Old school science fiction. The story had an interesting premise called half-life. Upon death, a mortuary procedure resembling Han Solo carbonite freezing (“cold-pac” in this novel) coupled with technology allows the living to communicate with the cold-pac’d half-lifer until that person slowly fades like a battery into final death. The storyline around the premise was weird. Character development was horrendous. Plot was slow and repetitive. Writing style was too much tell, not enough show. The title referred to an aerosol spray product, Ubik – short for ubiquitous – that reduced the negative effects of cold-pac. The product was a bit of a running joke throughout the book, some type of spoof on late 60s consumerism. May have been funny in 1969 when the book was first published, but it felt tired here in the cynical times of 2011.