Philip K. Dick is now widely regarded as one of the most important SF writers of all time and Ubik is one of his most entertaining masterpieces, a metaphysical comedy of death and salvation, a tour de force of paranoia and slapstick.
A classic science fiction tale of artifical worlds by one of the great American writers of the 20th century
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.
If it hasn't already.
Readers minds have been blown by Ubik:
'Sheer craziness, a book defying any straightforward synopsis . . . a unique time travel adventure that could only be concocted from the fertile psychedelic imagination of the incomparable PKD' Goodreads reviewer, ? ? ? ? ?
'This pre-cyberpunk gigglefest was an absolute joy to behold . . . I would bill it as a Truman Show-Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-Barbarella-type of sci-fi' Goodreads reviewer, ? ? ? ? ?
'If you have not read PKD before I highly recommend Ubik as the gateway into his wonderfully weird fiction. I kind of envy you' Goodreads reviewer, ? ? ? ? ?
'UBIK is much stranger and more darkly humorous than Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep . . . although there are many humorous elements, overall the story is dark, philosophical, and just plain disorienting. I found the book impossible to put down' Goodreads reviewer, ? ? ? ? ?
'A darkly humorous blurring of lines between reality and illusion and a concomitant degree of paranoia' Goodreads reviewer, ? ? ? ? ?
'About eighty decades ahead of its time, only Ubik can help to process the overwhelmingness of the contemporary age. Chock full of post-death theology, psionics, proto-cyberpunk, and retro-retro-retro future nostalgia' Goodreads reviewer, ? ? ? ? ?
'We spend a great deal of it unsure of what is real and what isn't and some of the ideas Dick manages to throw in as the story progresses had me grinning and shaking my head at the crazy logic of it all' Goodreads reviewer, ? ? ? ? ?
'One of the most original practitioners writing any kind of fiction' The Sunday Times
'An exceptional novel' Brian W. Aldiss
Author
About Philip K Dick
Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) was born in Chicago but lived in California for most of his life. His edgy, dark future visions are even more relevant now. His novels have inspired many other writers and been used as the basis for films such as the classic Blade Runner the blockbuster Minority Report and the indie 'cartoon' A Scanner Darkly.
Since his untimely death at age 53, there has been an extraordinary growth of interest in his writings, which during his lifetime were largely ignored by serious mainstream critics and readers. Such is no longer the case, and the novels of Philip K. Dick frequently appear on university curricula devoted to modern American literature.
From age fifteen to his early twenties, Dick was employed in two Berkeley shops, University Radio and Art Music, owned by Herb Hollis, a salt-of-the-earth American small businessman who became a kind of father-figure for Dick and served as an inspiration for a number of his later fictional characters, most notably Leo Bulero in The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. In the early 1950s, with the helpful mentorship of SF editor and Berkeley resident Anthony Boucher, Dick began to publish stories in the SF pulps of the era at an astonishing rate - seven of his stories appeared in June 1953 alone. He soon gave up his employment in the Hollis shops to pursue the economically insecure career of an SF writer.
