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literatureleaf's review
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: Animal cruelty, Ableism, Animal death, and Murder
Moderate: Violence, Misogyny, and Sexism
Minor: Sexual content, Cursing, Mental illness, and Infidelity
jetix's review against another edition
funny
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
1.0
ah, i see why it's considered sci-fi classic. it's pretty nice for a book written by a man.
"I like her; I could watch her the rest of my life. She has breasts that smile." is an actual quote from this book. this, along with "her breasts bobbing with agitation" from a different story by him, leads me to a conclusion that dick (what a fitting last name) was one of the original men writing women. so he's got that going for him, i guess.
p.s. marking this as funny because it's hilariously bad.
"I like her; I could watch her the rest of my life. She has breasts that smile." is an actual quote from this book. this, along with "her breasts bobbing with agitation" from a different story by him, leads me to a conclusion that dick (what a fitting last name) was one of the original men writing women. so he's got that going for him, i guess.
p.s. marking this as funny because it's hilariously bad.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Ableism, Animal cruelty, and Sexism
jameserinoreads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- 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? It's complicated
4.5
I love K. Dick.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Animal death, and Sexism
zombiezami's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Gun violence, Classism, Sexism, Ableism, Animal cruelty, and Misogyny
Minor: Racism
twig_cat's review against another edition
I'm sure this book was cutting edge when it came out, and I appreciate some of the ideas and themes it's going for.
But those concepts have been explored better since, and so between the dated style of the book, and some very dated attitudes in places, it just became a chore to keep going.
But those concepts have been explored better since, and so between the dated style of the book, and some very dated attitudes in places, it just became a chore to keep going.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism and Ableism
lilaceous's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
characters -
plot - ⭐️
engaging to read - ⭐️
would recommend -
would read again -
the world building felt so underdeveloped to me that it took away from my enjoyment of the book almost entirely. it deals with topics and ideas that could have been profound but were handled on a surface level.
the world building felt so underdeveloped to me that it took away from my enjoyment of the book almost entirely. it deals with topics and ideas that could have been profound but were handled on a surface level.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Sexism
hauntthetale's review against another edition
dark
reflective
slow-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
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism, Murder, and Animal cruelty
Minor: Death, Animal death, and Violence
afaithu's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
1.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Violence, and Sexism
Minor: Suicide
nekoshka's review against another edition
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Infidelity, and Ableism
Moderate: Misogyny, Death, and Sexism
Minor: Drug abuse and Abortion
emrosenagel's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
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
3.0
At risk of sounding stupid, I just didn’t get it.
The first half was very good. But after the midpoint, things got way too philosophical for my taste. If that’s what you’re into, higher thinking and so on, then this is a book for you.
The first half was very good. But after the midpoint, things got way too philosophical for my taste. If that’s what you’re into, higher thinking and so on, then this is a book for you.
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexism and Pedophilia