Time Out Of Joint by Philip K. Dick

(discussed May 15, 2003)

On a ten-point scale (1=bad, 10=good), the people who read the book gave the following ratings: 3 (Chris), 7.5 (Jeff), 7.5 (Judy), 7.5 (Michael), 7 (Ignacio), 7 (Julie), 8.5 (Kate), 9.5 (Beth), 9.5 (Dru), 9.5 (Lisa), 9.5 (T.C.), 9 (John), 9 (Peter), 9 (Simms [initial vote: 7.5])
Average: 8.1

Here's Ignacio's report on the meeting, slightly edited:

People were very happy to know they could give half points to me. ;-) Simms changed his score after the comment of TC that he was not scoring the book against other PKD books, but the rest of the crap we usually read, and after learning that John gave it a 9. John's reasons for a 9 were that the book perfectly captures the paranoia lived in USA in the 50's, and it wasn't a 10 for the dismal ending. Nobody liked the ending much.

To me the book was a bit disappointing because I expected more of the usual craziness Dick puts in his books: talking fungi, aliens, spaceships, etc.