Philip K. Dick
I've been reading a lot of Philip K. Dick this year. I'd never seen the movie Blade Runner, but I'd read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? in high school, and I wanted to read it again before I allowed myself to view the movie, so I did. Another book of his I've read this year was Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, and some of that was just haunting. I love the way he pulls the reader into a reality that he then causes them to question. Right now I'm reading Martian Time-Slip, which is a novel he wrote years before the two aforementioned ones. It's from earlier in his career, and it shows because it's more flawed in spots, but so far it's looking like it's going to be my favorite read of them all. It's flawed but the story is one that really draws me in. I've been known to question my own sanity and his descriptions of what mental illness is like for the sufferers is really, really interesting to me.
Several movies have been inspired by Philip K. Dick stories and he's definitely had a huge impact on the SFF genre as a whole. I never thought I'd be much for Sci-Fi but I just love this man's writing. His plain narrative style is surprisingly effective and I just enjoy every aspect of his writing. In the posthumously added preface to the version of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I read, he was called a "writer's writer", mainly because he glosses gracefully over concepts in mere paragraphs what another writer might base an entire story off of. I wholeheartedly agree with this statement and I'll add that although his earlier works are more flawed, a writer definitely has a lot to learn in being able to critically point out the works' flaws while still enjoying the stories because they're great. He is posthumously considered not only a novelist but also a philosopher. It's eerily unsurprising to me that he died poor. He was nominated for Hugo Awards, but he never made much money.
Any PKD fans out there?
Also, I totally have a goal in life to finish his bibliography of 44 novels and 100+ short stories before I die.
EDIT: now that this is in the right place... someone discuss his stuff with me!!~!