Ubik
This month’s book club book is Ubik by one of my favorite authors: Philip K. Dick. I’ve only read a bit of it so far and it’s already halfway through the month, so I’m gonna have to step it up. My buddy already finished it!
I want to try something new with this post. I’m planning on updating it as I read through the book instead of writing a review after I’ve completely finished. If I like the results I may end up doing it for more books in the future. Hopefully it’ll help codify my thoughts. Usually I forget a lot of details by the time I’m finished with a book and it negatively affects my reviews. So, we’ll see how it goes. Stay tuned.
2/22 – Update 1! Spoilers below this line.
I am now 50% into the book and things are heating up. The story thus far goes: Glen Runciter runs a company that provides a solution to telepaths and pre-cogs. It is important to note that in this world, technology exists to keep in contact with the recently deceased via deep freezing them and “waking them up” every so often to telepathically communicate with them. This is the case for Runciter’s young wife, whom he occasionally visits to get advice about the company.
Joe Chip, an employee of Runciter, brings in a young girl with an extraordinary new power: she can nullify pre-cogs after they’ve already seen the future. She does this by literally changing the past. With her and a team of 10 others with these nullifying gifts, Runciter and Joe Chip travel to a lunar base for a job. However, they are ambushed. A human bomb goes off, killing Runciter and injuring the others. They suspect it was a trap by a man named Hollis, who has been organizing the telepaths and pre-cogs for his own nefarious purposes.
The team makes it back to Earth where they deliver Runciter to a moratorium where, they hope, they will be able to store him for communication. Unfortunately it seems they were too late, and no connection to Runciter can me made. But the team is experiencing some very strange phenomena like stale cigarettes, moldy food, and ancient currency. Not only that, but Runciter seems to be showing up all over the place: on a phone line, on their money, in 2 places at once…
Now Joe Chip and the team are scrambling to figure out what’s going on before it’s too late. Before what happens to one of them happens to the rest: Wendy Wright seemingly aged 100 years over night and turned to dust in a closet. Time is running out and the clues that could help them are obscure and cryptic.
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People have said this is the best Philip K. Dick book. A Goodreads commenter claimed it “flirts with perfection.” So far I like it, it’s a good read, but I suspect the ending is what will make or break this book for me. I’ll try to finish it within the next few days and write up my thoughts.
Final update: 3/4 – I finished the book. I felt that it sorta dragged in the 3rd quarter, but the ending was quite good. We are left wondering, as we were during the entire book, who is really dead and who is alive.
Overall I liked it, but not as much as I thought (or hoped) I would. I am planning on reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? soon and I’m looking forward to comparing the two books.
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I don’t think I’ll be following this post format in the future, either. It’s a little restrictive for me and I think it makes it harder for the readers, rather than easier.
Colin O'Blivion 