Science fiction writer Philip K. Dick has imagined a world of the future in which those who die, if they are frozen quickly after death, can be kept in "half-life" for a period of time and can communicate with loved ones through the use of a "protophason amplifier." In this future, some people have developed strong psychic powers, many working for a company that specializes in sending psychics into businesses, who don't really like being spied upon. To counteract the psychics, "prudence organizations" employ people who can sense psychic activity and ferret out the snoopers.
Thus enters Glen Runciter, owner of the foremost prudence organization; his wife Ella, who is in half-life; and Joe Chip, his second-in-command. The company receives a big job on Luna, taking 11 psychic-sensors along, only to be caught in an ambush staged by its psychic competitors. And Glen Runciter is killed, or is he? Everyone else lives and escape back to earth, but then time begins to shift for the 11 survivors, sometimes with disastrous results. And they keep receiving cryptic messages from their dead boss, sometimes written on bathroom walls. Just what is going on here?
This is not your standard sci-fi novel, needless to say. "Ubik" is short for "ubiquitous"--existing or being everywhere at the same time. In the novel it is a product which can be used for almost anything, including an aerosol spray that can halt the killing effects of time-shift. Questions are raised here about the nature of reality and belief, and the reader thinks he has received the answer to the puzzle, until the last chapter. Then, oops, maybe all that was the wrong answer.
Science fiction is often dismissed when critics are choosing "great" novels, but this one was chosen by the Times Top 100. And I don't think it was even his best. It is funny; it gives you something to think about; it keeps you riveted to find out what happens next. It is short on character development, by then sci-fi is notoriously plot-driven.
It is well worth your time. Recommended.
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I must read it!
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