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Philip K. Dick
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Time Out Of Joint Kindle Edition

by Philip K. Dick (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 994 ratings
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From the Hugo Award–winning author of The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick's twisty and paranoid Time Out of Joint is "marvelous, terrifying fun, especially if you’ve ever suspected that the world is an unreal construct built solely to keep you from knowing who you really are. Which it is, of course" (Rolling Stone).

"The time is out of joint; O curs'd spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!" (William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act I, Scene V)

Ragle Gumm has a unique job: every day he wins a newspaper contest. And when he isn’t consulting his charts and tables, he enjoys his life in a small town in 1959. At least, that’s what he thinks.

But then strange things start happening. He finds a phone book where all the numbers have been disconnected, and a magazine article about a famous starlet he’s never heard of named Marilyn Monroe. Plus, everyday objects are beginning to disappear and are replaced by strips of paper with words written on them like "bowl of flowers" and "soft drink stand."

When Ragle skips town to try to find the cause of these bizarre occurrences, his discovery could make him question everything he has ever known.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    242 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Mariner Books Classics
  5. Publication date
    October 23, 2012
  6. File size
    1142 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Written in the late 1950s and early 1960s, these titles follow Dick's familiar theme that things and people are not quite what and who they seem, basically challenging reality. Though dead for 20 years now, Dick still is hugely popular among sf readers and Blade Runner nuts, so pop for these.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“Dick was one of the genuine visionaries.... His best novels constitute as significant a body of work as that of any writer in this country in the last thirty years.”– L.A. Weekly

“Dick was sf’s greatest extrapolator of modern angst.” --New York Daily News


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B006R8PLE4
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mariner Books Classics; Reissue edition (October 23, 2012)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 23, 2012
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1142 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 242 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 994 ratings

About the author

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Philip K. Dick

Philip K. Dick

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Over a writing career that spanned three decades, Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) published 36 science fiction novels and 121 short stories in which he explored the essence of what makes man human and the dangers of centralized power. Toward the end of his life, his work turned toward deeply personal, metaphysical questions concerning the nature of God. Eleven novels and short stories have been adapted to film; notably: Blade Runner (based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), Total Recall, Minority Report, and A Scanner Darkly. The recipient of critical acclaim and numerous awards throughout his career, Dick was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2005, and in 2007 the Library of America published a selection of his novels in three volumes. His work has been translated into more than twenty-five languages.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
994 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Eric San Juan
5.0 out of 5 stars Among Dick's best early novels
Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2006
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In the hands of the right director, Time Out Of Joint could be one of the best recent speculative fiction films of recent years.

Equal parts Dark City and The Truman Show, this early Philip K. Dick novel touches on all that you expect from a PKD novel - "What is reality?" - and makes a real page-turner out of it. The pace after the lengthy into is blistering, the revelations exciting, and the Truth entirely strange and awesome. Predictable, maybe (I guessed it), but still quite a nice reveal. A real page-turner, this one, with some of Dick's best prose from his early days and a concept that has since been stolen a dozen times over. Never before has an uneventful drive in an 18-wheeler been so thrilling.

Likely considered minor PKDick, and I understand why some might make that argument, but I was really caught im in this scenario. Among his better early novels and an excellent novel for the PKD novice to dip into before trying out his more heady, less accessible later work.
9 people found this helpful
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A. R. Davis
4.0 out of 5 stars Could have been a Twilight Zone episode
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2021
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Classic Philip K. Dick, packed full of wild ideas hidden behind short sentences, simple words, and familiar setting. It is a paranoid vision of a Ray Bradbury reflection on the good old days in America. Dick’s descriptions of details of the past are personally familiar, and his guesses about the shape of the future are fascinating, if not always correct. The Heisenberg Unified Field Theory was a good example. As you would expect there are a “hodge-podge of leaks” in the protagonist’s reality. That reality for me was the one flaw. At this point in time it seems a bit cliche, and Dick’s description of it was superficial compared to the world of the story’s illusion.
3 people found this helpful
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Vazhaspa Spitman
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best according to David Pringle
Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2015
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"Squeezing his eyes together he tried to dislodge the presence of the bus and passengers. For ten minutes he tried. His mind fell into a stupor. The navel, he thought blearily. Concentration on one point. He picked out the buzzer on the side of the bus opposite him. The round, white buzzer. Go, he thought. Fade away. Fade away. Fade , F ..." ( Time Out of Joint, Kindle Locations 1249-1251).

Beside this excerpt , I' am to just quote from David Pringle. Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels :

"Philip Kindred Dick (1928-1982), one of science fiction’s cult authors... is viewed by some [particularly in Europe] as the greatest American sf writer....
Time Out of Joint was his first hardcover book. For the first third of its length it scarcely reads like science fiction at all. It seems to be a pleasant, mildly witty novel of everyday life in the contemporary United States ... of 1959.
In reality it is the year 1998, and he is in the midst of a war of attrition between the ‘One Happy World’ dictatorship and rebels on the Moon. Ragle’s task, disguised as a Little-Green-Man contest, is to predict the pattern of incoming missiles ... the government has forced him into a ‘withdrawal psychosis’— a retreat to the world of his childhood, a make-believe small-town paradise of 1959."
4 people found this helpful
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Isaac Feliciano
3.0 out of 5 stars Phil K. D. is a good author
Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2022
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An ok book, the good stuff doesn't show up till the last few chapters but there is a peppering of such throughout. Not his best but still interesting.
2 people found this helpful
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David Wilder
4.0 out of 5 stars A Thought-Provoking Work from PKD
Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2015
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This is a really solid PKD novel. One of his better works, in my opinion. It has been a few days since I finished the book, and I have been thinking about it a good amount. The plot is interesting, I greatly enjoyed the characters' personalities, and as usual - the unique depictions of yet another possible underlying reality blew my mind.

I would probably recommend this as one of the top ten PKD novels. I still have a lot more to read, but this one sticks out to me as an easy introduction to PKD. There's not too much woo-woo science fiction in this book, but the way he describes the main characters paranoia and the unbelievability of his situation was nothing short of amazing.
13 people found this helpful
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flim-flam artist
5.0 out of 5 stars A stiff dose of paranoia.
Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2014
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Well, it's Philip K. Dick, so if you are a die-hard fan, there will be some impulse within you to consume all his works in short order. Prepare to be shocked into a semi-psychotic state by the clarified ramblings of a madman. Soon, you too will believe that everyone is out to get them, and before long, you will be driven out of your mind, and driven out of your familiar locale by your former friends and colleagues, as you have begun to manifest the mannerisms of the insane. Don't worry, though - it's only temporary, and it will wear off. In time, you will re-establish yourself in society, become gainfully employed once more, and you will feel comfortable again. That is, until you get a nagging sensation that despite how perfect life is, something is amiss. You will recall the words of the prophet Horselover Fat, and you will return to his holy scriptures, and receive a new dose of wanderlust. And so, the cycle continues...
14 people found this helpful
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larry
5.0 out of 5 stars arrived promptly and as described
Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2023
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new condition as described
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Marissa
4.0 out of 5 stars About Time I found a good book
Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2021
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Philip K Dick has done it again! A great and interesting story with a plot twist no one could see coming!
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Top reviews from other countries

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Sean
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 24, 2021
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Love Philip K Dicks writing style, he makes even the most mundane things worth reading, which is a must for this book as the beginning is a little slow but I promise If you stick with it it’ll be worth it! This book had my imagination running wild with twists and turns of how it was going to end. It is a must read!
One person found this helpful
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Enric Naval
5.0 out of 5 stars Esquizofrénica, diferente y fascinante
Reviewed in Spain on November 9, 2020
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El libro da una sensación de incomodidad psicológica, la sensación de que todo a tu alrededor es mentira. Creo que ayuda a entender un poco cómo se sienten las persona esquizofrénicas.

Lo malo: al ser tan viejo, hay muchos giros argumentales que ya hemos visto muchas veces en obras más nuevas.
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GKQ24
5.0 out of 5 stars Happy with my purchase.
Reviewed in Australia on April 12, 2024
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The book is as advertised. It was posted in a protective manner. A very good experience. Thank you.
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LurkyMurker
5.0 out of 5 stars Mind = Blown
Reviewed in India on August 26, 2016
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Original product, great quality and ofcourse, awesome book! On time delivery, great service, would recommend 100%.
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Samantha K Krewulak
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in Canada on May 21, 2013
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A very complex, yet easy read. It features the classic Philip K. Dick idea that things are not what they appear to be, and that one should always question their reality. It is such an incredible idea put to paper, and it will certainly have you wondering if your own contemporaries are even there at all.
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