Cheap Vulcan's Hammer : A Novel (Book) (PHILIP K. DICK) Price

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Customer Reviews of Vulcan's Hammer : A Novel

Unlike the author's later works there aren't any deep-rooted social commentary with Vulcan's Hammer. And this story is completely readable; I believe many Philip K. Dick fans enjoy deciphering his often unintelligible prose. Best of all the story reads as a suspense novel, with the author deftly placing in twists to keep the reader hooked .. and it worked for me.

Bottom line: a fun if somewhat unremarkable read. Recommended.

Man and machine
In the world of 'Vulcan's Hammer', humans have apparently given up on their political power. They are under the authority of Vulcan III, a massive underground computer that ended war, unemployment and poverty years ago. Two human factions are set against each other: the Union, led by many high-profile directors including William Barris, and the 'Healers', a rebellious group seemingly led by a mysterious figure named Father Fields. Many questions are submitted daily to Vulcan III, but the machine has not yet said a word about the group; people are quick to blame head-director Jason Dill, the only one allowed to submit such questions. In addition to the powerful Vulcan III, there's also the older Vulcan II, which is destroyed but still reveals crucial insights about the Healers and Vulcan III when some of its remains are reconstructed. The 'Union versus Healers' opposition can be multiplied by at least three, because there is some discord a) in the Union itself, b) in the Healers movement, and, most interestingly, c) between the machines. Both of the Vulcan computers play as big a role as the humans, and often seem just as 'alive' as they are. The entire work can be seen as an ongoing mind game, sometimes between men, sometimes between man and machine, sometimes between the machines themselves; it is a lot more substantial than its dismal reputation would lead the unsuspecting reader to believe.

SF NOVELS OPUS EIGHT
The main ideas of VULCAN'S HAMMER, the second of the two Philip K. Dick books published in 1960 - the first one being the already forgotten DR. FUTURITY -, can be found in a 1956 novelette presented in Satellite n° 20. Such borrowings were then common, authors developing a novelette to the length of a novel even years after the first publication. A.E. Van Vogt and Isaac Isamov for instance used this innocent literary trick in numerous occasions.

VULCAN'S HAMMER reminded me of another PKD novel, also published in 1956, THE WORLD JONES MADE. In the two novels, the established government is threatened by a democratic revolution. Father Fields, the leader of the " Healers ", must fight not only the Nomenklatura of the sole ruling party but also the Vulcan computers to which a trusting world has left years before the entire responsibility in political matters. Soon Vulcan III will defend itself against those who want its death by producing little "hammers" that kill, observe and communicate with a Vulcan deeply hidden in the ground. One could consider these hammers as the first cellulars ever mentioned in a literary text.

Some of the novels Philip K. Dick has published in the late fifties-early sixties period stand very well the test of time thanks to the originality of the themes treated - as in EYE IN THE SKY - but others like VULCAN'S HAMMER are very dated. The idea of a fight between computers and humans for supremacy is not, in my opinion, the most original idea found in a sci-fi book.

Nevertheless, if you can find a copy of VULCAN'S HAMMER, don't hesitate to buy it because a book that is not read is a dead book and Philip K. Dick deserves to stay alive in our libraries.

A book for PKD ultra-fans only.