"Ubik" by Philip K. Dick; 10/10

I almost, very nearly, liked this one more than "A Scanner Darkly."  Once again the trappings of science fiction are here in order to both present and conceal philosophical inquiry and meditation.  I think this was one of the most thought-provoking books I have ever read, particularly the ending, and I look forward to a second reading.

The book is set in a future in which people who are dying are kept in a stasis called a "half-life," and there has been lunar colonization, and things like telepathy, extra-sensory-perception, and psychic abilities exist.  The protagonist, Joe Chip, is hired by a man named Glen Runciter who is putting together a team for the psychic defense of a corporation from possible hackers.  Dick is not so much interested in any of these things, however, as he is in once again dissecting reality and humanity, and in posing questions about the nature of existence.

Once again we have paranoia and a questioned reality, once again we have untrustworthy women (this is a basic given when you have read a bit of PKD), and once again we have ambiguity in the ending.  Really the ending is the part of this book that I feel the most strongly about, and if anyone else ever reads this book I will brush up on it and discuss it with you.  Phil's wife at the time apparently had an opinion about what this book means which I just read on Wikipedia, and which states more or less my exact interpretation of the metaphors at hand. Of particular moment and memory to me was the moment when I understood why the book was titled "Ubik." My mind was blown, and I loved it.

Though it has nearly been made into a movie a number of times, no "Ubik" film has yet actually seen theaters.  I will say, however, that several films, in particular "The Matrix," the most excellent "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," and "Vanilla Sky" (and the Spanish film of which it was a remake, "Open Your Eyes") owe it heavily, and the latter lifts large portions of its plot from Dick's work, whether intentionally or not I do not know. 

This book was also on Time Magazine's list of the 100 best English language novels published since 1923 (the year of the publication's founding), probably at the behest of Time literary critic and science fiction author Lev Grossman, who is the foremost proponent of this novel.  That list, by the way, is an impressive one.  Anyways, Grossman reads it as a horror story, which is interesting to me who read it as a vision of hope.  What do you think?

I think Philip K. Dick was bloody brilliant!