Eye in the Sky

So-called “classic” science fiction from the 50s can now appear incredibly dated, especially when it focuses on technology. Thankfully, Philip K Dick's take on Science Fiction is more about inner space than outer space. This early novel from the late 50s uses an accident at a research lab to explore the inner psyche of several of the victims of the accident, as they are trapped in worlds of their own making.

The technology is used as window dressing. Dick's real subject, which he would revisit many, many times over the next two decades, is the nature of reality itself. Hamilton has just been fired from his job because his wife is a suspected Communist (this is the McCarthy era, remember) and they are two of the eight people caught in the accident. They wake up in a nightmare world soaked in religion, where God is a real presence in the sky (hence the title of the book), the Earth is the centre of the universe, prayer actually works and the laws of physics have been subverted. It's a nightmarish vision of vengeful angels and mindless dogma. Only by knocking unconscious the creator of this world do they escape, only to find themselves in an even more bizarre situation, where one woman's dislike of something erases it from existence.

Dick's imagination is spectacular, creating whole universes with different rules and playing out the consequences. There's mania here and horror as the protagonists struggle to get back to “reality”, whatever that may be. And if they do, will they ever be the same again?

Eye in the Sky is well worth the time of any SF fan and is one of Dick's early classics.