Our Friends From Frolix 8

"Good God, he thought. What am I thinking? Nobody's risen from the dead in 2100 years; they're not going to start to now." 

Dick's Our Friends From Frolix 8 immediately brings to mind Lies, Inc. and Three Stigmata but somewhere in between those two novels in quality. This one, a sort of combination of Nietzsche, 1984 and Dick's interest in Christianity and theology more broadly, succeeds far more convincingly than Lies. The alien, Morgo, ontologically changes and absorbs matter, aiding Thors Provini, the 'Christ-like' figure in the novel, in defeating the New Men and Unusuals who rule Earth. Nick Appleton, the common man or everyday person type of character, ubiquitous in Dick's novels, experiences this revolutionary period in which the dictatorship of the Unusuals and New Men is threatened. Drugs and marital strife are also present, as one would expect. Despite the oppressive totalitarian society created by the New Men and their telepathic or precog Unusual allies (an alliance that is beginning to fall apart), Appleton's moral position at the novel's conclusion is beautiful, powerful, and, in accordance with some of Dick's more overtly Christian work, defends emotional and ethical intelligence, not intellectual superiority.