One of PKD's better ideas, yet it is somewhat flawed. Unlike most of his novels, this one is more tell than show. It seemed as though it was a bit rushed; it was as though I was reading expanded notes rather than the brilliant dialogue he is known and loved for. There were many seeds of characters and situations planted that, in the end came to nothing or to very little. It is unfortunate as this could have been a great novel had he put in the the adequate time and effort to fully develop it. This might be becauss it was based on two previously written short stories: The Defenders (1955) and The Mold of Yancy (1955). It is not so much a "fix-up" as van Vogt did regularly - which he claimed was as much work, if not more, as writing a novel from scratch - but rather it is an expanded merging of the two ideas. However, the overall theme of miss-information and recreated history is clear. I particularly liked the segment in which the events of WWII are distorted claiming, somewhat plausibly, that Roosevelt and Hitler were actually secretly allied in order to defeat Russia.

I think I have read only one other book of this author so please do not take my feedback very seriously if you love this author. That being said OMG I was so confused and was genuinely doubting my comprehension skills. However I am also aware that this author has his own writing style that is not for everyone (as you can guess not mine at all, like bestie just give it to me straight). But otherwise the plot was good as I like dystopian/post-apocalyptic books. I really enjoyed the narrator too, I think his voice is very fitting to the story.

When you read or in this case listen to a book by P K D you need to relax the reality control in your brain and just enjoy the ride

Oh my goodness, where do you start trying to explain and review a PKD story? I’m a big fan of his work; he was way ahead of his time and even his very short stories remain apposite. I haven’t read The Penultimate Truth, but was swept into one of the most complex plot lines imaginable. Humanity is stored and controlled underground. There are robots, a third world war is allegedly raging above ground and there’s a murder and subsequent investigation. This isn’t 1984 or Brave New World. Dick is in a league of his own with an imagined dystopian world where nothing is as it seems. He’s a master at satire and subversive comment and from this comes the message that Government is bad. It’s a story that you need to invest in to fully follow what’s going on. I found the first part a little confusing but as the detail pans out, who’s who and what they’re up to becomes clearer. The narrator is new to me, but I really loved his slightly slow and laid back narration. There’s much food for thought in this complex tale about control, power and the nature of humanity. You’ll love it or hate it. I loved it and will be buying the paper version to understand it better.