This book is written in a style far different from any I have seen from later authors. It may take a bit of getting used to. But, once acclimated, it is a great read and I am glad I put out the effort. I do, however, find it quite strange that Amazon doesn't think it fit to be In their Kindle Unlimited collection. Odd, indeed!

I am generally a PKD fan. Most of his books have so many sub texts and paranoia that it takes a little neurosis to understand. This is one his few books where this is a little less intense. The plot and character interactions are straight forward. Themes are reitierated in a concise language. And the book has an unusual optimistic feel in the ending. Which, it being a PKD book, freaked me out.

I love the works of PKD. The Zap Gun has a powerful theme of sentience, empathy, and the illusory world of perpetual deceit.

Wes-bloc and Peep-East have been in a Cold War for years, holding each other hostage with a never-ending stream of ingenious and terrifying weapons that are never used. However, unknown to the "pursaps" (pure saps), the weapons are not real, and their impressive tests, broadcast for all to see, are merely staged. Only the "cogs" (cognoscenti), the elites, are in on the ruse.

THE PLOT (no spoilers)

The main character is Lars Powderdry (get it?), weapons designer for Wes-bloc. He is the head of a private company, which really makes no sense since his only client is the government. PKD seems to include this implausible element to characterize Wes-bloc as capitalist, using corporate contractors. His Peep-East counterpart is Lilo Topchev.

The story is full of PKD's typically zany names -- Dr. Todt, General Nitz, Nina Whitecotton (who is black), Oral Giacomini, and best of all -- Surley G. Febbs. The action is driven by the appearance of alien ships orbiting the Earth. Can the creators of fake weapons succeed in creating a real weapon to defeat the alien threat?

Several bizarre twists complicate the narrative, including a comic book called "The Blue Cephalopod Man From Titan" and an old military veteran hanging around in the park across from the entrance to the Wes-bloc HQ. The outcome is ingenious and absurd.

Mental illness and drugs are both featured as is typical for PKD, reflecting his real-life problems. There are two love interests for Lars, and as usual PKD's handling of women characters is lacking, also reflecting his real-life problems.

THE THEME (no spoilers)

As usual, PKD's theme is empathy, compassion, and love. One character tells Lars and his colleagues "love is the basis of your lives" (78-79). Powderdry is cynical, but he is in fact working to maintain peace. Later there is a discussion of caritas and agape (200).

SLIPSHOD WRITING

PKD supposedly never rewrote his stories. They were all first drafts until "A Scanner Darkly," which his then wife worked on rewriting with him before submitting it for publication. This is painfully evident in "The Zap Gun." For instance, at one point characters are in an elevator, and then mysteriously they are on an aircraft (46). A drug suddenly affects Powderdry in "...a terrible rush like bad fire" (122). Bad fire?

*** *** ***

"The Zap Gun" was written in 1964, one of six novels PKD wrote that year, his most prolific. It was immediately followed by "The Penultimate Truth," with another paranoid Cold War premise -- twin of "The Zap Gun." "Zap Gun" was published in two installments in "Worlds of Tomorrow," sister magazine to "Galaxy," in 1965 and 1966, and came out in paperback in 1967.

Another quirky but thought provoking book by a Science Fiction Master, The Zap Gun is set in the near future (2005) when the US and the Soviets have come to terms and are continually (and literally) beating their weapons into plowshares - big-name (and psychic) weapons designers have their ideas turned into pop culture kitsch. However, when actual aliens show up to enslave the planet, they've got to figure out how to make things work like they did before.

The story has plenty of twists in the Philip K. Dick manner, and it's a pretty good sci-fi tale in general. Very readable.

This is one of his more ? frivolous ? (and yet not so) books, along the lines of Ubiq. I bought it for my daughter having enjoyed it many years ago.

Of all PKD's books this may be the most misunderstood. Misunderstood because it is only a book about world politics on the surface. It represents one of his more imaginative books on his own creativity (plowshares, toys, inventions) and also a story of great longong both personally in love and professionally in his abilities. There is the usual self-doubt, the unexpected twists and, unlike many of his books, the ending his his optimistic and personally most fulfilled.

I have read near all of his novels, and the extended version of this book (not the short 1965 edition) is one of the best novels he ever wrote.

One of the happy results of Philip K. Dick's posthumous, Hollywood-fed, popularity is that his work is very widely available. The Zap Gun is surely one of his less well-known novels, but here we see it in a brand new large-sized paperback edition. It's not one of his masterworks, but it is a fine, enjoyable, very funny, novel.

Dick's novels very often have a comic aspect, but this is one of the funniest. Curiously enough, it is set at almost the present time -- our present, that is: 2005. The US and allies (Wes-Bloc) and the Soviet Union and allies (Peep-East) have secretly come to an agreement: instead of continuing the ruinous arms race, they will pretend to be constantly developing new weapons, which are then "plowshared": turned into goofy consumer products. The weapon designers are psychics, who dream up their new designs in trance states. The Wes-Bloc designer, Lars Powderdry, or Mr. Lars of Mr. Lars Incorporated (the conceit being that weapons are basically fashion), is the main viewpoint character. He is tortured by the knowledge that he is essentially a fraud -- his designs are useless. He is also obsessed with his opposite number in Peep-East: Lilo Topchev, of whom he knows nothing. This despite his very sexy mistress, Maren Faine, head of the Paris branch of Mr. Lars, Incorporated.

Dick mines this central idea for some comic play, then introduces a slightish plot. Aliens from Sirius invade Earth, looking for slaves. Earth has a problem -- for decades nobody has developed new weapons. In desperation, the two blocs decide to have Lars and Lilo collaborate -- which satisfies Lars's desire to meet Lilo. But Lilo, instead of cooperating, immediately tries to kill Lars. And even when they work together, their designs, though unusual, seem hardly useful. There is a fairly pointless, though also funny, subplot about a paranoid conspiracy theorist and White Supremacist who is elected as an "average man" to the governing body of Wes-Bloc. The eventual solution involves a wild mix of time travel, androids, drugs, toys, and comic books. All of this hardly matters -- Dick was under less control of his plot than usual here -- I think his main concern was to be funny.

Lars is a fairly sympathetic main character. Dick's extrapolations of the future often seem quite prescient -- indeed, the book has hardly dated at all. And he succeeds in being funny, and very entertaining. The Zap Gun isn't a great work, but it is well worth reading.

Brilliant!

"After the Plowshare Protocols way back in 2002, Lars Powderdry, Wes-bloc's brilliant weapons fashion designer, has been inventing elaborate devices that only seem to be massively lethal. And the deception is taking a heavy toll of his personal life. But whan alien satellites appear in the sky and it's clear that they aren't friendly, the world suddenly needs military might like never before. So, Wes-bloc and Peep-East temporarily patch up their differences and Lars meets up with Lilo Topchev, his eastern counterpart, in the hope that they can create a weapon to save the world. It's a difficult task made even trickier by Lars falling in love with Lilo even though he knows she is trying to kill him...."

-- from back cover

Philip K Dick's twentieth published novel, written in 1964 and published in 1967. The Zap Gun deals with a number of Dick's favourite themes, amongst others, truth, reality and political manipulation, drugs, times travel etc. As with all PKD's works this novel makes you marvel at his imagination but also (if you are of a philosophical turn of mind) brings you to question and consider the themes he raises for yourself.

"At a time when most 20th-century science fiction writers seem hopelessly dated, Dick gives us a vision of the future that captures the feel of our time."

--Wired

"The finest American novelist of our time."

--Hartford Advocate

"Hilarious and wildly brilliant"

--Lawrence Sutin, Divine Invasions

If you are new to Philip K Dick's work I would also recommend the following novels (which generally seem to be regarded as among his best):

Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?

Ubik (S.F. Masterworks)

A Scanner Darkly (S.F. Masterworks)

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (S.F. Masterworks)

Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said (S.F. Masterworks)

That said, though some of PKD's works are better than others, to my mind they are all well worth reading. I would also recommend his short story collections:

Beyond Lies The Wub: Volume One Of The Collected Short Stories

Second Variety: Volume Two Of The Collected Short Stories

The Father-Thing: Volume Three Of The Collected Short Stories

Minority Report: Volume Four Of The Collected Short Stories

We Can Remember It For You Wholesale: Volume Five of The Collected Short Stories

Great novel. John

Philip K. Dick at his most underwhelming, with this exceptionally dull offering of his style of neurotic science fiction, not a patch on 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' ( A.K.A.'Blade Runner') or 'Through a Scanner Darkly' ...

From the word go, I regretted purchasing this book. Don't get me wrong p k dick is a brilliant writer - however this book in particular was - what's the word - awful.