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Philip K. Dick

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A Scanner Darkly Kindle Edition

by Philip K. Dick (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

3,719 ratings

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Winner of the British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novel, Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly is a semi-autobiographical novel of drug addiction set in a future American dystopia — and the basis for the Hugo Award finalist film starring Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, and Robert Downey, Jr.

"A Scanner Darkly is about a descent into the deep fears of our 24-hour consumer society: the twilight of intellectual and emotional collapse...A fascinating portrait of 70s Californian counter-culture."—The Guardian

Bob Arctor is a junkie and a drug dealer, both using and selling the mind-altering Substance D. Fred is a law enforcement agent, tasked with bringing Bob down. It sounds like a standard case. The only problem is that Bob and Fred are the same person. Substance D doesn’t just alter the mind, it splits it in two, and neither side knows what the other is doing or that it even exists. Now, both sides are growing increasingly paranoid as Bob tries to evade Fred while Fred tries to evade his suspicious bosses. In this dystopian future, friends can become enemies, good trips can turn terrifying, and cops and criminals are two sides of the same coin.

Caustically funny and somberly contemplative, Dick fashions a novel that is as unnerving as it is enthralling.

“Dick is Thoreau plus the death of the American dream."—Roberto Bolaño

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Mind- and reality-bending drugs factor again and again in Philip K. Dick's hugely influential SF stories. A Scanner Darkly cuts closest to the bone, drawing on Dick's own experience with illicit chemicals and on his many friends who died from drug abuse. Nevertheless, it's blackly farcical, full of comic-surreal conversations between people whose synapses are partly fried, sudden flights of paranoid logic, and bad trips like the one whose victim spends a subjective eternity having all his sins read to him, in shifts, by compound-eyed aliens. (It takes 11,000 years of this to reach the time when as a boy he discovered masturbation.) The antihero Bob Arctor is forced by his double life into warring double personalities: as futuristic narcotics agent "Fred," face blurred by a high-tech scrambler, he must spy on and entrap suspected drug dealer Bob Arctor. His disintegration under the influence of the insidious Substance D is genuine tragicomedy. For Arctor there's no way off the addict's downward escalator, but what awaits at the bottom is a kind of redemption--there are more wheels within wheels than we suspected, and his life is not entirely wasted. --David Langford, Amazon.co.uk

From Publishers Weekly

The great science fiction writer Philip K. Dick died in 1982, but his fame continues to grow—especially through films based on his work, like Terminator and Blade Runner. This dark but devilishly entertaining audio—read by the terrific Giamatti (American Splendor, Sideways)—offers Dick fans the complete book just in time to compare it to Richard Linklater's movie adaptation starring Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr. and Winona Ryder. Giamatti is an inspired choice, managing to capture both the touching charm and the irritating obsessiveness of Dick's leading characters in a slightly futuristic version of Los Angeles: a drug addict named Bob and a narcotics cop called Fred—who might just be the same person, especially since they're both addicted to a drug called Substance D, which gradually splits the user's brain into two warring entities. Dick's book is not for the squeamish or those offended by strong language, but he and Giamatti make the degradation and despair of addiction poignant and often hilarious.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From the Inside Flap

Bob Arctor is a dealer of the lethally addictive drug Substance D. Fred is the police agent assigned to tail and eventually bust him. To do so, Fred takes on the identity of a drug dealer named Bob Arctor. And since Substance D--which Arctor takes in massive doses--gradually splits the user's brain into two distinct, combative entities, Fred doesn't realize he is narcing on himself.

Caustically funny, eerily accurate in its depiction of junkies, scam artists, and the walking brain-dead, Philip K. Dick's industrial-grade stress test of identity is as unnerving as it is enthralling.

From the Back Cover

“Dick is Thoreau plus the death of the American dream.”—Roberto Bolaño

Bob Arctor is a junkie and a drug dealer, both using and selling the mind-altering Substance D. Fred is a law enforcement agent, tasked with bringing Bob down. It sounds like a standard case. The only problem is that Bob and Fred are the same person. Substance D doesn’t just alter the mind, it splits it in two, and neither side knows what the other is doing or that it even exists. Now, both sides are growing increasingly paranoid as Bob tries to evade Fred while Fred tries to evade his suspicious bosses.
In this award-winning novel, friends can become enemies, good trips can turn terrifying, and cops and criminals are two sides of the same coin. Dick is at turns caustically funny and somberly contemplative, fashioning a novel that is as unnerving as it is enthralling.

Over a career that spanned three decades, Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) wrote 121 short stories and 45 novels, establishing himself as one of the most visionary authors of the twentieth century. His work is included in the Library of America and has been translated into more than twenty-five languages. Eleven works have been adapted to film, including Blade Runner (based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), Total Recall, Minority Report, and A Scanner Darkly.

About the Author

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 died on March 2, 1982, in Santa Ana, California, of heart failure following a stroke.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Once a guy stood all day shaking bugs from his hair. The doctor told him there were no bugs in his hair. After he had taken a shower for eight hours, standing under hot water hour after hour suffering the pain of the bugs, he got out and dried himself, and he still had bugs in his hair; in fact, he had bugs all over him. A month later he had bugs in his lungs.

Having nothing else to do or think about, he began to work out theoretically the life cycle of the bugs, and, with the aid of the Britannica, try to determine specifically which bugs they were. They now filled his house. He read about many different kinds and finally noticed bugs outdoors, so he concluded they were aphids. After that decision came to his mind it never changed, no matter what other people told him ... like "Aphids don't bite people."

They said that to him because the endless biting of the bugs kept him in torment. At the 7-11 grocery store, part of a chain spread out over most of California, he bought spray cans of Raid and Black Flag and Yard Guard. First he sprayed the house, then himself. The Yard Guard seemed to work the best.

As to the theoretical side, he perceived three stages in the cycle of the bugs. First, they were carried to him to contaminate him by what he called Carrier-people, which were people who didn't understand their role in distributing the bugs. During that stage the bugs had no jaws or mandibles (he learned that word during his weeks of scholarly research, an unusually bookish occupation for a guy who worked at the Handy Brake and Tire place relining people's brake drums). The Carrier-people therefore felt nothing. He used to sit in the far corner of his living room watching different Carrier-people enter--most of them people he'd known for a while, but some new to him--covered with the aphids in this particular nonbiting stage. He'd sort of smile to himself, because he knew that the person was being used by the bugs and wasn't hip to it.

"What are you grinning about, Jerry?" they'd say.

He'd just smile.

In the next stage the bugs grew wings or something, but they really weren't precisely wings; anyhow, they were appendages of a functional sort permitting them to swarm, which was how they migrated and spread--especially to him. At that point the air was full of them; it made his living room, his whole house, cloudy. During this stage he tried not to inhale them.

Most of all he felt sorry for his dog, because he could see the bugs landing on and settling all over him, and probably getting into the dog's lungs, as they were in his own. Probably--at least so his empathic ability told him--the dog was suffering as much as he was. Should he give the dog away for the dog's own comfort? No, he decided: the dog was now, inadvertently, infected, and would carry the bugs with him everywhere.

Sometimes he stood in the shower with the dog, trying to wash the dog clean too. He had no more success with him than he did with himself. It hurt to feel the dog suffer; he never stopped trying to help him. In some respect this was the worst part, the suffering of the animal, who could not complain.

"What the fuck are you doing there all day in the shower with the goddamn dog?" his buddy Charles Freck asked one time, coming in during this.

Jerry said, "I got to get the aphids off him." He brought Max, the dog, out of the shower and began drying him. Charles Freck watched, mystified, as Jerry rubbed baby oil and talc into the dog's fur. All over the house, cans of insect spray, bottles of talc, and baby oil and skin conditioners were piled and tossed, most of them empty; he used many cans a day now.

"I don't see any aphids," Charles said. "What's an aphid?"

"It eventually kills you," Jerry said. "That's what an aphid is. They're in my hair and my skin and my lungs, and the goddamn pain is unbearable--I'm going to have to go to the hospital."

"How come I can't see them?"

Jerry put down the dog, which was wrapped in a towel, and knelt over the shag rug. "I'll show you one," he said. The rug was covered with aphids; they hopped up everywhere, up and down, some higher than others. He searched for an especially large one, because of the difficulty people had seeing them. "Bring me a bottle or jar," he said, "from under the sink. We'll cap it or put a lid on it and then I can take it with me when I go to the doctor and he can analyze it."

Charles Freck brought him an empty mayonnaise jar. Jerry went on searching, and at last came across an aphid leaping up at least four feet in the air. The aphid was over an inch long. He caught it, carried it to the jar, carefully dropped it in, and screwed on the lid. Then he held it up triumphantly. "See?" he said.

"Yeahhhhh," Charles Freck said, his eyes wide as he scrutinized the contents of the jar. "What a big one! Wow!"

"Help me find more for the doctor to see," Jerry said, again squatting down on the rug, the jar beside him.

"Sure," Charles Freck said, and did so.

Within half an hour they had three jars full of the bugs. Charles, although new at it, found some of the largest.

It was midday, in June of 1994. In California, in a tract area of cheap but durable plastic houses, long ago vacated by the straights. Jerry had at an earlier date sprayed metal paint over all the windows, though, to keep out the light; the illumination for the room came from a pole lamp into which he had screwed nothing but spot lamps, which shone day and night, so as to abolish time for him and his friends. He liked that; he liked to get rid of time. By doing that he could concentrate on important things without interruption. Like this: two men kneeling down on the shag rug, finding bug after bug and putting them into jar after jar.

"What do we get for these," Charles Freck said, later on in the day. "I mean, does the doctor pay a bounty or something? A prize? Any bread?"

"I get to help perfect a cure for them this way," Jerry said. The pain, constant as it was, had become unbearable; he had never gotten used to it, and he knew he never would. The urge, the longing, to take another shower was overwhelming him. "Hey, man," he gasped, straightening up, "you go on putting them in the jars while I take a leak and like that." He started toward the bathroom.

"Okay," Charles said, his long legs wobbling as he swung toward a jar, both hands cupped. An ex-veteran, he still had good muscular control, though; he made it to the jar. But then he said suddenly, "Jerry, hey--those bugs sort of scare me. I don't like it here by myself." He stood up.

"Chickenshit bastard," Jerry said, panting with pain as he halted momentarily at the bathroom.

"Couldn't you--"

"I got to take a leak!" He slammed the door and spun the knobs of the shower. Water poured down.

"I'm afraid out here." Charles Freck's voice came dimly, even though he was evidently yelling loud.

"Then go fuck yourself!" Jerry yelled back, and stepped into the shower. What fucking good are friends? he asked himself bitterly. No good, no good! No fucking good!

"Do these fuckers sting?" Charles yelled, right at the door.

"Yeah, they sting," Jerry said as he rubbed shampoo into his hair.

"That's what I thought." A pause. "Can I wash my hands and get them off and wait for you?"

Chickenshit, Jerry thought with bitter fury. He said nothing; he merely kept on washing. The bastard wasn't worth answering ... He paid no attention to Charles Freck, only to himself. To his own vital, demanding, terrible, urgent needs. Everything else would have to wait. There was no time, no time; these things could not be postponed. Everything else was secondary. Except the dog; he wondered about Max, the dog.

Charles Freck phoned up somebody who he hoped was holding, "Can you lay about ten deaths on me?"

"Christ, I'm entirely out--I'm looking to score myself. Let me know when you find some, I could use some."

"What's wrong with the supply?"

"Some busts, I guess."

Charles Freck hung up and then ran a fantasy number in his head as he slumped dismally back from the pay phone booth--you never used your home phone for a buy call--to his parked Chevy. In his fantasy number he was driving past the Thrifty Drugstore and they had a huge window display; bottles of slow death, cans of slow death, jars and bathtubs and vats and bowls of slow death, millions of caps and tabs and hits of slow death, slow death mixed with speed and junk and barbiturates and psychedelics, everything--and a giant sign: YOUR CREDIT IS GOOD HERE. Not to mention: LOW LOW PRICES, LOWEST IN TOWN.

But in actuality the Thrifty usually had a display of nothing: combs, bottles of mineral oil, spray cans of deodorant, always crap like that. But I bet the pharmacy in the back has slow death under lock and key in an unstepped-on, pure, unadulterated, uncut form, he thought as he drove from the parking lot onto Harbor Boulevard, into the afternoon traffic. About a fifty-pound bag.

He wondered when and how they unloaded the fifty-pound bag of Substance D at the Thrifty Pharmacy every morning, from wherever it came from--God knew, maybe from Switzerland or maybe from another planet where some wise race lived. They'd deliver probably real early, and with armed guards--the Man standing there with Laser rifles looking mean, the way the Man always did. Anybody rip off my slow death, he thought through the Man's head, I'll snuff them.

Probably Substance D is an ingredient in every legal medication that's worth anything, he thought. A little pinch here and there according to the secret exclusive formula at the issuing house in Germany or Switzerland that invented i...

From AudioFile

Undercover Police Officer Fred walks a fine line between his real identity and that of his alter ego, drug abuser Bob Arctor. But overdosing causes Fred to lose his balance and fall headlong into the chaotic world of substance abuse in which his two personalities fight against each other. Paul Giamatti's raspy voice adds a definitive depth to this edgy novel about the codependence of law enforcement and the drug scene. He fully captures the characters in their various drug-induced states, juggling paranoia, irrelevant banter, and dazed vocal tones. While his female voices sound similar, they are still discernable enough, and his overall performance certainly makes up for this shortcoming. L.E. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B005LVR6NC
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mariner Books Classics
Accessibility ‏ : ‎ Learn more
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 18, 2011
Edition ‏ : ‎ Reprint
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 7.3 MB
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 307 pages
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0547601311
Page Flip ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #33,413 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #83 in Cyberpunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #204 in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Literary Fiction
- #336 in Dystopian Science Fiction (Kindle Store)

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Philip K. Dick

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Over a writing career that spanned three decades, Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) published 36 science fiction novels and 121 short stories in which he explored the essence of what makes man human and the dangers of centralized power. Toward the end of his life, his work turned toward deeply personal, metaphysical questions concerning the nature of God. Eleven novels and short stories have been adapted to film; notably: Blade Runner (based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), Total Recall, Minority Report, and A Scanner Darkly. The recipient of critical acclaim and numerous awards throughout his career, Dick was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2005, and in 2007 the Library of America published a selection of his novels in three volumes. His work has been translated into more than twenty-five languages.

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Customers find this book an amazing read with a mind-bending tale that explores drug subculture in great detail. The writing style is stream-of-consciousness, and customers describe it as thought-provoking, humorous, and entertaining. They appreciate its intelligence, with one customer noting how it explores the depths of the mind, while another mentions its fascinating drug/conspiracy plot. Customers have mixed opinions about character development and pacing.

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Story quality Readability Writing style Intelligence Drug abuse Humor Character development Pacing

92 customers mention "Story quality"71 positive21 negative

Customers find the book's story engaging and thought-provoking, with a mind-bending plot that transcends mere genre fiction.

"...I really did love many of the scenes in the book, including the classic 10-speed-bike scene. How each character reacts to the situation is priceless...." Read more

"Very fascinating read. Believable sci-fi trappings. Lots of elements that’ll make you sweat, as they’ve only become more relevant today...." Read more

"...This book is poetic and realistic even in today's society though it was written in 1977. There is no "old" feeling to the storyline...." Read more

"...And there is this wonderfully cynical maxim: "If I had known it was harmless I would have killed it myself". Truer words were never spoken." Read more

84 customers mention "Readability"77 positive7 negative

Customers find the book highly readable, describing it as a classic and masterpiece, with one customer noting it surpasses the movie adaptation.

"Very fascinating read. Believable sci-fi trappings. Lots of elements that’ll make you sweat, as they’ve only become more relevant today...." Read more

"...The conversations between the men when they are high are both pathetic and hilarious...." Read more

"This is an okay read. Worth some time but don't go out of your way to get it." Read more

"...This book is an amazing read. It's not a book on the benefits of drugs but the consequences...." Read more

55 customers mention "Writing style"41 positive14 negative

Customers appreciate the writing style of the book, with several noting its stream-of-consciousness approach, while one customer describes it as a literary masterpiece that reads like a dream or psychedelic trip.

"...This story is written almost stream-of-consciousness so you have to kick back, relax and go with the story...." Read more

"...This book is poetic and realistic even in today's society though it was written in 1977. There is no "old" feeling to the storyline...." Read more

"...There is also Donna, the femme fatale, a good looking cookie, always just out of reach of Arctor...." Read more

"...It's not a book on the benefits of drugs but the consequences. He writes so well that you, the reader can experience the trippy goings of each person..." Read more

18 customers mention "Intelligence"13 positive5 negative

Customers find the book insightful and intelligent, with one customer noting how it explores the depths of the mind, while another mentions how it delves into brain function.

"...We also learn how the brain functions as well, the loss of reality and how hemispheres in the brain react to the left and right...." Read more

"...is fascinating, but his characters really develop, they explore the depths of their minds and it makes for interesting thoughtscapes and..." Read more

"...This caused me to misunderstand the premise and know more than the story reveals early on. Just read the book...." Read more

"...of A Scanner Darkly is fascinating, psychologically complex, philosophically rich, and deeply moving...." Read more

15 customers mention "Drug abuse"15 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate how the book examines the drug subculture in great detail.

"...Also, a very intimate, unvarnished look at drug culture. Two negatives of note, I would say. One being the prose...." Read more

"...Instead, here is the story of drug addiction, showing many of the possible effects...." Read more

"...(with the promise of accompanying commentary) that's flavored by scenes of drug use...." Read more

"...This is a sad but important work about drug addiction. Its semi-autobiographical, which makes it all the more relevant and haunting...." Read more

13 customers mention "Humor"13 positive0 negative

Customers find the book humorous, with one mentioning how it smoothly transitions between light-hearted comic moments.

"...between the men when they are high are both pathetic and hilarious...." Read more

"...emphasize the book's melancholy aspects; I found most of it to be very funny, in great, cynical fashion...." Read more

"...The book has a lot of comedic moments in it given the characters, all of whom are well developed (something not usually found in a work by Dick) I..." Read more

"...It has tons of humor, tons of tragedy, and tons of nightmare fuel, as much as the premise implies...." Read more

13 customers mention "Character development"8 positive5 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the character development in the book, with some praising the great characters, while one customer mentions not feeling attached to them.

"...a cool way and says a lot about the story and the way the characters are thought up, it really makes you wonder about your own mortality and how..." Read more

"...Instead, it's a complex interplay of personalities. Each person in the story has a rich world both in reality and in their fantasy mind...." Read more

"...his books because the subject matter is fascinating, but his characters really develop, they explore the depths of their minds and it makes for..." Read more

"...I've spent the last few weeks slowly enjoying the characters, marveling over the winding plot line, constantly unsure of what I was actually..." Read more

10 customers mention "Pacing"4 positive6 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the pacing of the book, with some finding it fast-paced while others report slow plotting and too many mundane conversations.

"A nonsensical, empty and shallow story, full of foul language and hatred against Christians, what was a surprise to me, since I learned about this..." Read more

"...It read pretty quickly as I basically finished it in a long day of reading...." Read more

"...And his plotting can often be slow, meandering, or semi-sensible...." Read more

"...It's fast-paced and really gives a sense of the paranoia its characters are feeling, blurring the line between reality and hallucination as only..." Read more

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Lisa Shea
A Story of Interactions - Not of Plot
Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2007
Verified Purchase

This full length novel was written in 1977 and is pretty much a straight autobiography by Philip K Dick of his life after he divorced his wife. He wasn't an undercover cop - but he did live in a run down old house with a few friends, and they all did drugs constantly. One friend was obsessed by bugs. Another one was completely paranoid. They worried about narcs infiltrating their group.

This story is written almost stream-of-consciousness so you have to kick back, relax and go with the story. The story is set "in the future" from 1977, which still happens to now be in our past - 1994. Fred, a cop, is undercover in a druggie-filled house under the name of "Bob Arctor". He is trying to figure out who is dealing a powerful drug, Substance D. When he's in the police station, to hide his identity, he wears a "scramble suit" - a full body outfit that hides who he is. Nobody at the cop station - including his boss - knows what he really looks like. They only know he's assigned to a certain druggie-filled house. So shortly into the story he's told by his boss to focus on a certain person in the house - Bob. I.e. himself.

The house is set up with cameras and audio recording houses, so soon Fred (the cop) is watching videos of Bob (the druggie, the same person) hanging out with his friends and having really long, nonsensical conversations. But are they really nonsensical? They worry about narcs (which is valid). They worry about being watched (which is valid). In twisted ways, many of the things they ramble about are true, that many "normal" people wouldn't have picked up on.

Being a Philip K Dick story, there's a twist, and the story ends on a realistic note, not a Hollywood one. But as always Dick gives you the sense that things really can get better, if the average person just reaches out and tries.

I can see why some people have problems with this book. It's not a straightforward plot of X happens Y happens Z is the reason. Instead, it's a complex interplay of personalities. Each person in the story has a rich world both in reality and in their fantasy mind. Part of what Substance D does is split the brain into parts so that a person can literally believe two things at once ("the gas tank is full" and "the gas tank is empty"). So sometimes when Fred is at the police station he knows that his undercover personae is Bob - and sometimes he completely forgets and thinks Bob is one of his druggy friends that he distrusts. Barris, one of the druggie house-mates, seems both a brilliant scientist and a completely inept crazy. He sits and watches as another druggie chokes to death, timing his call to the police so that he gets all the glory of reporting the tragic death. Donna, the only female in the story, sometimes has brilliant ideas and at other times seems completely lost. One of the druggies is obsessed with bugs - so another druggie dutifully helps him collect up the imaginary insects to bring in for scientific review. Both are shocked when the jars later are empty.

This isn't just a story about "drugs eat your brain, drugs suck". The book talks a great deal about how most of the people were hooked involuntarily and are now stuck with the addiction. It shows how those who supposedly help people break their addiction are heartless and cruel. The other members of society discard the druggies as being worthless, abandoning an entire group of their population to certain death. The druggies expect to steal from each other, lie to each other, and eventually die - sooner rather than later. It's not just a problem with the drugs. It's a problem with the entire society and how it treats those who have been hooked.

So a lot of the story is told in the small interactions with people. How Bob feels about Donna, his girlfriend who does't like to be touched. How Barris likes his friends while activly plotting their destruction. How the feelings which are real interleave with those which are imaginary. As hard as any character tries to pin down "what is really happening', reality shimmers. In one scene Bob sleeps with a random girl he met - and thinks for a moment he slept with Donna. Even later, in the police station, watching the recording of the scene, he sees that same vision. Is his basic sense of reality so skewed that it cannot be distinguised from the things he sees? Do any of us know what we really see - or what we think we've seen?

I really did love many of the scenes in the book, including the classic 10-speed-bike scene. How each character reacts to the situation is priceless. They each have their own agenda and motivations.

This isn't a murder mystery where the end of the book wraps up everything neatly and explains why each person did what they did. In fact, the book ends with a list of Philip K Dick's actual friends and family who were harmed or killed by drugs. He includes himself and his ex-wife on the list. The book is an insight into what drugs really do to groups of people - and what our society suffers as a result. It's a wake-up call for people to start caring - and to start listening.

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J. Bozlinski
A sci-fi classic for a reason
Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2025
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
Very fascinating read. Believable sci-fi trappings. Lots of elements that’ll make you sweat, as they’ve only become more relevant today. Also, a very intimate, unvarnished look at drug culture.

Two negatives of note, I would say. One being the prose. A bit clunky and inelegant at times. Maybe it’s more of a stylistic thing from PKD? This is the first of his works that I’ve read, so I’m not sure. It took getting used to, but in the end, I was able to enjoy the story for what it was.

Also. Not a happy ending. Pretty miserable, in fact. This isn’t a book to read if you want to come away with butterflies and rainbows fluttering about your day afterwards.

I’m still very glad I took the time to read this one!

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Schtinky
If the scanner sees only darkly, the way I myself do, then we are cursed
Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2006
Verified Purchase
Jerry Fabin is covered in aphids. Or at least he thinks so, spending most of his time in the shower. His friend Charles Freck tries to help, but eventually must take Jerry to New-Path, a center to help addicts of Substance D (known as Death) come off the drug and adjust to life without intoxicants. Charles catches up with Donna Hawthorne, Bob Arctor's supposed girlfriend/dealer, scores some Substance D and falls in with Bob's crowd.

Bob Arctor lives with two roommates, Barris and Luckman. What Bob's roommates don't know is that there is more to Bob than his trivial job and his addiction. Bob is a narc called Fred, working for the Narcotics Division undercover. Whenever Fred enters the station to report, he wears a "scramble suit", so that he can't be identified. All narcotics officers wear them. When Fred is assigned to stake out his own identity in the drug world, Bob Arctor, things begin to fall apart for him.

At first, Fred finds it ironic that he is staking out himself, but as the drug corrodes his brain, literally splitting the hemispheres apart, Bob/Fred separate and reality twists into shivering fibers of uncertainty. Barris and Luckman start to behave strangely, as Fred observes them on the holo-tapes. Bob begins to speak and think in German.

What will happen to Bob/Fred if he doesn't stop using Substance D? Why is Donna so standoffish if she likes Bob as much as she claims to? How deep can Bob/Fred go before something snaps inside his head? Or has it snapped already?

'A Scanner Darkly' is classic the author Philip K. Dick. He vividly paints the funnier antics of substance abuse, and the tragedies that follow. The conversations between the men when they are high are both pathetic and hilarious. It's pretty obvious the author had some experience walking the pretty path of flowering hallucinations.

This book is poetic and realistic even in today's society though it was written in 1977. There is no "old" feeling to the storyline. And, there is a big surprise waiting for you in the end.

Also, read the Author's Note at the end, where the author Philip K. Dick describes himself and his friends, and their forays into the drug society, as children playing in the street. When one gets hit by a car (overdose, brain damage, etc) the rest of them would continue to play, oblivious to the dangers. He then lists his friends who he lost to this vicious game.

'A Scanner Darkly' is a definite buy, if you like to collect drug books like Luke Davies's 'Candy', Burroughs's 'Junky', Thompson's 'Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas', and Selby's 'Requiem For A Dream'. Grab a hold of your worst vice, whether wine or chocolate or Substance D, sit back, relax, and Enjoy!

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Kindle Customer
Fun book
Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2024
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
This is an okay read. Worth some time but don't go out of your way to get it.

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Jables
A timely and mind bending tale
Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2024
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Mass surveillance, individual paranoia, the abuse of drugs in search of meaning, the search for a coherent, non problematic identity in an inherently oppressive sl and unstable society all set against a national war on drugs. An intimate and highly personal book written by a man who literally saw the future.

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Cliente Kindle
with less cynicism than what Will
Reviewed in Italy on April 11, 2023
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A gripping and moving novel about the consequences of drug (ab)use written with a humane touch and empathy. Philip Dick is here capable of conveying the deepest contradictions of drug abuse in a seemingly permissive society which is, actually, without mercy for the individual who loses control over themselves. I would say that this novel should be read in parallel with The Naked Lunch by William Burroughs; Dick's novel offers another view on the same, terrible world regulated by the "Algebra of need" but with less cynism and irony than Burroughs. Absolutely brilliant the examinations with the psychiatrists and the idea of the scramble suits.

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June flower
I saw the movie years ago and decided to read the book because the book is always better than the movie
Reviewed in Canada on April 1, 2017
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
I'm not a big scifi fan but this book kept my attention. I saw the movie years ago and decided to read the book because the book is always better than the movie. And well, this novel wasn't any different. I've always been intrigued with how drugs bend and twist ones perception of reality. And this book shows how that reality can become permanently distorted. Loved it<3

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Steve
Indeed - a scanner darkly
Reviewed in Australia on September 12, 2020
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I re-read this book as I am doing with all 35 or so Phillip K Dick books I have. It is a very powerful book for anyone who lived through the 60's and was even minimally aware of drug cultures. Dick obviously was immensley affected by this period in his life. Unlike many of his others, this is not a fun book. But it is well written and very engaging - I could not put it down.

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smonff
Nice second hand book.
Reviewed in France on July 14, 2019
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Edition is corresponding to the description.

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Liam
A great read. Highly recommended.
Reviewed in Japan on December 6, 2015
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After reading The Man in the High Castle I was in need of another instalment from Philip K Dick. This book is just as good and I would certainly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of his work. PKD masterfully illustrates the little, isolated world of the characters united in their use of the malign drug known as Substance D, mirroring their struggle with that of a nation's. There is intrigue and duality for our protagonist and supporting characters who keep you guessing. This is not, perhaps,a story for the faint of heart however as there are some disturbing scenes related to the mental and physical consequences of substance abuse from the start.
For people with an open mind, or fan's of his other material, this is an experience worth having.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A Story of Interactions - Not of Plot

4.0 out of 5 stars A sci-fi classic for a reason

5.0 out of 5 stars If the scanner sees only darkly, the way I myself do, then we are cursed

3.0 out of 5 stars Fun book

5.0 out of 5 stars A timely and mind bending tale

Top reviews from other countries

5.0 out of 5 stars with less cynicism than what Will

5.0 out of 5 stars I saw the movie years ago and decided to read the book because the book is always better than the movie

5.0 out of 5 stars Indeed - a scanner darkly

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice second hand book.

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read. Highly recommended.

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A Story of Interactions - Not of Plot

A sci-fi classic for a reason

If the scanner sees only darkly, the way I myself do, then we are cursed

Fun book

A timely and mind bending tale

with less cynicism than what Will

I saw the movie years ago and decided to read the book because the book is always better than the movie

Indeed - a scanner darkly

Nice second hand book.

A great read. Highly recommended.