A review by trilbynorton
Ubik by Philip K. Dick

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Friends, this is clean-up time and we're discounting all our silent, electric Ubiks by this much money. Yes, we're throwing away the bluebook. And remember: every Ubik on our lot has been used only as directed.

Philip K. Dick's Ubik, second only to his other paranoid "what even is reality" novel The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, feels in many ways ahead of its time. Published in 1969, it predates Jean Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation by over a decade, presaging the French philosopher's arguments concerning the unreality of modern society. (If I wanted to sound even more pretentious, I might further assert that the ubiquitious product of Ubik, which seems to underpin the reality of the novel and yet which the characters are incapable of obtaining, symbolises Jacques Lacan's order of the Real, which similarly underpins society's constructed reality but which can never be approached.) The novel also feels almost like a deconstruction of the "simulated reality" genre. Though there is an explanation offered for the inconsistencies encountered by the characters, various inconsistencies in the plot and world-building (not to mention the final, delirious twist) appear to undermine this apparent answer. Ubik ultimately doesn't make any sense, and I think that's the whole point. Reality doesn't make any sense, either.