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Ubik by Philip K. Dick
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Ubik (1969)

by Philip K. Dick

Other authors: See the other authors section.

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English (46)  French (4)  Italian (3)  Spanish (2)  Dutch (1)  Hungarian (1)  German (1)  All languages (58)
Showing 1-5 of 46 (next | show all)
Ubik: tastes great, less filling. Use only as directed.

In all seriousness, this is a fast, good read. It gets a rare 5 star rating from me. Clearly reality-benders like The Matrix and Inception are direct descendants of works like this one by PK Dick. If you like those, read this work by the master. Highly recommended. ( )
1 vote alsatia | May 11, 2013 |
Ubik: tastes great, less filling. Use only as directed.

In all seriousness, this is a fast, good read. It gets a rare 5 star rating from me. Clearly reality-benders like The Matrix and Inception are direct descendants of works like this one by PK Dick. If you like those, read this work by the master. Highly recommended. ( )
  alsatia | May 11, 2013 |
Submitting my review soon... ( )
  marcoguarda | Apr 27, 2013 |
Kooky plot. Its reality has the rubbery feel of Dali's Persistence of Memory. Has the makings of a page-turning SF adventure, with some X-Men ideas, then evolves into a kind of hallucinatory meditation on reality & death and their opposites. Filled with unconscious addiction imagery, as well as some raw material about mass consumerism & materialism. (And what's the deal with PKD and WWII?) Its internal logic is inconsistent, malleable. The final chapter is a cheap mindf**k (I was a Lost fan; I can spot those a mile off). Still, readable and rich. ( )
  patronus11 | Mar 31, 2013 |
A group of anti-telepaths are caught up in a decaying world from which they can't seem to escape. As with most Philip K Dick, at first I didn't understand what was going on. By the middle of the book I had caught on. By the end, I wasn't sure that even Dick had a clear idea of what was happening! However, complicated ideas are all part of the charm and fascination of science-fiction, and something that this book uses extremely well.

More book reviews at http://talesfromfoxglovecottage.blogspot.co.uk/ ( )
2 vote onelittlething | Mar 15, 2013 |
Showing 1-5 of 46 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (28 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Philip K. Dickprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Adams, MarcCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Bishop, MichaelIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Dorémieux, AlainTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Espín, ManuelTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Heald, AnthonyNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Jones, PeterCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Langowski, JürgenTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Laux, Renatesecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Martin, AlexanderTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Moore, ChrisCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Pagetti, CarloTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Podaný, RichardTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Rauch, PeterCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Robertson, IanCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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For Tony Boucher
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At three-thirty A.M. on the night of June 5, 1992, the top telepath in the Sol System fell off the map in the offices of Runciter Associates in New York City.
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Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0679736646, Paperback)

Nobody but Philip K. Dick could so successfully combine SF comedy with the unease of reality gone wrong, shifting underfoot like quicksand. Besides grisly ideas like funeral parlors where you swap gossip for the advice of the frozen dead, Ubik (1969) offers such deadpan farce as a moneyless character's attack on the robot apartment door that demands a five-cent toll:

"I'll sue you," the door said as the first screw fell out.

Joe Chip said, "I've never been sued by a door. But I guess I can live through it."

Chip works for Glen Runciter's anti-psi security agency, which hires out its talents to block telepathic snooping and paranormal dirty tricks. When its special team tackles a big job on the Moon, something goes terribly wrong. Runciter is killed, it seems--but messages from him now appear on toilet walls, traffic tickets, or product labels. Meanwhile, fragments of reality are timeslipping into past versions: Joe Chip's beloved stereo system reverts to a hand-cranked 78 player with bamboo needles. Why does Runciter's face appear on U.S. coins? Why the repeated ads for a hard-to-find universal panacea called Ubik ("safe when taken as directed")?

The true, chilling state of affairs slowly becomes clear, though the villain isn't who Joe Chip thinks. And this is Dick country, where final truths are never quite final and--with the help of Ubik--the reality/illusion balance can still be tilted the other way. --David Langford, Amazon.co.uk

(retrieved from Amazon Wed, 02 Jan 2013 23:12:45 -0500)

(see all 3 descriptions)

Glen Runciter is dead. Or is he? Someone died in the explosion orchestrated by his business rivals, but even as his funeral is scheduled, his employees are receiving bewildering messages from their boss. And the world around them is warping and regressing in ways which suggest that their own time is running out. If it hasn't already. Originally pub.… (more)

» see all 2 descriptions

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