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Philip K. Dick: Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said (2001, Gollancz) 4 stars

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said is a 1974 science fiction novel by American writer …

Review of 'Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said' on 'GoodReads'

2 stars

I'm not quite sure where I end up with this book. It started out of the gate strong, gives you a good sense of the world that the main character (Jason) inhabits and then rips him out of his place in that world. And that's hunky dory, I'm on board with that.

It at first seems like the book is going with pointing out the failures of the police when they get too much power, but at times it seems to just want to use that as a reason to keep Jason bouncing from place to place. But then it keeps stopping so that the characters can have a long discussion about the meaning or application of love. The character knows he needs to leave because the police know his location, but he decides to have a long conversation instead... it's kind of weird.

And when the reveal of what's actually occurred comes up, it doesn't really sit with what happened just before the transition and that's never brought up in the explanation. And the explanation seemed to have to many missing threads for my liking.

I don't really get what Dick was going for in this one and while it mostly moved quickly it's not a story that's going to stay with me for very long I'm afraid.