The World Jones Made - The Library of the Uncommons

Paperback, 208 pages

Published Oct. 9, 2003 by Gollancz.

ISBN:: 978-0-575-07457-6

(1 review)

The World Jones Made is a 1956 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick, examining notions of precognition, humanity, and politics. It was first published by Ace Books as one half of Ace Double D-150, bound dos-à-dos with Agent of the Unknown by Margaret St. Clair.

The World Jones Made is set in the year 2002 AD. On a then-future post-apocalyptic Earth, there was a devastating conflict that involved the use of atomic weapons. Many American cities were targeted, and the People's Republic of China (and Soviet Union) also collapsed, leading to the imposition of a Federal World Government (Fedgov).

In this particular dystopia, Relativism (a political theory having little to do with Einstein) emerged as the governing political orthodoxy. Relativism is said to be a moral and ethical philosophy that states everyone is free to believe what they wish, as long as they don't make anyone else …

The World Jones Made is a 1956 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick, examining notions of precognition, humanity, and politics. It was first published by Ace Books as one half of Ace Double D-150, bound dos-à-dos with Agent of the Unknown by Margaret St. Clair.

The World Jones Made is set in the year 2002 AD. On a then-future post-apocalyptic Earth, there was a devastating conflict that involved the use of atomic weapons. Many American cities were targeted, and the People's Republic of China (and Soviet Union) also collapsed, leading to the imposition of a Federal World Government (Fedgov).

In this particular dystopia, Relativism (a political theory having little to do with Einstein) emerged as the governing political orthodoxy. Relativism is said to be a moral and ethical philosophy that states everyone is free to believe what they wish, as long as they don't make anyone else try to follow that principle. Relativism has become established law after the destructiveness of the war unleashed by clashing ideologies. (However, dissidents from that orthodoxy do end up in forced labor camps). This sacrosanct principle is challenged by a man named Floyd Jones, whose assertions about the future prove correct.

Relativism enables legal consumption of drugs like heroin and marijuana, as well as watching live sex shows with hermaphrodite human mutants. Due to the mutagenic effects of radiation from wartime nuclear exchanges, mutants earn their living within the entertainment industry, although one group has been subjected to deliberate genetic engineering, which later enables them to settle (an inhabitable) Venus.

The novel addresses questions of Jones's agenda and trustworthiness as well as the decidedly ambiguous benefits of individual precognition.

12 editions

Conbini reviewed The World Jones Made by Philip K. Dick

Review of 'The World Jones Made' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

good but not masterful early novel from Philip K. Dick.

Short plot description: after a catastrophic nuclear war a world government is formed on the principle of "relativism" (everything is relative, so don't judge lest you be judged).
Enter the titular "Jones", a precog who can see one year into the future (which is not the blessing you might think it is). Throw into the mix a FedGov agent trying to prevent Jones from taken over the world and saving the relationship with his wife, an alien race of single-cellular organism which are much more than they seem and genetically engineerd mutants and you have the basic ingredients of "The world Jones made".

There are several concepts present though not fully formed which Dick would be exploring in more detail in his later novels: free will, determinism, is the future fixed, drugs, paranoia.
Strangely enough this makes the novel more …

good but not masterful early novel from Philip K. Dick.

Short plot description: after a catastrophic nuclear war a world government is formed on the principle of "relativism" (everything is relative, so don't judge lest you be judged).
Enter the titular "Jones", a precog who can see one year into the future (which is not the blessing you might think it is). Throw into the mix a FedGov agent trying to prevent Jones from taken over the world and saving the relationship with his wife, an alien race of single-cellular organism which are much more than they seem and genetically engineerd mutants and you have the basic ingredients of "The world Jones made".

There are several concepts present though not fully formed which Dick would be exploring in more detail in his later novels: free will, determinism, is the future fixed, drugs, paranoia.
Strangely enough this makes the novel more accessible than his later work.

There are some flaws in places where Dick doesn't seem to know what to do with his ideas and the final resolution though with an interesting ironic twist felt unsatisfying.

My advice: an easy enough read for anyone who is interested in scifi-novels about free will and a must read for anyone familiar with Dick's later work

Subjects

Science Fiction