Fiction Mystery Sci-fi Sci-Fi Fantasy

A Maze of Death

Name: A Maze of Death
Rating: 3.82 (10204 reviews)
Author: Philip K. Dick

Philip K. Dick July 1, 1970

3.82 10.2k Ratings

Ongoing Status

26 Views

Start Reading

Synopsis

Fourteen strangers come to Delmak-O. Thirteen of them were transferred by the usual authorities. One got there by praying. But once they arrived on that treacherous planet, whose very atmosphere seemed to induce paranoia and psychosis, the newcomers tound that even prayer was useless. For on Delmak-O, God is either absent or intent on destroying His creations. At once a wrenching metaphysical thriller and an ingenious meditation on the nature of divinity, A Maze of Death is Philip K. Dick at his most dizzyingly provocative.

Books similar to A Maze of Death

Raising the Stones

★ 4.07

Sheri S. Tepper

The author of The Gate to Women's Country and Grass weaves a moving story of one man's coming to accept his role in a far future universe, providing a brilliant exploration of relations between the sexes, the value of religion, and mankind's place in the universe.

Children of God

★ 4.09

Mary Doria Russell

Mary Doria Russell's debut novel, The Sparrow, took us on a journey to a distant planet and into the center of the human soul. A critically acclaimed bestseller, The Sparrow was chosen as one of Entertainment Weekly's Ten Best Books of the Year, a finalist for the Book-of-the-Month Club's First Fiction Prize and the winner of the James M. Tiptree Memorial Award. Now, in Children of God, Russell further establishes herself as one of the most innovative, entertaining and philosophically provocative novelists writing today.

The only member of the original mission to the planet Rakhat to return to Earth, Father Emilio Sandoz has barely begun to recover from his ordeal when the Society of Jesus calls upon him for help in preparing for another mission to Alpha Centauri. Despite his objections and fear, he cannot escape his past or the future.

Old friends, new discoveries and difficult questions await Emilio as he struggles for inner peace and understanding in a moral universe whose boundaries now extend beyond the solar system and whose future lies with children born in a faraway place.

Strikingly original, richly plotted, replete with memorable characters and filled with humanity and humor, Children of God is an unforgettable and uplifting novel that is a potent successor to The Sparrow and a startlingly imaginative adventure for newcomers to Mary Doria Russell’s special literary magic.

The Jesus Incident

★ 3.73

Frank Herbert

A determined group of colonists are attempting to establish a bridgehead on the planet Pandora, despite the savagery of the native lifeforms, as deadly as they are inhospitable. But they have more to deal with than just murderous aliens: their ship's computer has been given artificial consciousness and has decided that it is a God. Now it is insisting—with all the not inconsiderable force of its impressive array of armaments to back it up—that the colonists find appropriate ways to worship It.

Job: A Comedy of Justice

★ 3.78

Robert A. Heinlein

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Robert Heinlein at his superlative best. A fascinating and thought-provoking novel—one to make you smile, to make you wonder, and to make you care!

After that firewalking gig in Polynesia, the whole world was suddenly changed around him. Instead of fundamentalist minister Alexander Hergensheimer, he was now supposed to be Alec Graham, an underworld figure in the middle of an affair with his stewardess Margrethe—who was the only good thing in the whole mess.

Then there was an impossible iceberg that wrecked the ship in the tropics. Rescued by a Royal Mexican plane, they were hit by a double earthquake. From then on, as changed world followed changed world, things went from bad to worse.

To Alex, all the signs increasingly pointed to Armageddon and the Day of Judgement. And Margrethe was a determined heathen. Somehow he had to bring her to a state of grace, for Heaven would be no paradise without her. But time was growing short.

Somewhere, there had to be a solution to it all. And, of course, there was. But it was truly a Hell of a solution.

The Divine Invasion

★ 3.82

Philip K. Dick

In The Divine Invasion, Philip K. Dick asks: What if God — or a being called Yah — were alive and in exile on a distant planet? How could a second coming succeed against the high technology and finely tuned rationalized evil of the modern police state?

The Divine Invasion "blends Judaism, Kabalah, Zoroastrianism, and Christianity into a fascinating fable of human existence"
--West Coast Review of Books

Shadow & Claw

★ 4.04

Gene Wolfe

The Shadow of the Torturer is the tale of young Severian, an apprentice in the Guild of Torturers on the world called Urth, exiled for committing the ultimate sin of his profession -- showing mercy toward his victim.

The Claw of the Conciliator continues the saga of Severian, banished from his home, as he undertakes a mythic quest to discover the awesome power of an ancient relic, and learn the truth about his hidden destiny.

The Book of the New Sun is unanimously acclaimed as Gene Wolfe's most remarkable work, hailed as "a masterpiece of science fantasy comparable in importance to the major works of Tolkien and Lewis" by Publishers Weekly, and "one of the most ambitious works of speculative fiction in the twentieth century" by The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Shadow & Claw brings together the first two books of the tetralogy in one volume.

The Golden Globe

★ 4.06

John Varley

Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards, John Varley is truly one of the "greats" of science fiction, comparable only to Heinlein, Herbert, Asimov, and Clark. Now the all-time master returns -- with his long-awaited epic novel of life beyond the great beyond...All the universe is a stage, and Sparky Valentine is its itinerant thespian. He makes his way from planet to planet as part of a motley theater troupe, bringing Shakespeare -- a version of it anyway -- to the outer reaches of earth's solar system. He journeys through the outlands, where thousands of artificial satellites drift, conglomerates of junk and rock welded together to support meager communities of human life. Here Sparky plies his trade, transforming himself from young to old, fat to thin, man to woman, by altering magnetic implants beneath his skin. Indispensable hardware for a career actor and an interstellar con man wanted for murder -- for while Sparky Valentine may have a song in his heart, he also has a price on his head. But his galactic roamings are bringing him closer to home, closer to justice -- and closer to the truth of his strange and prolonged existence...

Drawpoint

★ 4.49

L.T. Ryan

If you're going to take aim at Blake Brier, you better not miss. New from Wall Street Journal bestselling author L.T. Ryan, with Gregory Scott!

Returning to Rhode Island, Blake finds a Dear John letter and his house empty. Haeli is gone. Is it history repeating itself? Or is this something different ? A search for answers about a past operation has come back to haunt her. Haeli finds she's in for more than she bargained for. Her past is on a collision course with her future. Will Blake be collateral damage? Caught in the crosshairs, Blake is forced into action. A heart-pounding race-against-all-odds thriller awaits. "You'll hold your breath until the very last page."