(1966/2000) Philip K Dick, Millennium, £6.99, pbk, 225pp, ISBN 1-85798-701-2
Another in the Gollancz/Millennium SF Masterworks series, and what a brilliant series it is! Even the books which don't directly appeal to me deserve to be in it and, alongside their ‘yellowjacket’ (SF collector’s library) re-issues, they should find a home on any serious SF collector’s shelves.
Dr. Eric Sweetscent is having a troubled marriage, but then his employer ‘lends’ him to Earth’s leader, Gino Molinari, who is fighting a fruitless war with the reegs in a forced alliance with the people of Lilistar. But there’s a new drug in town, JJ-180, also known as Frohedadrine, which allows the user to move about in time. Or does it? And, if Molinari has access to the drug, will that explain why he looks so young in his broadcasts, and why he appears to have his own dead body on ice? This is classic multiple reality Dick illuminating the topics of social and personal responsibility. Buy it.
Tony Chester
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