Review

“Ubik” by Philip K. Dick is so far the closest thing I’ve come to reading what almost feels like a murder mystery, but in a science fiction. Even though it isn’t one. The number of times I felt I’d finally figured out what was going on, I was yet again surprised. A feeling that repeated itself all the way to the end. By the time I’d read about 30 % of the book I’d arrived at 4-5 different conclusions, yet none of them turned out to be correct in the end, as the reading progressed more explanations occurred and were disproved, but the correct one never occurred. Hence, the murder mystery comparison. It feels you are following along on a journey and the confusion experienced by the characters is also your same confusion.

Despite all of the guessing, the read itself is fairly straight-forward, though the story itself is by no means simple. You are just dumped into the middle of a situation and the story just evolves from there. Somehow you feel completely lost for the first few chapters and suddenly you are no longer lost and have adapted to this new reality. It’s a remarkable to feel so lost and then suddenly you just understand what’s happening.

In order to find a comparison, the closest I can get is probably a mix of “Hyperion” by Dan Simmons and “The Lathe of Heaven” by Ursula K. Le Guin, though it is by no means directly comparable to either of the two. It is mostly just the feeling portrayed in those two books that I feel here as well, with an added spice of mystery. The slight confusion of chasing something unknown and trying to find understanding. Yet, it is so wholly Philip K. Dick, that his own books would probably be the closest comparison.

Score: 7/10

The way the book is written and feels is exceedingly clever and Philip K. Dick manages to direct, guide and mislead the reader to an impressive extent. Regardless of how cleverly he guides the reader I still feel a little unresolved, which is why it gets a rating of 7 and not higher - It’s not that the story has not reached a conclusion, it’s somehow just a feeling of remaining questions that are left unanswered by the end of the book. Personally, I think there could be a whole second book written just to go into even more depth after the conclusion of the book - Yet, then it probably wouldn’t feel like a mystery, which is probably the feeling Philip K. Dick hoped to elicit.

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