Counter-Clock World

Philip K. Dick

Apr 2012 · Sold by HarperCollins

About this ebook

Counter-Clock World is a theological and philosophical adventure in a world set in reverse from the Hugo Award–winning science fiction novelist Philip K. Dick, author of The Man in the High Castle and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?—the basis for the film Blade Runner.

Time has begun moving backward. People greet each other with “goodbye,” blow smoke into cigarettes, and rise from the dead. When one of those rising dead is the famous and powerful prophet Anarch Peak, a number of groups start a mad scramble to find him first—but their motives are not exactly benevolent, because Anarch Peak may just be worth more dead than alive, and these groups will do whatever they must to send him back to the grave.

What would you do if your long-dead relatives started coming back? Who would take care of them? And what if they preferred being dead? In Counter-Clock World, these troubling questions are addressed; though, as always, you may have to figure out the answers yourself.

“Dick is the American writer who in recent years has most influenced non-American poets, novelists, and essayists.”—Roberto Bolaño

Ratings and reviews

This novel is an old friend, but I haven't owned a copy of it in decades. I corresponded with Phil Dick in the late 1960s, and he asked me to let him know when this book began to appear on bookshelves in New York. I lost touch with him after a while and many of my first edition Philip K Dick books published by Ace eventually fell apart. I was a fan of Phil's from his earliest writing in the 1950s, long before he was generally known. I still treasure my copy of "Eye in the Sky." "Counter-ClockWorld" was perhaps the weirdest of all of Dick's stories, and for that reason alone I found it fascinating. $9.99 now for a book that I originally paid about 35¢ for! If only Phil had lived long enough to enjoy the great fame and wealth he deserved.

About the author

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 to 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, as well as television's The Man in the High Castle. The recipient of critical acclaim and numerous awards throughout his career, including the Hugo and John W. Campbell awards, Dick was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2005, and between 2007 and 2009, the Library of America published a selection of his novels in three volumes. His work has been translated into more than twenty-five languages.