VALIS
VALIS is the first novel of Philip K. Dick's loose late trilogy, published in 1981, the year before his death. It is built around the autobiographical experience Dick called 2-3-74, a series of religious or hallucinatory visions he had in February and March of 1974, in which a beam of pink light appeared to deliver compressed information about his own life and the structure of reality. The book splits Dick into two characters who share the page, the narrator Phil Dick, a science-fiction writer trying to remain rational, and Horselover Fat, the seeker who has lost his footing. With a small group of friends, including a Berkeley theologian and a science-fiction novelist plainly modeled on Thomas Disch, Fat works through a sprawling Exegesis combining Gnostic Christianity, the pre-Socratics, Marx, and Dick's own private cosmology. They eventually go to investigate a Bay Area rock star who claims to have made contact with VALIS himself.
Also by Philip K. Dick
What you might want to know about VALIS
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
In Orange County in 1974, science fiction writer Horselover Fat is hit in the head by a pink beam of cosmic data he comes to call VALIS. The novel is narrated by his friend Philip K.
Heavily. Philip K. Dick split himself into two characters, Horselover Fat and the narrator, to explore the religious experiences he reported in February and March 1974.
Yes. It blends theology, gnosticism, autobiography, and science fiction in a way that resists conventional plot. It rewards patience and rereading.
It is the first book of an unfinished trilogy that includes The Divine Invasion and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. Dick died before completing his planned fourth book.
VALIS was written by Philip K. Dick, published in 1981 by Mariner Books.
VALIS is 271 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, VALIS takes most readers 4 to 6 hours to finish.
VALIS is a standalone novel by Philip K. Dick, not part of a series.
VALIS is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
