‘Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?’ - Philip K. Dick (Gollancz)

 


Page Count: 193 Pages

I’m not sure why they felt the need to have ‘Blade Runner’ in large type, on the cover, with the actual title all tiny and almost like an afterthought. Hmmm… Oh well, I’ve always loved the film art which is funny because I’m not actually a big fan of the film itself (apart from the bit at the end with Roy Baty’s speech). That’s probably a post for another time though ;o)

It has been a number of years now since I last read ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’; long enough that I’ve managed to lose my original copy, and possibly two others, in the meantime. It felt like a re-read was long overdue then and one cheap Amazon deal later… Here we are :o)

World War Terminus had left the Earth devastated. Through its ruins, bounty hunter Rick Deckard stalked, in search of the renegade replicants who were his prey. When he wasn't 'retiring' them with his laser weapon, he dreamed of owning a live animal - the ultimate status symbol in a world all but bereft of animal life.

Then Rick got his chance: the assignment to kill six Nexus-6 targets, for a huge reward. But in Deckard's world things were never that simple, and his assignment quickly turned into a nightmare kaleidoscope of subterfuge and deceit - and the threat of death for the hunter, rather than the hunted…

I know I said this was for another post but it does lead quite nicely into what I’m trying to say here. ‘Bladerunner’ wasn’t a bad film but from where I was sat, it was more about style than substance. Not a lot happened but it all looked absolutely gorgeous while not a lot was happening ;o) Reading ‘Do Androids Dream of Of Electric Sheep’ had me feeling the same kind of way albeit the book felt like it was about a concept being explored rather than an actual plot being developed.

Because lets be honest, the plot is pretty basic and very straightforward; Deckard hunts down several androids, over the course of a day, and sets a new record (for androids killed) in the process. That’s it and while there’s nothing particularly wrong with the execution (no pun intended… okay, maybe a little bit), there’s not a lot about it that actually leaps out and grabs your attention, other than a flurry of gunshots at just the right moment. Deckard does his job which is cool but… A lot of people do a days work and I don’t see any books written about them. Okay, I’m just jealous that no-one has written a book about me doing a days work ;o) Anyway…

Where the book really shone for me was where Dick decides to leave the plot, to carry on without him, and concentrate on the concepts driving the book instead. ‘What it means to be human’ is a concept that has been (and continues to be) well explored in sci-fi fiction but Dick takes things in a slightly different direction, asking us what it means to be human when you’re slowly losing that humanity and you’ve got no real chance of regaining it, not when you are effectively barred from joining the rest of humankind. What does it mean to be human in a dead world where you can live anywhere you like and your only guaranteed neighbour is entropy. How does empathy work in a world like that? Well I’ll be honest, I’m still trying to get my head round those questions and what I think Dick is saying in response. What I can say though is that I suspect these questions will be bugging at me (along with the oppressive silence lurking in the background or each paragraph) today, while I should be working. That says a lot to me about how engaging Dick makes the underpinning concepts, especially in light of the revelation at the end (if it was true…) It is very easy to get into the debate that Dick is having, as it were, start pondering along with him. I’m probably not the person best equipped to take that trip, at the moment, (‘chemo-brain’…) but Dick poses those questions in such a way that I’ll take the trip anyway. His characters are sympathetic and easy to root for but having said that, you can’t escape from the feeling that Dick speaks a little too loudly through them. John Isidore, I really can’t see how you failed the IQ test to leave Earth; I just can’t…

I’m not sure that I’ll re-read ‘Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep’ anytime soon but I’m glad I gave it a re-read yesterday. I came for what ended up being a fairly basic detective story but I ended up staying for the deep thoughts on what it means to be human and what that means when your job is to put an end to ‘life’ (whatever that looks like).

Comments

  1. Bookstooge13 February 2026 at 10:41

    Have you watched Blade Runner 2049 or whatever the sequel is called? I haven't seen Bladerunner in a very long time and am wondering about doing a double feature sometime. But I don't want to waste my time if the sequel is just plain bad.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous14 February 2026 at 00:56

      I've never seen it and to be honest, the run time (almost three hours I think) puts me off a little. If you do watch 'Blade Runner 2049', let me know how it turns out? I'm a little tempted, to give it a go, at the same time.

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