Been getting more into the Sci-Fi lately. That has been spurred on in part from reading more of the genre, but also, from watching two TV shows; "Black Mirror" and "Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams. So, I was excited to read this book. I also really liked the set-up and the first few chapters. That being said, I wasn't totally in love with the book, maybe because I had high expectations for it, and already have some introduction to some of the neat ideas of Philip K. Dick through some of his works which have been brought to TV and movies.
That being said, this book has a lot of structural elements that are very similar to a mystery/thriller book, and does at times feel like it is one of those, which just happens to be set in the future. Which, it took me a little while to realize, that this was going on, but I felt like this "mystery/thriller" aspect, took away from some of the social commentary that can make science fiction an especially powerful genre. Though, maybe this expectation for social commentary is unrealistc. Science fiction books are the easiest to write about though.
I feel like Joe Chip's character could have used some more development. He's shown to be a guy who clearly cannot hold on to money, yet he doesn't have any obvious vices like drugs/gambling/women/luxury shopping that he'd be throwing all his money away on, and he's obviously well paid, so I'm not too sure where all his money goes. Also, the whole Pat situation was set up as a red herring? Wasn't there more to her? Was disappointing to see that she wasn't involved as part of the end game.
Also, the idea that Jory eats people, and the moratorium people are at least somewhat complicit in letting it happen doesn't make business sense and seems like a plot hole. If word got out that your moratorium had someone who was eating people, and was interrupting visitations, then no one would bring their relatives there. No matter how much Jory's parent were paying, it wouldn't be able to offset the other multiple streams of lost revenue and reputational damage. Also, why did Ella and friends have to spend a bunch of time making Ubik? Shouldn't they have been trying to hone their world creating powers, like Jory had done? Couldn't Ella have learned those kinds of things after she'd invented Ubik? Maybe Jory could only do those things because he ate people? Why couldn't Jory feed on/use Ubik? What if they'd developed something that would feed Jory (and all of them) instead of developing Ubik? If the Ubik was able to "rehydrate" Chip, does that mean it took the energy away from Jory? Wouldn't he have noticed?
If I were to interpret the ending, I'd say the easy, most simple explanation is that Joe is actually the one who is dead, everything has been happening to him in the cold pak. If I were to make it more complicated, I'd bring Pat back in to the fold, and, possibly everyone is dead, but they are in Hollis' cold pak system and Hollis is able to view their simulations and is trying to extract information from them regarding the temperance league for some type of coup.
That being said, this book has a lot of structural elements that are very similar to a mystery/thriller book, and does at times feel like it is one of those, which just happens to be set in the future. Which, it took me a little while to realize, that this was going on, but I felt like this "mystery/thriller" aspect, took away from some of the social commentary that can make science fiction an especially powerful genre. Though, maybe this expectation for social commentary is unrealistc. Science fiction books are the easiest to write about though.
I feel like Joe Chip's character could have used some more development. He's shown to be a guy who clearly cannot hold on to money, yet he doesn't have any obvious vices like drugs/gambling/women/luxury shopping that he'd be throwing all his money away on, and he's obviously well paid, so I'm not too sure where all his money goes. Also, the whole Pat situation was set up as a red herring? Wasn't there more to her? Was disappointing to see that she wasn't involved as part of the end game.
Also, the idea that Jory eats people, and the moratorium people are at least somewhat complicit in letting it happen doesn't make business sense and seems like a plot hole. If word got out that your moratorium had someone who was eating people, and was interrupting visitations, then no one would bring their relatives there. No matter how much Jory's parent were paying, it wouldn't be able to offset the other multiple streams of lost revenue and reputational damage. Also, why did Ella and friends have to spend a bunch of time making Ubik? Shouldn't they have been trying to hone their world creating powers, like Jory had done? Couldn't Ella have learned those kinds of things after she'd invented Ubik? Maybe Jory could only do those things because he ate people? Why couldn't Jory feed on/use Ubik? What if they'd developed something that would feed Jory (and all of them) instead of developing Ubik? If the Ubik was able to "rehydrate" Chip, does that mean it took the energy away from Jory? Wouldn't he have noticed?
If I were to interpret the ending, I'd say the easy, most simple explanation is that Joe is actually the one who is dead, everything has been happening to him in the cold pak. If I were to make it more complicated, I'd bring Pat back in to the fold, and, possibly everyone is dead, but they are in Hollis' cold pak system and Hollis is able to view their simulations and is trying to extract information from them regarding the temperance league for some type of coup.