[Ubik]
Year:
1969
Type:
Public:
Publisher:
Voyager
Year of publication:
1998
Pages:
286
Moral assessment:
Type: Literature
Nothing inappropriate.
Some morally inappropriate content.
Contains significant sections contrary to faith or morals.
Contains some lurid passages, or presents a general ideological framework that could confuse those without much Christian formation.
Contains several lurid passages, or presents an ideological framework that is contrary or foreign to Christian values.
Explicitly contradicts Catholic faith or morals, or is directed against the Church and its institutions.
Literary quality:
Recommendable:
Transmits values:
Sexual content:
Violent content:
Vulgar or obscene language:
Ideas that contradict Church teaching:
The rating of the different categories comes from the opinion of Delibris' collaborators
The novel plays with the idea of a “time machine”, in this case based on a mysterious drug, “Ubik”, an aerosol that transports people to earlier situations. This is combined with the possibility that, in this fictional world, those who die may remain in a state of hibernation, allowing contact with “the rest of consciousness” that still flickers in their semi-destroyed neurons. In the final pages, Dick suggests that “Ubik” is God himself: a non-personal God, qualitatively superior to material existence itself.
F.J. (2014)
Author: Manuel Martínez, Spain
Update on: May 2026