Valis and later novels

Valis (stylized as VALIS) is a 1981 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick, intended to be the first book of a three-part series. The title is an acronym for Vast Active Living Intelligence System, Dick's gnostic vision of God. Set in California during the 1970s, the book features heavy auto-biographical elements and draws inspiration from Dick's own investigations into his unexplained religious experiences over the previous decade. It is the first book in the incomplete VALIS trilogy of novels, followed by The Divine Invasion (1981). The planned third novel, The Owl in Daylight, had not yet taken definite shape at the time of the author's death. Dick's final novel, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer (1982), builds on similar themes; Dick wrote: "the three do form a trilogy constellating around a basic theme."