A Scanner Darkly cover art

A Scanner Darkly

 Preview
This Season's Biggest Deal

$0.99/mo for 3 months + $20 Audible bonus voucher

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.
Get this deal
Offer ends on 28 December, 2026.
More purchase options

A Scanner Darkly

By: Philip K Dick
Narrated by: Paul Giamatti
Get this deal

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 28 December, 2026. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $21.35

Buy Now for $21.35

This Season's Biggest Deal | $0.99/mo for 3 months + $20 Audible bonus

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo. after 3 months - terms apply.
Summary
 Substance D - otherwise known as Death - is the most dangerous drug ever to find its way on to the black market. It destroys the links between the brain's two hemispheres, leading first to disorentation and then to complete and irreversible brain damage.

Bob Arctor, undercover narcotics agent, is trying to find a lead to the source of supply, but to pass as an addict he must become a user and soon, without knowing what is happening to him, he is as dependent as any of the addicts he is monitoring.

Read by Paul Giamatti

(p) 2006 Penguin Random House LLC©1977 Philip K Dick Classics Fantasy Fiction Mystery Private Investigators Science Fiction Detective Human Brain

Critic Reviews

The best book of the year - extraordinary (BrianAldiss)
One of the most original practitioners writing any kind of fiction, Dick made most of the European avant-garde seem like navel-gazers in a cul-de-sac
My literary hero
The most brilliant SF mind on any planet
For everyone lost in the endlessly multiplicating realities of the modern world, remember: Philip K. Dick got there first
The most consistently brilliant SF writer in the world (John Brunner)
Dick is Thoreau plus the death of the American dream (Roberto Bolaño)
Dick quietly produced serious fiction in a popular form and there can be no greater praise (Michael Moorcock)
In all his work he was astonishingly intimate, self exposed, and very dangerous. He was the funniest SF writer of his time, and perhaps the most terrifying. His dreads were our own, spoken as we could not have spoken them
All stars
Most relevant
Such a haunting novel with predictably brilliant narration by Paul Giamatti. Would recommend to anyone who wants a slightly twistedperspective on the aftermath of the 60's counterculture.

Brilliant and harrowing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
My favourite Philip K. Dick novel to date - and the narration of Paul Giamatti is one of the best audible performances I have heard. All around a peerless listen.

All around phenomenal

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
If you have been in the circles this book portrays then this book is a mirror to that way of life.

as beautiful as it is haunting, as funny as it is tragic.

Philip K Dick's Masterpiece

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An incredible recreation of Dick’s magnum opus. The narration brings it to life. Highly recommended!!

Wonderful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book is a masterpiece about drug use. Very dark book. Kudos to Giamatti for his amazing voice acting.

Massive book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.