Cantata-140 by Philip K. Dick
01/04/2003 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 

Pub: Gollancz. 188 page enlarged paperback. Price: £ 6.99 (UK). ISBN: 0-575-07459-0.

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A re-issue even though it’s not part of Gollancz’ SF Masterwork collection. ‘Cantata-140’, as we’re informed on page 60, is the title to a piece of music by Bach called ‘Watchet auf’ which translates as ‘Sleepers, awake’.

The year is 2080 and over the years to control the rapid population explosion, many volunteer to be temporarily frozen until the problem is solved.

It is a presidential election year and Jim Briskin has found a card that should allow him to win when a flaw in their new instant travel system opens up a new world to be colonised. From here, everything is downhill, so he thinks.

This novel really has a lot going on and can often be sidetracked by particular events. I kept having to remind myself that Phil Dick wrote this book in 1966 and some aspects would have been seemed controversial then but only a point of reference now.

I mean, Briskin himself is a ‘col’ or black and that didn’t make that much of an impression as being particularly important to me. I don’t think it did to Dick either because he never used it as a race issue either.

The frozen population doesn’t really take much hold here either. Apart from some effects, we don’t really see much from their POV of seeing a new world. Most of the problems centre on what the existing population there see about this invasion with more attention given to key players than the overall picture. In some respects, things can get lost in such a technique.

That’s not to deny this can be an interesting read. Certainly, all the Philip Dick fans should or will be adding this edition to their collections.

It might not be one of his greatest but one can’t help but applaud his ideas for the time he wrote it.

GF Willmetts