Martian Time-Slip (1964)

Martian Time-Slip is a 1964 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick, set in a colony on Mars, with themes of mental illness, the physics of time, and the dangers of centralized authority.

The novel was first published under the title All We Marsmen, serialized in the August, October and December 1963 issues of Worlds of Tomorrow magazine. The subsequent 1964 publication as Martian Time-Slip is virtually identical, with different chapter breaks.

Plot summary

Jack Bohlen is a repairman who emigrated to Mars to flee from his bouts of schizophrenia. He lives with a wife and a young son, and lives on the frontier edge of one of the settlements. Mars is a struggling colony, where conflicts from the overpopulated Earth (largely based in Cold War-era relationships) are loosely projected onto the planet. In order to encourage investment and migration from Earth, however, the colony's biggest problems are kept secret. One of these problems is that space travel causes genetic mutations and "abnormal births."

Bohlen has a chance encounter with Arnie Kott, the hard-nosed leader of the Water Workers' Union, when both Bohlen's and Kott's 'copters are called to assist a group of critically dehydrated Bleekmen, the original inhabitants of Mars who are thought to be genetically similar to the Khoekhoe of Earth. Bohlen rebukes Kott for his hesitance to help the Bleekmen, an act that angers Kott. For his help, the Bleekmen give Bohlen a sacred "water witch" that they say will protect him.

After visiting with his ex-wife, Anne Esterhazy, about their own "anomalous" child, Kott hears of the theories of Dr. Milton Glaub, a psychotherapist at Camp Ben-Gurion, an institution for those afflicted with pervasive developmental disorders. Glaub believes that mental illnesses may be altered states of time perception. Kott becomes interested in Manfred Steiner, an autistic boy at Camp B-G in the hopes that the boy can predict the future—a skill Kott would find useful to his business ventures. Manfred's father, Norbert Steiner, was a popular importer of contraband luxury items who just committed suicide. Kott then makes a move to take over the business, unbeknownst to Norbert's assistant, Otto Zitte.

Kott then asks Dr. Glaub to lend him Manfred (now fatherless) so that he can build a machine that will slow down his interactions with people and allow Manfred to communicate with them (and thus, for Kott to also know the future). For this task, Kott leases (and eventually buys out) Bohlen's contract from his current employer so that he can work on building the device full-time. Bohlen takes a liking to Manfred but the assignment stresses him out because he fears that contact with the mentally ill may cause him to relapse. Bohlen also begins an affair with Kott's mistress, Doreen Anderton.

The narrative turns to the perspective of Manfred, who is afraid of a future only he can see, in which he is a decrepit old man, confined to a bed on life-support, living in a derelict medical compound called AM-WEB, a dumping ground for forgotten people like him. We later learn that he is obsessed with this vision and thus cannot focus on the present.

Meanwhile, Bohlen's father, Leo—a wealthy land speculator from Earth—arrives to stake a claim to the seemingly worthless Franklin D. Roosevelt mountain range after receiving an insider tip that the United Nations plans to build a huge apartment complex there. Kott learns that a speculator with a fake name has arrived and becomes obsessed with figuring out where they are buying land so that he can buy it first (Manfred's prognostications become the main mechanism for this task).

On the trip out to the range with his father, Bohlen brings along Manfred, who draws a picture while they stake their claim to the land. The drawing shows the forthcoming apartment complexes, but in a dilapidated state, far in the future. Bohlen realizes that Manfred can indeed predict the future and connects the name "AM-WEB" on the building to how co-op apartment complexes are named on Earth.

On an earlier repair assignment, Bohlen was sent to service the simulacra at the Public School, where lessons are taught by robotic simulations of historical figures. These figures are deeply disturbing to Bohlen as they remind him of his own schizoid episodes where he perceived people around him as non-living robots. When he takes Manfred to the school during an assignment, the simulacra begin acting strangely, as it seems Manfred is altering their functionality. Bohlen is asked to take Manfred away, but then has a psychotic break, seeing the world from Manfred's perspective and subsequently suffering a debilitating panic attack. Dr. Glaub arrives to escort them both out and warns Bohlen to avoid Manfred because he will cause him to revert into permanent psychosis.