A Scanner Darkly
- 278
- Pages
- about 5 h
- Reading time
- BSFA Award for Best Novel
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Our view
“A Scanner Darkly” is less a novel about the future than about addiction and paranoia, and a deeply sad one. Dick draws on his own experience of drug culture, and the rambling, strange conversations of his users set the tone for the first half, which some readers find slow. The final quarter turns sharply, and the author’s closing note gives everything before it a different weight. Readers hoping for conventional science fiction will find little.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
A Scanner Darkly is a science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick, published in 1977. The semi-autobiographical story is set in a dystopian Orange County, California, in the then-future of June 1994, and includes an extensive portrayal of drug culture and drug use. The novel is one of Dick's best-known works and served as the basis for a 2006 film of the same name, directed by Richard Linklater.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.8 across 551 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 79% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Science fiction average of 7.8. That is how 7.8 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.8 | 57 | 10% |
| Hardcover | 7.8 | 494 | 90% |
Frequently asked
How long is A Scanner Darkly?
It has 278 pages — shorter than 82% of the ranked books in Science fiction.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Science fiction — and a score of 7.8, the closest to this book.
