Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

by Philip K. Dick | Science Fiction & Fantasy |
ISBN: 0345404475 Global Overview for this book
Registered by BookGroupMan of Chester, Cheshire United Kingdom on 12/12/2006
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1 journaler for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by BookGroupMan from Chester, Cheshire United Kingdom on Tuesday, December 12, 2006
In my infrequent forays into the SF genre, I like classics with film tie-ins which aren't too bulky; this ticks all the boxes as book, the idea, that became Blade Runner...

Jan'08 Update - picked as the New Year ipswich Splinter Group choice, so i'm reading, but will probably not be able to get to the meeting :(

Journal Entry 2 by BookGroupMan from Chester, Cheshire United Kingdom on Wednesday, January 16, 2008
(16/01) I thought this was very good and was pleasantly surprised that an oldish (1968) SF classic still seems fresh, relevant and not too dated; the odd mention of ‘vidphone’, ‘hovercar’ and ‘mood organ’ – of which more later – did not detract from the story too much. The only moot point is whether it can be called science fiction if events and the sum of human knowledge make this fantastical, for example, in 2021, humans colonising Mars and other planets, building lifelike androids (‘Andys’) which can only be distinguished from the real thing with sophisticated empathy tests; testing reactions to moral dilemmas. I don't think so!?

The whole premise of the story is familar if you know the film Blade Runner, but the detail and especially the ending are very different.

Synopsis

Police bounty hunter Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford!) kills – or ‘retires’ – rogue androids for a living. However, he begins to get mixed emotions when he is attracted to Rachael Rosen, a demo model from the sinister Rosen Association, and becomes empathetic towards the Android's plight; not that he thinks they are alive in a biological sense, but that they deserve to exist. There are some interesting philosphical sidelines about life in a post-nuclear war society; the desire to own a real animal; the religious fervour attached to messiah called Mercer and an all-pervasive TV culture (natch); and the treatment of an underclass of radiation-retarded ‘chickenheads’ and ‘antheads’ – euphemistically called specials.

The SF pot-pouri is further spiced with a machine (the mood organ) that lets you ‘dial’ a number to experience any emotion...cool, that drug will be a big hit in 13 years time!

From the blurb, ‘A kind of pulp-fiction Kafka, a prophet’.

I don’t know what this means, but it sounds good!

Last, and probably least; my word-of-the-day, ‘kipple’...you’re going to have to read the book for a definition ;)

Journal Entry 3 by BookGroupMan at Matrix House, Basing View in Basingstoke, Hampshire United Kingdom on Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Released 16 yrs ago (2/6/2008 UTC) at Matrix House, Basing View in Basingstoke, Hampshire United Kingdom

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RELEASE NOTES:

Leaving with the other books in the Cafe...not a BookCrossing shelf, but there's always room in the market to share books ;)

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