The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

By: Philip K. Dick

Narrated by: Luke Daniels

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 transports 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.

©1964 Philip K. Dick (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

It is a PKD Book

This follows the typical arc of all the PKD books I have read, excellent prose paint an out of focus but still intriguing sci-fi world. Bizarre to the point of disturbing chaos takes place as various motivated individuals try to work the rules of the setting to their advantage. A weird break in the narrative happens around the middle where the location takes a dramatic shift and the full stakes of what is happening get into gear.

This is when the increasingly unhinged sci-fi Christianity starts to take hold and a really interesting idea of some alien taking over via drugs starts to mobilize and it draws comparisons to the eucharist... But then it goes bonkers and I must assume (like all the other books by him I have read) whatever he was on (likely speed) started to fade and he decided to just wrap up the story with an ending that just putters out.

If you like his stuff (I generally do) then this is one of them, but it is not his best stuff by any means and for all the interesting concepts and strong prose the structure is just awful and really hinders this thing from being everything it could be.

that was different

is this what it's like to take LSD and never recover.
lost in a dream never waking from reality never recovering

Wild Trippy Retro-futurism

This is my first PKD experience and I loved it. very weird and still digestible, I really enjoyed his back and forth commentaries wrestling with Christianity in a world of science

“It takes bravery to let someone down.” ~ Anne

Recommended by a dear friend, I was pleasantly surprised by this journey and found many of the large themes relating to reality, god, and friendship to be quite thought provoking.

By Palmer Eldridge! Mind twist!

PDK was a mind blowing, multi dimensional, multi level story teller. This was an amazing experience! And great great performance! Thank you 🙏

Wow

PKD gets all kinds of acclaim for all the right reasons. This audiobook is awesome, great reader, great voices yadda yadda. But honestly, it’s the triple backflip PKD does in the last 30seconds of this mind curling tale that leaves you breathless. Just wow.

Good performance

Good performance, didnt like the story that much though. It was confusing and the ending was really bad

A PKD Masterwork

This one lands on the right side of Dick’s genius vs. madness binary. Full of vivid detail, high concepts and something very nearly approximating prophecy!

An awesome Mind f*ck.

this book was incredible. I did not know what to expect at all and was happily surprised. I now know where most of the plot lines for science fiction movies come from.

typical PKD

Great narrator. Similar in style to Ubik. I enjoyed listening, but had to go back frequently to make sure I understood as it takes very strange turns. If you like weird, give it a listen.