Right, my second reaction paper. As my second Dick I chose A Scanner Darkly. Ubik was the book I expected to become my favorite one among Dick's work, and this is the one the I've most often heard people to mention as their personal favorite.

The subject matter of the book, drugs, isn't of particular interest to me. However, I thought that mixing drugs, including hallucinogens, with Dick's already at times difficult to follow writing would produce interesting results. I expected a wild ride through madness, but the book didn't quite deliver in that respect.

The beginning of the book, with tripping among bugs was close to what I believed A Scanner Darkly would be like. Bugs all over, a software engineer's nightmare. Bugs in your code, bugs in your hair, bugs in your mouth... The rest of the novel, however, was more... clear, not what I thought it would be. But then, how was I to know what to expect, having only read one of Dick's books before.

So, the book is about drugs, and the victims of drugs, those who are severely punished for wanting to enjoy themselves. It is also about the drug industry, where there is a lot of money involved in not only selling drugs, but also in hunting the sellers. The high risks involved in both sides ensure that the prices stay high.

A Scanner Darkly mostly follows three men who live in a three-bedroom house in Los Angeles. The house gets bugged, not with aphids, but with surveillance devices.

The main character would be Bob Arctor, not only because he isn't just one character, but two, at least. In addition to being a drug addict, Robert is also an undercover narcotics agent who is called S.A. Fred.

When he is not working undercover, his identity is protected by something called a scramble suit. It turns his appearance into a vague blur and alters his voice.

The suit is pretty much all that in this book adds the word science to fiction. Back when the book was written there probably was a lot more.

Bob's appearance is not the only things that sometimes gets blurred. His mind does that as well, because of a drug called Substance D, to the extent that he doesn't fully remember Bob and Fred to be the same person. For this reason they are the same people only physically.

Robert is really doomed from the beginning of the book, since he is using Substance D, which is highly addictive. He even knows this himself. Not that many positive things in Bob's life. There is a girl he fancies, Donna Hawthorne. Unfortunately, he can never have her.

The writer also added a good dose of conspiracy theories to spice up the book. I found these to be the best part of the book.

A Scanner Darkly wasn't a bad read, at least those parts of it that I was able to read. There are quite a few German quotes in the book, without translations. I wonder what I missed out on. Maybe I should pick up German next, after this course.

The book is well written, without doubt, but I personally wouldn't rank it among my favorites. Let's see how I'll like the next Dick, I suppose I'll reading at least one more.