Ubik is one of the most fascinating books I have ever read - and I am certain you will think the same when you read it!

Written in 1969, this science-fiction novel is set in in the future, in 1992, in what is known as the "North American Confederation". In this era, technology has advanced to the extent that normal citizens can take regular outings to space and parapsychology ("psi phenomena": telepathy, precognition, reincarnation and the like) are common traits of the people. As well as this, the human life cycle has been extended with people having the ability to sink into the state of "half-life", a phase following death, which allows fully living humans to communicate with their seemingly deceased loved ones.

The main characters are the employees of a successful company, Runciter Associates, which specialises in anti-psi talents, for example an anti-precog prevents a precog from seeing the future. After the firm's head Glen Runciter receives a request to stop psi activity on Luna, another planet, he quickly organises a group of the best anti-psi agents, including the new and mysterious Pat Conley, who has the rare ability to change events in the past.

But then the team arrives on Luna, discover it is a trap, seemingly set up by the company's rival, Ray Hollis. Before they know it, a bomb explodes, apparently only killing Runciter. The rest of the team, now led by the protagonist Joe Chip, fly back to Earth to set Runicter in the half-life state.

Upon arriving at Earth, the team begin to experience strange morphs in reality, with food and drinks beginning to "deteriorate". The currency begins to feature Runciter on it, and Chip begins to receive messages from him, suggesting that Glen Runciter must be alive. Soon after, members of the group begin to die in gruesome ways, suggesting time is running out- if it hasn't already - to figure out what is happening, and why the planet is regressing back into time, at an alarming rate.

They come across a strange product called Ubik which is advertised in every time period in the book, implying perhaps this product will be answer to the strange occurrences happening.

The book plays, what I'd say, an ingenious game of cat and mouse with the reader, with a fine line between full life and half life, always leaving the reader in doubt as to what is an illusion and what is truly real. There are twists and turns in every chapter which throw the reader off track.

Want to tell the world about a book you've read? Join the site and send us your review!

Ubik is an extraordinary novel dealing with the intricate topics of time and its unreliability as well as the fact that we can not be certain of anything in our world that seems to be reality...