I've always loved the movies that have stemmed and borrowed from Philip K. Dick's work, and so I thought for the first PKD I read, I'd try reading 'Ubik,' supposedly one of his best, and one that hadn't been turned into a film yet.

Is it just me? I didn't really enjoy it. I think the novel is poorly written, and the thoughts behind it aren't that interesting either. As you read on, it keeps seeming like the plot will be wrapped up in some cool way. But no, in the end the strange get stranger and nothing really makes sense, and not in a emo-nihilistic 'nothing makes sense' way either. My advice: go to the bookstore or library and read five pages. Then you'll understand.

***UPDATE - one week later***
I've now read "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" and have had time to reflect on this book, and I guess it's not as bad as I made it out to be. Just don't believe the hype and you might end up enjoying the book.

would be for this one.

This is a PKD masterpiece. A strong convoluted story that, unlike many PKD novels, does not trail off but stays strong and sustained to the very end.

All the familiar pieces, played as well as he ever did. Paranoia funny and paranoia very dark. The besieged ordinary people of the future who have apartments (conapts, sorry) that know your credit history, doors that won't let you out unless you pay up in cash. Who work for battling corporate giants selling the services of precogs or telepaths versus the services of 'inertials', those who can block the intrusive powers of the first. A new element is that you can find yourself in 'cold-pak', at least if the cold-pak company gets to you soon enough after you die. A twilight state of consciousness between life and death, in which your relatives can still visit you and talk to you through a speaker and headphones. The problem as it turns out is that it's hard to know, when you're in cold pak, if you're alive or not.

There seems to be a consensus among PKD fans that Ubik is the best place to start if you are new to the author's work. Its quick pace, wit, and spectacular imagery make for a highly entertaining read. Also, it touches on some of the major themes that recur in Dick's novels. This was the first PKD book I ever read and it got me off to a great start.

Time magazine called Ubik "one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present." And Dick's website reported in May that Celluloid Dreams has optioned the film rights to this masterpiece. Did you love Blade Runner? That was originally a PKD book. Minority Report? Another outstanding work by PKD. Ubik is slated to be the next in line to make it to the big screen. Be sure to read the book before you see the movie.

In this futuristic sci-fi tale of life and death and cold-sleep, Glen Runciter (with the counsel of his quick-frozen wife Ella) runs a company that supplies `inertials', people whose proximity suppresses the psychic powers of others, ensuring their clients' right to privacy in a world where telepaths and pre-cognitives can too easily violate it. After Runciter is murdered, Joe Chip (the best tester in the business) and his counter-psionic companions struggle to survive in a world where time seems to have drifted backwards and death is striking out of nowhere. Is their dreaded nemesis the telepath Hollis trying to destroy them? Or is Joe's beautiful and dangerous wife Pat behind it all? Or could there be some still darker force at work? Their only hope lies with the fragmentary messages they receive from the absent Runciter, and the promise of the all-pervasive but ever-elusive product known as `Ubik'.

As the above summary may suggest, this is not your usual sci-fi adventure, even granting that it's from the inventive mind of Philip K. Dick. Not atypically, this book is crazy, dark, explosive, suspenseful, and yet still manages to be very funny. After the frantic pace of the first few dozen pages, the second half of this novel may seem to drag a bit, but the book is short enough that most readers will simply race through Dick's unpretentious prose until they get to the stunning conclusion, which, as always, will not please everyone. But then, life doesn't always come doled out in neat little (spray-can) packages.

Ubik presents an interesting twist on psychics in the future. They not only exist, but they are highly organized and aggressive. At the same time, there are individuals known as inertials who have the ability to counteract both telepaths and precogs. The intertials are also organized and most work for "prudence organizations" that hire out to counteract spy work that the psychics undertake and the conflicts can escalate to lethal levels. The story hits a major turning point when the largest prudence organization takes on a job that sends 12 people into a trap that literally explodes in their faces. In the aftermath, reality starts to unravel and the group of inertials races against time to put things right before it's too late.

This book sets up an interesting scenario of espionage and counter-espionage with various types of psychic phenomena as the tools of the trade. Some aspects of the world are set up with a very clear logic that largely stays consistent throughout the story. Other elements aren't defined as well, and some seem to shift a bit depending on where we are in the story.

Characterization is also a bit of a mixed bag. The owner of the company seems larger than life, and one of his aides is pretty well fleshed out in an interesting way. Unfortunately, the remaining cast is pretty sketchy and doesn't get much attention. This lack of depth includes a prime suspect for the cause of their troubles, which was a lost opportunity.

Overall, I liked Ubik and found it interesting, but couldn't help feeling that it could have been even stronger still. I would have liked another 50 pages or so to flesh out the characters and add more personal drama. As others have pointed out, there are also plot developments that appear to contradict what has already happened in the story and a better job could have been done to edit these out or explain them. Ubik is still worth reading, but feels more like a missed opportunity than a treasured classic.