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January 19, 2017

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick ~ #bookreview


Title: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep?
Series: Blade Runner #1
Author: Philip K. Dick
Published: 1968
Source: Borrowed from library

My Rating:




https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7082.Do_Androids_Dream_of_Electric_Sheep_?ac=1&from_search=true


http://booklikes.com/do-androids-dream-of-electric-sheep-philip-k-dick-robert-zelazny/book,107659


Synopsis


By 2021, the World War has killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remain covet any living creature, and for people who can't afford one, companies have built incredibly realistic simulacrae: horses, birds, cats, sheep. They've even built humans.

Emigrées to Mars receive androids so sophisticated it's impossible to tell them from true men or women. Fearful of the havoc these artificial humans could wreak, the government bans them from Earth, but when androids don't want to be identified, they just blend in. Rick Deckard is an officially sanctioned bounty hunter whose job is to find rogue androids and retire them, but cornered, androids tend to fight back--with deadly results.




I can't remember where I heard about Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? as I've never seen Blade Runner but am so glad I read this book. One of my favorite things about science fiction is that it delves into an exploration of human existence and what can go right as well as what can go horribly wrong. It gives me a lot to think about, and I really like that.

In a post apocalyptic San Francisco, a man named Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter assigned to kill, or retire, androids ("andys"). As you'd imagine, it's a depressing world where most of humanity is either dead, sick from the nuclear fallout or have emigrated to Mars. Animals have pretty much died out except for a select few which are super expensive to own. To buy one you have to take out a loan as though you're buying a car.

There were really cool twists I didn't see coming. Who's an android and who isn't? Rick has to give a test that's designed to tell an android from a human, but how effective is it? I thought about how hated the androids are and how afraid humans were of losing what's left of humanity. I think that's always been a very real fear as long as humans have been around.  
   
Sometimes there were a few spots where I wish things had been explained a little more clearly, such as Mercerism, which was like a religion. It probably just went over my head, haha.

Ack, I wish I could explain how I felt and what I thought after finishing this novel. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is written so well, and my review can't do it justice. If only you guys could see into my brain for just a quick minute! My thoughts are so complicated, I can't even. Can't. Even. 

Read this book! It's especially fitting with the struggles the world is now facing and will be facing in the future. 
    

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