The Time Traveler's Wife vs Ubik: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Time, Death, Science Fiction, Fiction
The Time Traveler's Wife
“Imagine that you are living your life out of order.”
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Audrey Niffenegger's innovative debut, The Time Traveler's Wife, is the story of Clare, a beautiful art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was…
Ubik
“At three-thirty A.M. on the night of June 5, 1992, the top telepath in the Sol System fell off the map in the offices of Runciter Associates in New York City.”
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Named one of Time's 100 Best Books, Ubik is a mind-bending, classic novel about the perception of reality from Philip K. Dick, the Hugo Award-winning author of The Man in the High Castle. “From the stuff of space opera,…
Side by side
The verdict
- Ratings are close across the board — any is a safe pick by score.
- Ubik is the quickest read — about 5 hours vs 10 for The Time Traveler's Wife.
- The Time Traveler's Wife has the widest readership — 1876590 ratings behind its score.
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How to choose
Scores by source
| The Time Traveler's Wife | Ubik | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | 4.0 (1876590) | 4.1 (128415) |
| Hardcover | 3.0 (1) | 4.1 (684) |
| Google Books | 5.0 (2) | — |
| Apple Books | 4.0 (28) | — |
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Reception
| The Time Traveler's Wife | Ubik | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 1876590 | 128415 |
| Editions | 36 | 68 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | 1163826 | 113258 |
| Reading it now | 16550 | 4162 |
| Written reviews | 58314 | 8473 |
| Wikipedia attention | 9881 | 13653 |
| Pages | 543 | 304 |
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Questions readers ask
Which is rated higher: The Time Traveler's Wife or Ubik?
Ubik has the higher combined reader rating across sources (Ubik 4.1/5, The Time Traveler's Wife 4.0/5).
Which is shorter to read: The Time Traveler's Wife or Ubik?
Ubik is the quickest read. Estimated at 225 words per minute: Ubik (304 pages, ≈ 5 h 38 m); The Time Traveler's Wife (543 pages, ≈ 10 h 03 m).
Which is harder to read: The Time Traveler's Wife or Ubik?
Estimated difficulty, based on era, reader shelves and length — The Time Traveler's Wife: Moderate; Ubik: Moderate.
Have both books been made into films?
The Time Traveler's Wife: 4 film adaptations; Ubik: no film adaptation on record.