A Scanner Darkly review

While reading my previous book, Shopgirl, I knew it had been made into a movie and couldn't help but picture Steve Martin and Claire Danes as the characters as I was reading it. I saw the trailer for "A Scanner Darkly," which inspired me to read it, and I knew that Keanu Reeves was the main character, and Robert Downey, Jr and Woody Harrelson were the others, I never really had their images in my head as I was reading the book. I think that is largely a testament to how well Philip K. Dick wrote the book.
You probably know Dick from his novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", upon which the movie Blade Runner was based. More recently, he has also had movies made based on his work such as "Total Recall," "Minority Report," and "Paycheck," so "A Scanner Darkly" continues a recent trend. This particular novel has some sci-fi items as well, such as scramble suits and holographic recording devices, but mainly, it is a book about the war on drugs. The interesting thing is that he wrote in 1977, well before Nancy Reagan told us to "just say no." And the crazy thing is, he's got a lot of things right. It's a very interesting commentary on the drug culture, wrapped in some futuristic sci-fi and some good characters. An entertaining read. And in retrospect, the actors for the movie have been cast brilliantly.
Next up will be Fledgling by Octavia Butler. Butler died last week after a fall in her house. I figured this would be as good a time as any to read one of her novels, as I have been meaning to do for a while.