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Summary: I wasn't a huge Philip K. Dick fan, but I am now!
Review: The master of virtually all he surveys, Philip K. Dick created a new masterpiece of fiction when he penned Ubik. A future that few would probably want to live in, it is nevertheless engaging and fascinating to read about. When many humans have special "talents" and "anti-talents" would be a sight to behold, but I, personally, don't want to live to see it. This is not for a casual reader, for the further you get into the book, the more confusing it gets. If you're able to understand what the book has to say, or, better yet, if you have read Dick before, then another masterpiece from The Man is definetly recommended.
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Summary: The day Glen Runciter died, I was...
Review: Ubik is a rare work of literature. Without being overly preachy, verbose or incomprehensible [which most philosophy accomplishes to be all at once], Philip K. Dick has created a completely "real" reality, and then let it fall apart as he observed. This begs the question - was it real at all, and is it real now that it's gone? In spite of these philosophical meanderings, Ubik is a ripping good read, and will scare you half out of your brains when you finally read the last two pages. I can remember not wanting to fall asleep, worrying that I'd find Glen on all my dollar bills.
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Summary: My introduction to Philip K. Dick...
Review: ...and the book that started my fascination with the master. This tale of psychic powers and reencarnation is one cool trip! Humor, horror, moon bases, intelligent (and obnoxious!) appliances... Dick's imagination never fails to engage.
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Summary: Philip Dick's most profound novel
Review: - More intellectual than "Do Androids dream..." - More interesting than "Man in a High Castle" - More reachable than "Valis" ... but with a little sample of the Dick(ens)ian way that makes each of the above a good read.
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Summary: Impossible to categorize
Review: This novel will simply take the top of your skull right off...I can still remember exactly where I was when I read those last few pages -- walking between the history and humanities building my fresh year in college...all of a sudden it was like a railroad spike had been driven right through the center of my soul...and this was 20 years ago! This is Dick at his absolute finest...everybody seems to give the awards to 'The Man in the High Castle' (which is a good book), but UBIK is PKD totally uncorked...there are more genuinely fresh ideas in this one book than any 100 average SF tomes, including the ones from the masters. I thought I was the only one who got such a thrill out of this book! Even the names reverberate in my head, GG. Ashwood, Joe Chip, Glen Runciter....oh boy! And, perhaps most mysterious of all, S. Dole Melipone (whose flag fell off the telempath map) -- a psychic so uncontrollably powerful that it takes 3 'anti-psi's to neutralize his field...and then he is GONE! What a wild ride! And when you make it to those last few pages, hooo boy! When I was watching the movie Blade Runner for the first time at theatres in 1982, I felt like I had been sledgehammered when I saw that Dick had died..and there I was, stationed at an Army Base not 80 miles from where he had lived...what a writer. There will never be another like him! LONG LIVE THE DAYS OF PERKY PAT!
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Summary: symbolizes incredible by being incredible
Review: One of the earliest works to present the spirit of postmodernism and result from an at that time latent (not expressed, unexpressed) theory of semiotics that did not exist in defacto space/time until an apparant later, well, time. Prescient.
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Summary: One of the most amazing works in all of literature
Review: OK, yeah, the writing is sloppy; PKD could be an exquisite prose stylist (try THE TRANSMIGRATION OF TIMOTHY ARCHER), but you'd never know it from reading this. On the other hand . . .This *might* be the most unpredicatbly plotted, insanely entertaining novel ever written. You know how some books have plot twists and turns and ups and downs that make them into veritable roller coaster rides? Well, UBIK is the Space Mountain of literature. You're in the dark the whole way, and, boy, the ride is wild! But wait, there's more! This seems like an outrageous claim to make of a book that's so much fun, but UBIK is also one of the most profound, thought-provoking explorations of the nature of reality ever written. And the profundity doesn't get in the way of the story one bit! How *does* he do that? UBIK has been shown to be an effective reality-decay preventing dentifrice when used in a conscientiously applied program of metaphysical hygiene and regular mental-health professional care.
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Summary: Dicks best * * * * * *
Review: UBIK is by far Dicks best novel. No other fiction comes close in comparison. I wish I could give it more than 5 stars. If you have not read this book, READ IT NOW!!!
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Summary: The definitive sci-fi "book of the dead."
Review: If you want to prepare yourself for or just know what the "bardo's" or afterlife is like then read this. The definitive sci-fi "book of the dead." The companion to "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldridge" - both are the best examples of PKD's reality shifting talent.
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Summary: One day, all advertisers will work this way...
Review: This book makes me want to buy and sell and move to the desert all at the same time. It is far more than a science fiction novel. It is a manual for future commerce, a description of heaven and hell and of course, like most of his work, and life affirming and destroying masterpiece.
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