Rating: Summary: Deepen your movie experience Review: I re-read this novel recently, as I used it in my "What Is Humanity?" class in conjunction with the movie based on it, Blade Runner. As a longtime fan of Dick, I had read this quite some time ago, and still remembered quite a bit of it, so in this re-reading, I concentrated on the similarities and differences between it and the movie. In my memory, I thought that the two were quite different, and on the surface, they are. This is because the movie is but a subset of the book--the screenwriters took what they thought was the dramatic heart of the novel, but they didn't necessarily discard the rest. It's still there, surprisingly, but it is sublimated in images and character asides.Yes, it's a pulp novel. But Dick was a warped mind, and this is one of his best books of the "middle period" of work, between the science fiction where he honed his craft and before he moved into the metaphysical territory of his last novels (in particular, the VALIS trilogy). If you like this book, you owe it to yourself to try UBIK and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, which are my picks for the best of the pulp novels.
Rating: Summary: Androids short circuited dreams... Review: I am a big fan of the movie (the movie gets five stars). This is one of those cases where the movie story-line is much better developed and delivered than the book. I found this book very disappointing. Although it does provide an intriguing perspective of the future, the main character's (Deckard's) delusional introspective ramblings throughout the book do little to build a coherent story. Very little of the movie storyline is from the book, and the reasons become obvious. Lots of imagination (good for ideas), weak story and resolution. Unless your curiosity is overwhelming, there are many better sci-fi books to read....
Rating: Summary: Does Not Replicate The Film Review: Androids is as different from the film Blade Runner as most of Ian Fleming's Bond stories are from the films made after them. Deckard comes across as a more henpecked, harried man--married to an emotionally distant woman, seeking the answers to life through a simulation of the last days of a sort of messiah whose end came about similarly to Jesus'. You'll meet most of the same characters, but don't pick up this book expecting to experience the same oily, slinky, gritty feel of the noirish movie. It stands on its own as a good story, if not a little confusing at points as many of Dick's works are. True BR fans with knowledge of earlier drafts of the screenplay will have a better time making the connections between book and film, but those who've seen the movie once or twice only and thought it was "okay" or "pretty cool..." may find Androids a bit tedious and discouraging. A must for any die-hard P.K.Dick or Blade Runner fans.
Rating: Summary: Fascinating! It surpasses the movie by far. Review: Even though it's fairly short, this book contains many situations and themes left out of the film version. Some of the most fascinating aspects of the novel are the future civilization's politics, religion, and standards of society. Many unexpected things happen and the outcome is a real surprise (the hunt for the androids seems to be a minor sub-plot. The main issues are much more intriguing.) This is one of Philip K. Dick's most interesting and coherent novels.
Rating: Summary: Excellent book Review: In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick, the title question symbolizes the moral conundrum of its protagonist, Rick Deckard. Deckard is a twenty first century cop who searches for and "retires" complex, lifelike androids who have permeated the population of a dusty, post-WWIII Earth. After experiencing feelings for Luba Loft, a robotic opera singer, Deckard becomes uncertain of the virtue of his job. Other characters who fuel his moral queries are Phil Reash, a fellow bounty hunter who takes sadistic pleasure in his work; John Isodore, a simpleton who feels useful for the first time when caring for a group of fugitive androids; Rachael Rosenberg, a robot with whom Deckard attempts to test the limits of his feelings for electronic creatures and Wilbur Mercer, a technicolor messiah who encourages him to disregard his feelings and simply carry out his job, acting more robotic himself. Throughout the novel, Dick never exactly settles any of his complex inquiries, but merely leaves them carefully set out for his more pensive readers to contemplate.
Rating: Summary: Not up to Expectations Review: The first 1/3 of this book was very intresting to me and really kept me in it, as the foundations of the story were laid. It slowed down though when Deckard met up with his first android target. The next 2/3 of the book had interesting ponderings and the quest for the answers by Deckard,but the action in the book was a big let down. Most action parts were covered in one confusing sentence that left me with a, "What happened?". The action in the book also seemed to be spaced a bit strangely also. Overall, an okay book, but somewhat of a let down.
Rating: Summary: Stands on its own when compared to movie Review: Highly original novel, it's not all about "andys" and the people who retire them for a living but instead introduces a very unsettling (yet entertaining) "alternate" version of the future, a future dominated by "kipple" (you gotta read it to find out) and weird, competing religious cults.
Rating: Summary: A bucket of water over your head on a hot day. Review: You know how it feels when you discover an author? After you go through a string of bad books, and you think you'll never read anything good again, and boom! here's this writer that blows your socks off... You know how you have a favorite book you wish you could read again for the first time? The thrill of discovery when you think of all those other books out there by the same guy? Ah. It's a good feeling. I got this feeling reading "Blade Runner." Phillip K. Dick blew my socks off. "Blade Runner" was a cross between Raymond Chandler and William Gibson. Imagine a gold-hearted PI-type character tackling the meaning of life in the low-down dregs of a futuristic society, and you've got Dick's "Blade Runner." He's got Chandler's characters, dialog, and pace/plot and Gibson's crazy, yet somehow right-on view of society embodied in an anarchic future. Sure his plots wander. Okay, there aren't too many car chases. And, heck, if you want a tense gore-fest thriller, look around some more. But this guy has soul, his book means something. Funny. Absurd. Philosophical. A bucket of water over your head on a hot day. Your first cup of coffee in the morning. It's that kind of book. Read it.
Rating: Summary: Fantastic Review: THis is a great read. Different from the film, yet just as dark and interesting. I recommend it. I alos recomend anything by Harlan Ellison. Also try Wildflower, by Carl Rafala (if you can't get it here, try the Booksurge website.)
Rating: Summary: Great Ride Review: A great, dark book which raises serious questions about replicating human an our direction as a species. A fine read. Will leave you thinking for days. also try: Wildflower, by Carl Rafala and Noir by J Jeter
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