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Ubik is a science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick, published in 1969 and considered to be one of his stranger works. The main viewpoint character is Joe Chip, a technician for a 'prudence organisation' which offers the services of a group of misfits with the ability to nullify various types of psychic powers (for instance, an anti-telepath could stop the client's mind being read).
The team is lured to a moonbase to protect an installation, where a bomb explosion appears to kill Glen Runciter, their employer. On their return to Earth to place Runciter in 'half-life' - a form of isolated cryonic suspension that gives the dead person some years of continuing consciousness and communication - they begin to experience reality shifts. Objects begin to regress to altered and/or past forms (new consumables come from the packet stale and Runciter's face appears on coins) and group members begin to die.
While the confusion between real and unreal, obscured by the perception of the main character(s), is very common in Dick's work, in Ubik this confusion occurs is more than one way. Given the premise of half-life (no relation to radioactive half-life), one puzzle lies in resolving the false reality of the deceased with the real perceptions of those who are still alive. This is further complicated by Pat Conley, a woman whose ability to change the past (and thus the present) Chip thinks may be causing the reality changes. As a result, the story presents unsettling shifts between realities and timelines, in some cases from one line to the next.
Thematically, Ubik reflects one of Dick's central concerns: the opposition between twin forces of decay (the regression experienced by the characters) and restoration (the mysterious product 'Ubik', which reverses that process).
Though the connection (if any) is unknown, some elements in common with Ubik have appeared in motion pictures. The frozen starship captain in John Carpenter's Dark Star is in a similar state to half-life, as is the hero of Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky and its Spanish original, Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes).
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