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kergo's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
This book is quite interesting for me - having watched the movie almost 10 years ago and not remembering it clearly, having watched the second movie 2-3 times and loving it dearly - I wanted to visit the world as it was envisioned by Dick himself.
There are 2 Perspectives - one of a Bounty Hunter that is hunting Androids and one of a delivery driver for a synthetic animal clinic - which is categorized as a "special" person because he is infertile and therefore not deemed human and also he has low intellectual abilities.
And thats already where the problems arise.
I think the main subjects in this book want to be the philosophical question about what empathy entails and how this affects every one of us. The book is seeped through with classism, religious propaganda of a made up religion, and ableism but I am not sure if the book is trying to point out that the ableism in that world is something unjust, but as there is no resolution to the theme I will think of it as a weird form of ableistic representation of someone disabled.
The "special" people are almost excluded from every form of life and live in ruins in this distopic world. The person we follow missed the intelligence test just barely, which would've enabled him to at least partake in certain aspects of the communal life of those who stayed behind on the destroyed remains of earth. He was lucky enough to score a job where he could drive, something not everyone labled like he is is able to do. Through the book we learn of many moments of exklusion for him and he makes friends with the antagonists of the book - which lead to an disappointing ending of that arc but more of that later. The only thing he can partake of is the religion of the world, where people can connect thorugh an "empathaor" with the religious figure of Wilbur Mercer, a person who is reincarnated again and again and walks a path of struggle, combined with all the other people that are connecting through those devices at the same time. Thats the only sense of community that person percieves and that is also one the androids are prohibited from.
The hunted Androids are basically personal slaves that have fled from being used like that and only seek freedom and not being opressed anymore. In the book it is revealed that they only have a life span of about 4 years and still they are considered rogue and dangerous to all society. The ones we encounter in the book are a group of 8 friends which fled the colony of mars together, some seeking shelter, some to finally express their own personalities. At the beginning of the story 2 of them were already hunted down and the other six are on the hitlist of a higher ranked bounty hunter which was incapacitated by the third target, so our main protagonist takes that list over.
This character feels like the clicheed film noir PI, doused in his own scandals (he has an electric pet although society wants everyone to keep an alive animal to shelter them, scandalous) and a marriage that is kinda in shambles. He does nothing to mend that relationship, instead they bought a device that sets their moods to certain values and after a fight he put the value of his spouse to "appreciate the husband" or something like that. really scummy and weird (but thank god she changed that value (but why to depression)). We follow this twisted person, his only drive being owning a real pet and gathering the money for it what he will only achieve by "disabling" lots of androids. In the beginning he deemed that possibility impossible because his superiour must be down for that and lucky enough 10 pages later he is! what great suprise! After a while of the story he realises that he feels empathy for the androids, which does not hinder him from doing his job. Another bounty hunter tells him he should enter sexual relations with one of them and then shoot them, which he later kind of does, still not respecting their partner or any social code he has. The conflicting topic for him still is his drive to get an animal and how to do his job with his newfound empathy for androids (but he does the job for ages mind you!) and all other aspects of life seem kinda empty regarding him.
The main conflict results in him inexplicably merging with the religious figure, disgarding the other main character which after meeting the bounty hunter just vanishes and is nowhere to be seen again and him having an epiphany about his own resurrection and finding an animal in the wild (which are all deemed extinct, particularly that kind of animal) And the spouse ordering him electronic companions for his found animal.
None of the issues of the book are really resolved apart from the main storyline andhim killing all the androids wow who would've thunk . There are no consequences whatsoever. The only choice that had a reaction felt pretty disconnected - He kills 3 androids, buys an animal with the money, sleeps with another "good" android, she gets jealous of that animal because he loves it more than anything else, after he killed all the other "rogue" ones he comes home to find it killed by her. She thought she stopped him from killing Androids in the future by sleeping with him (worked with others) but he relentlessly did.
If you read the whole thing as an adventure it was a pretty lame one, with a few physical struggles but no real dilemma or something that drives him apart from the resolution - his empathy for androids was always more an afterthought or a suspicion than a consequence, he says repeatedly that he cannot kill anymore, only for him not hesitate at all. He wants to quit but he only takes one day off.
He is not a charakter to be liked, not one to be inspired from, and noone who really impacts the reader.
The main themes of classism, (minor) effects of colonialism, ableism and the results of the war were the main driving force for me to wanting to read more of the book - I thought about certain scenes of the second movie, some of the first movie, which had more satisfying moments to be honest and I was really thinking about that worldbuilding.
I would be intrigued how the lifes of upstanding people in that world could function, the whole society is pushing people of "worth" (their words not mine) to go to colonies and if you arrive there you get your own personal android! how convinient! The main entertainment of that world is done by another android which is advocating against the main religion and those themes, the world shining through, were so enriching and nicely done that i overall found the book quite okay. It didnt blow me away, It didnt change my view of things, the main discussion of people talking about the story - if the bounty hunter is an android or not did not seem feasible to me and was not that interesting of a topic honestly.
Going to read another book of Dick's in the future, maybe I didnt understand his style of story quite yet, but i hope he can immerse me more and suprise me with a compelling tale.
There are 2 Perspectives - one of a Bounty Hunter that is hunting Androids and one of a delivery driver for a synthetic animal clinic - which is categorized as a "special" person because he is infertile and therefore not deemed human and also he has low intellectual abilities.
And thats already where the problems arise.
I think the main subjects in this book want to be the philosophical question about what empathy entails and how this affects every one of us. The book is seeped through with classism, religious propaganda of a made up religion, and ableism but I am not sure if the book is trying to point out that the ableism in that world is something unjust, but as there is no resolution to the theme I will think of it as a weird form of ableistic representation of someone disabled.
The "special" people are almost excluded from every form of life and live in ruins in this distopic world. The person we follow missed the intelligence test just barely, which would've enabled him to at least partake in certain aspects of the communal life of those who stayed behind on the destroyed remains of earth. He was lucky enough to score a job where he could drive, something not everyone labled like he is is able to do. Through the book we learn of many moments of exklusion for him and he makes friends with the antagonists of the book - which lead to an disappointing ending of that arc but more of that later. The only thing he can partake of is the religion of the world, where people can connect thorugh an "empathaor" with the religious figure of Wilbur Mercer, a person who is reincarnated again and again and walks a path of struggle, combined with all the other people that are connecting through those devices at the same time. Thats the only sense of community that person percieves and that is also one the androids are prohibited from.
The hunted Androids are basically personal slaves that have fled from being used like that and only seek freedom and not being opressed anymore. In the book it is revealed that they only have a life span of about 4 years and still they are considered rogue and dangerous to all society. The ones we encounter in the book are a group of 8 friends which fled the colony of mars together, some seeking shelter, some to finally express their own personalities. At the beginning of the story 2 of them were already hunted down and the other six are on the hitlist of a higher ranked bounty hunter which was incapacitated by the third target, so our main protagonist takes that list over.
This character feels like the clicheed film noir PI, doused in his own scandals (he has an electric pet although society wants everyone to keep an alive animal to shelter them, scandalous) and a marriage that is kinda in shambles. He does nothing to mend that relationship, instead they bought a device that sets their moods to certain values and after a fight he put the value of his spouse to "appreciate the husband" or something like that. really scummy and weird (but thank god she changed that value (but why to depression)). We follow this twisted person, his only drive being owning a real pet and gathering the money for it what he will only achieve by "disabling" lots of androids. In the beginning he deemed that possibility impossible because his superiour must be down for that and lucky enough 10 pages later he is! what great suprise! After a while of the story he realises that he feels empathy for the androids, which does not hinder him from doing his job. Another bounty hunter tells him he should enter sexual relations with one of them and then shoot them, which he later kind of does, still not respecting their partner or any social code he has. The conflicting topic for him still is his drive to get an animal and how to do his job with his newfound empathy for androids (but he does the job for ages mind you!) and all other aspects of life seem kinda empty regarding him.
None of the issues of the book are really resolved apart from the main storyline and
If you read the whole thing as an adventure it was a pretty lame one, with a few physical struggles but no real dilemma or something that drives him apart from the resolution - his empathy for androids was always more an afterthought or a suspicion than a consequence, he says repeatedly that he cannot kill anymore, only for him not hesitate at all. He wants to quit but he only takes one day off.
He is not a charakter to be liked, not one to be inspired from, and noone who really impacts the reader.
The main themes of classism, (minor) effects of colonialism, ableism and the results of the war were the main driving force for me to wanting to read more of the book - I thought about certain scenes of the second movie, some of the first movie, which had more satisfying moments to be honest and I was really thinking about that worldbuilding.
I would be intrigued how the lifes of upstanding people in that world could function, the whole society is pushing people of "worth" (their words not mine) to go to colonies and if you arrive there you get your own personal android! how convinient! The main entertainment of that world is done by another android which is advocating against the main religion and those themes, the world shining through, were so enriching and nicely done that i overall found the book quite okay. It didnt blow me away, It didnt change my view of things, the main discussion of people talking about the story - if the bounty hunter is an android or not did not seem feasible to me and was not that interesting of a topic honestly.
Going to read another book of Dick's in the future, maybe I didnt understand his style of story quite yet, but i hope he can immerse me more and suprise me with a compelling tale.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Animal death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Terminal illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: War
juanrubin's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Violence, Blood, and War
Minor: Ableism, Drug use, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Colonisation
literatureleaf's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Reading time: 14 days
Difficulty level: 3/5
Rating: 2.75/5
In a dystopian future, a world war of catastrophic proportions has led to the death of millions, mass extinctions, and the migration of humankind to the vast unknown of outer space. Earth has become a desolate wasteland, where a class of humans known only as “specials” are shunned and isolated, and the few who continue living normal lives desperately seek the status of owning a sentient being. Reserved only for the wealthy, tech companies have stepped in to fill the void for the poor, creating advanced robots that perfectly imitate animal life.
These companies have also created androids, robots so sophisticated that it is almost impossible to distinguish them from flesh and blood men and women. While these androids are easily accessible on other planets, Earth’s government has banned them, terrified of what these AI machines are capable of. Forced into hiding, illegal androids blend in with humans, living and working among them while simultaneously evading the bounty hunters who are sent to end them.
When Rick Deckard, a career bounty hunter, is hired to retire a group of even further technologically advanced androids known as Nexus-6, he finds himself on a wild goose chase throughout his city, forced to not only fight for his life, but to confront his own conceptions about the duality of androids, humanity, and what it really means to be alive.
Evenly paced and chock full of action, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep packs a punch that will keep you turning pages well past your bedtime. Taking place over the course of a few days, Philip K. Dick masterfully achieves a riveting and compulsive sense of suspense that refuses to let itself be limited by the painfully short timeframe that is given to us to come to know these characters and their stories.
Because of the time constraints woven throughout the plot, character motivations and consistency suffer. The cast undergoes massive moral change and emotional upheaval within the span of minutes, and at times with no discernible reason, leaving the reader in a tailspin. Forced to reconcile what we have come to expect from the characters against what their words and actions are telling us, we are left to wonder if there is any greater purpose to what we are reading at all.
Told from two different viewpoints, the overarching plotlines gradually come together to form a satisfying conclusion for Deckard, but the secondary POV of Isidore feels lackluster and forced. He felt as though he was only a part of the book to further the plot, his story was rushed, and there was no true “end” for his character, lending to a feeling of a good portion of the book being shoe-horned in for no other purpose than cheap plot advancement.
Jumping between advanced literary technique, clinical and standoffish writing, and choppy, disjointed flow, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is a confusing reading experience. Blending it all together, it quickly becomes clear that it is not the prose, the characters, or even the plot itself that caused this novel to leave such a profound mark on the science fiction world, but rather the thematic elements that the book centers around.
A brutal look at the impact of consumerism and the commodification of life itself, Philip K. Dick paints a bleak and terrifying picture of a world where emotions are false, power is only achievable only through increasingly immoral means, and life is only as sacred as money says it is. Harrowing and propulsive, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep lays bare the blurred lines between sentience and consciousness and forces us to ask ourselves if we are only as alive as we think we are.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Murder
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, and Violence
Minor: Cursing, Infidelity, Mental illness, and Sexual content
belgian_fantasy_fan's review against another edition
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
Moderate: Animal death
baccoamon's review against another edition
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Avid readers and fans of the Blade Runner series will undoubtedly come across this book when in need of another brooding scifi story to satiate that craving. But one would find themselves either pleasantly surprised or underwhelmed, depending if the reader is looking for a new story or a familiar one, to find that "Do Androids Dream Electric Sheep" is very much the corner stone of niche scifi that it is heralded as while also very much not living up to some of its more established inspirations.
Philip K. Dick in this book seems to stumble upon larger questions around collective identity vs individuality, worship culture, mental health, and empathy that tend to lead to more open answers rather than a definite perspective. I did come away wondering if this book was written to be more of a introspection for the reader to dissect for themselves or if simply the language he was afforded was not able to directly correlate some of these ideas in a more precise way due to the time period and this very much being a speculative future where a writer from 1968 is looking into a world overcome by class elitism and techno-ethic dilemmas. For fans of speculative fiction and brooding scifi you will find yourself at home as Decker reflects on what self fulfillment, empathy, and identity means to the human experience.
My largest negative to the story is the inability to truly humanize the Androids as it creates a strange conflict of interest when it comes to the ethos that I believed Philip to be leaning towards and the outdated understanding of Schizophrenia, as a reminder that this book is from 50 years ago, is a bit annoying to overlook while reading.
Contemplative and interesting this book is worth your time but do not expect a literary Blade Runner.
Philip K. Dick in this book seems to stumble upon larger questions around collective identity vs individuality, worship culture, mental health, and empathy that tend to lead to more open answers rather than a definite perspective. I did come away wondering if this book was written to be more of a introspection for the reader to dissect for themselves or if simply the language he was afforded was not able to directly correlate some of these ideas in a more precise way due to the time period and this very much being a speculative future where a writer from 1968 is looking into a world overcome by class elitism and techno-ethic dilemmas. For fans of speculative fiction and brooding scifi you will find yourself at home as Decker reflects on what self fulfillment, empathy, and identity means to the human experience.
My largest negative to the story is the inability to truly humanize the Androids as it creates a strange conflict of interest when it comes to the ethos that I believed Philip to be leaning towards and the outdated understanding of Schizophrenia, as a reminder that this book is from 50 years ago, is a bit annoying to overlook while reading.
Contemplative and interesting this book is worth your time but do not expect a literary Blade Runner.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts
mandkips's review against another edition
dark
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, and Animal death
Moderate: Mental illness, Misogyny, and Sexism
Minor: Infidelity, Sexual content, and Abortion
coolfijiwater's review against another edition
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, and Animal death
Moderate: Mental illness, Misogyny, and Sexism
Minor: Infidelity, Sexual content, and Abortion
luxxltyd's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, and Animal death
Moderate: Mental illness and Sexism
Minor: Infidelity and Sexual content
glace's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Firstly, the film was a separate story to the book, although similar. So the book is worth reading for film-watchers. This book is more reflective and thought provoking. There is a strong focus on the varying capacity for empathy for different people. People question their own reality, and how do they deal with the answer when they learn the truth. It's a short book that can be finished at a leisurely pace over a weekend.
Content Warnings
Minor: Mental illness
kerttuli's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Death, and Murder
Moderate: Animal death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, and Classism
Minor: Body shaming and Infidelity