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Loading... Counter-Clock World (1967)by Philip K. Dick
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Meh, I'm rounding down because even tho Bishop Pike is a big deal in this one as he was in the Transmigration of Timothy Archer (through a mirror darkly), the basic premise behind THIS book is pretty strong and should have been explored more fully. I mean, look, PKD had a great thing going here now that newly dead peeps are coming back alive in their graves and clawing their way out, living full lives before they find a womb to crawl back into. This is a THING now. Long dead peeps are coming back, too, and now that time has done a little flip-flop in individuals, everyone still remembers when it worked the way we know now. :) We've got some intrigue and rights issues going on here and a huge religious undertone that's focused more on the aftermath of religious movements rather than the content, and while that might have made a pretty good novel if not a particularly strong one, I found myself wishing that the main storyline had the limelight. Alas. An admirable effort. Philip K. Dick did a lot with his characters and plot in making it readable for the viewer. The plot is generally interesting and the characters follow through with it well, supplementing the chapter quotations which provide relevance towards the plot and themes of the book. This is typical Dick and it shows, through and through, of some of what he was capable of. 3 stars. This had good bits and bad bits and quite a few thought-provoking bits ... I agree with Mel's review that the book lacked a convincing strong female character, even with Ann Fisher the Librarian/seductress. The motivations for actions weren't very obvious to me, but perhaps that's because I am looking at the world in a "clockwise" direction! I was also confused about the smoking and eating backwards arrangements, because if the counter-clockwise happened at that micro level, why did people not talk and walk backwards too? Nevertheless, it is an interesting premise and I am inspired to hunt down other novels with the same idea at their core. Time's Arrow? Backwards? no reviews | add a review
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The world has entered the Hobart Phase--a vast sidereal process in which time moves in reverse. As a result, libraries are busy eradicating books, people greet with, "Good-bye," and part with, "Hello," and underneath the world's tombstones, the dead are coming back to life. One imminent old-born is Anarch Peak, a vibrant religious leader whose followers continued to flourish long after his death. His return from the dead has such awesome implications that those who apprehend him will very likely be those who control the fate of the world. No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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It was originally a short story expanded to novel length and the gaps in the story telling are far too obvious. Time moving backwards only seems to affect certain aspects of the lives of those who have been reborn and so the author can be selective in what happens to them. In the case of the religious leader Anarch Peake; it is his experiences of being dead for fifteen years that makes him a prize amongst those being reborn. His welfare is the subject of a fight between, the catholic church, his cult followers and the Library which is embarked on a project of removing from the world all those inventions, books and works of the old-born as they move backwards through time. All that Sebastien Hermes is interested in is making a profit and holding his marriage together and he gets caught in the middle.
The action and the characters become so preposterous that I was not sure whether this was just an elaborate satire, an action story with too many plot holes, or an outline onto which Dick could come up with even more fantastic ideas. This didn't work for me on any level, I just got bored 2.5 stars ( )