Counter-Clock World

by Philip K. Dick

In Counter-Clock World, one of the most theologically probing of all of Dick’s books, 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, copulation signifies the end of pregnancy, 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.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Time Travel, Novels, Speculative Fiction, Fantasy, Dystopia

218 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1967

About the author

Philip Kindred Dick was a prolific American science fiction author whose work has had a lasting impact on literature, cinema, and popular culture. Known for his imaginative narratives and profound philosophical themes, Dick explored the nature of reality, the boundaries of human identity, and the impact of technology and authoritarianism on society. His stories often blurred the line between the real and the artificial, challenging readers to question their perceptions and beliefs.
Raised in California, Dick began writing professionally in the early 1950s, publishing short stories in various science fiction magazines. He quickly developed a distinctive voice within the genre, marked by a fusion of science fiction concepts with deep existential and psychological inquiry. Over his career, he authored 44 novels and more than 100 short stories, many of which have become classics in the field.
Recurring themes in Dick's work include alternate realities, simulations, corporate and government control, mental illness, and the nature of consciousness. His protagonists are frequently everyday individuals—often paranoid, uncertain, or troubled—caught in surreal and often dangerous circumstances that force them to question their environment and themselves. Works such as Ubik, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, and A Scanner Darkly reflect his fascination with perception and altered states of consciousness, often drawing from his own experiences with mental health struggles and drug use.
One of Dick’s most influential novels is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which served as the basis for Ridley Scott’s iconic film Blade Runner. The novel deals with the distinction between humans and artificial beings and asks profound questions about empathy, identity, and what it means to be alive. Other adaptations of his work include Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, and The Man in the High Castle, each reflecting key elements of his storytelling—uncertain realities, oppressive systems, and the search for truth. These adaptations have introduced his complex ideas to audiences well beyond the traditional readership of science fiction.
In the 1970s, Dick underwent a series of visionary and mystical experiences that had a significant influence on his later writings. He described receiving profound knowledge from an external, possibly divine, source and documented these events extensively in what became known as The Exegesis, a massive and often fragmented journal. These experiences inspired his later novels, most notably the VALIS trilogy, which mixes autobiography, theology, and metaphysics in a narrative that defies conventional structure and genre boundaries.
Throughout his life, Dick faced financial instability, health issues, and periods of personal turmoil, yet he remained a dedicated and relentless writer. Despite limited commercial success during his lifetime, his reputation grew steadily, and he came to be regarded as one of the most original voices in speculative fiction. His work has been celebrated for its ability to fuse philosophical depth with gripping storytelling and has influenced not only science fiction writers but also philosophers, filmmakers, and futurists.
Dick’s legacy continues to thrive in both literary and cinematic spheres. The themes he explored remain urgently relevant in the modern world, particularly as technology increasingly intersects with human identity and governance. The Philip K. Dick Award, named in his honor, is presented annually to distinguished works of science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States. His writings have also inspired television series, academic studies, and countless homages across media.
Through his vivid imagination and unflinching inquiry into the nature of existence, Philip K. Dick redefined what science fiction could achieve. His work continues to challenge and inspire, offering timeless insights into the human condition a

Reviews

[Manny · Rating 2 out of 5]

.good pretty is Memento Nolan's .screen the on best works it think I ,though Really .this do to way interesting more much a clearly it's but ,Arrow Time's Amis's of fan huge a not I'm .drink and food for Similarly .discard then you cigarette a into unsmoke you which air smoky of packs large buy you ,cigarettes buy don't you example for so ,time backward and forward of mixture incoherent of sort a there's that is problem The .novel successful most Dick's isn't really this but ,while a for amusing of kind is backwards runs time where world a of idea the suppose I

[Lyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

A meeting at Marvel Comics offices in late 1967. Present are Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, Herb Trimpe, Sal Buscema and Barry Windsor Smith. They discuss the 1967 Philip K. Dick novel Counter Clock World.

Stan: OK, you’ve all been given a copy of the book, and time to read it, what do you all think, can we launch a limited series with this book?

Sal: It’s weird. And I know Phil is weird, but this is next level weird.

Jack: What’s Steve doing here?

Stan: Now Jack, Steve has produced some of the most surrealistic images around and even though he left last year, I’ve asked him to come in and give us some idea about what it would take to produce this project.

Steve: Good to see you too Kirby. Thanks Stan. Like Sal said, it’s weird, but we could work with it.

Roy: Psychedelics aside, this is even weird for Dick. I mean, a world where time is moving backwards? Dead people coming alive in the graveyards? We could most definitely put something together, and make it look good, but will it sell?

Herb: What if we added Hulk to the narrative? Picture this: Bruce as the Hulk gets caught up in the backward times and goes back before the change?

Stan: And then what? No, I spoke to Phil on the phone and he was adamant that it’s gotta stay true to his vision.

Barry: True to his vision? That guy is so hopped up on amphetamines he probably sees more paisley than one of Steve’s Dr. Strange layouts.

Roy: Phil is cool, we just need to meld his vision with what we’re doing here.

Barry: This would be better with a Strange tie in than with Hulk -

Stan: No! It must stay true to his vision, no hero tie ins.

Jack: OK, Dick also describes a divided USA, where there’s been some balkanization and we have three, maybe four new countries with what we have now.

Herb: I wonder if that comes from his notes on Man in the High Castle a few years ago.

Barry: Probably, also Dick includes a fair amount of theological musings, so that may be tough to illustrate

Steve: No, we could pencil that like we did Strange Tales, Jack we could add horrific elements, I mean people coming up from the grave? We could do that, and Stan, what if, and that’s all I’m saying is What If? We send in Nick Fury and SHIELD to investigate?

Stan: Well, not really a direct tie in, we might could make that work. Hell, maybe just make the weird Dick novel a story arc within Strange Tales?

Herb: There’s also some really strange descriptions of people eating and purging with the new time rules, those images could lend themselves to Strange Tales or even Tales of Suspense

Stan: OK! So we’re doing it? I can call Phil?

Sal: Nope, too weird.

All agree.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

My 8th PKD novel. 

~ and yet another mind-bending read... with a noticeable difference that sets the work uniquely apart from the novels I've read thus far. 

What the author has given us here is one of his most rock-solid plots. Almost line-for-line, the construction is so tight and so focused that even the bulk of the dialogue resonates as plot / theme-centric. It's as though Dick had thoughts like 'No meandering segues; not this time! If they want non-stop, I'll give 'em non-stop!' He seals that deal by relying more heavily on a genre he has, in the past, only really flirted with: the action-oriented thriller. 

Things this time out feel more high-octane than usual. 

Maybe the particular gimmick Dick has going here has something to do with all that: the whole idea of time moving backwards - which causes the dead to rise again (almost good as new). That has the potential for an upsetting status quo. Not that things play out like a Romero zombie flick - far from it. But one highly influential person is coming back: important enough to cause a societal panic; an ideological schism.

Written in 1965 / published in 1967, this book (to me, anyway) feels more than a little inspired by the life and work of Martin Luther King - here given the intriguing and appropriate name 'Anarch Peak'. We don't learn how the revered Peak died but it seems he wasn't killed - not that that matters much. (King wouldn't be assassinated until 1968, though there had been one significant attack in 1958 which almost removed him, and he was generally often in danger of death.) 

Certainly the undead aspect might have sufficed to keep the story on its toes. But that wasn't enough for Dick so he tossed in the 'Benjamin Button' element - and not with a half-measure either; in for a penny, in for a pound. It's not just that people move backward - becoming younger and younger all the way to the womb - but the birth process itself is in reverse. 

So is the eating process. (Don't ask - but specifics of both processes are so slight that you might, thankfully, miss the 'finer' details.) 

Naturally, to a degree, this is a Dick deep-dive (if you will) into some uniquely ridiculous logic-bends. But, weirdly (certainly weirdly) it... works. (Along the way are two twists that shocked me - and I'm jaded!)

It's all in slick service to an incisive (but still elusive) philosophical / ontological cri de coeur. PKD is very clear that his concerns in this novel are specific, and related to God. So the percentage of doubt that PKD usually leaves at the end of a work falls from around 20% to 5%. We may not know exactly what the ending is here - but this time we've got a pretty good idea what's waiting just up ahead. 

Best of all: the presentation that time, death and evil are illusions. I could be ready to follow that line of thought anywhere.

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Counter-Clock World is an expansion of Philip K. Dick's short story Your Appointment Will Be Yesterday. The ideas are interesting enough to flesh out into a longer story, but that also allows the cracks to show.

In this world, because of something called the Hobart Effect, time has begun moving backward. People get younger, rise from the dead, food is disgorged, and knowledge is destroyed. Because of that, libraries hold all the power. Even the police are terrified of the librarians.

Time moves backwards... but not exactly. While everyone has to unsmoke their cigarettes and disgorge their food, there are still events going on that didn't happen before. And when a human has unaged enough that they have to go back into the womb, any old womb will do. Some of those inconsistencies make the world not as plausible as it should have been in order to focus on the story.

The world building is more successful than the characters, which are terribly flat and uninteresting. Lotta, the wife of Sebastian Hermes, the owner of the Hermes Vitarium, is particularly vapid. Of course, she's getting younger and dumber all the time, so maybe that is to be expected. The female characters are all conniving or sniveling, and the male characters are heroic but stupid. It got old. The main plot point is about a prophet coming back to life, but that kind of gets lost in the laser battles in the library.

I listened to the audio, and Patrick Lawlor has excellent enunciation. By listening to it, I realized how often Philip K. Dick uses alliteration and adverbs, she says knowingly.

ETA: I forgot to mention that even though I called the characters flat and pointed out holes in the story, I thought this novel was hysterical. It might just be a librarian thing, but I was laughing a lot as I listened in the car.

[Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[sj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Counter-Clock World is weird because of how very NOT weird it is. That probably won't make a whole lot of sense if you're not familiar with a lot of what PKD was cranking out in the 60s. This was during his most prolific period as an author (more than half of his 44 novels were published between 1960-1969), and the majority of those books feature what I'm going to call the Dick Click (for lack of a better term).

You start reading almost any novel by Dick and for the first 50-100 pages you're pretty confused with no idea WTF you're reading or why you're digging it so much. Nothing seems to make much sense, and you're half-tempted to just give up already.

You keep going, though, because there's just something keeping you reading. Then it happens. The Dick Click (I swear, not a euphemism). It's like something in your brain finally fits all of the fucking pieces together and there's this "A-HA!" moment. Then you feel kind of stupid for not putting it all together sooner, but it makes you want to start the whole damn book all over again just so that you can marvel at how well he managed to fit everything together.

I think that might be the most redundant paragraph I've ever written. Just go with it, I'm too lazy to re-write.

Counter-Clock World does not contain a Dick Click. It's one of the most straightforward books I've read by him. Yes, it took a few chapters to fully grasp the logistics of a world where time has essentially begun to run backwards (disgorging of food is a private affair, men slather on whiskers before leaving the house in the morning, the dead return to life and age in reverse until they find an open womb and pregnancy is ended with sex), but once I got that, there was no problem.

Is it my new favourite? NO! But still, it's worth a read and if you're already a fan, I think you should check it out.

[Darwin8u · Rating 4 out of 5]

Place there is none; we go backward and forward, and there is no place.
-- St. Augustine.



"Sic igitur magni quoque circum moenia mundi expugnata dabunt labem putresque ruinas (So likewise the walls of the great universe assailed on all sides shall suffer decay, and fall into ruin."
-- Lucretius, Book ii 1144 1145.

I SAW God. Do you doubt it?
Do you dare to doubt it?
I saw the Almighty Man. His hand
Was resting on a mountain, and
He looked upon the World and all about it: 5
I saw him plainer than you see me now,
You mustn't doubt it.

He was not satisfied;
His look was all dissatisfied.
His beard swung on a wind far out of sight
Behind the world's curve, and there was light
Most fearful from His forehead, and He sighed,
"That star went always wrong, and from the start
I was dissatisfied."

He lifted up His hand—
I say He heaved a dreadful hand
Over the spinning Earth. Then I said, "Stay,
You must not strike it, God; I'm in the way;
And I will never move from where I stand."
He said, "Dear child, I feared that you were dead,"
And stayed His hand.
-- James Stephens, What Tomas An Buile Said In a Pub



Our Man in the Graveyard

Three organizations vie for the recently resurrected body of the Anarch Thomas Peak. The dead prophet and founder of the negro Udi cult. One man, Sebastian Hermes, is trying to sort through the three groups and their various reasons for wanting him. He runs the Flask of Hermes Vivarium, a small company devoted to recovering the old-born (those whose flesh and particles are migrating back, finding their onetime places, re-forming, putting off corruption). Earth's final mortalities having been June of 1986. After that, time reversed. The dead are now rising. They need a place to recover. They need a seller and a broker. Sebastian Hermes is that man. He is definitely that man for the Anarch Peak, this negro prophet risen, quoting Plotinus, Plato, Kant, Leibnitz, and Spinoza. However, he has to work around the motives of the women in his life, and the interests of a bunch of Fascist librarians associated with the People's Topical Library and the Elders of Udi (a weird combination of Black Panthers and Latter-day Universalists).

This is a pretty straightforward story (run backwards as it is). As SF it is probably not PKD's best (some of his backwards time conventions seem tired and worn-out), but when he is quoting Lucretius, Erigena, and Irish poets and talking about death and resurrection, I love it. For me it is less literary than Amis' Time's Arrow, but I liked it more personally. So, as SF it is three stars, but emotionally it was 5 stars. I'll compromise and give it four stars because sic itur ad astra, baby.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Middle-of-the-road PKD, which for me is still enjoyable. Memorable mostly for the concept; I remember reading the synopsis on the back of the book aloud to a friend ("copulation signals the end of pregnancy, people greet with 'good-bye' and part with 'hello'..."), and both of us just laughing. My friend shook his head with admiration: "I think this is one of the most ridiculous ideas he ever had."

And yet what stands out in my memory is the strange pathos of the main character's job, patrolling the cemetery and listening for the cries of the dead returning to life in their coffins. Dick always found the sacred in his characters' dead-end jobs, their miserable day-to-day existences- which might have been his way of saying that that's the only place to find it.

[Karl · Rating 5 out of 5]

New introduction by David G. Hartwell.

Text offset from that of the 1967 Berkley edition.

Expansion of the novella "Your Appointment Will Be Yesterday", (Amazing, 1966).

Note: This is not a library copy.

[Marvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those Philip K. Dick novels that has a fascinating premise but is perhaps a little too hard for the author to handle at this developing time in his career. There are some really nice philosophical turns throughout but the concept may be a little too strange and artificial. For anyone else this would be a four star book but Dick has written better.

.ǫninniǫɘd ɘʜƚ ƚɒ ǫnibnɘ bnɒ bnɘ ɘʜƚ ƚɒ ǫniƚɿɒƚƨ ,ƨiʜƚ ɘʞil ƚi ɘƚoɿw ɘvɒʜ bluoʜƨ ɘʜ ǫniʞniʜƚ qɘɘʞ I ,noiƚnɘm oƚ ƚoИ

But then, I'm weird.

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, this is what classic SF looks like. Sorry, but I can't see why Dick made it so big. His characters are laughably false -- particularly the women. I'd be insulted if it wasn't so ridiculous. As for the plot: almost as laughable. As for the whole idea behind the story: this is worth 2 stars.

Time has reversed, meaning the dead are rising, living their lives over and disappearing into the nearest available womb. When a dead guru begins to stir it seems everyone is interested in his resurrection: the Library, a powerful group whose job it is to destroy written history -- an establishment everyone seems terrified of for reasons I couldn't fathom -- and the new guru, Ray Rogers and his dedicated followers, to name but a few of those with a vested interest. Will he have new insights into the afterlife which every other so far resurrected citizen has failed to remember? Will he stir the populace into some sort of frenzy with his words? Seriously, who cares?

This idea could have worked if Dick had paid more attention to making the plot and his characters. The result is insulting, pretentious and so far-fetched it's difficult to stay with it.

[Nick Tankard · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10

[Kat Hooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Originally posted at www.fantasyliterature.com

It’s 1998 and time has started running backward. Aging has reversed so that people are gradually getting younger, and dead people are awakening in their graves and begging to be let out. The excavating companies have the rights to sell the people they unbury to the highest bidder. When Sebastian Hermes’s small excavating company realizes that Thomas Peak, a famous religious prophet, is about to come back to life, they know that getting to him first could be a huge boon to their business. The problem is that there are other organizations that prefer for Thomas Peak to stay dead, especially when they realize he may have information about the afterlife.

Philip K. Dick is in a class of his own and it’s hard to compare his novels to anyone’s but his own. Maybe it’s not fair, but there are certain expectations we have for other novelists that don’t apply when we read PKD. Most importantly, we can’t expect the plot to always make sense. This is most true, I think, when Dick shows us a future United States of America which we know could never happen. For example, in Counter-Clock World, we can’t let it bother us that an excavating company has the rights to sell people it digs up and that nobody, including the resurrected people and their relatives, question this. Or that the public library system has the authority to eradicate important works of arts and literature. Or that some things work backwards (people disgorge their food instead of eating it, they say “goodbye” when they answer the phone and “hello” when they hang up, and cigarettes get longer when they’re smoked) — but most things (like walking, driving, and talking) don’t. None of it makes sense, but you just have to go with it and, if you can’t, you shouldn’t be reading Philip K. Dick.

So, compared to some of his other novels, Counter-Clock World, published in 1967, does pretty well. It’s got the usual wacky premise, annoying abbreviations (’pape” for newspaper, “pilg” for pilgrimage, etc), bad marriages, robots, drug trips (only one short one this time), and plenty of paranoia, but the plot holds together well (once you agree to the premise), it’s fast-paced, amusing, and, most importantly, not confusing.

There’s usually a religious theme in PKD’s work, but it’s a particular focus in Counter-Clock World. He has some interesting thoughts about death, resurrection, pride, and humility. As usual, I find it disappointing, and somewhat sad, that Dick imagined all sorts of sophisticated technology for 1998 but assumed that we would not have progressed in the areas of civil rights for blacks and women. We have further to go in these areas, but it’s disturbing that Dick did not foresee our social progress. In fact, most of his work, like much science fiction from the 1960s, assumes a degradation of American culture that, fortunately, we have not seen.

Patrick Lawlor did an absolutely perfect job with the narration of Brilliance Audio’s production which has just been released. His clear strong voice is attractive, his male and female voices were spot-on, and he managed to get the paranoia and frenzy across without annoying me. I can’t wait to listen to more of Patrick Lawlor.

[Nivas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Philip K. Dick’s books are amazing to read and have never disappointed me so far. Although Counter-Clock World is not as amazing as his other books, even though the book has both an interesting premise and an ending. The book has most of my favorite themes which the author usually writes about, like the fragile nature of reality, identity crisis and paranoia, surreal worlds, machine vs human, religions and the nature of God, technology, the media, drugs, and madness. In Counter-Clock World, the time is moving backwards due to a strange phenomenon called the Hobert Effect. Because of that, people rise from the dead, keep getting younger until they turn into babies and go back to the womb. People disgorge food which is done privately and consume "Sogum" anally through a pipe which is done publicly. "food" is used as a replacement for the expletive "shit". People have to breathe into cigarette butts and discard them when the cigarette's size turns long enough. People greet each other with ‘Goodbye’ and end conversations with ‘Hello’. In this world, libraries are fearsome places. It is where books are destroyed, and knowledge is eradicated. Because of that, people are terrified of the librarians. Even the police. This very intriguing world-building was downtrodden by the characters of the story. In the beginning, the characters had some background and their actions made the story thrilling. Halfway through, almost all the characters have turned lame. Their actions were dumb and the story progression was muddled. I especially felt the female characters were false and pretentious. Even though many incidents happened, those incidents essentially contributed nothing to the story. The moral and social dilemma of people who come back from the dead, and the undertones of philosophy and theology are worth reading till the end.

[Simppu]

Sen verran hämmentävä kokemus, etten tiedä, miten tämä pitäisi tähdittää. Outo uskonnollinen pohjavire. Saattoi olla rasistinen tai yhtä lailla antirasistinen. Naiskuva oli niin epäuskottava, että haluaisin uskoa sen olleen huono jo vuonna 1967. Joskin naiselle mahdollisiin asemiin sentään kuului vaikutusvaltainen ilkeä kirjastonhoitaja.

Perusidea oli kiinnostava: ihmiset ovat alkaneet elää elämäänsä taaksepäin, mikä näkyy muun muassa siten, että jo edesmenneet nousevat haudoistaan kokemaan elämänsä uudelleen nuorentuen kohti syntymättömyyttä. Takaperoisuus näkyi hauskasti joissakin asioissa, kuten puhelun aloittamisella hyvästeillä ja siinä, että hikoilu oli kosteuden imemistä ympäröivästä ilmasta. Suuressa osassa asioita taas väärään suuntaan meno ei näkynyt, jolloin kokonaisuudessa ei ollut yhtään mitään järkeä. Suurempina teemoina tästä voinee lukea ainakin kapitalismin kritiikkiä, sillä ”vanhasyntyiset” katsottiin lähtökohtaisesti heidät esiin kaivaneen yhtiön omaisuudeksi.

[Fat_tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not his best but im starting to become a Dickhead

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't bad for a short, quick read. Obviously it wasn't Dick's finest hour, but I do give him props for exploring ideas that no other author at the time even bothered exploring. However, it doesn't seem like his ideas were always well-executed, which was the case with Counter-Clock World. The idea of time reversing itself was what drew me into the book, but it didn't live up to its expectations. It sounded intriguing, yes, but I just felt that Dick didn't take advantage of the potential he had. That, I feel, is a result of one of two reasons: A. either I felt that Dick just muddled the plot into the book and it got lost in translation or B. Dick felt that he could incorporate the aspect of time reversing itself without paying attention to his depth of thought and though it would all work out OK. Perhaps I'm missing the point, but either way I did feel a little let down because to me, Dick not only has great ideas, but also a reasonable depth of thought. I didn't mind his depth of thought in Counter-Clock World -- I just didn't think it worked well with the book's plot. Philosophers such as William Lane Craig have addressed the aspect of time, yes, but even without that in mind, the book did have interesting time-related philosphical aspects that I felt would've worked better if Dick paid more attention to how he incorporated the plot so that it was on equal plane with his depth of thought.

Aside from that, I did find the stroy hard to follow for the most part. I realize that Dick did write some pretty trippy stories, which I have enjoyed thus far, but I think there's a difference between writing a trippy story to stimulate a reader's imagination and writing a trippy story just to write one. My imagintaion wasn't stimualted that much while reading Counter-Clock World, so it felt to me that I wasn't supposed to know what was going on, which I mostly didn't. I suppose, though, that if Dick could've done no wrong, reading and writing positive reviews for his books would get old real quick.

[Darran Mclaughlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Philip K. Dick gets a lot of respect from writers and critics from both inside and outside the Science Fiction establishment. This is the fourth book by him I have read and I am still astonished by what a bad writer he is. He has interesting ideas, and The Man In The High Castle was a good novel, but his prose is Dan Brown bad and his characterization is less subtle and three dimensional than The Bold And The Beautiful, or any bad soap opera you care to mention. I have enjoyed the film adaptations of his work very much, such as A Scanner Darkly, Total Recall, Minority Report and Bladerunner, but I'm not sure i can put myself through reading another book with such terrible writing. JG Ballard and William Gibson demonstrate that it is perfectly possible to be a literary science fiction writer.

[R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting sci-fi noir fantasy-dystopia, where biological time flows backwards but not life itself. Nor history. People growing young make new mistakes (or at least variations on their old mistakes) and the world finds new ways to spin itself into the abyss (or at least tumble into deeper fissures).

PKD hits the usual sweet spots with his sour take on marital fidelity, race relations (with characters based oh-so-thinly on MLK Jr. and Malcolm X) and, always a fan favorite, the Uncanny Valley of the Robot Dolls.

Added to this fun if volatile cocktail is a paranoia-amped vision of libraries, a drug-fueled remix of Fahrenheit 451: in this topsy-turvy world The Librarians must destroy all texts, even Beethoven's original sheetmusic, as the creators come back to life...even if sometimes...that precious text...is a human life itself.

[Ben McPhee · Rating 4 out of 5]

hmm. this was a very intriguing read. the undertones of philosophy and theology gave the sci-fi story a lot more depth, and the whole "time going backwards" was really fleshed out as well. like "mouthhole" and "food" being used as swears because, well, y'know. they have to stuff shit back up their ass and regurgitate food. i will say it was a bit confusing, especially at the end. i feel like it could have been a bit longer and seemed to squeeze a lot in the last like twenty pages. overall really good though and i enjoyed the read!

[jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5
Counter clock world
My second foray into the world of PKD. I continue my journey into the lesser known works of Pkd. This one is both unique and weird.
Here evrything runs backwards. From the grave to the womb. Interesting but highly weird concept. Food called sogum is taken through the rear end and disgorged through the mouth for excretion. Mostly into whole foods. Cigarette blunts are smoked to whole Cigarettes.

There is a little action, a little adventure, a little deception in this one. A very medium paced book. The characters are likable and unlikable at the same time. Overall a forgettable outing by PKD. The story did grip me at times but not so much to be remembered or clawing to be read again.

[Jack Pramitte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Le titre interdit tout contre-sens. Ne faites pas les choses à l'envers. Telle pourrait être la morale de ce conte absurde sur le sens de la vie.

[Moid Moidelhoff]

YouTube Review

[Kacper Bernaś · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bardzo ciekawy pomysł na świat, o którym chciałoby się czytać. Chciałoby się go poznawać, wszystkie jego tajemnice, zachodzące zjawiska i sprzeczności z naszym światem, ale niestety autor nie zechciał go rozbudować i przedstawić. Bardzo fajny początek, a potem już tylko równia pochyła. Po tak obiecującym początku spodziewałem się dużo, dużo więcej. Jak można tak bardzo zmarnować tak niesamowity pomysł? Bohaterowie zaczęli działać totalnie nielogicznie, naiwne rozwiązania problemów postacii. Dziwne relacje pomiędzy bohaterami, chociaż to lekki plusik i lekki minusik jednocześnie. Mam wrażenie, że fabularnie książka zaczęła się zaprzeczać. Podsuwa rozważania o przemijaniu i śmierci w totalnie innym kontekście, którego ciężko jest się doszukać w popkulturze. Bardzo mi przykro, bo był potencjał na naprawdę interesującą lekturę. Szkoda…
💔 2.5

[serprex]

39 again - against
64 runnel - tunnel
78 thoughtly - thought
95 yerself - herself

Great mash of tackiness & random citations

[Scott Holstad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a three star book I'm giving four stars to because of its originality. Dick is an author unlike any other. He can definitely come up with some unique stuff. This isn't Dick's best book, but it's not bad. The premise is interesting. Due to the mysterious Hobart Phase, everything on Earth is moving backwards now, as of the 1980s (this world is in the late 1990s). Dead people wake up and are unearthed by companies who sell them to the highest bidder. The fact that relatives never seem to bid on these people is a fact conveniently ignored by Dick and I thought it was a weak component of the novel. Additionally, instead of eating, people disgorge (privately), smoke cigarette stubs back to full length, have sex to end a pregnancy, grow younger until they find a womb to end their life in, say "Goodbye" to greet and "Hello" in departing. Unusual, yes? Unfortunately, Dick didn't think it all through, it seems to me, because most of this world is completely linear. You don't drive backwards. You put your clothes on just as we do today. Shots fired from a gun are done so as in real life. Shouldn't bullets be flying back to gun barrels in this book? Real weak plot depth there, so that's one star gone.

In this world, the Library is the ultimate totalitarian authority and scares the hell out of everyone. They "erad" books now and have their own army. We're introduced to Sebastian Hermes (and his wife, Lotta) as he and his crew are about to dig up the Anarch Peak, a MLK-type black religious figure whose followers founded the Udi cult, basically a bunch of pissed of, drugged out black people. (Another complaint I have with the book is Dick's treatment of women and minorities -- blacks. Women are users or to be used and blacks all find their beginnings in the 1965 Watts riots in L.A., and he describes howling mobs of them outside the library. It's very disappointing, and I don't want to sound too PC, but it's a real failure on the author's part, in my opinion.) Sebastian digs up Peak, but the Library steals him away and the book revolves around Sebastian's attempts to get him back (along with his wife, who the Library also has) with the help of the Udi and the Rome faction. There's an LSD grenade, which is pretty original. That's how he disables the Library's guards.

In addition to the things I already wrote that were dissatisfying, I took issue with Lotta jumping in the sack with a cop who gets assassinated by the Library while Sebastian jumps in the sack with Ann Fisher, the dangerous Librarian's daughter, who seduces him to get the Anarch. However, the book does have some redeeming qualities to it, not the least of which is Dick's private struggle with theology. People and the world are made up of concentric rings that go outward until God is found. "Evil is simply a lesser reality, a ring farther from Him. It's the lack of absolute reality, not the presence of an evil deity." As is the case in most Dick novels, we're treated to the whole "what is reality, what isn't?" conundrum. I found it less confusing in this book than in others. I actually felt fairly comfortable with Dick's exploration of theology in this book, unlike several others I've read.

The book was truly original, but not well thought out. I enjoyed it enough to give it four stars, but it probably only deserves three. I'm just partial to the author. I admit my bias. If you're a fan, you'll probably like it. If you're not familiar with Dick as an author, this isn't the book with which I would start.

[Perry Whitford · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a post-WWIV society (which began in, er, 1986) time starts to reverse by a phenomenon entitled the Hobart Phase, where the living grow younger by the day and the dead come back to life, requiring their exhumation by trained experts.

Sebastian Hermes owns one such Vitarium, as well as being a resurrectee. He legally owns the bodies he revives, selling them to either family or to the highest bidder. When he exhumes an influential spiritual leader, known as the Anarch Peak, he finds himself trading with three powerful and opposing groups.

So, how goes it when time moves backwards? Conversations now start with a "Goodbye", food has to be disgorged rather than eaten (becoming a solitary, shameful act - instead of accusing someone of being full of shit, you accuse them of being " full of food"!) and books are systematically unwritten, their knowledge expunged.

It also makes for a whole slew of throwaway but pretty cool sentences scattered throughout the narrative e.g. 'Seating himself on a cane-bottomed chair he picked a cigarette butt from the nearby ashtray, lit it and begun puffing smoke into it.'

And yet, in order for Dick to have a forward moving plot, for all intents and purposes time still moves forward, so he only goes half way with his concept. Martin Amiss, who admits being influenced by this novel, later saw the idea all the way through in Time's Arrow (which I will review at some time in the past when I get to unread it, um, I mean in the future when I get to reread it).

But does this spoil the fun? Not for me. Nor did it detract from the serious theological theme either, the implications for the world of a resurrected holy man who claims to have seen God. Dick bolsters this by heading each chapter with quotes by various religious philosophers on the nature of God and eternity.

Sure, the female characters are either predatory of vapid, but the male character's are hardly better, and I love that jarring, unpredictable element you always get in PKD where manic resolve becomes depressive indecision in an instant.

Review my that's.
Hello.

[George K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Έχουν περάσει πολλούς μήνες από τότε που διάβασα κάτι του Ντικ. Ήταν Ιανουάριος του 2012 που διάβασα τον Συντηρητή των κεραμικών και από τότε μέχρι τώρα δεν είχα πιάσει τίποτα δικό του (μην πάει ο νους σας στο πονηρό :p). Το λοιπόν, ο Αντίστροφος Κόσμος μου άρεσε, καλός ήταν, αλλά ούτε από τα καλύτερα βιβλία που έχει γράψει ο Ντικ είναι ούτε φυσικά από τα καλύτερα δικά του που έχω διαβάσει (δεν είναι και λίγα, έφτασα αισίως τα 15!).

Η κεντρική ιδέα πραγματικά ενδιαφέρουσα και ξεχωριστή, αλλά θα παραμείνει φαντασία γιατί ούτε επιστημονικά ούτε λογικά στέκει. Οι νεκροί κάποια στιγμή ανασταίνονται και επιστρέφουν στον κόσμο μας, ζώντας από την ηλικία που πέθαναν μέχρι να γίνουν έφηβοι, παιδιά, μωρά και να καταλήξουν στην μήτρα μιας γυναίκας. Το ίδιο συμβαίνει πάνω-κάτω και γι'αυτούς που δεν έχουν πεθάνει και φτάνουν μια κάποια ηλικία, χάρη στην Φάση Χόμπαρτ. Σ'αυτόν τον κόσμο υπάρχουν εταιρείες που αναλαμβάνουν την διαδικασία αναγέννησης, οι Οίκοι Αναγέννησης. Αυτόν τον κόσμο τον εξουσιάζει η Βιβλιοθήκη, που έχει σαν σκοπό την καταστροφή οποιονδήποτε γραπτών και καταγεγραμμένων γεγονότων, με τους υπεύθυνους της δουλειάς αυτής να λέγονται Διαγραφείς. Αλλά το πιο βασικό θέμα είναι τι γίνεται όταν ένας μεγάλος θρησκευτικός ηγέτης επιστρέφει στη ζωή μετά τον θάνατό του. Πως θα αντιδράσει ο κόσμος, πως θα αντιδράσει η Βιβλιοθήκη που δεν θέλει την θρησκευτική επιρροή και πως θα αντιδράσει ο νυν ηγέτης της θρησκείας αυτής;

Πολύ εύκολο στην παρακολούθηση βιβλίο, δεν χάνεις πουθενά την μπάλα, και ας είναι μερικά πράγματα σίγουρα παράξενα και παράδοξα. Η πλοκή ενδιαφέρουσα αλλά όχι και η καλύτερη δυνατή, η δράση μπόλικη, το μυστήριο όχι και τόσο πολύ όσο σε άλλα βιβλία του Ντικ, οι χαρακτήρες καλοί αλλά δίχως βάθος (πάντως δεν τους χαρίζει κάστανα ο Ντικ) ενώ η γραφή είναι κλασικά σε υψηλό επίπεδο. Πιστεύω πως οι φαν του Φίλιπ Ντικ που δεν είναι ιδιαίτερα αυστηροί θα το ευχαριστηθούν. Απόκτημα από το φετινό παζάρι βιβλίου με κόστος 4 ολόκληρα ευρώ!

[Christine Goudroupi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Σε αυτό το βιβλίο υπάρχουν δύο πράγματα που είναι αντίστροφα: η ροή του χρόνου και η αναλογία καλής ιδέας και υλοποίησης.

[...] Ο κόσμος που έχουμε στην πραγματικότητα δεν ικανοποιεί τα πρότυπά μου. Ωραία, θα έπρεπε να αναθεωρήσω τα πρότυπά μου. Να υποχωρήσω μπροστά στην πραγματικότητα. Ποτέ δεν υποχώρησα μπροστά στην πραγματικότητα. Αυτό είναι η επιστημονική φαντασία. [...]

- Philip K. Dick

H μη υποχώρηση μπροστά στην πραγματικότητα, είναι πάρα πολύ σαφής και σε αυτό το υπερβατικό μυθιστόρημα του PKD. Αυτό που δεν είναι καθόλου σαφές, είναι τo αν το "Αντίστροφος Κόσμος" έχει κάτι άλλο να προσφέρει, πέρα από την πραγματεία του θρησκευτικού συναισθήματος.

Σίγουρα, η μετατροπή της ανάστασης νεκρών σε φυσιολογικό γεγονός, είναι ένα πολύ ωραίο πλαίσιο για την εισαγωγή των βασικών προβληματικών. Έτσι παρακολουθούμε τις συγκρούσεις δογμάτων αλλά και την ενοποίησή τους υπό την πραγματική και πανανθρώπινη πίστη, την αναγωγή του κανονικού σε μεταφυσική εμπειρία και την προσγείωση του θείου σε κανονικότητα, όλα ως μέρος μιας φοβερά ενδιαφέρουσας και ρέουσας ιστορίας.

Αλλά, όπως πάντα, ο PKD δεν ενδιαφέρεται να εξηγήσει τα τι και τα πώς της δυστοπίας του, παρά μόνο το να ρίψει τους χαρακτήρες του στις ακρότερες των καταστάσεων και να τους αφήσει να ανταποκριθούν. Σε αυτό συμβάλλει θετικά το ότι οι χαρακτήρες είναι όντως βαθιά ιδιοτελείς και μηδενικά ηρωικοί, οπότε και γίνονται επαρκώς πιστευτοί. Συνολικά, είναι ένα πολύ ευανάγνωστο βιβλίο, με μια -ακόμα- φοβερή σύλληψη, που όμως δεν έχει κάτι πολύ καινούριο να προσθέσει στο ζήτημα που πραγματεύεται.

[Daniel Reyes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the strangest stories I have read, set in a world where time has reversed itself and the dead are coming back to life, books are being unwritten, food is no longer ingested but disgorged, and in general, as the title of the book suggests the world has started to move counter-clockwise. The real impact of this story however is in the philosophical and theological issues addressed by the characters, and the profound impact that mass resurrection has had on religious doctrine.

Despite being set in a future for the author (mid 90's), today's reader can easily identify this as a novel coming from the mid 60's for some of the technology available to the characters is indeed obsolete for us, while others are closer to the kinds of gadgets imagined by Popular Science and Popular Mechanics as belonging to the year 2000 (imagine the Jetsons cartoon).

All in all a very interesting reading experience, with Philip K. Dick's characteristic style, full of grim images and a run down picture of our civilization, set against questions of what it means to be human in the face of extraordinary events.