Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

This was required reading in my Junior year of high school, and rightly so (I had read it at age 12, but was glad to read it again and write an essay.) The novel explores the moral dilemmas concerning the value of all life, and whom and how it is determined. It is a glimpse into the mind of the author, who saw/sees the future as a place where everything surrounding mankind has changed...but man...more

This was required reading in my Junior year of high school, and rightly so (I had read it at age 12, but was glad to read it again and write an essay.) The novel explores the moral dilemmas concerning the value of all life, and whom and how it is determined. It is a glimpse into the mind of the author, who saw/sees the future as a place where everything surrounding mankind has changed...but man himself remains the same. It sounds like a cliche, and only by reading this fantastic book can you learn that it is not. Strip away the futuristic surroundings, and you will find the most basic questions man asks of himself today. Who determines what is good? Do laws truly stand for the righteous?Is there no room for exception in our stubborn morality? Who is man to judge the pain of the rest of the creatures of the earth? Can mankind rein over the Earth without bringing our own kind, nevermind the rest of the planet, to its knees?Don't be scared. It is a great read!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   hide

I can't believe I waited this long to finally read Philip K. Dick. This was a marvelous, pulse quickening, nimbly paced novel with vivid characters. A real page turner but with considerable depth and emotional heft. I am not a sci-fi reader per se (though I love good fiction of any genre). I'd say even if you don't read science fiction you MUST make an exception for Philip K. Dick. This...more

I can't believe I waited this long to finally read Philip K. Dick. This was a marvelous, pulse quickening, nimbly paced novel with vivid characters. A real page turner but with considerable depth and emotional heft. I am not a sci-fi reader per se (though I love good fiction of any genre). I'd say even if you don't read science fiction you MUST make an exception for Philip K. Dick. This book is un-put-downable!   hide

This is the book that gave ground to the cult classic film Bladerunner. This also coined the term "kipple" which was translated in the film well but never mentioned. Well because I was a huge bladerunner fan. I read this book in one sitting. It's short but enough character data that you can forget them. It's not quite the movie, it is almost a parody, if we can reverse...more

This is the book that gave ground to the cult classic film Bladerunner. This also coined the term "kipple" which was translated in the film well but never mentioned. Well because I was a huge bladerunner fan. I read this book in one sitting. It's short but enough character data that you can forget them. It's not quite the movie, it is almost a parody, if we can reverse time. The idea of Deckard being a replicant was more pushed than hinted. Though not sure if Dick was portraying a post-modern idea entirely unlike what the film was about. Though he di stress the idea of the earth accumulating a lot of junk. If you like sci-fi thinking this is a must read.   hide

I loved Blade Runner, and I have always had the book on my list to read which isn't always a good thing because it can ruin the whole thing, but in fact I enjoyed this novel as much as the movie, admit that I had Harrison in my head still as I read!

The most interesting thing about this book is how much worse it is than the film.The film is mysterious and beautiful, whereas in the book Dick tries to explain everything, the sci-fi writer's curse. Also the film's major themes are handled with some ambiguity - is the Deckard character a replicant, for instance, are the replicants actually a higher form of life, is Deckard justified in killing...more

The most interesting thing about this book is how much worse it is than the film.The film is mysterious and beautiful, whereas in the book Dick tries to explain everything, the sci-fi writer's curse. Also the film's major themes are handled with some ambiguity - is the Deckard character a replicant, for instance, are the replicants actually a higher form of life, is Deckard justified in killing the them, these are all questions that are offered to you in the film to think about. In the book Dick prefers to do most of the thinking for you. The writing is only ok actually. There's some schoolboyish description. I haven't read any other books by Dick, but I've liked all the film adaptations. Has anyone else noticed that Total Recall, Blade Runner and Through a Scanner Darkly are all the same story? Someone thinks they are part of the establishment, but turns out to be a part of the underclass they are persecuting. The whole levels of reality thing - it's just the kind of thing you might start thinking about in the toilet at a party if you were on acid. ("They are all androids! Oh my god, I'm an android too"). But, you know, just don't do those kinds of drugs, I mean, if it's bothering you.   hide

Here's one of the rare instances where I found the film to be better than the book, but I'm saying more about how amazingly damn good "Blade Runner" is than I am of Dick's shortcomings. Really, I think he has only two of them in this novel: 1. His writing is nothing spectacular, and 2. the abundance of ideas and detail tend to hamper the progession of the narrative. Still, the ideas are wonderful...more

Here's one of the rare instances where I found the film to be better than the book, but I'm saying more about how amazingly damn good "Blade Runner" is than I am of Dick's shortcomings. Really, I think he has only two of them in this novel: 1. His writing is nothing spectacular, and 2. the abundance of ideas and detail tend to hamper the progession of the narrative. Still, the ideas are wonderful (especially Mercerism, a concept I almost wish the movie had gone into), the product of a brilliant imagination. All things considered, this is one of the great underrated works in dystopian fiction. "Blade Runner" fans should definitely give it a look.   hide

Probably the best example of a movie being far superior than the book. It took me two attempts to get through this small book. I can accept many concepts in fiction, but the idea that in the future people would want to keep an animal, ANY animal, to the extreme that they would buy a robotic animal and pretend to others that it was real, somehow seemed too much to accept. This may seem a shallow...more

Probably the best example of a movie being far superior than the book. It took me two attempts to get through this small book. I can accept many concepts in fiction, but the idea that in the future people would want to keep an animal, ANY animal, to the extreme that they would buy a robotic animal and pretend to others that it was real, somehow seemed too much to accept. This may seem a shallow appraisal of the concepts in the story, but I need to engage and understand the characters emotions and desires, this seemed silly to me and Blade Runner was the better for not exploring this. It probably did not help that I'd seen the movie dozens of times prior to reading it.Is it awesome as others have said, IMO no. If your looking for awesome read Frank Herbert's Dune.   hide

I really enjoyed this book. Sci-fi is not normally a genre that I read. I liked the character development and even the androids had personality. It's interesting to see Dick's take on the not so distance future. I haven't seen Bladerunner, although I would like to now.

Brilliant!!!