Ubik by Philip K. Dick (Jeff Halberstadt)

1 month ago
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where psychic powers are utilized in corporate espionage, while cryonic technology allows recently deceased people to be maintained in a lengthy state of hibernation.that can be temporarily reversed by a mysterious store-bought substance called Ubik. This work expands upon characters and concepts previously introduced in the vignette "What the Dead Men Say". Glen Runciter is dead. Or is everyone else? What is certain is that someone has died in an explosion orchestrated by Runciter's competitors. In fact, his employees are attending a funeral. But during their mourning, they begin receiving disconcerting, even morbid, messages from their boss. And the world around them begins to unravel in a way that suggests they, too, don't have much time left.

This mordant metaphysical comedy of death and salvation (which may come in a handy packaging) is a tour de force of paranoid menace and absurdist comedy, in which the dead offer business advice, buy their next reincarnation, and run the continual risk of dying again.

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