Book Review: The World Jones Made (Philip K Dick)

"'He was everything.  He understood history - he knew when to get off the stage...and how.  He knew when to make his entrance and his exit.  We thought we were going to be stuck with Jones for another six months...instead, we're stuck with Jones, the legend of Jones, forever.'" - Philip K Dick

The World Jones Made is a world that seems to be entirely populated by everything that makes a PKD novel so great:  it's got mutants, weird alien life forms, psychics, totalitarian governments with oppressive police forces, and the overall decline of the human race.  And yet, it all fits together really well in a mere 200 pages.

The book is a pretty short read, but not always an easy one.  The beginning is really interesting, but that interest eventually fades as it goes along.  Largely because, much like Dr. Bloodmoney, the book skims over the overall disasters that befall the world, and not much is written about the actual villain that instigates worldly disaster (although, Jones in this book is much more interesting than Dr. Bloodmoney).  In between the more interesting scenes in The World Jones Made, the story tends to drag a bit, as it primarily follows some cop dude and his girlfriend; they seem like rather inconsequential characters at first, but they do contribute to a rather impressive climax.  Prior to that, however, I found myself a little bored by reading about these people (and it's a bit disappointing, considering that there's massive social change and alien spores falling from the sky, all happening at once...).

Regardless, it is a well-built story with a ton of awesome ideas.  A lot of the concepts this book uses are pretty similar to what PKD has used in his other stories:  the notions of a man being able to see the future, strange life forms, mutations, and oppressive governments are all familiar trademarks for this guy's work.  This story has a lot of fascinating implications, especially by its end.  As far as characters go, I found them to be a bit dull, lacking in substantial depth or personality.  Jones is probably the most interesting person of the lot, but I would have loved the book more if more attention was given to the mutant characters and the main characters.

This is a pretty well-written book; it finds a pretty good balance between being wordy and allowing the story to move along swiftly.  PKD uses a solid style with decent dialogue and good descriptions.

I generally liked this book, despite having a few uninteresting moments, and I thought it was a pretty neat story overall.

4/5 (Entertainment:  Pretty Good | Story:  Good | Book:  Good)