Rupert Owen reviewed The Galactic Pot-Healer by Philip K. Dick
Review of 'The Galactic Pot-Healer' on 'GoodReads'
4 stars
The Galactic Pot-Healer is a melange of analogue and future technology brought together by an alien mythology, the shapeshifting Glimmung who is an alien deity but not actually a god, the gods of Plowman's Planet were Borel and Amalita who were worshipped in two magnificent cathedrals now plunged in the depths of the vast ocean where the shadows of the dead survive. The story follows Joe a "pot-healer", someone who repairs ceramics as he is coaxed to leave Earth and his rather banal existence to join a team gathered by the Glimmung. Philip moves his protagonist in a seemingly random way through-out the plot but by the omniscience of Glimmung and the Book (A tome which writes in real-time the past/present/future of all beings), his actions despite their oblique reasoning are in fact quite linear. Although initially set on a futuristic Earth and an alien planet, Philip retains some old …
The Galactic Pot-Healer is a melange of analogue and future technology brought together by an alien mythology, the shapeshifting Glimmung who is an alien deity but not actually a god, the gods of Plowman's Planet were Borel and Amalita who were worshipped in two magnificent cathedrals now plunged in the depths of the vast ocean where the shadows of the dead survive. The story follows Joe a "pot-healer", someone who repairs ceramics as he is coaxed to leave Earth and his rather banal existence to join a team gathered by the Glimmung. Philip moves his protagonist in a seemingly random way through-out the plot but by the omniscience of Glimmung and the Book (A tome which writes in real-time the past/present/future of all beings), his actions despite their oblique reasoning are in fact quite linear. Although initially set on a futuristic Earth and an alien planet, Philip retains some old world technologies such as tape recorders, telephones, and the phonograph. There are humorous scenes as if written in on occasion when Philip was in the mood and moments of science-fiction fancy such as when Joe and Mali use the SSA machine. This is the second book featuring a Glimmung and set on the Plowman's planet, the first was Dick's Nick and the Glimmung written as a children's book.
