Reviews

I have never read a sci-fi novel that is so fascinatingly personal to the author than A Scanner Darkly. The only thing more devastating than realizing the true scope of the novel is reading the list of those it was dedicated to in the author’s note; Because it is not its scope that is truly important, it is the lives and fates of even its smallest characters.

It is also a literary sci-fi novel that very clearly puts the emphasis on the former. Through all of its wild experimentation with form and narration, we are still fed an amazingly engaging story about nothing more than our world’s unjustifiable consequences.

“That was it: I saw Substance D growing. I saw death rising from the earth, from the ground itself, in one blue field, in stubbled color” (Dick, 275).

zacwasko's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Content Warnings

lozam_3's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

heather93's review against another edition

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dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

beee1234's review against another edition

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5.0

One of my favorite novels. There is just something here that is not anywhere else.

Reread: This is a book where the last 50 pages transform the first 200. It was not easy to get through the second time - I lagged through good chunks - but I was left with the same feeling of colossal emotional impact, of great loss, of the incredible love for the drug-addicted characters that threads the pages together. I'd recommend reading the author's note in the back both at the beginning and at the end. This book sits with me in my heart; I carry it, I look at the world through it.

'To our waiting heirs...who will not know the dreadful war we've gone through, and the losses we took, unless in some footnote in a history book they catch a notion. Some brief mention. With no list of the fallen.
There should be a monument somewhere, he thought, listing those who died in this. And worse, those who didn't die. Who had to live on, past death.'

'We really all were very happy for a while...but it was for such a terribly brief time, and then the punishment was beyond belief...In this lifestyle, the motto is "Be happy today, because tomorrow you are dying," but the dying begins all at once, and the happiness is a memory.'

'I, myself, am not a character in this novel; I am the novel.'

'I loved them all...In Memoriam.'

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