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Stuart's Reviews > Ubik
Ubik
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Stuart's review
bookshelves: fantastic-weird, new-wave-sf, magic-realism-reality-as-illusion, favorites
Jan 11, 2014
bookshelves: fantastic-weird, new-wave-sf, magic-realism-reality-as-illusion, favorites
It took me 40 years to get around to it, but I finally dived into PKD's reality-bending novels over the last two years, and this one is excellent. UBIK is much stranger and more darkly humorous than Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. It starts out with a very far-fetched future world set in 1992, and the plot revolves around telepaths, inertials, prudence organizations, snarky coin-operated household appliances, "cold-pac" half-life moratoriums, crazily excessive clothing styles, mysterious life-enhancing spray cans, life force-sucking half-life entities, and scariest of all, 1939 Des Moines, Iowa~
Well, there isn't much point describing the plot, since it just gets weirder and more disorienting as the story progresses, but surprisingly PDK is in full control of the story and tone despite the strange twists and confusion the protagonists suffer through. And although there are many humorous elements, overall the story is dark, philosophical, and just plain disorienting.
I found the book impossible to put down and engrossing, and I really like the fact that SF books back in the 1950s/60s were SHORT and TO THE POINT. Forget about 1000-page door-stoppers like Neal Stephenson and George R.R. Martin's books, this book says what it has to say in just over 200 pages. I guess we can thank the word processor for the ridiculous bloat that so many modern SF/fantasy books suffer from. And don't get me started on series. So it's just really nice to read a book this short and sweet, but so full of ideas about life, death, the afterlife, paranoia, reality, and entropy, without providing any pat answers, all in a convenient, easy-to-use aerosol spray can.
Well, there isn't much point describing the plot, since it just gets weirder and more disorienting as the story progresses, but surprisingly PDK is in full control of the story and tone despite the strange twists and confusion the protagonists suffer through. And although there are many humorous elements, overall the story is dark, philosophical, and just plain disorienting.
I found the book impossible to put down and engrossing, and I really like the fact that SF books back in the 1950s/60s were SHORT and TO THE POINT. Forget about 1000-page door-stoppers like Neal Stephenson and George R.R. Martin's books, this book says what it has to say in just over 200 pages. I guess we can thank the word processor for the ridiculous bloat that so many modern SF/fantasy books suffer from. And don't get me started on series. So it's just really nice to read a book this short and sweet, but so full of ideas about life, death, the afterlife, paranoia, reality, and entropy, without providing any pat answers, all in a convenient, easy-to-use aerosol spray can.
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Reading Progress
January 11, 2014
–
Started Reading
January 11, 2014
– Shelved as:
to-read
January 11, 2014
– Shelved
January 11, 2014
– Shelved as:
fantastic-weird
January 11, 2014
– Shelved as:
new-wave-sf
January 11, 2014
– Shelved as:
magic-realism-reality-as-illusion
January 16, 2014
–
42.59%
"Much stranger and more humorous than Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. I get the feeling this is more the type of bizarre story that PDK is known for."
page
92
January 23, 2014
– Shelved as:
favorites
January 23, 2014
–
Finished Reading
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Jonathan
(last edited Jan 23, 2014 04:16AM)
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Jan 23, 2014 04:15AM
Yeah, what is up with the doorstoppers, especially when we're supposed to be readers with shorter attention spans? These writers are trying to force the readers who are left into being uber readers?
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This book had something to say? Who knew? ;)Great review.
@jonathan, I think what is going on is that as the subculture becomes formalized into a (sub-) life style, the need develops for longer and longer escapism. arguably "normals" find the 3000 page SF series offputting, but for the specialist audience who buys nothing else, there is no other substitute@Stuart, great review. Ubik's galaxy-spanning scope within what is now retrofuturism 1939 visions from Iowa is indeed its inimitable best quality. I love the scene where the protagonist deeply admires "a real leather wallet, wow!"
Michael wrote: "I love the scene where the protagonist deeply admires "a real leather wallet, wow!""I love ALL the weird and wonderful references to clothes and personal effects (so much so, that I listed a whole load of them in my review, so I could refer to them in future!)
@Cecily: Yes, I noticed you had carefully listed up a number of crazy clothing descriptions. I guess if you were writing the book in 1969 in Berkeley or SF and extrapolated to the far-distant future of 1992 (!), then perhaps these outlandish get-ups would make sense. But more likely he's just making fun of it. In the recent Hunger Games movies, you can see a similar example in the over-the-top costumes of the privileged elite in the Capitol.@Jonathan & Michael: I've long thought about why it is that both SF & Fantasy books have gotten longer and longer over the last couple decades(particularly fantasy series, with the most blatant example being Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, which outlived the author himself and finally ground to a halt at 14 volumes with the help of Brandon Sanderson). Of course one reason is the ease with which authors can write, revise, copy, etc on the PC. Can you imagine Robert Jordan or George R.R. Martin hammering away at a manual typewriter, trying to keep track of their massive cast of characters and plotlines?
And in the case of PKD, we all know he was cranking out as many books and stories as possible to pay the rent (and may have had other stimulants for his creative muse), so the shorter format suited his stories. But now it seems that no SF or fantasy novel can be taken seriously, particularly for awards, unless it is at least 400-500 pages.
As Michael has postulated, once a subculture has taken root, then members of that group want to lose themselves in that world for as long as possible. I never found anything appealing about the over-rated Harry Potter series, but clearly many younger fans can't get enough of that world.
It's ironic that long format books are now the standard, when you consider that back in the early 1960s Frank Herbert couldn't find any publishers willing to take his unusual space epic Dune due to the length!
Stuart wrote: "...I guess if you were writing the book in 1969 in Berkeley or SF and extrapolated to the far-distant future of 1992 (!), then perhaps these outlandish get-ups would make sense...."Oh, undoubtedly. And he does and excellent and delightful job of it.
Stuart wrote: "Of course one reason is the ease with which authors can write, revise, copy, etc on the PC. Can you imagine Robert Jordan or George R.R. Martin hammering away at a manual typewriter, trying to keep track of their massive cast of characters and plotlines?"I knew there was a downside to technology, I just knew it.
Stuart wrote: "...Of course one reason is the ease with which authors can write, revise, copy, etc on the PC. Can you imagine Robert Jordan or George R.R. Martin hammering away at a manual typewriter, trying to keep track of their massive cast of characters and plotlines?..."Well, SOME writers managed (Samuel Richardson, Miguel Cervantes, Dostoyevski, Anthony Trollope, Proust, to name a few), but I suppose the fact it was so much harder in the past meant that fewer writers attempted or succeeded with mega-tomes and multi-part works. Maybe.... dare I say it?... the only ones who succeeded in the past were the really good ones?!
Very interesting review, Stuart. I've been hearing a lot about Philip K. Dick's novels lately and think he might be the author I want to overcome my repulsion against anything sci-fi related with. Added it!
Great review Stuart, my favorite PKD.
We certainly had plenty doorstops before the current era of science fiction and fantasy. The Lord of the Rings books are quite long (and certainly there are folks who don’t like them for that reason). I have nothing against long books unless they drag. In any case, you’re right about Ubik. It rocks.
