Ubik: SF Masterworks

Excellent, well-written, and full of questions that keep you in a nightmarish state of curiosity.
At the end of Ubik, you will be forced to rethink reality, existence, science, and theology as you've come to understand them.

So far I've read

Vulcan's hammer --extremely dated, like reading an old Asimov

The three stigmata of Palmer Eldritch --also very good, 4 stars, as good as Ubik, if not better

Do androids dream ... --interesting perhaps only to see how it might have inspired the movie; or to put it another way, if Ridley Scott did not make Blade Runner, this book would not be #881 on the store

The man in the high castle --interesting, almost worked, but I thought it failed in the end, like a mystery movie that suddenly realizes it been running for 2 hours and now has to wrap up the story

A scanner, darkly --pretty good; the animated film is good too--I think they complement each other very well

The transmigration of Timothy Archer --not sci-fi at all, and not very good either

Ubik --interesting idea, well-developed, story moves along well with a bit more cohesion than usual

I don't mean to be overly critical. I do enjoy reading PKD. But I'm beginning to sense that his books are very exploratory, not designed to be finished products, but more like jazz.

Must have sci-fi read. Read Ubik, slaughter house 5, 2001, Dune, Verne, Clarke and Assimov. If you have not developed a sense of awe of the universe by then, rethink why you bother to get out of bed everyday. Go back to kindergarten, you missed the point of it all.

There is little you can say about this book without ruining the premise. If you read any summary of it, it may give it away too soon, and you miss out on the full experience of the book. It was witty, riveting and classic PKD style.

Philip K Dick is a visionary author. The story is intriguing but to me, the most interesting parts are the descriptions of the future. Many products and habits have come true, like sending a 'stant (an instant message) and having a largely freelance workforce. Great read.

PKD, as usual, fulfills the readers expectations . A wonderful novel, with a complicated and layered plot where the reader never knows what is real and what is not. The theme of reality is spotted alike in the Do androids dream.... novel, and PKD throws a really good question to the reader!

This is the craziest story I've ever read. After reading it, I looked at the world differently for a while. It's as if Phil just took me on an acid trip that is his mind. I highly recommend this book for anyone that enjoys weird stories.

This novel has appeared on several lists of greatest sci-fi or greatest modern novels. It must be nostalgia for a novel read while tripping. At best it’s really bad misogynist psychedelic sixties science fiction. Or maybe it’s awkward satire on science fiction of that era. I can’t tell. Either way it’s a short story padded with an extreme amount of extraneous detail masquerading as futuristic world building. Do not waste your time or money on this truly irritating work.

The concepts are really interesting. The writing is pretty utilitarian. I found the story hard to buy into - character's are kinda flat, the dramatic parts didn't pull me in. Might make a good movie.