Ubik

by Philip K. Dick

Overview

Named one of Time's 100 Best Books, Ubik is a mind-bending, classic novel about the perception of reality from Philip K. Dick, the Hugo Award-winning author of The Man in the High Castle.

“From the stuff of space opera, Dick spins a deeply unsettling existential horror story, a nightmare you’ll never be sure you’ve woken up from.”—Lev Grossman, Time

Glen Runciter runs a lucrative business — deploying his teams of anti-psychics to corporate clients who want privacy and security from psychic spies. But when he and his top team are ambushed by a rival, he is gravely injured and placed in “half-life,” a dreamlike state of suspended animation. Soon, though, the surviving members of the team begin experiencing some strange phenomena, such as Runciter’s face appearing on coins and the world seeming to move backward in time. As consumables deteriorate and technology gets ever more primitive, the group needs to find out what is causing the shifts and what a mysterious product called Ubik has to do with it all.

“More brilliant than similar experiments conducted by Pynchon or DeLillo.”—Roberto Bolaño

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780547728247
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	04/17/2012
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	128,165
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Over a writing career that spanned three decades, PHILIP K. DICK (1928–1982) published 36 science fiction novels and 121 short stories in which he explored the essence of what makes man human and the dangers of centralized power. Toward the end of his life, his work turned to deeply personal, metaphysical questions concerning the nature of God. Eleven novels and short stories have been adapted to film, notably Blade Runner (based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), Total Recall, Minority Report, and A Scanner Darkly, as well as television's The Man in the High Castle. The recipient of critical acclaim and numerous awards throughout his career, including the Hugo and John W. Campbell awards, Dick was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2005, and between 2007 and 2009, the Library of America published a selection of his novels in three volumes. His work has been translated into more than twenty-five languages.

Editorial Reviews

It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you. Actor Anthony Heald delivers a gifted performance of all the characters in Philip K. Dick's prophetic 1969 short story. The "future" of 1992 is a scary place, where people with telepathic and psychic abilities are common and must be kept in check by power-dampening people called "interials." Heald is called on to portray more than a dozen characters, including a screeching being, a brain-damaged youth, and an assortment of damaged people. UBIK is a fascinating look at the excesses of science and how easily morality can be forgotten in the name of profit. Heald is the glue that holds the somewhat confusing story together—right up to the shocking climax. M.S. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2008 - AudioFile