSB are doing in their writings once or twice in The Exegesis.

A difference between the two authors is that ultimately PKD was writing for a general science fiction audience and so the point was a fun publishable story. This book pushes the boundaries of those parameters. And, think what you will about the results, WSB was contributing to world literature with his method of construction and his exploration of the gritty world of drug abuse and critiquing our materialist society from outside of the law. He was not originally writing for a popular audience and so his early work is more unrestrained than what we see in Lies, Inc.

In Lies, Inc. PKD does some of the same things and explores the same themes that he did in Eye in the Sky (EITS). EITS is a traditionally told story that is easy to follow. Personally, Lies, Inc is never going to be a personal favorite of mine. Fortunately, I knew what to expect going into the audiobook because I have read it a couple of times in print. I will be keeping this audiobook because I know I will want to listen to it again some time and because it is a worthy, but not first rate, contribution to the works of PKD.

sorry but not a good PKD

I know this is supposed to be a classic by PKD, originally the Unteleported Man, but this embodies much of when I find PKD to be bad. After the initial chapters, and prior to the final couple of chapters, there is this long drug induced middle section that "reads" like a bunch of story ideas cut up into individual sentences and then shuffled back together like a deck of cards. It is difficult if not impossible to follow and make any sense of and to make any connection with any characters to care about what happens to them. And I didn't. I grew tired of it, even though it's a short novel, and was glad when it was over. And disappointed as it was touted as a classic and I'd been looking forward to it. PKD is running about 25% as far as I'm concerned. I will try a couple more, but I think the 4 or 5 I've mentioned in other reviews of PKD, out of about 15 I've tried, are by far the best.

A Rough Draft, Not a Finished Work

I generally second what reviewer Tomas has said. This book is one disjointed, confused disaster. For about the first third it reads like a pretty good PKD novel, say something on a par with Dr. Bloodmoney. Then, when our hero mysterious teleports to Whales Mouth Colony, rather than undertaking the 18 year space flight he has been planning to that point, everything breaks downs into disjointed fragments and out-of-order events. This book was expanded from PKD's short story the Unteleported Man and published posthumously. It has the feel of a rough draft left behind following the death of a popular author which was cobbled together without too much care for the purpose of generating one more payday for the late author's estate. The narrator gamely soldiers on through this morass and can't be faulted for what he has to work with, but the situation is hopeless. Everyone -- particularly fans of PKD of which I am one -- should avoid this book!

hmmm, big ball of mess

well, there were some phillip k dick moments, but overall I am very disappointed.
During 3rd hour of listening there is abrupt shift in story line of one character and other characters. My first thought was like wow: the narrator mixed the papers took out 50pages or so and appended them at the end of novel. I have listened to all the book and still can not shake off the feeling of some audio editor screw up :) At first I thought to request back my money from audible. Then I checked amazon reviews and wiki. It seems that this P.K.Dick novel has very messy publishing history. If it is not audio editor screw up, then they took some screwed up published version. Save your time you should not be paying your money and having such thoughts.

BTW I checked with some online PDF version (that claims to be the final final version) the pages that I am complaining are back in place and the story is 50% longer.

Well complete mess what can I say. In the case it is audio editing screw up I am reviewing 7 hours 16min length version :)

Description of the shift: We have a far from earth totalitarian planet. There are two ways to get there: 18year trip using ship(with round-trip option) or 15min teleport(only one way). One main character made a decision to take 18 year trip, doing all the preparations. Next chapter the character is preparing to enter teleport chamber. Why? What circumstances made to change his mind? Well in the last pages of the novel you get the missing pages with an ending that feels kind of abrupt.