| Booze & Grub | Movies | Music | Books | Diary | Randomness |
| Hipster Book Reviews Alphabetical: # | A | B | C | D | E| F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | ALL |
| Ubik Author: Philip K. Dick Published: 1969 | Pages: 224 |
|
Philip K. Dick is whacked.
The guy has one mind fuck idea after another--and fortunately for
us, he writes them down. Sure, they're all essentially a variation
on the same theme (dreams vs. reality, paranoia and betrayal), but
they are all interesting in their own way. Think of three examples
of movies based on his work as examples: Blade Runner, Total
Recall and Minority Report. All three have the aforementioned
themes, as does Ubik. While Ubik wanders off on
a few tangents, and really lacks some of the punch present in these
other stories, it certainly has a good base. If a good editor got
ahold of this thing and really helped craft the plot, toning down
some of the ideas, he would really have a good thing going on here.
One of the funnier aspects of the book is that it is supposed to be
taking place in the futuristic world of 1993 (it was first published
in 1969) where we have off-world colonies, flying cars and his usual
gangs of mind readers and future-seers. He also tells us about a machine
that is one part fax machine and another part Internet, but... The
book is light-hearted to some degree, but tries to tackle the serious
themes of the afterlife and commercialism. Despite the ugly cover
(designed by one of my former co-workers), this is worth a read if
you care anything about sci-fi and the geeky world it inhabits. Other titles by Philip K. Dick: A Scanner Darkly |
| More on Mr. Hipster |
 Booze
& GrubReviews of New York City's most popular (and least popular) bars and restaurants. |
 Hipster Movie ReviewsEnjoy the rantings as Mr. Hipster proves he slept through his film criticism courses in college. |
 MusicCheck out the albums that have left Mr. H with permanent hearing loss in his left ear, but a song in his heart |
| Find some more book reviews using the menus below | ||
| Authors - Alphabetical |
||
| Booze & Grub | Movies | Music | Books | Diary | Randomness |