A Maze of Death
First edition, 1970
A Maze of Death (1970) is among Philip K. Dick's darkest novels. Fourteen people with no prior connection are each dispatched by bureaucratic order to a remote colony on the planet Delmak-O, where their individual assignments turn out not to exist. The colonists find strange life-forms, unexplained deaths, and a shifting structure called the "Building" that seems to change its form and meaning according to whoever perceives it. Dick's Author's Foreword discloses that the theology underpinning the novel, shared among the characters through prayer relays and god-worlds, was developed collaboratively with William Sarill and incorporates discussions with Bishop James Pike. The plot's resolution reveals the colony to be a computer-generated simulation cycling through deteriorating iterations, sustaining the crew during long-term dormancy aboard a stranded spacecraft. They have been through it before. The figure of the Intercessor, who appears near the end, sits uneasily between programmed construct and genuine transcendence. First published in hardcover by Doubleday in 1970.
Hardcover. First Edition, First Printing. Octavo, bound in royal blue cloth with silver lettering on spine. Date code "L21" at the lower right margin of page 216. New York: Doubleday, 1970. Levack 26a. Wintz & Hyde SF1.1. #11101.
Fine in fine dust jacket with some trivial wear.
Hardcover. First Edition, First Printing. Octavo, bound in royal blue cloth with silver lettering on spine. Date code "L21" at the lower right margin of page 216. New York: Doubleday, 1970. Levack 26a. Wintz & Hyde SF1.1. #11101.
Fine in fine dust jacket with some trivial wear.
Additional Details
A Maze of Death (1970) is a science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick that blends mystery, psychology, and speculative theology. Fourteen colonists arrive on the remote planet Delmak-O to participate in a government assignment, but their instructions, meant to be transmitted by satellite, never arrive. Cut off from the outside world, the group attempts to understand both their purpose and the strange environment around them.
Delmak-O appears to contain a mix of artificial constructs and enigmatic life-forms, including gelatinous cube-like “tenches” that can duplicate objects and deliver cryptic, divine messages. Several colonists report encountering a shifting “Building” whose appearance and purpose change according to whoever perceives it. As the group searches for meaning, tensions rise, and members begin to die, some under mysterious circumstances, others by apparent suicide, heightening the sense that something about their world is profoundly off.
As the narrative deepens, it becomes clear that Delmak-O is not what it seems. The colonists’ experiences are revealed to be part of a computer-generated reality designed to sustain them during long-term dormancy aboard a stranded starship. They have already endured multiple cycles of this simulation, each one deteriorating further as both the system and their own psychological stability begin to crack. The appearance of a figure known as the Intercessor blurs the boundary between programmed illusion and possible transcendence.
A Maze of Death stands among Dick’s darkest novels, probing mental illness, belief systems, and the ever-shifting ground between perception and reality.
Delmak-O appears to contain a mix of artificial constructs and enigmatic life-forms, including gelatinous cube-like “tenches” that can duplicate objects and deliver cryptic, divine messages. Several colonists report encountering a shifting “Building” whose appearance and purpose change according to whoever perceives it. As the group searches for meaning, tensions rise, and members begin to die, some under mysterious circumstances, others by apparent suicide, heightening the sense that something about their world is profoundly off.
As the narrative deepens, it becomes clear that Delmak-O is not what it seems. The colonists’ experiences are revealed to be part of a computer-generated reality designed to sustain them during long-term dormancy aboard a stranded starship. They have already endured multiple cycles of this simulation, each one deteriorating further as both the system and their own psychological stability begin to crack. The appearance of a figure known as the Intercessor blurs the boundary between programmed illusion and possible transcendence.
A Maze of Death stands among Dick’s darkest novels, probing mental illness, belief systems, and the ever-shifting ground between perception and reality.
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