Three Californias

Three Californias is a trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson written prior to the Mars cycle. Each of the three novels, The Gold Coast, the Wild Shore, and the Pacific Edge, posits a radically different future taking place in Orange County. I've just finished the Wild Shore, read the Gold Coast over spring break, and will be picking up the final one soon. The Gold Coast takes place in a total-sprawl landscape of designer drugs and party lifestyle, the Wild Shore takes place in a post-nuclear America quarantined by Japanese ships off the coast, and I'm not entirely sure what the other one is about.

While these novels don't quite stand up to the magnum opus that is Red Mars, and are not as dense in ideas and sheer brilliance, they are definitely worth checking out even if only as a prelude to his later work.

A Scanner Darkly

Another Phillip K. Dick book I read this summer was "A Scanner Darkly" (1977). It took me a little while to get into it because the main character was so vulgar and hard to sympathize with, but I did end up liking it.

The story revolves around a group of friends who are all addicted to "Substance D," or "Death." The book did a very good job in my opinion of realistically depicting the brutality of drug dependence, in real contrast to movies like Trainspotting. I made the mistake of reading the book jacket, which I think gives a lot away, so I won't say a great deal about the plot here, only that it is a real page turner and gives a powerful view of a seamy drug culture in a futuristic Orange County, California.