Rating: 
Summary: One of Dick's four or five best
Review: If you are coming to "Do Androids Dream..." by way of "Blade Runner", the film (loosely) based on the book, be warned: the two are similar only in their most basic plot outlines. As is typical of Dick in his prolific middle period (roughly 1962-1970), there is a lot going on in this novel. The main theme, dehumanization, is amplified by each character and situation, but Dick creates a rich environment that is equally compelling as the way that theme is explored. In short, Rick Deckard's job is to kill renegade androids, a job he finds taking its toll on him. Sadly, he's not the only one who is feeling dehumanized: witness the existence of the Penfield Mood Organ (one of Dick's most touching inventions), through which one can alter one's state of consciousness by dialing the appropriate setting (such as "the desire to watch television, no matter what's on"); witness the cult around Wilbur Mercer, a vague messianic figure whose (literally) uphill struggle and persecution an individual can share by grasping the handles of a little black "empathy box"; witness Buster Friendly, a television personality bent on exposing Mercerism as a sham; and, lastly, witness the popularity of artificial animals (such as the electric sheep of the title) in a post-apocalyptic world where most real animals are either dead or sterile from radiation. That Dick manages all of these sharply drawn ideas (and more, as well as a number of interesting characters) while still keeping the plot moving swiftly and ruminating on the nature of humanity is a tribute to his brilliance. "Do Androids Dream..." is not a perfect book -- there are a few loose ends at novel's close -- but it is a rich and rewarding one that retains its impact as the years pass. As a summation of several of Dick's ideas, it may also be the ideal introduction to this author's work. Jason Kruppa
Rating:
Summary: Timeless SF
Review: Though much science fiction of yesteryear is now dated and reads blandly, SF visionary Philip K. Dick was well ahead of his time and his best works, including this masterpiece, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? This book works on two levels. On the one hand, it is an exciting, fast-paced, and highly entertaining SF action adventure. This facet of the novel was, of course, captured in the movie Blade Runner. However, it also has a deeper, below the surface, entirely different meaning to it. In this book, Dick asks us what it means to be human. If you read this book and dig below the surface to the core themes, you may find that the answer may be a lot different than you think. Whatever level you take the book on, it is a masterpiece-enjoyable, entertaining, and yet literary and profound. Even the seemingly wacky title is perfect. Read.
Rating:
Summary: Pure Science Fiction
Review: The title of this novel clearly demonstrates that this book is going to deal with some man-machine sociological technological "issues". That it does. When reading a biography on the author, I found out that he only made something like $9,000 on the book (which is disappointing), yet it was a sci-fi hit in the theater, grossing millions. Five Stars.
Rating: 
Summary: The Hunt Is On
Review: In the old days, owning a beautiful car conferred prestige. A machine that replaced the humble horse, it provoked feelings of excitement, power, control, even love. There were people who gave them pet names and pampered them. As usual, people's standards change to suit the times. In a world ravaged by war, animals are a rarity, and therefore expensive. To own and care for a live animal, not a mechanical fake, is the goal of those who still live on Earth. Rick Deckard lives with his wife in San Francisco. Large sections of this neglected city, like the rest of the world, are empty of people. Many have emigrated to colony planets like Mars to escape the radioactive pollution. Deckard's job is to eliminate (retire) androids. The androids are so life-like their identity can only be proved by a special "empathy test". Without this test it's impossible to tell who is real and who isn't. Androids supposedly have no empathy. Once they are caught out, they don't last long. Deckard's latest contract is a lucarative one. He has to finish what a previous bounty hunter started, by killing six fugitive androids who concealed themselves among the human population of Northern California. Once the job is done, Deckard will have enough money to buy a real animal. If "Blade Runner" hadn't been made a lot of people wouldn't have heard of this book. Although I haven't seen "Blade Runner", it was hard not to imagine Rick Deckard having the face and voice of Harrison Ford. The morality of killing something that seems to be alive makes an intriguing theme. I think a lot of writers since Philip K. Dick have explored this premise. In the SF comedy "Red Dwarf" androids are programmed to believe in "Silicon Heaven", an afterlife for dead technology. This makes the androids more accepting of death, the knowledge that they have to be terminated one day to make way for superior models. Many of us believe that after death we enter an afterlife of eternal paradise. Despite this, we do everything in our power to put it off for as long as possible. From the moment of birth we are slowly dying. Nothing can stop it, life gets shorter every second. The new androids in Philip K. Dick's novel have that same desire for self-preservation. But they're at the mercy of someone higher up, one who decides when they've had enough. It looks as if my copy of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" contains a misprint. In the first chapter of my copy the date is January 1992. Yet another copy indicates it's the 21st century. I thought things seemed a bit too advanced for the 1990s. This is the second novel I've read by Dick, the first being "Dr. Bloodmoney", another after-the-bomb story. I'm currently reading "The Man In the High Castle". A very good book so far.
Rating:
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.
Rating:
Summary: Cool Cyberpunk before Cyber was Cool
Review: A lot of people credit Gibson for the cyberpunk genre. However, you'll find many of the themes right here: alienation, our relationship to machine intelligence, the fusion of worldwide cultures, the noir-world of moral relativism. This is the story that the film Bladerunner (excellent in its own right) was based on. However, it is important to realize that the film was very loosely based on it; there is one scene in the book that is virtually identical to the film, but beyond that it is quite different. Unfortunately, I find that Dick can really meander towards the end of his longer works (unlike his tightly plotted short stories). Thus, I can only give it four stars. Nevertheless it is a timeless classic that will be of interest to anyone interested in what the future of man-machine interactions might hold.
Rating:
Summary: One of Dick's four or five best
Review: If you are coming to "Do Androids Dream..." by way of "Blade Runner", the film (loosely) based on the book, be warned: the two are similar only in their most basic plot outlines. As is typical of Dick in his prolific middle period (roughly 1962-1970), there is a lot going on in this novel. The main theme, dehumanization, is amplified by each character and situation, but Dick creates a rich environment that is equally compelling as the way that theme is explored. In short, Rick Deckard's job is to kill renegade androids, a job he finds taking its toll on him. Sadly, he's not the only one who is feeling dehumanized: witness the existence of the Penfield Mood Organ (one of Dick's most touching inventions), through which one can alter one's state of consciousness by dialing the appropriate setting (such as "the desire to watch television, no matter what's on"); witness the cult around Wilbur Mercer, a vague messianic figure whose (literally) uphill struggle and persecution an individual can share by grasping the handles of a little black "empathy box"; witness Buster Friendly, a television personality bent on exposing Mercerism as a sham; and, lastly, witness the popularity of artificial animals (such as the electric sheep of the title) in a post-apocalyptic world where most real animals are either dead or sterile from radiation. That Dick manages all of these sharply drawn ideas (and more, as well as a number of interesting characters) while still keeping the plot moving swiftly and ruminating on the nature of humanity is a tribute to his brilliance. "Do Androids Dream..." is not a perfect book -- there are a few loose ends at novel's close -- but it is a rich and rewarding one that retains its impact as the years pass. As a summation of several of Dick's ideas, it may also be the ideal introduction to this author's work. Jason Kruppa
Rating:
Summary: Humor and humanity
Review: This novel, first published in 1968, was the basis for Ridley Scott's film Blade Runner (1982), which despite its striking, evocative visuals, plucks elements of the novel out of their context, making them somewhat less intelligible and less radical than in the original. Additionally, Dick's humor and his metaphysics are missing from the movie. The reader of the book is continually challenged to evaluate how human the androids are and how mechanical the humans are. The androids are not mere machines like most of the simulacra in Dick's other novels: they are artificial people made from organic materials; they have free will and emotions like fear and love. Physically and behaviorally they are indistinguishable from real people. Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter whose job it is to hunt down and kill escaped androids. His life is thoroughly programmed; but in the course of the novel he starts to wake up to his buried human nature and capacity for empathy and understanding. This novel is the place to look for a serious analysis of the question of what it means to be human; you get only the tip of the iceberg of that issue in the movie. The book is one of Dick's best.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty cut and dry
Review: It is a futuristic story, set in a distopian society where, since the fallout of world war III, humanity has managed to set off to colonize other planets. The main plot of the book is that a bounty hunter (Rick Deckard) is searching for rogue androids who have made their way back from the colony on Mars after killing their owners. Pretty cut and dry - in fact, the movie Blade Runner was based on the book. But as far as science fiction, this is where the story departs - using the future as merely a background for commentary on the meaning of existence, the possibility of overt manipulation of the psyche due to outside sources, and the omnipresent oppression "the power" has over everyone. A very good read, if for nothing more the commentary on what separates us from robots. Definitely a book I highly recommend.
Rating: 
Summary: Well, that was convoluted and not terrible insightful
Review: I should preface this review by saying that I'm a huge fan of PKD, or atleast his short fiction. I rank him as possibly the greatest short SF writer ever. However, his novels stink to high holy hell. The book reads like 3 or 4 short stories that have somehoe been slammed together and fused into some unholy spawn of the underworld that contains almost nothing resembling a coherent story. There's obviously supposed to be a deeper question brought up by this book of "What it means to be alive", but it's horribly executed. The characters are often placed in unlikely situations and their reactions make little sense. The plot twists double back on themselves far too quickly for someone to actually follow. Often times the location and surroundings randonly change in the middle of a paragraph with little to no warning. Even the final "religious revelation" of the main character seems trite and cliche. There are themes of religion vs mass media, artificial vs natural life and even good vs evil, but none of these are drawn out to anything resembling a conclusion. Some of them never get past the set up stage. Overall I was incredibly disappointed in this book and would recommend against it.
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