This is one of Philip Dick's earliest
published works. As such, it has to be expected that there were likely
to be some rawness compared to his later books.
Floyd
Jones is a malcontent pre-cog with the ability to see one year into the future.
As such, he lives the same period twice over.
 He
stirs the interest of the secret police and in return incites a
revolt and revolution that sets himself as the leader of the world
when 'drifters' - single-cell protoplasms land on Earth. 'Course,
he sees all of this happening but can do nothing about changing
events other than ensuring that he does what he foresees. Seeing
only one year into the future isn't quite enough to control events
and his failure is risking invasion and genocide.
The basic premise of this book is
very sound as well as interesting. The problem tends to stem from Dick throwing
in tangent plots of mutants bred to live on Venus - back in 1956, the planet was
thought to have a poisonous atmosphere but possible to support life - and the
life of Cussick, who discovered Jones. Granted these threads make more
sense at the end but too much time is spent diverting to them. What is singularly
lacking is not seeing more of how Jones grows and declines with his knowledge.
It seems odd that a character as potentially interesting as Jones ends up nearly
side-lined in a book about his career.
In that respect, this book is
also a demonstration that even one of the best SF writers had as much teething
problems as any of the neo-writers coming out today. For that reason alone,
it should be included on your reading list as a reminder that all writers have
to start somewhere. It might not be his best work but is certainly worth reading.
GF
Willmetts
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