It was January 2021, and Rick Deckard had a license to kill.
Somewhere among the hordes of humans out there, lurked several rogue androids. Deckard's assignment--find them and then..."retire" them. Trouble was, the androids all looked exactly like humans, and they didn't want to be found!
Review of 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I think they do, especially of they are wired to it.
Loved, loved, loved this book. It was a bit weird, as I'm so familiar with the Bladerunner movie. It's funny to recognise the characters and find they are different than what you remember them to be.
Also the way religion and nature has changed in a very short (couple decades) timespan is weird, it feels more like it plays out far in the future, but in the authors view it was only a couple decades after a catastrophic (nuclear) event.
Anyways, DADoES has some great world building and some very interesting characters, and just like in the movie it asks the question: what does it mean to be human?
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"Do androids dream? Rick asked himself. Evidently; that’s why they occasionally kill their employers and flee here. A better life, without servitude."
Review of 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Amazing book. As the inspiration for Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, many of the characters and situations are familiar, but there are plenty of differences to savor. PKD, from what I have read so far, was a master at telling incredible stories within intricately constructed universes, without needing hundreds and hundreds of pages to do it. So while this book presents one magnificent take on Rick Deckard’s quest, Ridley Scott was able to plumb the depths of Dick’s imagination for his take, just as magnificent. Even though it was written over fifty years ago, and contains glimpses of technology on a different track than we have apparently taken, it is timeless, as it explores a timeless question: what does it mean to be human?
Review of 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
This was such an enjoyable read. The writing style was the sort that pulls you in right from the beginning and completely immerses you in its world. The worldbuilding was truly incredible, and the plot was full of surprising twists. There were some really cool ideas in the story, like owning real animals being a sign of social status and controlling emotions by dialling a certain code into a device.
Review of 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
First of all, if you're already a huge PKD fan then you've probably already read everything in this collection, so decide accordingly. But even though I'd read a few of these, I picked this up on Audible and have been completely engrossed. Most importantly, you need to know that "Electric Dreams" is a TV series, each episode of which plays on a short story or theme by PKD, and this book is a collection of the 10 of PKD’s short stories that inspired episodes of the show, each introduced by the screenwriter who used that story as an inspiration. While I’d love to have read a little more about the episodes also, this is a great way to present PKD’s visionary stories and now I will have to go watch the show too. And even if you've read all the stories before, some of the screenwriters' thoughts and discussions about …
First of all, if you're already a huge PKD fan then you've probably already read everything in this collection, so decide accordingly. But even though I'd read a few of these, I picked this up on Audible and have been completely engrossed. Most importantly, you need to know that "Electric Dreams" is a TV series, each episode of which plays on a short story or theme by PKD, and this book is a collection of the 10 of PKD’s short stories that inspired episodes of the show, each introduced by the screenwriter who used that story as an inspiration. While I’d love to have read a little more about the episodes also, this is a great way to present PKD’s visionary stories and now I will have to go watch the show too. And even if you've read all the stories before, some of the screenwriters' thoughts and discussions about what stories they used and why and how they adapted them are quite interesting.
The stories are in many ways dated now (especially his portrayal of female characters - groan), but the overall ideas and messages are still startlingly relevant. Although it’s tempting to rush into the next story, because they’re all so good, it’s well worth pausing between each just to contemplate all the details and truly digest all the ideas. Despite already owning this in audiobook form I will actually be buying the book also, so I can reread and absorb in text format also.
Review of 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
The debate continues. What do you believe it is that makes you human? If you can't tell humans apart from androids - if they look, eat, think like you - why do you treat them differently. Blade Runner beautifully adapted this book to further explore these philosophical conundrums.
Review of 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Coming to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? from Blade Runner is an interesting experience, given the drastic changes in tone (the glitzy corporate overpopulation of Blade Runner vs. the post-apocalyptic depression of Do Androids Dream?). Shaking the dust of Blade Runner from your sandals is necessary before continuing.
The primary tension in Electric Sheep comes down to empathy vs. cold intellect (human vs. android), and whether an android could develop empathy, which is never properly resolved. In one moment, an android is clipping the legs off a spider just to see if it can walk with four, but in the next is distraught over losing a friend.
Real-world engineer hat: it wouldn't be that difficult to make androids "feel" empathy, any more so than it would be to make them "feel" anything else, including self-preservation. This is, of course, assuming you could get them to read the emotions (or …
Coming to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? from Blade Runner is an interesting experience, given the drastic changes in tone (the glitzy corporate overpopulation of Blade Runner vs. the post-apocalyptic depression of Do Androids Dream?). Shaking the dust of Blade Runner from your sandals is necessary before continuing.
The primary tension in Electric Sheep comes down to empathy vs. cold intellect (human vs. android), and whether an android could develop empathy, which is never properly resolved. In one moment, an android is clipping the legs off a spider just to see if it can walk with four, but in the next is distraught over losing a friend.
Real-world engineer hat: it wouldn't be that difficult to make androids "feel" empathy, any more so than it would be to make them "feel" anything else, including self-preservation. This is, of course, assuming you could get them to read the emotions (or simulate reading the emotions based on scripts of circumstances), which is also not a difficult feat, considering what they've already done. All you have to do is (to paraphrase I, Robot) induce neural feedback upon encountering the suffering of others. But, then again, the core of this novel is not the care, feeding, and bounty hunting of androids, but something more resembling the hypocrisy of man, religion, and the tension of empathy vs. intelligence within ourselves.
Electric Sheep is a deep book wearing the mask of a shallow book, but, in the end, it is only half a mask (the Mercerism plum line cannot be hidden). For those expected a by-the-numbers noire, it's there in spades (Sam Spades, one might say), but everything about the animals and Mercerism might feel strange and out of place. For those expected a scifi, Kafkaesque story involving robots, we've got your alienated protagonist undergoing a mystical transformation right here.
Further thoughts:
- "Sex with robots is more common than most people think." - It's weird reading future scifi stories written before cell phones and the internet. - Owning an electric toad would be pretty awesome. In fact, I think I'd prefer it to a real toad.
Review of 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Vol. 1' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
It's a pretty text-heavy adaption. I didn't check but it feels like verbatim quotes of the novel have just been used to make a collage with great drawings, bringing together the look of blade runner w/ Dick's words.
Review of 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
This book took me a while to get into it but once I'd got a grip on it the story flowed really well. The characters are very bland and it is pretty tough trying to find somebody to like.
The story didn't end how I was hoping it to but never mind, ya can't have everything.
The Blade Runner movie must be very loosely based on this book, I think I'm gonna have to watch the movie again now.
Review of 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Extremely interesting book, specially the first half. The beginning of the story creates a very interesting and convincing alternate universe.
It has a climax to soon and IMHO the book could end right after this climax. The second half of the book (the last three "andys") simple did not capture my attention, and I never understood the Wilbur Mercer/Buster Friendly conflict.
I'm putting this on hold, not because it's not good, but only because it is 4 novels and since I've already read 2, I'm taking a break from sci-fi. I'll get back to it because I DO want to read the other two, only not right now.
Review of 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I ... wasn't as impressed with it as I expected to be. I'd read this book a long time ago, but I've never seen the movie. Recently it came up in conversation very often so I decided to re-read the book and refresh my memory.
To cut a long story short, if you want to read riveting sci-fi stuff about robots and artificial intelligence, stick with Asimov
Review of 'Blade Runner: Based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
(This review is for the audio CD read by Scott Brick). Good reader, but disappointing book. What a difference a few years (ahem: decades) makes. I couldn't understand the book's world—what were the motivations? The economics? How did food grow, who kept the electricity and infrastructure running? If androids weren't affected by mood organs, why not use those as a detection mechanism instead of the much slower VK? What motivated the androids to come to Earth? To mingle with humans? Just how did this world operate? I couldn't make it past those questions and more.
Blade Runner the movie is still one of my favorites. It has aged well. This book, not so well. I don't need to read it again. And probably neither do you.
