The mind-bending novels of Philip K. Dick transcend genre to explore the nature of consciousness and reality, placing ordinary men and women in congress with the unknowable and the awe-full. Valis, the first in Dick's final trio of novels, is a theological detective story in which God is both a missing person and the perpetrator of the ultimate crime. The schizophrenic hero, a Dick alter ego named Horselover Fat, begins receiving revelatory visions through a burst of pink laser light. The visions are of an alternate Earth where the Roman Empire still reigns, and Horselover must decide whether he is crazy or whether a godlike entity is showing him the true nature of the world. As a coterie of religious seekers forms to explore these messages, they are led to a rock musician's estate, where a two-year-old Messianic figure named Sophia confirms that an ancient, mechanical intelligence orbiting the earth has been guiding their discoveries.
Mixing Gnostic Christianity with Dick's own strange philosophy, Valisis as funny and surprising as it is eye-opening. By the end, like Dick himself, you will be left wondering what is real, what is fiction, and just what the price is for divine inspiration. This novel is essential reading for any true Philip K. Dick fan.
