Dr Bloodmoney - Philip Kindred Dick - 1st edition & 1st publication - cover artist Jack Gaughan
TITLE: Dr Bloodmoney
AUTHOR: Philip Kindred Dick 1928-82
TYPE: paperback novel PUBLISHER: Ace F337
COVER PRICE: $.40
ISBN:
PAGES:222
COPYRIGHT: 1965 by ACE books
Dr. Bloodmoney Or, How We Got Along After the Bomb by Philip K. Dick
"Listen McConchie," Fergesson said, "You know that kid with no arms and legs that comes around on that cart. The one with just those dinky flippers whose mother took that drug back in the early 60s? The one that always hangs around because he wants to be a TV repairmen - I hired him - his name is Hoppy"
Philip Dick's 1965 published science-fiction novel (written in 1963) "Dr. Bloodmoney" is one of a number written by various authors during the Cold War period that speculated what live would by like after an atomic bomb exchange. Dick's strange yet fascinating nightmarish future is well seasoned with confounding concepts and mystifying characters. Phil's Marin County California included talking dogs, rats that play musical instruments and do bookkeeping, cars pulled by horses and even some trucks propelled by burning wood to produce steam power. Entertainment and information is sporadic provided by an orbiting Water Dangerfield sole survivor of a failed Mars mission. Dangerfield reads the classics of literature - chapter by chapter and sometimes plays requested music like a celestial disk jockey.
Dr. Bruno Bluthgeld, a Berkley atomic scientist, through a "trivial miscalculation" started a chain reaction that left the world in ruin we are informed. Bluthgeld is on the run but as we find out the hellhounds of retribution are snapping as his heels mainly in the form of Hoppy the man born without arms and legs. Hoppy has developed some very peculiar talents and had acquired a lust for power that eventually becomes his undoing when he crosses the young girl with a brother living inside her.
There are several interwoven subplots and characters that propel this fascinating novel to a satisfying conclusion, satisfying for a Phil Dick novel that is!
This book is a peculiar and confounding mixture of science fiction and autobiography. I can state this as a fact since in later editions of this novel Dick included a very informative essay concerning this title. In fact he write himself as a character in the book: "I am, so to speak, Stuart McConchie and at one time I was a TV salesmen at a store on Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley."
A note about the title: Lawrence Sutin in his excellent biography of Dick "Divine Invasion" states "Phil proposed two titles: In Earth's Diurnal Course and A Terran Odyssey. The garish title was Ace books editor Donald A. Wollheim's attempt to cash in on Kubrick's film Dr. Strangelove".
PUB DATE:1965
EDITION: 1st edition, 1st publication
COVER ARTIST: Jack Gaughan
ISFDB: Yes
NOTATION:
The cover states "First Book Publication".
• The artist is not credited; JG is just visible on the cover (bottom right).
• The interior art piece is also not credited.
INDEX: 0273 - Dr Bloodmoney - 026 - PKD - IFB
QUOTE “What about my dead cat?’ Kevin would ask. Several years ago, Kevin had been out walking his cat in the early morning. Kevin, the fool, had not put the cat on a leach, and the cat had dashed into the street right into the wheel of a passing car…. Kevin liked to say “On judgment day when I’m brought up before the great judge I’m going to say, “hold on a second” and then I’m going to whip out my dead cat from inside my coat. “How do you explain this’ I’m going to ask”. By then Kevin use to say, the cat would be as stiff as a frying pan; and he would hold out the cat by it’s handle, it’s tail, and wait for a satisfactory answer. from Valis by Philip K. Dick
CULPABILITY: All images posted are from publications owned by RC/\Weazel. RC/\Weazel performed image scanning, editing and the compiling of bibliographic data.
ISFDB: Internet Speculative Fiction Data Base.
RATING: On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being great and 1 don’t read.
NO entry indicates specific information not available from book.
Dr Bloodmoney - Philip Kindred Dick - 1st edition & 1st publication - cover artist Jack Gaughan
TITLE: Dr Bloodmoney
AUTHOR: Philip Kindred Dick 1928-82
TYPE: paperback novel PUBLISHER: Ace F337
COVER PRICE: $.40
ISBN:
PAGES:222
COPYRIGHT: 1965 by ACE books
Dr. Bloodmoney Or, How We Got Along After the Bomb by Philip K. Dick
"Listen McConchie," Fergesson said, "You know that kid with no arms and legs that comes around on that cart. The one with just those dinky flippers whose mother took that drug back in the early 60s? The one that always hangs around because he wants to be a TV repairmen - I hired him - his name is Hoppy"
Philip Dick's 1965 published science-fiction novel (written in 1963) "Dr. Bloodmoney" is one of a number written by various authors during the Cold War period that speculated what live would by like after an atomic bomb exchange. Dick's strange yet fascinating nightmarish future is well seasoned with confounding concepts and mystifying characters. Phil's Marin County California included talking dogs, rats that play musical instruments and do bookkeeping, cars pulled by horses and even some trucks propelled by burning wood to produce steam power. Entertainment and information is sporadic provided by an orbiting Water Dangerfield sole survivor of a failed Mars mission. Dangerfield reads the classics of literature - chapter by chapter and sometimes plays requested music like a celestial disk jockey.
Dr. Bruno Bluthgeld, a Berkley atomic scientist, through a "trivial miscalculation" started a chain reaction that left the world in ruin we are informed. Bluthgeld is on the run but as we find out the hellhounds of retribution are snapping as his heels mainly in the form of Hoppy the man born without arms and legs. Hoppy has developed some very peculiar talents and had acquired a lust for power that eventually becomes his undoing when he crosses the young girl with a brother living inside her.
There are several interwoven subplots and characters that propel this fascinating novel to a satisfying conclusion, satisfying for a Phil Dick novel that is!
This book is a peculiar and confounding mixture of science fiction and autobiography. I can state this as a fact since in later editions of this novel Dick included a very informative essay concerning this title. In fact he write himself as a character in the book: "I am, so to speak, Stuart McConchie and at one time I was a TV salesmen at a store on Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley."
A note about the title: Lawrence Sutin in his excellent biography of Dick "Divine Invasion" states "Phil proposed two titles: In Earth's Diurnal Course and A Terran Odyssey. The garish title was Ace books editor Donald A. Wollheim's attempt to cash in on Kubrick's film Dr. Strangelove".
PUB DATE:1965
EDITION: 1st edition, 1st publication
COVER ARTIST: Jack Gaughan
ISFDB: Yes
NOTATION:
The cover states "First Book Publication".
• The artist is not credited; JG is just visible on the cover (bottom right).
• The interior art piece is also not credited.
INDEX: 0273 - Dr Bloodmoney - 026 - PKD - IFB
QUOTE “What about my dead cat?’ Kevin would ask. Several years ago, Kevin had been out walking his cat in the early morning. Kevin, the fool, had not put the cat on a leach, and the cat had dashed into the street right into the wheel of a passing car…. Kevin liked to say “On judgment day when I’m brought up before the great judge I’m going to say, “hold on a second” and then I’m going to whip out my dead cat from inside my coat. “How do you explain this’ I’m going to ask”. By then Kevin use to say, the cat would be as stiff as a frying pan; and he would hold out the cat by it’s handle, it’s tail, and wait for a satisfactory answer. from Valis by Philip K. Dick
CULPABILITY: All images posted are from publications owned by RC/\Weazel. RC/\Weazel performed image scanning, editing and the compiling of bibliographic data.
ISFDB: Internet Speculative Fiction Data Base.
RATING: On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being great and 1 don’t read.
NO entry indicates specific information not available from book.