Dr. Bloodmoney

PKD novels need a rating scale from ho-hum through weird to trippy, with a few more levels thrown in somewhere. If Ubik and Palmer Eldritch are trippy, Dr. Bloodmoney falls into weird.

A sudden nuclear war leaves the world mostly destroyed, with small communities forming around centres of survival. We find ourselves amid a disparate bunch of people struggling to make sense of things. The Dr.Bloodmoney character is a minor player for most of the narrative. In focus are a young man born with no limbs because of thalidomide but with telekinetic ability, and a young girl whose imaginary brother turns out to be a parasitic twin in her belly. These three form a centre of warring power against each other.

Above them all is an astronaut, stranded in orbit from which he transmits book readings and DJ music to the world. The only surviving radio broadcast on Earth.

The story is one of dark humor, the writing off-handed, and the characters totally unbelievable. But PKD uses his inner weirdness to pull it together into a tale of guilt, power, and a desire for peace and calm. He starts with a bland city street encounter but ends with a growing sense of unease as a crisis builds. And suddenly it's over. Not with a bang but a whimper. OK, that's probably the way nuclear war always ends.