I know that this book has been out for a long, long time now, and I'm sure pretty much everyone has given their opinion, but I just finished reading "A Scanner Darkly" for the first time, and holy shit is that book amazing.

I am a big time Phillip K Dick fan. I should say, I am "newly" minted as a fan of his writing. I didn't really know much about him until about 8 or 9 years ago when I first read "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep". I became a big time fan of "Blade Runner" around that time, so I wanted to read the book that the movie was based on. I then read "Minority Report" shortly after that, again, after watching the movie years ago. I have even dipped in and out of the Amazon series that is based upon his short stories. But, I decided recently that I wanted to revisit "A Scanner Darkly" this past year. I saw the movie a long, long time ago, but the way it was filmed, it made me queasy. So, I decided this time I would read the book, then watch the movie at a later date. I started the book about a month ago, and I finished it today. That is fast for me. I am a fairly slow reader. So, the fact that I finished in right around a month, that is the sign of a great book for me. I completely fell into the world that Dick created in the book. There were moments where I had to look up, or put the book down and go outside because I was so deeply involved in the setting. I have never read a book, save for "Lord of the Flies", that has grabbed my attention this much.

For those that may not know, "A Scanner Darkly" takes place in the near future, in California, and it has to do with undercover cops going on covert missions to catch people doing a drug called substance D. The main character is a cop turned drug addict named Robert Arctor/Fred Arctor/Bruce. He goes through some stuff in this book. During his mission, he lives in a house with a few other addicts. He goes in as Fred, when he is still fully a cop, but he does so much substance D, he starts to believe that he is Bob. Basically, the drug manipulates his hemispheres in his brain into thinking he is 2 different people. I am not doing the book enough justice right now, but the way Dick describes it, it is perfect. As I said, I totally bought in. The stuff that Arctor goes through in the book is totally believable. We read about him trying to score drugs, dealing with shady roommates, dealing with being ripped off, going through good and bad trips. I mean, the way it is written is so wonderful. We also meet another character named Donna, who is also a cop on a covert mission to catch drug dealers. She and Bob are close buddies, although Bob wishes they were more. The back and forth between Bob and Fred is incredible. Fred is set to have Bob's house bugged so he can do 24 hour surveillance on him. This is when we start to see the split in the hemispheres affect him. He is called back for testing a few times because the other police officers he works with are starting to notice that he is losing it. These scenes in the book are masterfully written. Also, the way Dick writes about the trips these people go through while on substance D is 100 percent believable. I'm a person that has never done drugs, and there were multiple times when I told my wife that, after reading one of the chapters, I felt like I was on drugs. It was so descriptive, and I let myself fall into that world. It was pretty cool. When Bob/Fred/Bruce goes into rehab, the book takes a whole other turn that I did not see coming. I had forgotten how it ended, and I loved how it ended.

"A Scanner Darkly" is one of the best Sci Fi books ever written, and it is certainly one of Dick's best books. Maybe that is because he said before passing that this book was essentially about him and his friends when they were junkies. In fact, the end of the book, in the author's notes section, he talks about that very thing. He also names a bunch of his real life friends that are now either dead or have permanent brain/psychosis problems. It was astounding to see how many people were in there.

This book is old, but it is a classic. I highly recommend reading it if you haven't. Hell, I'd even say read it again if you have already read it. It is that great.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He was once addicted to the destructive drug known as High Fructose Corn Syrup. It was/is readily available for kids and adults. He got off the junk, and is much healthier for it.

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