"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."

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...Another nifty choice from Millennium SF Masterworks. --David Langford

Above all, Ubik is very very accessible. It's not cluttered with the messed-up amphetamine-fuelled oddness of his later novels, and there's less techno babble than usual. Even if you're not into science fiction, it's well worth a look if only to show you that just because a novel is set in the future, doesn't mean it has to be full of ridiculous overblown theatrics and weird aliens.


Ubik Ubik Ubik!!! 5 stars!!!   May 11, 2004
 9 out of 11 found this review helpful

This book is fantastic! I have to admit that Ubik was the first Philip K. Dick book I read and I was thrilled by his concepts. I loved this book from the very first page on because it is…abnormal. In the meantime I have also read a couple of other Philip K. Dick books but Ubik is the one which is above all them. The kind of ideas he throws at you are just stunning. Objects are morphing back into earlier technologies (a fancy high speed elevator transforms into an old cable operated thing), a talking doors threatens to prosecute one of the main characters, messages from a dead guy, the picture of the same dead guy turns up on money coins, and last but not least the all important question: are we dead or is everybody else dead? The book has only 200 pages and not a single word is wasted. The story is superbly and plotted in a complex way and takes countless unexpected turns. Every single time when you start to believe what this is all about, it just changes in such a drastic way that you have to put your thoughts together from scratch. Philip K. Dick is a master in his own genre and I don't think anybody else dares to enter his realms. The only sad thing which is currently happening to his brilliant stories is the way Hollywood turns them into cheap blockbusters such as Pay check. I can understand that the complexity of his stories can not be easily turned into movies but using 10% of his genius ideas and 90% action crap is not good
Enough!


An absolute mind-screw of a book....   February 18, 2004
 4 out of 5 found this review helpful

If you've never read a Dick book before, read 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' because it's a lot mroe accessible as a piece of fiction.
This on the other hand is something entirely different, a glorious combination of strange SF paradies and the genuine paranoia that seems to flow through most all of Dick's work. The hero of the book, Joe Chip, is well, anything but a Hero, in keeping with Dicks desire to reprsent the lesser man. As we follow Joe's world we see it is one filled with paraonia, created by people's new found ability to use ESP (ie telepathy) to a variety of means. Joe works for Glen Runciter, head of a company that is in charge of trying to combat and cancel out the effects these people are having. Add to this the fact that Glen Runciter often visits his dead wife, who is stuck somewhere between heaven and hell and you have so many realities for Dick to play with that boy does he have some fun.
The trademark Dick humour is here in abundance, like the reviewer says, the scene with the door and Joe is hilarious, plus there are many other moments that I won't spoil. The ending is a masterstroke - though you'll probably love or hate it, there's no denying it leaves all sorts of questions and late nights spent scratching your head. And if that isn't the definition of a good Sci-Fi novel, I'll eat my hat.....


Puzzling and strange   December 31, 2003
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

For me, this is Philip K Dick as his most strange. The book covers the usual territory of peoples perceptions, what is reality, strange extra perceptory messages etc.. But in Dick's usual inventive and humorous way. I have to say it is not his most entertaining work, but at the same time it is one of his most original. I would have to say that 'A scanner darkly' covers the same territory a lot better. Having said that, this is still a good SF book, but not as accessible as some of his other work.