A Maze of Death

Philip K. Dick's A Maze of Death represents a more religious themed novel from the great science fiction writer than I am accustomed to. Of course, religion and philosophy are important subjects in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and The Man in the High Castle, but this is the first to postulate and explore at the intersection of "reality" and "unreality" God, divided into a Trinity of sorts in a religion compounding Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Gnosticism, existentialism, and the meaning of life for a motley crew of colonists on a planet, Delmak-O. Reading this, one could not help but think of Vonnegut's Sirens of Titan for its similar fixation on God, determinism, and the meaning of life, or early Camus, either. Dick's drug addiction and LSD use also shaped this novel, particularly evident in some hallucinations and mind-bending colors and shapes throughout the text, especially in the theologian's experience and one character's trances, images of the Form Destroyer (the Black One, alluding to Gnosticism and Manichean dualism). Perhaps one must have faith and knowledge, and one can find salvation by seeing through the false, material realities, if you buy into Gnosticism at all...