I read the first 3 Dune books after seeing the movie and hearing about the challenges of getting that story on the screen. Love the first 2, the ending of the 3rd was ok.
I’m 3/4ths through the 4th and final Hyperion books. Absolutely incredible, I’m disappointed knowing I’ll be done with it soon. I highly recommend it if you’re at all curious. The author does an excellent job sneaking deep references into the colorful narrative; Keats and Ancient Greek mythology among them. The characters are vivid, varied, and somehow all relatable.
When I was younger I liked Vonnegut, specifically Galapagos, cats cradle, and slaughter house 5. I recently read Philip K Dicks “do androids… electric sheep” and wasn’t a fan. I loved the film blade runner, but the book kind of trudged on for me with, what I felt was, a let down of an ending. Asimov’s foundation was ok, but it lacked action and the characters seemed thin; I do like the concept a lot, it was just missing something for me.
So what’s next? I read a few classics in school and wasn’t terribly moved by most of them. I’ve considered giving Philip K Dick another chance, and possibly exploring the Dune books not authored by Herbert. I’m not a big fan of fantasy- at least in the horse riding, sword wielding, magic and sorcery vein.
Thanks for any suggestions
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is fine, but it's not Bladerunner so yeah it might be jarring. It's also not even close to his best work imo.
Some of my favorite Dick novels: The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and A Scanner Darkly. I think those are his two best imo. The Man in the High Castle is pretty good, but not at all indicative of his other work.
Now Wait for Last Year, and Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, are also pretty good. I liked what I read of UBIK, but didn't finish it. I have a friend that swears by it though.
Some people swear by his latter stuff (e.g. VALIS), but I was never able to get into it. You can kind of see his mind starting to slip as you read his stuff (which leads to some incredibly mind bending shit in his early-mid works), and by the end, it's kind of nonsensical imo.
It's kind of tragic to read about his life at the time he was writing. The afterword of A Scanner Darkly goes into some detail, including listing the names of friends that "didn't make it" (usually due to drugs). Later, during the VALIS years, he was having full-own psychotic breaks and hallucinatory events where he thought he was Thomas from the Bible, living in ancient Rome or some shit. And his writing started to reflect all of this.
I've only read the first Hyperion book (and fucking loved it), but keep in mind, Dick wrote a different kind of sci-fi that was more about exploring consciousness, existence, the concept of self, psychedelic drugs, etc. as opposed writing space epics or whatever. Not to say that they don't sometimes take place in space, but just don't expect the kind of grand narratives you're gonna get with someone like Asimov. Completely different type of sci-fi.
That said, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is his hidden gem imo. If you know, you know.