The Cosmic Puppets (1957)

The Cosmic Puppets was published in 1957 in an Ace Double edition, back to back with The Sargasso of Space of Andrew North. This underrated novel of Philip K. Dick, which is more fantasy than SF, was kept out of the publishing loop for more than 25 years between its original publication in 1957 and the first re-publication in 1983. The Cosmic puppets, written in 1953, was first published as a novella under the title "A Glass of Darkness" in the 12/1956 issue of Satellite before it was expanded into a novel and published as a book. Yielding to a compulsion he can't explain, Ted Barton interrupts his vacation in order to visit the town of his birth, Millgate, Virginia. But upon entering the sleepy, isolated little hamlet, Ted is distraught to find that the place bears no resemblance to the one he left behind--and never did. He also discovers that in this Millgate Ted Barton died of scarlet fever when he was nine years old. Perhaps even more troubling is the fact that it is literally impossible to escape. Unable to leave, Ted struggles to find the reason for such disturbing incongruities, but before long, he finds himself in the midst of a struggle between good and evil that stretches far beyond the confines of the valley.Winner of both the Hugo and John W. Campbell awards for best novel, widely regarded as the premiere science fiction writer of his day, and the object of cult-like adoration from his legions of fans, Philip K. Dick has come to be seen in a literary light that defies classification in much the same way as Borges and Calvino. With breathtaking insight, he utilizes vividly unfamiliar worlds to evoke the hauntingly and hilariously familiar in our society and ourselves.From the Trade Paperback edition.