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jazzy_davePhilip K. Dick "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?" (Gollancz)
I remember reading this book way back in the eighties and before any film adaptation. That film was Blade Runner and it is still one of my all-time favourite movies. This is a recent re-read.
Following a devastating nuclear war, the earth has begun to be emptied of life. Many died in the blasts from the bomb, while others died as the poisonous began to drift over the surface of the planet. Those left behind made the choice to either evacuate the earth, journeying to colonies on Mars and other planets with the promise of highly engineered androids to help them and keep them company, or to stay on the dying earth with the risk of being changed by the irradiated dust. People on earth, terrified of the loneliness, cluster together into cities and prize above all the ability to keep live animals as pets.
Rick Deckard feels lost and hopeless when his pet sheep dies. The artificial replacement, though nearly exact in its duplication and requiring the same amount of care, leaves him feeling empty. His one hope is to "retire" enough androids to be able to purchase a new animal. As a bounty hunter, it is his job to hunt down androids who have fled the off-planet colonies and try to gain freedom bypassing as humans on earth. The new series of Nexus 6 androids are the hardest to spot and hunting them may cost him his life.
The mystery and the threat of the androids, the noir-ish tone, and the fabulous writing launched me into the story from page one. I could have read it in one sitting if my time had allowed me.
More than the realistic array of characters and the well-plotted story, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is also deeply layered, with its biggest question being, What makes a human human? If an android is indistinguishable from a living, breathing human, then what is the point of being human? And all the while your questions what is real and what is manufactured, you begin to wonder does it matter what is real?
The book provides no solid answers. The book tricks you several times, reality seeming to effectively slip, the ground unsettled -- as it should be for a world slowly fading out. I often cared as much for the androids as I did for the humans in this story and often found my loyalties lying with both humans and androids.
I closed the final page with a smile on my face and the desire to just sit and think for a while. I remember how fresh it still feels even after my initial exposure to the book all these years ago before any adaptations on film. Highly recommended to any reader, not just the SF fan.
I remember reading this book way back in the eighties and before any film adaptation. That film was Blade Runner and it is still one of my all-time favourite movies. This is a recent re-read.
Following a devastating nuclear war, the earth has begun to be emptied of life. Many died in the blasts from the bomb, while others died as the poisonous began to drift over the surface of the planet. Those left behind made the choice to either evacuate the earth, journeying to colonies on Mars and other planets with the promise of highly engineered androids to help them and keep them company, or to stay on the dying earth with the risk of being changed by the irradiated dust. People on earth, terrified of the loneliness, cluster together into cities and prize above all the ability to keep live animals as pets.
Rick Deckard feels lost and hopeless when his pet sheep dies. The artificial replacement, though nearly exact in its duplication and requiring the same amount of care, leaves him feeling empty. His one hope is to "retire" enough androids to be able to purchase a new animal. As a bounty hunter, it is his job to hunt down androids who have fled the off-planet colonies and try to gain freedom bypassing as humans on earth. The new series of Nexus 6 androids are the hardest to spot and hunting them may cost him his life.
The mystery and the threat of the androids, the noir-ish tone, and the fabulous writing launched me into the story from page one. I could have read it in one sitting if my time had allowed me.
More than the realistic array of characters and the well-plotted story, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is also deeply layered, with its biggest question being, What makes a human human? If an android is indistinguishable from a living, breathing human, then what is the point of being human? And all the while your questions what is real and what is manufactured, you begin to wonder does it matter what is real?
The book provides no solid answers. The book tricks you several times, reality seeming to effectively slip, the ground unsettled -- as it should be for a world slowly fading out. I often cared as much for the androids as I did for the humans in this story and often found my loyalties lying with both humans and androids.
I closed the final page with a smile on my face and the desire to just sit and think for a while. I remember how fresh it still feels even after my initial exposure to the book all these years ago before any adaptations on film. Highly recommended to any reader, not just the SF fan.
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