Good but not his best - Rated 
This is PK Dick treading his usual themes:
what is reality?
how can you tell what is real?
are the people around me real?
am i real?
etc etc.
The subject matter of a post WW3 community is really just a backdrop to these themes. At least there is none of his later preoccupations with religion in this book.
HAving said all this, this is still a very good SciFi book and I would recommend it, but as I say there are better PKD books out there.
Sci-Fi?? - Rated 
Not being a great reader of sci-fi Philip K Dick is an author that I do read. What he writes is so much more than mainstream sci-fi, raising both metaphysical and philosophical questions. This book is really ahead of its time as it shows us to some degree that we're going through the same predicaments currently. We are all aware of media manipulation and political spin, and that is mainly what this book is about.
The setting is after the third world war, where millions of people are living in giant town sized bunkers underground. The information they receive comes from the tv and political officers, showing them the devastation and the war raging on the surface of the earth, where the government are still and robots are fighting the war. These people are stuck underground for years whilst this war rages on. But what if the war had ended and there was peace on the surface? What if the few people on the surface lived on massive tracts of land? What would happen if people found out? Read this book and find out, and you will never view the news or statements from politicians in the same way again.
Straightforward book on propaganda, lies and stupidity - Rated
Ph. Dick entagles us straightforwardly in intrigues, propaganda and human stupidity. This author appears to be quite pessimistic about our capability to think for ourselves - not blaming us, he just writes a superb story full of warnings against taking for granted whatever appears to be real. Probably one of Dick's more accessible books, and a real pleasure to read either as just entertainment, or as food for your brains.
Theres something great about this book - Rated
I'm begining to be quite a big fan of Philip K. Dick, but I think this is probably one of, if not the, best I've read so far. This is a much more cohernet novel than his later stuff which is a little too driven by his own psycological problems, but at the same time not dated sci-fi from the '50s. The premise, as you can see, is interesting and the book is not only crammed with great little details and ideas, but it is actually very well-written aswell. I bought this book after reading the begining in the shop becuase that very first paragraph captured me totally. A real joy.
A post-apocalyptic detective story - Rated
The story is set in North America, which is now part of an alliance known as Wes-Dem, following a nuclear war with the USSR-based Pac-Peop group of countries. The war resulted in the vast majority of the population being forced to live underground in crowded 'ant tanks', which is where we pick up the action 15 years later, in the early 21st Century.
The chief mechanic of one of these tanks is seriously ill, so the president of the tank is forced to go to the surface and find an artificial pancreas. The tankers are under the illusion that the war is still going on, and that the surface is uninhabitable, with mechanical warriors and various plagues being the major threats. However, the president finds that this is not the case and that the war ended 13 years ago.
Simultanously, we follow the story of one of the ruling elite who live in luxury on the surface. He helps to write speeches for faked news reports that are delivered to the tankers in order to keep them under control and under the ground.
The story then progesses into a kind of detective story with this backdrop. There is a series of crosses and double crosses and plot twists that we follow in order to discover the ultimate fate of the tankers and the ruling class. This isn't a typical post-apocalyptic novel, but if you like that sort of thing, I would definitely recommend it. Many of the questions raised are resolved, but the only down side is a slightly ambiguous ending that I won't discuss as it will spoil the story.
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