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Title: DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? |  |
This is a seminal work. DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? went on to become the movie Blade Runner, released just months after Philip K. Dick's death at the age of 53. Indeed, at nearly one movie every 3 years, Dick is only surpassed by Stephen King in the rate of cinematic adaptation. Despite this he was virtually ignored during his life, a travesty that in the 25th year since his death, Gollancz have rectified by re-releasing many of his works.
Think of the best science fiction movies of all time, and chances are you will list more than one inspired by Dick's work. Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, Next, the list goes on. Lovers of the films will find new depths, and nuances in the original stories that make them well worth searching out. A science fiction collection without a Dick novel fails the basic test.
DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? is set some time after World War Terminus spread its deadly radioactive dust over the planet, making it hostile to all life. The lucky have escaped to the colonies on Mars. Those unwilling to go are persuaded by the availability of androids, near perfect copies of humans that are almost the perfect servants.
Rick Deckard can not emigrate, his job as a bounty hunter means he is tied to the planet. So he, like most of his "regular" neighbours, yearns to own a real live creature. His own sheep has died and he has replaced it with a convincing electric model. Things would have to look up for Deckard to be able to afford anything like the horse his neighbour owns. He'd need a break, some androids to try and infiltrate the earth, passing themselves off as regulars. But on this earth, even humans that can no longer reproduce true to type are discarded, ignored, labelled as "specials". Androids are illegal and the job of the bounty hunter is to "retire" them, kill them.
When one of 8 escaped androids kills the senior bounty hunter, Deckard is given a chance to make enough money to fulfil his dream. 6 androids survive, and he has to track them down. But these androids are of an advanced type, the Nexus-6, and are almost perfect copies. Deckard needs to be sure that his empathy test is good enough to detect the difference between android and human. The Rosen Corporation is asked to provide him with test subjects, and Deckard and his faith in his test, and indeed in his job, are shaken.
Deckard's chase of the androids, his relationship with Rachel Rosen, the android "niece" of the owner of Rosen Corporation, and his internal anguish at the use of empathy to both unite and control humanity are explored in this fascinating and thought provoking piece.
DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? is jam-packed with ideas, far more than lesser writers could possibly hope to cram into such a slim volume. Here you will find ideas of religion and mind control, what it means to be human, love and yearning, arrogance and denial, and yet a fast flowing and truly engaging story.
