The Penultimate Truth

infobox Book |
name = The Penultimate Truth
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Cover of first edition (paperback)
author = Philip K. Dick
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Science fiction novel
publisher = Belmont Books
release_date = 1964
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
pages = 174 pp
isbn = NA
preceded_by =
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"The Penultimate Truth" is a 1964 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. The story is set in a future where the bulk of humanity is kept in large underground shelters. The people are told that World War Three is being fought above them, when in reality the war ended years ago. The novel is based on Dick's 1953 short story "The Defenders".

Plot summary

World War Three begins early in the twenty-first century. It is fought between the two superpowers, Wes-Dem and Pac-Peop. The fighting is extensive and severe, most of it performed by "leadies", robots built to withstand the most extreme circumstance. The Earth becomes a battlefield. Unable to exist in the atmosphere created by robot war, vast "ant tanks" are constructed underground to save the diminishing human population.

The government and war engine remains on the surface, the elite "Yance-men". Their president, Talbot Yancy, delivers inspirational speeches to the tankers, motivating them to increase their production of leadies and win the war. The war does eventually end. However, the Yance-men design a conspiracy to maintain the wealth of the Earth for themselves. Yancy continues to describe devastation in televised speeches. The tankers continue to produce leadies.

Talbot Yancy is actually a computer generated simulacrum. The Yance-men program him from the "Agency" in New York. They live in immense villas on private parks, called "demesnes". The leadies are actually used by the Yance men as personal servants and to maintain their estates. The Agency is run by the most vicious and greedy Yance man, Stanton Brose, who is only kept alive by prewar artificial organs which he hoards.

The story begins in one of the tanks, named Tom Mix. The tank president, Nicholas St. James, is forced to go to the surface to look for an artificial pancreas for the tank's lead mechanic. He emerges on David Lantano's property (a Yance man). When some of Lantano's leadies try to kill St. James, they are destroyed by a mysterious man who looks like Talbot Yancy. St. James wanders around, through the ruins of a 10 year old war, and eventually ends up at Lantano's mansion. There he learns where he can find an artificial organ.

Simultaneously, Adams (another Yance-man) is put on a special mission by Brose. He must plant evidence of alien artifacts on land belonging to a housing developer (Louis Runcible), so the land can be legitimately seized. The artifacts are buried using a time travel device. One by one, the people attached to this project are killed. Adams fearfully retreats to Lantano's mansion.

Lantano reveals, with Adams and St. James present, that he is a Cherokee from the distant past, somehow being given extended life by the time-travel device that placed the artifacts back in time. He has lived through history, taking many positions of note under different names, and now he has killed the members of this special project. Adams and Lantano together now plot to kill Brose and free the people underground.

Media representation

The cover art of the Vintage 2004 edition of the book is the same illustration as is used to market Season 1 of The History Channel's "Lost Worlds" on iTunes.

See also

* "The Mold of Yancy"

External links

* [http://pkdickbooks.com/SFnovels/Penultimate_truth.html "The Penultimate Truth" cover art gallery]