Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

I was one of the many who liked the movie, Blade Runner... then I read the book, expecting, as usual, that the book would be a lot better than the movie. Well, neither... my impression is that book and movie overlap for maybe 20% of their content, but instead of the movie missing bits of the book, which is the usual, it's like they explore different facets of the same reality... or unreality......more

I was one of the many who liked the movie, Blade Runner... then I read the book, expecting, as usual, that the book would be a lot better than the movie. Well, neither... my impression is that book and movie overlap for maybe 20% of their content, but instead of the movie missing bits of the book, which is the usual, it's like they explore different facets of the same reality... or unreality... the climbing of the hill, the rocks, the feeling of community that derives from the experience, that's something that is completely absent from the movie, and at the same time the replicants in the book are really just a bit more than walking fridges, to reuse a PKD metaphor.   hide

Philip K Dick’s name has gained notoriety in recent years with a string of Hollywood films, but none of them have done justice to the dark and paranoid worlds created in his books. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (filmed as Blade Runner in 1982) is Dick at his best, combining so many of his favourite themes; post-nuclear war, religion, identity, technology and dis-utopia. It is...more

Philip K Dick’s name has gained notoriety in recent years with a string of Hollywood films, but none of them have done justice to the dark and paranoid worlds created in his books. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (filmed as Blade Runner in 1982) is Dick at his best, combining so many of his favourite themes; post-nuclear war, religion, identity, technology and dis-utopia. It is set in the near future, on an Earth that has suffered a nuclear war but at a cost. This Earth is dying, everywhere is surrounded by “kibble” (rotting bomb debris), all the animals have died from radiation, people wear lead-lined underwear and anyone successful has emigrated for Mars or beyond. In this world is Dekker, a bounty hunter, who is hunting down “replicants” (more artificial copies of humans then robots), who have illegally returned to Earth. Using the structure of a PI thriller Dick here asks unsettling questions, how do you cope in a world were you can’t tell the real humans from the copies. Other of Dick’s novels have good premises but the plot often doesn’t follow it through. With Do Androids… there is no disappointment, the plot lives up to all of the promise of its premise. It’s dark, twisting with a truly unsettling ending. The characters here are dark too, the people are worn down by their dying world and not bright and glamorous – don’t think of the actors from Blade Runner. If you’ve never read any of Philip K Dick’s novels then this is an excellent entry into his dark and dis-utopian world, if you’ve encountered him before then this novel is were so many of his most telling themes come together. Drew Payne   hide

San Francisco in 2021 is a sad place to live; World War Terminus has left radioactive dust all over the planet, and most people have emigrated to live on off-world colonies. Those left behind face the chance of losing their right to procreate due to genetic abnormalities. Another threat is the return of rogue androids from the colonies; although the book never explains why androids want to come...more

San Francisco in 2021 is a sad place to live; World War Terminus has left radioactive dust all over the planet, and most people have emigrated to live on off-world colonies. Those left behind face the chance of losing their right to procreate due to genetic abnormalities. Another threat is the return of rogue androids from the colonies; although the book never explains why androids want to come back to Earth so urgently (unlike the movie, which offers a compelling explanation), something has to be done about their presence. Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter living in San Francisco, and his job is to find any androids on the loose and "retire" them. The book opens with an argument between Deckard and his wife one morning, as they bicker about how they should set their mood that day with their mood organs.   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

Auuuuhhh, zbog ove knjige ima da mi nema mira neko (duže) vreme...

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

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

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

This is a perfect example of PKD's fault of simply expressing an idea and calling it a story. Dick is full of fantastic ideas, but a few of the books don't really have a beginning, middle & end. This is definately one of them. Not his best work, I am suprised it seems to be his most famous work. This is one of those very rare occasions when the movie far surpasses the book. The movie was...more

This is a perfect example of PKD's fault of simply expressing an idea and calling it a story. Dick is full of fantastic ideas, but a few of the books don't really have a beginning, middle & end. This is definately one of them. Not his best work, I am suprised it seems to be his most famous work. This is one of those very rare occasions when the movie far surpasses the book. The movie was excellent, the book was just the beginning of an idea. Still good, as usual, regardless of whether the book falls somewhat short, PKD always seems to throw in some little necessary tidbit that makes all of his books worthwhile. I think if Dick combined ALL of his work into one big giant novel, it would be the best book in the world.   hide