WELCOME
Dear Readers, Aliens and Creatures, Ubik is the cure all, Ubik is the dream – UBIK!!!! Apart from the author seeming to be an a**hole, the story… Lads, the story…🤦♀️
BASICS
Official title: Ubik
My title: What in tarnation?!
Author: Philip K. Dick
Publisher: Doubleday
Fav character: Pat
Type: Book – series?! Because dafuq was that ending?!
4.4/5
INTRO
It has been a long time since I read a story that managed to confused me in its present, past and future… I have a VAGUE idea of wtf I read. 💁 Not sure the author had any idea wtf he wrote either, so we’re probably on the same page 🌚 *applause* 💀.
It IS interesting though.
REVIEW
The year is 1992 (the book was published in 1969 – so this would have been THE FUTURE)- So, 1992 and the world is pretty crazy. I have NO idea what people are wearing – the outfits are made of the most random combination of clothing that even I may hesitate to try out; I have no idea how their transportation system works, although it seems to be pretty instantaneous – travelling to the moon is almost common; I have no idea how their payment system works, although it seems to be made of a thing called ‘credits’; the world governments have shifted and ‘rebranded’ and humans have special powers. Which can be a problem.
There are true precogs, telepaths, telekinetics, etc… And there are persons with abilities to dampen and even completely cancel out these powers. This is the business that Glen Runciter runs. He provides inertials to the wealthy, the corporate, the powerful, etc… people who need their privacy protected at all costs. Persons who cannot have their minds read at all times, or their most likely futures divined by the tricky. Glen’s business is going well, and for his competitors who provide ‘spying’ or ‘knowledge acquiring’ services, he is a nuisance.
So when do things become interesting, you ask?
When Glen receives a job proposal, one of the largest and most important one his company, to check out strange goings on. You see, some of the most powerful precogs and telepaths have been disappearing, just dropping off the map. Considering the strength of the power of these individuals, this has created all kinds of chaos. But Glen doesn’t only received a new job offer, oh no, his tester Joe Chip, brings in a new inertial with an amazing power; she can change the past, to change the future precogs see and select – I was like AWESOMEEE… HOWEVER…. 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
Now, the super powered humans aren’t all that is interesting in this society, we also have half-lives. Half-lives basically consist of humans who would have physically died but are still emitting mental signals which can be translated to words. Your body is dead, but your brain lives on for a while. Naturally, family members are still able to engage with these people – including Glen, whose 20 year old wife and business partner is nearing the end of her half life and is being contaminated by Jory. Fkkin Jory.
Glen takes up the job on the moon and travels with eleven of his best employees, the 17 year old inertial girl and Joe – his tester. They get there, they sense strange things and then, BOOM! A bomb goes off – and this is where they author starts messing with us.
The employees make it back to Earth, or do they? We must now consider who is dead and in half-life and who is alive; we must consider who is killing off the employees one by one; we must consider why their technology keeps regressing and at what point it will stop; we have to consider WTF is Ubik, who made it and WTF is it exactly for. 😌 Lots to consider, I know.
Interestingly enough, reality/day-to-day lives of alive people really seems to lose interest and meaning… The reader becomes caught up in the half-life dilema.
OBSERVATIONS
▪️ The author is a cad. The preying on young women by old men in this book is pervasive. Whenever older women appear, in their 30’s and 40’s, they are described as physically unattractive (straight out) and I just felt pity that he never saw sexy 30, 40, 50 + year olds. It made me grateful for Instagram and TikTok.
▪️As mentioned above, there are disgusting to read, views of very young women – who, to the author – if they are young and attractive they are called ‘girls’ otherwise they are women. To illustrate, one of the ‘troubled’ cases of the book is a girl who claims to be 19, but one of the NASTY OLD MEN says see looks barely 17. OLD NASTY ADULT MALE – EWWW. í other is young woman, Ella, who is about 20-21 (married to another OLD NASTY MAN – the owner of the company, Glen).
▪️ Lots of old nasty men. 😒😒😒
▪️ Ubik, the product, is advertised very interestingly throughout the book, and given the ending and the development of its use, it does pose questions that would be fun to explore. Such as… where exactly does its factories exist; how do they sustain themselves; who are the delivery persons…
▪️ There is a heavy focus on 1939 Bible belt USA, that really makes little sense to someone who has no concept of the location and time. Ehem… along with a Lasalle 1939, obsession…
▪️ Unfortunately the story is somewhat dated. The future mentioned in the book (1992) was too close to the published date (1969) and too far from my current 2021. There were interesting elements, but overall, meh. The most interesting feature of the future were the ‘half-lives’ which persons can continue to live in even after physical death and the parapsychological aspect of the society.
▪️ There is a final twist in the plot that makes you question which reality is real, and how they could be so. The argument seems pretty straightforward though, especially if you consider the rules set up by the author.
CONCLUSION
The discussion topic is – Who do you believe was actually alive? Who was in the half-life? That is the ongoing question and mystery of this book. Frankly, I don’t have an answer.
Pages: 240
Publisher: Mariner
Year: 1969
