Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Ratings20
Average rating3.9
World War Terminus had left the Earth devastated. Through its ruins, bounty hunter Rick Deckard stalked, in search of the renegade replicants who were his prey. When he wasn't 'retiring' them with his laser weapon, he dreamed of owning a live animal -- the ultimate status symbol in a world all but bereft of animal life. Then Rick got his chance: the assignment to kill six Nexus-6 targets, for a huge reward. But in Deckard's world things were never that simple, and his assignment quickly turned into a nightmare kaleidoscope of subterfuge and deceit -- and the threat of death for the hunter rather than the hunted . . .
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Executive Summary: A decent story, but ultimately I didn't enjoy it as much as the movie. That's pretty rare for me, but so is watching the movie before reading the book.
Full Review
This is the book that inspired the movie. It annoys me that my copy uses the movie's name, when it's clearly NOT the movie. Mind you I didn't expect it to be, but I hate movie tie-in covers in general.
A lot of the same elements are there, but the characters are quite different, especially the replicants/androids. I find the ones from the movie far more interesting than I did the ones in the book.
There are parts of this book I really enjoyed. Parts that made me think about what it means to be human. But there are also parts I found confusing or slow.
The ideas are there though. It's easy to understand why so many of Mr. Dick's stories have been adapted into movies. I get some of the changes made for the movie, but not all of them. I will say the book makes that random owl in the movie make A LOT MORE SENSE.
Overall I found this book uneven, and didn't enjoy it as much as some of his other stuff that I've read. I'm still glad I read it, as Blade Runner still remains a classic in my opinion.
I loved the movie and reading the book I can't help but see a young Sean Young, William Sanderson and Harrison Ford occupying the characters in my head. I like the movie even more having read the book.
It's a fantastic read with a ton of ideas bubbling on the surface to explore. Notions of faith, empathy, religion, consumerism, perception and kipplization.
