Penultimate Truth : A Novel

by DICK, PHILIP K.

• ISBN13: 9781400030118
• ISBN10: 1400030110
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2004-08-10
• Publisher: Vintage

Summary

What if you discovered that everything you knew about the world was a lie? That's the question at the heart of Philip K. Dick's futuristic novel about political oppression, the show business of politics and the sinister potential of the military industrial complex. This wry, paranoid thriller imagines a future in which the earth has been ravaged, and cities are burnt-out wastelands too dangerous for human life. Americans have been shipped underground, where they toil in crowded industrial ant hills and receive a steady diet of inspiring speeches from a President who never seems to age. Nick St. James, like the rest of the masses, believed in the words of his leaders. But that all changes when he travels to the surfacewhere what he finds is more shocking than anything he could possibly imagine. Winner of both the Hugo and John W. Campbell awards for best novel, widely regarded as the premiere science fiction writer of his day, and the object of cult-like adoration from his legions of fans, Philip K. Dick has come to be seen in a literary light that defies classification in much the same way as Borges and Calvino. With breathtaking insight, he utlizes vividly unfamiliar worlds to evoke the hauntingly and hilariously familiar in our society and ourselves. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Author Biography

Philip K. Dick was born in Chicago in 1928 and lived most of his life in California. He briefly attended the University of California, but dropped out before completing any classes. In 1952, he began writing professionally and proceeded to write numerous novels and short story collections. He won the Hugo Award for the best novel in 1962 for <b>The Man in the High Castle</b><i> </i>and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel of the year in 1974 for <b>Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said</b>. Philip K. Dick died on March 2, 1982, in Santa Ana, California, of heart failure following a stroke.