Ubik

Book Description

Critics

• Ubik

  La trama e le recensioni di Ubik, romanzo di Philip K. Dick edito da Fanucci. Glen Runciter comunica con la moglie defunta per avere i suoi consigli dall’aldilà. Joe Chip scompare dal mondo del 1992 e si ritrova nell’America degli anni Trenta, mentre ... (read full critics)

  Qlibri published on Thu, 25 Nov 2010

• Kick over the Scenery

  When an art form or genre once dismissed as kids’ stuff starts to get taken seriously by gatekeepers – by journals, for example, such as the one you are reading now – respect doesn’t come smoothly, or all at once. Often one artist gets lifted above t ... (read full critics)

  lrb published on Mon, 6 Sep 2010

5 Reviews

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  My first approach to science fiction i think!
  Dick is addictive, you cannot stop reading his books when you start them. This story can bring you to a long and fascinating trip, and you don't know where are you going until you've finished it!
  Superb.

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  Pinkusagi said on Jul 26, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  Ubik. A good book, really. The first hole in my PKD Theory.

  My PKD Theory goes like this: Philip Dick is not a great writer. He is a visionary, a prophet of science fiction and an incredibly prolific mind. Also, an author who likes to delve into the most fundamental issues of humanity: what ... (continue)

  Ubik. A good book, really. The first hole in my PKD Theory.

  My PKD Theory goes like this: Philip Dick is not a great writer. He is a visionary, a prophet of science fiction and an incredibly prolific mind. Also, an author who likes to delve into the most fundamental issues of humanity: what is real? is there really something out there? how can we be sure of anything?
  All of this makes his creations bold statements: all his books contain something your mind could chew on for ages, be it an existential question or a vivid and unprecedented vision of the future.

  Unfortunately, P.K.Dick is not a really good writer. He's convoluted, unclear, sometimes even dull. Groundbreaking ideas, poor execution.

  This was my theory. It held on quite well until I stumbled on Ubik. Ubik, simply put, is a good idea wrapped in good writing. Easily one of the best Dick novels I've read.
  Not enough to shatter my theory, albeit enough to make it a very good read.

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  Simbul said on Jun 3, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  From the blurb: "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 mourning employees are receiving bewildering messages from their boss. And the world around them is warping and regressing in ways which sugg ... (continue)

  From the blurb: "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 mourning 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."

  Glen Runciter is stored in a half-life container, theoretically allowing him to communicate with the living. As more and more of his employees join him in half-life, the question becomes which reality is more real - half-life or life.

  An absolutely stunning book. If you stick with it through the first few pages, where a completely alternate and mystifying world is sketched, Philip K. Dick's world becomes your own and you will keep flipping the pages feverishly to find out what happens next.

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  annemarie said on Jun 19, 2009 | Add your feedback

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  Outstanding!!I love science fiction. This is a kind of psycho-thriller too. So you find interesting these two genders it’s really a great book. It takes at most 4 hours to read it. If you’re looking for something relaxing and interesting which you can read during a weekend, it’s perfect!!

  Ubi ... (continue)

  Outstanding!!I love science fiction. This is a kind of psycho-thriller too. So you find interesting these two genders it’s really a great book. It takes at most 4 hours to read it. If you’re looking for something relaxing and interesting which you can read during a weekend, it’s perfect!!

  Ubik is a 1969 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. In 2005, Time Magazine named it one of the hundred greatest English-language novels published since 1923

  The novel takes place in the North American Confederation in an alternate version of 1992, wherein technology has advanced to the extent of permitting civilians to reach the Moon and wherein psi phenomena are widely accepted as real. The protagonist is Joe Chip, a debt-ridden technician for Glen Runciter's "prudence organization," which employs people with the ability to block certain psychic powers (as in the case of an anti-telepath, who can prevent a telepath from reading a client's mind) to enforce privacy by request. Runciter runs the company with the assistance of his deceased wife Ella, who is kept in a state of "half-life," a form of cryonic suspension that gives the deceased person limited consciousness and communication ability.

  The term Ubik comes from the Latin word ubique, which means "everywhere" and is the source of the English language word ubiquitous, which means being or seeming to be everywhere at the same time. This may be considered ironic, considering that Ubik is much sought-after and rare in the novel, but it may also indicate that Ubik is a life-force of sorts.

  Ubik also references Plato’s idea of Forms, great universals that define the essence of all matter. When the world begins to seemingly regress in time and all objects in it (such as television sets, refrigerators and automobiles) become that time period’s version of that object, Chip remarks that each is coming closer to barest, simplest Form

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  Barbara ABP said on Aug 14, 2008 | Add your feedback

• 

  Probably my favorite PKD novel.

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  Albion said on May 29, 2007 | Add your feedback

Book Details

• Rating:
  (161)
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• English Books
• Paperback 224 Pages
• Edition: Reprint
• ISBN-10: 0679736646
• ISBN-13: 9780679736646
• Publisher: Vintage
• Pub date: Dec 03, 1991
• Dimensions: 1290 mm x 839 mm x 129 mm Just how big is that?
• Also available as: Hardcover, Others and eBook
• In other languages: other languages Livres Français, Deutsche Bücher, Libros en Español, Livros em Português, Libri Italiani

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