Ubo Paperback – February 9, 2017

UBO is exceptionally well-written, as one would expect from a long-time, award-winning author. When I read this book, I really felt like I was in the UBO facility. I could see it and feel it around me. But it’s very dark. Like, ugly dark. Many parts of the novel made me feel ugly reading them, and I wanted to purge myself afterwards. Which is also good writing, just not a trip some people want to take.The thing is, when you get to the end, you’re left wondering, what was all this for? In the penultimate chapter the protagonist gives an answer to that question, but it’s not a satisfying one, and it seems to be contradicted by the final chapter of the novel. And that final chapter… wow. It’s like emerging from underground after being trapped in a collapsed mine for twenty-one days and finally seeing the sky again.In the end, I think every reader will have to come give their own meaning to this story. For myself, I view it as treatise on depression. The entire book up to the last chapter is what living with depression is. Everything is crumbling and dirty and rotting. All of humanity is wicked, and you are literally unable to gather the will to fight it due to subconscious sabotage. Merely existing is an ugly act. And one keeps asking oneself – why? What is all this for? Why are we enduring all this, what’s the point?Why am I reading this?And then the final chapter gives you your answer. It gives you the bloom of color that keeps you going, in spite of it all. Because there is some beauty out there that’s worth it.I like books that makes me think for days before I know if I like them or not. And I have a long history with depression. So in the end, I’ve decided I love this novel. Highly Recommended.

Daniel went to sleep on earth, but awoke on Ubo---an place of unknown origin, maybe in the future, maybe on another planet. All he knows now is that he was carried here on the membranous wings of the roach-like aliens, who now force him to participate in.... something. An experiment, perhaps, or karmic revenge for every past atrocity humans have committed, though for its participants it's more akin to torture. When the roaches strap them down and activate the machines, they enter the minds of history's most nefarious murderers, re-living someone else's memories of death and violence and bloodshed. Through the killers' eyes, watching millions engulfed in fire and blood before they're ripped back to Ubo. And there they mill about in dystopic squalor until they're thrust back into the eyes of another maniac. There is no explanation. There is no escape. And there is no hope.There's a long trend of authors using science fiction to examine deep real-world issues, and Ubo uses its frame work of science fictional horror as an examination of violence. Horror is most effective when it creates an atmosphere of fear, and many (if not most) fears are generated by violence. Ubo hops backwards and forwards across humanity's worst atrocities, the endless capacity for cruelty that humans can inflict upon other humans: the Mai Lai massacre, Stalin and his purges, Jack the Ripper's gruesome murders, Himmler and his grim accountant-like ledgers of genocide. It's a fascinating meditation of humanity's dark underbelly, as the participants of this torturous experiment each proclaim their humanity---"we're not like them!"---right before revealing their own dark secrets. That's the fear that Ubo uses, the lurking dread that some capacity for unrestrained violence lurks within us all...I didn't find out about Ubo's early origins until after I'd read it---in fact, I didn't find out until after I'd already written a draft of this review. To some degree, I'm not surprised; overall, the dialogue is a lot heavier on exposition than in Tem's more recent short stories, and there's a certain throwback pulpiness to having the alien roaches (dressed in lab coats!) herding human cattle through perverse experiments. Yet I can't say that I'd ever guess that the book originated almost forty years ago. Even though the book makes scant mention of today's issues, it still felt relevant and in-tune to today's geopolitical climate, underlying the sad fact that violence continues to be timely.Ubo deals with a lot of dark themes, and is something of a nightmarish mind-trip that drags Daniel (and the reader) through a complex examination of violence. Just when I thought I knew where the novel was going, halfway through it started to go in another direction, and despite going over some bleak topics it ends on a fascinating note. It's more of a deep and psychological work, relying more on quiet reflection than action or scares---which should be expected, as Tem is one of the best around at writing the "quiet" horror tale. Imagine Thomas Disch's Camp Concentration as written by China Miéville or Jeff Vandermeer and you pretty much have Ubo. In this case, its cool-sounding central idea does live up to its potential, and the result is a thought-provoking novel and a very satisfying read.

The book came in good condition. I had high hopes for the story, but the twist actually kinda ruined it for me. Some people will like it, but it just isn’t my thing.

Kidnapped by giant alien roaches and made to hag-rid in the heads of humanity's worst villains as unwitting witnesses to their bloody crimes? WTF, you say? So do the hapless humans, kept captive in a huge, decaying tower block to ponder their inexplicable fate. Are they in hell? On another planet or dimensional plane? All our unlucky heroes can do, between meals of weird industrial paste, are ask question without answers as they suffer both the loss of their loved ones (plus any sense of "reality") and the lingering pain of having just BEEN Stalin or Richard Speck or perhaps fiction's most horrifically unhinged Jack the Ripper (and that's a bloody high body part bar to clear) as they await the clicking-mandible roach call for their next unwanted ride-along.And then things get weirder. . .Steve Rasnic Tem's latest is a haunting hallucinatory nightmare, a heart in your throat page-turner that races from humanity's bloody past into our likely non-utopian future. UBO sticks with you long after you close the back cover. Buckle up.

The concept is really extraordinary. The initial premise itself was enough to excite me but going through it and seeing how the book opened up into a totally different space than I expected and the twists/surprises....really great. Totally recommend for anyone who loves examinations of the human condition, horror and suspense.

A phenomenal exploration into the nature of evil, combining horror, SF, and fantasy. Tem's work at novel length (including the excellent Deadfall Hotel) is gripping and evocative and UBO reminds us of just how stunning and powerful mashed novels can be. Up there with Gary Braunbeck's THE INDIFFERENCE OF HEAVEN and Tom Piccirilli's EVERY SHALOW CUT.

The author has been on my TBR list for ages since I read a Primer (a sort of bibliography) devoted to his work. I’d read some of his stories before in magazines but not full length fiction. I wanted to read this because it has a lot of good reviews. Ubo is an unusual horror novel with science fiction elements. The premise intrigued me, giant insects kidnap men from all over the world and take them to what appears to be a mysterious and force them to re-enact the darkest and most violent moments in history from inside the mind of the villain. Re-enactments include Jack the Ripper and Hitler. Ubo is told from the POV of Daniel as he strives to find a way to escape the lab and go home. But where is home? Where is Ubo? Is escape even a possibility? Ubo is very original and hugely enjoyable.