A MAZE OF DEATH

"A mind-assaulting adventure in an unknown world"

OTHER ENGLISH EDITIONS:

FOREIGN EDITIONS

  • wpe21.jpg (3356 bytes)
 J'ai Lu, pb, ?, ?, ?,?(?){tr. into French as AU BOUT DU LABYRINTHE

{For the best bibliographic info in French goto: www.multimania.com/ggoullet/pkdick/frames.html Thanks for the cover pix, Gilles}

A noser is a strange craft, he said to himself as he stood at the edge of the parking field surveying the lines of inert vessels. First of all, they were incredibly cheap; he could gain possesion of one of these for less than four silver dollars.

fave1_off.jpg (2296 bytes)    A MAZE OF DEATH. This is the first PKD book I ever read and it just blew me away. -- David Jackson, CA

fave1_off.jpg (2296 bytes)   A MAZE OF DEATH. Can't really describe why even when not trying to be brief but the ending is a major reason it is my favorite. -- David Keller, CA

Ken Lopez, Bookseller

DICK, Philip K. A Maze of Death. Garden City: Doubleday, 1970. First. Another of his scarce Doubleday hardcover editions. A few spots at the foredge of the rear board; near fine in a very good dust jacket with a few tiny edge chips and some mostly blended staining to the rear panel. $450  {As far as I know, Apr 1999, this is still for sale}

PKDS-2 10:

Publication date for A MAZE OF DEATH was July 24, 1970.

PKDS-2 6:

A MAZE OF DEATH has been optioned by a young Hollywood director/producer named C. Jerry Kutner (his first feature film was called "In MacArthur Park.") That makes MAZE and HIGH CASTLE the only PKD novels currently under option. {Dec 1983}

PKDS-8 3:

J.B.Reynolds has done screenplay adaptations of two Dick novels, THE COSMIC PUPPETS and A MAZE OF DEATH. {Sep 1985}

PKDS-16 6:

"...Robinson came up with some refreshingly intriguing ideas. For instance, he sees Dick in A MAZE OF DEATH, deliberately murdering the cast of characters he has used in his books, and grown sick of since SOLAR LOTTERY. There is a different, new cast after MAZE, he says..." {from a letter to PKDS from Phil Wooley, Cheltenham, England, on Kim Stanley Robinson's talk at Conspiracy '87, as the WorldCon in Brighton was called.}

PKDS-16 7:

Earlier in 1987 Grafton (UK) released...A MAZE OF DEATH.

PKDS-24 12:

In Japan, Sogensha put out in December 1989 an edition of A MAZE OF DEATH (Translated by Hiroo Yamagata)

worstpkd_off.jpg (2438 bytes)   My personal, all-time least favorite PKD novel -- and I expect this to start a debate - is A MAZE OF DEATH. I can't believe it when people pick this as their favorite. It sucks! The characters are flat, they get killed off for no reason before you even have time to learn what they're like, everything is stereotyped, there's no plotting (only plodding), and the "it's all a dream" ending is totally contrived. P.U. - this stinks! The large type and big spaces between lines and around margins are a dead giveaway-- this is a wanker that hte publisher tried to stretch out to 200 pages so it could capitalize on another novel by an author who was selling books. What a piece! -- Paul Rydeen in FDO 6

TDC 79

(PKD:) Another one I'm not sure of is A MAZE OF DEATH. I get different reactions when I read different parts. There's a part in ther where the same whole conversation is repeated twice. It's long, and everybody's babbling away. But it's different -- it's carefully rewoven so that the second time around it's not the same; it has a different meaning.

TSR 218

in MAZE OF DEATH there are endless parallel realities arranged spatially;

{For continuation see:FLOW MY TEARS}

Argosy Magazine    Nov 1990

GR: I wanted to ask you about A MAZE OF DEATH...

PKD: Well, by then all my friends were starting to die. That was written after Bishop Pike's death.
    To me, it's Schopenhauer's perception, the world seen under the aspect of irrevocable death. In other words, the Will that Schopenhauer posits [that possesses individuals], that which they embody or contain, is doomed to fail. That was Schopenhauer's great realisation, [that] man is not intellect but Will... and this Will, the will to survive... was doomed to fail. {...}

{... ...}

{From an interview conducted by Gregg Rickman: GSM xerox collection}

BGSU  Papers

Manuscript:

"The Hour of the T.E.N.C.H."  Draft of novel, 224 typewritten pages with many minor corrections in ink throughout. This novel was published by Doubleday in 1970 under the title A MAZE OF DEATH.

NOTES

  1. "Notes on the Tench novel."  16 typewritten pages numbered 1-12, 3-6 (possibly intended to be 13-16). Ideas, character descriptions and plot lines for the novel.
  2. Handwritten notes used as a basis for "Notes on the Tench Novel." Four sheets of typing paper, folded in half, with writing on the recto and verso. Pages are variously numbered: 1-2, 9, 12, 13, and some unnumbered.

BGSU Papers

{...} Yesterday I sent off a new novel. A MAZE WITH DEATH, to Scott. It is an s-f mystery, and Larry Ashmead is interested in it for a series of <<future mystery, novels>> as they'll be called. I mention this only to indicate that I am actively writing, these days...which is not always so -- I go in cycl;es of creativity and sloth, as you may know. Anyhow, I have this one new novel in the works and intend to start on another as soon as possible. {...}

{...}

PS. Another thought just struck me. If Doubleday turns down A MAZE WITH DEATH, perhaps you would like to see it. Do you think so?  

{PKD > Don Wollheim, 10-22-68}{thanks to Patrick Clark and the PKD Trust}

BGSU?

Dear Scott,

    I just now received a very nice letter from Don Wollheim, in which he picks up where he and I left off at the convention. At that time I told Don I wanted to do another novel for Ace, and in his letter he asks if I meant that and still mean it. He says: <<... I would like to see you keep on with us, even though report has it you have made pots of money with Doubleday. I don't know about pots of money, but I think we can come to some reasonable accomodation financially if given a reasonable chanve.>> I have no new novel in the works, however, because I have been working on A MAZE WITH DEATH, but it occurs to me that if larry Ashmead doesn't want it, maybe Don might. I am writing Don, and I'm mentioning A MAZE WITH DEATH. Could we try him if Doubleday turns the novel down? (By the way -- Don wants my material presented directly to him and not through Terry Carr. He says, <<... this is for me and would be published under my editorship.>>
    Because of Don's interest I will start as soon as possible on another new novel... but it will take a while. Would he buy an outline and sample chapter? Or does he want the whole thing?

Cordially,

Philip K. Dick

[PKD>Scott Meredith, 10-22-1968] (thanks to Patrick Clark and the PKD Trust}
{note: The second novel PKD mentions here is most likely OUR FRIENDS FROM FROLIX 8, published by Ace in 1970 -- Lord RC}

BGSU Papers

Dear Roger, {See: DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? for the start of this letter}

   {... ...}

    Speaking of Doubleday -- I got news from my agent today that Doubleday has bought my most recent novel, a sort of <<future mystery,>> as it's going to be called (working title: A MAZE WITH DEATH). And Terry Carr at Ace tells me that a big collection of my magazine-length stories is coming out as a special... so between the two sales we are back in the black and out of the red, as the folks say. And then I have high hopes for the sample chapters and outline which I just sent off to Don Wollheim. So you can see I've been busy.

{...}

{PKD > Roger Zelazny, 11-13-1968} (thanks to Patrick Clark and the PKD Trust}
    [note: The collection of stories PKD refers to here is almost certainly THE PRESERVING MACHINE -- Lord RC]

BGSU Papers

Dear Phil,

    {...}

We writers lead a weird life, I think. We get paid for being unable to tell illusion from reality -- and for being capable of muddling up the two for public consumption... ... (As to my own recent sales: after the Baycon I wrote a novel which Doubleday just bought the other day, plus I wrote three plus chapters and outline for Ace, which I haven't yet heard about. And Ace is bringing out a big volume of my collected stories, the first to be published here in the U.S. and the first collection in the Special Series. All this came just in time, because not only are we broke: we are in debt, the first time in my life this has ever happened. The federal tax people have been after me, too, but fortunately I was able to pry some money loose from a hardcover publisher who has literally thousands of dollars of mine in his bank account -- I won't say who , but I'm sure you can guess). ...

{PKD > Philip Jose Farmer, 11-14-1968} (thanks to Patrick Clark and the PKD Trust}

BGSU Papers

Dear John,

    Yes, I would be very glad to read STAND ON ZANZIBAR...

{...}

    As far as my own work goes, I have sold a story collection to Ace for a special, then an outline and 3 sample chapters at $2500, then my newest novel to Doubleday... so I have made three book-length sales in less than a month. Now I can pay off all my enormous debts.

{...}

Cordially

Philip K. Dick

{PKD > John Brunner, 12-7-1968}

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