Despite some of the attitudes towards women here being somewhat dated, this remains a strong early novel from Dick and one of the more compelling treatments of the idea of precognition in science fiction. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/2013/06/23/the-worlds-dick-made/

In an interview, PKD said this about himself...

"However—if my view that each person has his unique world is correct, then if you say Chinese food is good, in your world it’s good, and if someone else says it’s bad, in his world it’s bad. I’m a complete relativist in that for me the answer to the question “Is Chinese food good or bad?” is semantically meaningless. Now, this is my view. If your view is that this view is incorrect, you might be right. In which case, I would be willing to agree with you."

This is (relativism) pretty much the philosophy of the world in this book, that was established post-nuclear war. And while he admitted?? adopting this way of thinking, he also presented how problematic it can be (obviously) especially when taken to an extreme and in a wider application. Hence, the rise of Jones with his precognition ability and promises of true freedom, exploration, and a revival of the human spirit and love and passion.

Then... lots of other bizarre things happened with multiple storylines woven together really nicely. Is Jones even the center of this novel? I don't know.

A bit of a spoiler ahead but my favorite part was the creation of Venusian mutants. Instead of altering the environment to accommodate earth humans, scientists genetically engineered the human DNA to make them capable of surviving the environment in Venus. Unnatural selection. Basically sped up the process of evolution. A really interesting exploration of this idea.

If you're a PKD fan I'm sure you're already planning on reading lots of his books in your lifetime. Don't miss out on this one.

3 stars, because i liked it.

A rather disjointed novel with plots that dont quite connect. Both stories, the Jones revolution, and hte mutants are good enough to be their own separate stories. in this book, they're introduced in detail, the mutant plot is completely absent, only to be smashed together in the end. They connect mostly loosely.

Lots of Dick staples here - perception, reality, psionic, characters that arent well developed.

Theres a bit of throwaway civic life in the middle of the book that ultimately doesnt add - feels like a
a scrapped short story.

The World Jones Made by Philip K. Dick
first published in 1956

An interesting but frustrating read.

In a post nuclear war 2002, in which the Federal World Government (FedGov) has established the law of relativism, everyone is free to believe whatever they wish, but only as long as they don’t try to convince others of their beliefs. Such behavior is prohibited and prosecuted by FedGov’s police force.

Enter Floyd Jones, who is a precog. He can see exactly one year into the future. Which basically means he lives his whole life twice. Even though he can see what is going to happen in the next twelve months, he can’t change anything about it. Not even his own actions. Everything is predetermined. That’s an interesting theme in and of itself. Though the concept isn’t always conclusive in the book. However, more importantly, it leads to strong opposition against relativism, which postulates that there is no absolute truth, that everything is true from a certain perspective. Jones, though, is able and willing to make people believe him. Believe in his truth, and his truth only. As he is gathering more and more followers things are about to escalate.

Jones is not the main character of the book, though. That’s Doug Cussick, an agent of FedGov, whose involvement with Jones throughout the story moves the narrative forward. Through his eyes we see the conflict develop. Both in a global sense, but also in the specific environment of his family life, as his wife Nina is opposed to relativism, or at least some of its ideas. A frequent talking point between the two, as they gradually drift away from each other. Although, to be honest, I never saw what attracted them to each other in the first place.

While the clash of political ideologies might be the main theme of the book, there are several contributing plotlines as well. We have first contact with an alien life form, that turns out to be rather interesting, and the very different approaches of both parties to deal with that. We have mutants of different sorts, as a result of the war as well as of genetic engineering. Again, how society deals with them, depending on the different sets of beliefs of the people involved, that’s the interesting part about it. There’s also the topic of colonization of other worlds, of which I had trouble to see how it ties into the main story, but which provided some fun moments. Even though the science is pretty wonky here. But if you consider the year this book was published, well, you might even find some fun fact about where it all went wrong for the author. Anyhow, I’ll give him a pass on that matter.

The aforementioned plot threads are all very loosely woven together. Too loosely, for me personally. Ultimately this is a book of several interesting ideas and themes, that never quite came together as a satisfying whole for me. Though it might do so on a second try. I don't know.


This has been a buddy read with Linda and Jeff, who greatly helped me to sort my thoughts in a way that at least enabled me to write this review a couple of days later. I might still be wrong about everything. But anyhow, thanks, guys!

A political-interplanetary-biological-crime-science-fiction. Perfect. As usual.

a perfect bubble of Future Philip K dick

Dystopia set on Earth in 2002. Easy read, lots of ideas - transhumanism with precognition, relativism, mobility, public drug and sex consumption, hermaphroditic sex, mutants ready for Venus, Venusian environment, alien blobs. Also references to Hitler and Mengele, no wonder 10 years after WWII. On the negative side lots of sloppiness quite typical for PKD, missing protagonist motivations, unbelievable biological models.
I wouldn't consider it as one of his better works, maybe only for completionists who want to read an early PKD with less formed style but same intensity.

Mais do que uma mudança de sistemas políticos este livro é uma descrição profunda dos dilemas de um homem "Floyd Jones" que consegue ver o futuro e o sofrimento que isso lhe pode causar e ao mesmo tempo a manipulação que pode provocar em todos à sua volta. Mais uma vez a abordagem de um mundo pós guerra nuclear escrito no
final da década de 50 como a maioria dos temas dos contos escritos nesse período.