The Crack in Space

De: Philip K. Dick

Narrado por: Benjamin L. Darcie

Duración: 6 h y 41 m

Resumen del Editor

When a repairman accidentally discovers a parallel universe, everyone sees it as an opportunity, whether as a way to ease Earth’s overcrowding, set up a personal kingdom, or hide an inconvenient mistress. But when a civilization is found already living there, the people on this side of the crack are sent scrambling to discover their motives. Will these parallel humans come in peace? Or are they just as corrupt and ill-intentioned as the people of this world?

©1994 Laura Coelho, Christopher Dick, and Isa Hackett (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Relevant reading for 2020

Great story bland writing as per sci-fi rules- I don’t have any more to say I guess but it won’t let me post this review with so few words so now I’m typing this out until I’ve reached the word requirement which I have now

One of the better

This is one of the better PKD books but not one of the best. Lots of themes are appropriate for our time. And the performance was great.

Great Story

I love that this book was written in the 60’s but is still relevant today. Are really that different compared to other species?

Fantastic Story

I'm a fan of Dick and his more famous works but the entire time through I couldn't believe it's not more popular. Dick shows off his brilliant imagination in a truly compelling masterpiece.

Fun bizarreness for dedicated PKD fans

We who love science fiction cherish Philip K. Dick (PKD) but there are things we don't cherish him for. These would be his writing style, his prescience about technology, or his clarity about human institutions. Those things don't really exist in his writing. The things he is cherished for are enough, however: his sense of a tenuous attachment to reality, insight into human longing, his willingness to run with near nonsensical ideas to play with them, and his always innovative perspectives on the universe.

The Crack in Space was published in 1966, taken from a magazine novella printed in 1964. It has some elements he used in other books including the Terran Development Company and the Jiffi-scuttler vehicle. It also includes oddities such as "homeopapes" which are a not-completely described way that news is distributed, compared to the television innovation of "news clowns" where newsreaders actually dress in orange wigs and makeup to present the news.

The year is 2080. Racism is still rampant in America with a stark division between the whites and the "cols". Jim Briskin, a black man and former news clown, is running to become the first black president. The world has become so overcrowded that tens of millions of people have decided to be frozen until some sort of solution can be found for the population issues. These are called "bibs".

A technician doing repairs in the basement of a Jiffi-scuttler dealership discovers that a malfunctioning scuttler has a growing crack in it that reveals a gateway to another world. At first it's thought that this might be a new world to which people could migrate to eliminate overpopulation. But the first explorers learn that it's an alternative universe in which Homo Sapiens failed and Peking Man is the dominant species. The discovery and subsequent problems become part of the turmoil in the presidential campaigns.

Like many other books by PKD this one has its share of bizarreness, including an alternate universe race of tiny people who write in Hebrew, and twins whose bodies share a single head. There is that sense of longing, here with a couple wanting to take a pregnancy to term despite reproduction laws and nearly mandated abortions. This says nothing of Peking Man population, which believes mining is evil so they build intricate machines from wood and have magical powers to cause satellites to explode.

The weakness of the book is the political race tying the story together. Dick's sense of how governments and politics worked tended toward paranoia and it's a rare government or political character that doesn't feel plastic and unreal under his pen. Making them the leading characters in this book muddles the story quite a bit, from their odd motivations to unrealistic approaches to problems.

The Crack in Space is an interesting PKD artifact that came out with a few other books between better-loved Dr. Bloodmoney and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. It does push perspectives on population and race though he also wanders into some deep weeds here and there. But there are definitely enough odd characters and unique ideas to keep the book entertaining for any PKD fan.

Of course it's good

Philip K Dick never disappoints. the narrator is easy to listen to. Overall good pick

I can't seem to be able to keep listening

Would you try another book from Philip K. Dick and/or Benjamin L. Darcie?

Of course I would buy another book from PKD. I do not thin Benjamin L. Darcie does it justice. I had to stop listening after 15 mins. I guess BLD is not my cup of tea.