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I read this SF novel more than 40 years ago. But when I read it, it was already considered a "Great Classic Novel"

I remember being confused when I read it, so you can imagine how confused I am now.

The confusion came from the fact that people in this novel were most of the time “living” in an alternate reality; dreaming or hallucinating, I am not sure. Not only that, but they were often dreaming inside the dreamed reality, and in deeper and deeper levels.

It was not at all like in the movie Inception, where the “dreamed” situation is totally different from the “real one” and each “dream inside the dream” totally different again.

The deeper and deeper levels were still somewhat similar to the “real world”, just a bit “off”. So when a character “woke up” from a “deep” dream to a less deep one, they (and the reader also ! ) thought they were in the real world, even though it was not the case.

This is the reason why I got so very confused, never being sure whether the page I was reading was about “real world” or not.

So I don’t remember at all what actually happened.

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    Off chance: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_in_the_Sky_(novel) by Philip K Dick. Not dreams, but parallel realities induced by the subjective state of mind of a number of people affected by an accelerator accident. Realities are ranging from wildly different to just subtly off compared to the real world. There are no levels, though, just a series of realities. Commented 2 days ago
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    @AlexanderKlauer Not bad, and indeed some points coincide. But it is not it, and thanks for mentioning Philip K. Dick ! Commented yesterday
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    On the occasion of my 250th question I want to congratulate the users of this forum. Only seventeen of my questions still wait for an answer that I am ready to accept. I do not count this one which I will accept tomorrow nor six of my older questions that were closed as "duplicates" without ever getting a formal answer because I had informally accepted an answer presented informally in a comment. Granted, some questions I have answered myself but often, as is the case here, thanks to a “near miss” by some other user. So again KUDOS TO ALL OF YOU ! Commented yesterday
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    @JohnBollinger You are right. Sorry, English is not my native language. I just corrected it. Commented yesterday
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    I love it that there's a myriad of possible answers, almost all of them by PKD! I was ready to suggest "I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon", also by PKD ;) Commented yesterday

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The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick, 1965.

One answer (by Negdo) and one comment (by Alexander Klauer) suggested this author.

That did ring a bell. So I went through his bibliography.

Quotes from Wikipedia :

Mayerson takes Chew-Z and enters sequences in which identities, times, and places shift. People he knows appear and recur, including Emily and Roni.

Mayerson resists Eldritch’s attempts to fix events but cannot determine whether he has exited the drug state or entered another layer of it.

Boldfaces are mine, to show how this reminds me strongly of my old memories. There are more quotes in the Wiki page that fit, but I don't think it is necessary to be exhaustive here...

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  • Too early to accept my own answer, it seems. But I stick to it and will accept it tomorrow. Commented yesterday
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    If the theme is "What is reality?", there is a strong chance it's by Dick. Commented yesterday
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It could be Ubik by Philip K. Dick. The timing certainly match, and while the plot is not exact match, the feeling and possible interpretations are - and it is quite possible someone would misremember it to match the question.

It is unclear whether characters are dreaming or not. In fact, more than half the time they aren't even sure if they are alive or not. But everything has a dream-like quality and is ever shifting, so while it is not implied that they are in a dream, a reader would certainly suspect they are. Even by the end the reader is still not sure what exactly is happening and is left confused.

The plot is 'a bit' confusing. Protagonist is hired with a group of coworkers to secure lunar facility against psychic intrusion. There they walk into ambush and an explosion kills his boss, and leave others unharmed. Afterwards, strange things start happening. Objects they interact with become older versions of themselves (aka, advanced comunicator transforms into an older model, which transforms into analog phone). The dead boss starts to appear on screens, and he tells them they are actually dead and that he was the only survivor. In the last chapter the boss, who is supposedly living in real world notice the face of protagonist on a coin, hinting that he is not in real world after all.

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  • Not bad, and indeed some points coincide. But it is not it, and thanks for mentioning Philip K. Dick ! Commented yesterday
  • I was halfway through my "Fools" answer when I thought of Ubik, but I was too rusty on the details to post it as an alternative. Good guess though. Commented yesterday
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It's an outside chance, but I wonder if it might be Fools by Pat Cadigan.

They're not dreaming, but there are characters who have alternative personalities implanted in their minds, and may "wake up" as one personality without a clear memory of what they were just doing as another personality. They're still in the same real-world situation, though they may have perceived it differently as the previous personality.

It gets very confusing later on when dealing with multiple characters with multiple personalities and trying to work out what is actually really happening, and who people really are.

First published 1992, so it's 33 years ago rather than 40, but same timeframe.

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    No, there were no alternative personalities in the same real-world situations. Definitely dreams or hallucinations. And 40 years ago it was already old, already considered a "great classical novel". Thanks anyway. Commented 2 days ago
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Eye in the Sky by Philip K. Dick

In this 1957 novel, eight people are forced into several different alternate universes.

The first universe is one where God is very real and present as a giant eye in the sky. The second is one based on Victorian morals (a young woman turns out to be as sexless as a Barbie doll). The third universe is one full of paranoid delusions, and the fourth is s Sovie-style USA.

This fits with the question's description of all the alternative realities being like ours' just a bit "off" - and the novel is certainly a classic.

These universes are later revealed to be solipsistic manifestations of each individual's innermost fears and prejudices.Finally, all eight people return to the real world - or is it just the engineer's idea of an ideal world?

enter image description here

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  • I would have upvoted this answer had you proposed it earlier than Alexander Klauser's comment on my question a bit above. Indeed, though it is not the correct one, it is by Philip K. Dick. Thus it would have been instrumental in suggesting this author to me and my finding the correct answer "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch". But now, after Alexander Klauser's comment and my own answer, what is the point ? Commented yesterday
  • Though I admit the cover is nice ! Commented yesterday
  • "L'oeil était dans la tombe et regardait Caïn." (Victor Hugo, La Conscience in La Légende des Siècles) Commented yesterday
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Based on your description, the novel you are thinking of is most likely "The Futurological Congress" (1971) by Stanisław Lem (also published as The Congress).

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    You could improve this answer by editing to specify how this novel matches the one described by the OP. Commented 2 days ago
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    I checked the plot summary on wikipedia. There are indeed a common point, the repeated hallucinations. Also the publication date fits. But there are too many points that do not ring any bell in my memory. All this violence, bombs, shooting. In particular brain transplants, I would have remembered that. So I don't think it is my sook, sorry. Thanks anyway and welcome to this great forum. Commented 2 days ago
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    I have upvoted your answer, but another user has downvoted it. This is quite unfair. In principle, LogicDictates is right. It is your role, when giving an answer, to justify it by arguments, either quotes or a few details from the story you suggest. Repeatedly giving just a title and the author would attract downvotes. But your are new to the site, this is your first answer. You did not have time to get used to our unwritten rules. Downvoting you so early is, in my opinion, a much worse violation of these rules than only mentioning title and author on a first answer. Commented 2 days ago
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    @Alfred - It seems harsh to downvote a first answer that might've been correct, solely on the basis of it lacking detail. It's not my policy to do that and I haven't voted on this answer one way or the other. That said, I might have downvoted it if I had reason to believe it was a poor match. Alternately, I might have upvoted it if I had reason to believe it was a good match. Perhaps whoever downvoted it knew it was likely incorrect and did so for that reason, which I would find understandable. Commented yesterday
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    I was about to mention in a comment that The Futurological Congress is in this genre, before I saw this answer. I don't think it's a close match, though. But I'm a bit vague on the details: I read it last century, and the hallucinatory nature of the plot makes it even harder. ;) I enjoyed it, even though it's a little darker and less humorous than my favourite Lem works. Commented yesterday
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Possibly A Dream of Wessex (marketed as The Perfect Lover in the USA) by Christopher Priest, written in 1977.

It has a dream within a dream, but is more influenced by a downbeat (Peak Oil) view of the future as lacking resources, as that was the mood in the UK at the time. The dream project is related to an effort to do a sort of simulation to discover a sustainable lifestyle. There is also an interpersonal conflict (the perfect lover aspect).

Priest has talked about how Nolan may have been influenced by his novel in Inception. (It was not a paid option, although The Prestige was...I think this sort of "borrowing" happens a lot in Hollywood...look at the obvious Heinlein juvie notes in Interstellar, or the whole Lion King versus Kimba thing.)

In any case, I think anyone looking for a novel in this vein will find the Priest book good. (There is a realistic surfing part of it as well, if you are into that.)

P.S. Made me think of this:

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    The OP has already answered their own question and identified the book they were looking for as The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick. Commented yesterday
  • OK, didn't see a green check yet. I guess there is a delay. Was meant as a good faith answer. And is a useful good read novel in this vein. I guess I was really tweaked when he mentioned Inception as there have been several articles and a Priest interview about the similarity of the concepts. Commented yesterday
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    When an OP answers their own question (often referred to here as a self-answer), the site does not allow them to mark it as accepted until the question is at least 48 hours old. Alfred still has roughly 16 hours to wait before he can accept his answer. Commented yesterday
  • And I did write a comment under my answer claiming I sticked to it but was unable to accept it immediately because the system did not allow me yet ! At least your timing is good... So I removed my downvote, after some hesitation ! Commented yesterday
  • I just realised you are a new contributor, like Eli. It would not have been fair to downvote you for not knowing the rules (48 hours delay for self-answer). But I did not, so it is OK. Commented yesterday

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