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Summary: Plain and Simple- You must read it
Review: This book , which inspired Blade Runner and K.W. Jeter'ssequels, which kicked ass also, is one of the best books I have read.It is a must read if you are a science fiction fan
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Summary: A masterful blending of genres--A must read
Review: Philip K. Dick has always been loved by true fans of Science Fiction. He has long been hailed by many Europeans critics as a true giant of American genre writing. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" is an excellent example of his ability to masterfully blend genres. In this book you'll see elements of the hard-boiled private eye, the mythic American West, romance, science fiction, and other genres. But don't dismiss this book as pulp trash, it is one of the top five books used in college science fiction courses--and I even teach it in my "Introduction to Popular Culture" course at Bowling Green State University. This book, although it moves at a rapid pace, contains deep meditations on what it means to be human and has the power to truly move you. It is even more relevant today now that we are seeing the emergence of cloning and must begin to decide on issues which will force us to re-examine the rights of all living beings. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" was filmed as the movie "Bladerunner" with Harrison Ford. Although the film adaption is a landmark in American cinematography the book is still far superior.
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Summary: Review of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Review: I read this book for the first time 15 years ago because of themovie Blade Runner. The atmosphere of the film caught me, I suppose,and I wanted more. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. In a personal way, this was the book for me that started it all. I hadn't read very much "thoughtful" (jeeze that sounds snotty) literature at the time (I was only 13), and I stumbled upon one of the most probing books I could have imagined. While I see problems with the book now that I didn't see then, it has always been VERY readable and certainly has more movement to it than Blade Runner (which, incidentally, completely reverses Dick's resolution about the androids' capacity for humanity, implied by the book's title). Basically, the film is a very loose adaptation which retains most of the main characters and the general run of the plot (Deckard must hunt down renegade androids while falling in love with an android at the same time).^M Despite flaws (a major loose end that isn't tied up, for example), Do Androids Dream... is rich, absorbing book. From a machine that characters "dial" to alter their moods to a belligerent talk show host named Buster Friendly, a ton of stuff is going on in this book. Dick also uses parallel plot structure, which pulls the tension back and forth and, at its best, pulls the reader's emotions with it.^M Dick wrote about 15 novels between 1964 and 1970; this one is from 1968 if memory serves. All his novels during this period are worth reading, if nothing else for the sheer joy of seeing how Philip Dick works philisophical (and even theological) ideas into science fiction narratives without getting talky and obtuse. I recall reading a description of Dick's characters as ordinary people who are experience extraordiary things. Pretty accurate, I think. And an author well worth reading.
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Summary: The New World Bible
Review: I just recently read this book, after being a fan of the movie.
Anyone expecting the book to be like the movie will be greatly
dissapointed! But the book will bring more questions and thought
than the movie. I don't give the plot line, anyone looking for the book has probably seen the movie. But the book brings
up questions such as: What would a person do to combat lonliness?
How does society effect religion? What makes a "person" a person?
What constitutes "life"? A book that anyone who is looking for
a new way of thinking of the world should read!
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Summary: The source for the Blade Runner movie and K.W. Jeter sequels
Review: The science fiction aisle at my local mega-bookstore chain is featuring a pair of recently published related sequels called Blade Runner 2 and Blade Runner: Replicant Night by K.W. Jeter, which according to the promotional blurb promises to take up the loose ends from the original Blade Runner. What the hell does that mean, the "original" Blade Runner? I scan down the bookshelf to the "Ds" and am relieved to find that the original - the real original, neither the screenplay nor the novel retitled to capitalize upon the movie tie-in - is readily available, now reissued in trade paperback by Del RayÒ Books under its rightful title, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I've just experienced a kind of reality shift fans of Philip K. Dick are used to encountering in his work. First published in 1968, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was the basis for director Ridley Scott's cinema classic Blade Runner, widely cited as an inspiration for the cyberpunk vision of the future as a bleak technological wasteland in which distinctions between human and machine are blurred, if nonexistent. Although Dick reportedly felt the movie contained scenes very similar to those he was imagining while writing the novel, the book and the movie are very different, as books and the movies based upon them typically are. For one thing, Harrison Ford portrays protagonist Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter of androids escaped from slave work on Mars attempting to "pass" for humans on Earth, as a Humphrey Bogart-styled private eye of the future, while in the novel Deckard is a bureaucrat plagued by domestic problems and self-doubt. More importantly, the movie loses a key theme - in the novel, Deckard's economic incentive to catch and eliminate illegal androids is to earn enough money to buy a real living animal to replace his artificial electric sheep. Dick posits an Earth following some sort of nuclear catastrophe (a common theme of that era's SF) in which most animals have been extinguished. To own an animal is therefore more than just a status symbol (they are, of course, costly, depending upon how many of the species are left), but a way somehow of regaining a sense of humanity by caring for a living being. Can't afford the real thing? You have to settle for an artificial one, raising the question of how such a substitution affects human moral sensibilities.
Dick is pondering not only the notion of what constitutes consciousness, but also the ways in which those of us who consider ourselves purposeful beings isolate ourselves from our creations. It's a theme that runs through all his work, and for those unfamiliar with it, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a good place to start. (Caveat emptor to cyberpunk fans: if you're looking for techno-speculation, this isn't the place to find it - unlike the movie, and despite the subject matter, the tech stuff here is pretty lame. Which is okay, because Dick was engaged in ideas that could be conveyed through the metaphors of SF, and had little interest in the possible mechanics.) Sadly, just when it seemed as if he might achieve more widespread recognition beyond the SF world with the initial release of Blade Runner in 1982, Dick died of a stroke at age 53. He remains primarily a cult figure, whose devoted followers are often referred to by the unfortunate moniker of "Dickheads." Del Ray's sister house, Vintage Books, has put out many of the novels and short story collections in handsome, quality paperback editions, so the work remains accessible for anyone interested. With all due respect to K. M. Jeter (whose novels, I haven't read and don't wish to knock), go to the source material first. And get ready for a long strange trip, indeed
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Summary: Misleading
Review: I read this a long time ago. If you are one of those people who read the book after the movie don't be surprised if you're lost. The novel is far more animalistic and low-tech than would be expected. I enjoyed it and went on to other books, not " Choose a new favorite author " type of book
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Summary: Review of the book that was the basis of Blade Runner
Review: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (or DADOES) was one of Philip K. Dick's more known books, as it was made into the movie "Blade Runner" with Harrison Ford. While the movie was good in itself, it did leave out much of the book, and thusly was more confusing. The book will clear up many of the questions raised from the movie.
The book follows Rick Deckard, a futuristic bounty hunter assigned to kill human-like androids (or as they were called in the movie only, Replicants. In the book, they were merely referred to as androids or andys). While hunting down a new model of andy, the Nexus-6, he falls in love with another andy, Rachel Rosen (Tyrell in the movie), who helps him in his mission.
The world he lives in has just come out of a plauge which killed almost all of the animals, and as of which, they are partly a status symbol, and also Mercerism (the main religion) states that one must have at least one animal at all times.
The book has an extremely dark feel to it, as with many of Philip K. Dick's other books, but this is a upside rather than an injury. I encourage everyone to read this book, even if they haven't seen "Blade Runner" or if they didn't like the movie.
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Summary: Inspired, Anxiety-Ridden Sci-Fi
Review: After being an ardent Blade Runner fan for years, I decided to explore it's roots in Philip K. Dick's book, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?". The movie and the book had less in common than I'd expected, particularly with the character development. Unlike Blade Runner, there is nothing at all redeeming about the personalities of the replicants/ "andys" in this book, which has an even more chilling effect. There are, however, plenty of interesting ideas here, and depicting "authentic" animals as the ultimate status symbol is definitely intriguing. What interested me the most, were the marital issues between Deckard and his wife Iran. The love scene between Rachel and Deckard here is curiously shallow, adding to the isolated tone of the book. Philip K. Dick is a good writer, effectively permeating the book with an unrelenting anxiety and cruel irony. PKD's ideas came to fruition in Blade Runner, but this is the blueprint, and therefore an absolute must for Blade Runner enthusiasts.
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Summary: A book to recomment
Review: "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" Is that kind of book every reader is looking for. The author knew exactly what and how to write, to make this book interesting, exciting and that way keep the attention of the reader. As I started to read the book, I was not sure if I was going to understand it, because the language was not easy to understand. But after I had read a few chapters, this did not matter; I was fascinated by the story and did not longer pay attention on words I didn`t understand. I could not drop the book, I wanted to know what was going to happen next. I think that Philip K. Dick is brilliant since he created a science fiction story like this. try to imagine the World destroyed by mankind, almost no animal`s left and so advanced technology, that machines are trying to take control over human life. P. K. Dick makes you live in his world with his rules, not every writer is able to do this. But there are some things I didn`t understand, small details which weren`t made clear, for example who "the killers" were. Besides of that it is a wonderful book.
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Summary: "Androids" Are a Dream of Their Own
Review: In Philip K. Dicks novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", Dick explores humanity not only in the near future, but also in the present. Although written in the sixties, Dick had a keen eye on what makes humans tick, emotionally as well as intellectally as he explored the life of Rick Deckard in the year of 2021. The cult classic hit movie BLADE RUNNER was loosely based upon this novel, however fans new to the book should be warned: the book is superior and vastley different from the movie. In the year 2021 Earth is slowly recovering from a world war that has destroyed most of the animal population and drives the healthy humans onto other outworld planets, namely Mars. Existing animals are taken care of by the humans unable or unwilling to leave Earth,and according to society, it is a sign of prestige and honor to take care of these animals. Humans have developed not only androids to assist colonists on other planets, but also electronic animals so humans unable to afford expensive live animals are able to keep their dignety with fake animals that look almost real. Already in the begining of the book, Dick has established a world that fits his unique style. Quetioning what is reality, identity, and consiousness is Dick's specialty. And nowhere else can you find that more prevulant in his protaganist Rick Deckard's conflict with himself as he pursues 6 renegade androids\replicants from the off worlds. During his pursuit, Rick encounters not only the replicants but also other characters that further Rick's journey into what seems is self-discovery. Dick has not only established himself in the genre of scince fiction with his work, but has also showed what a true writer is. His ability to explore the characters lives in this particular story and expanding the readers awareness is a sign of pure genius. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" has this written between its pages.
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