Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Blade Runner

Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Blade Runner by Philip K. Dick

48 reviews

literatureleaf's review

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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.

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yennn's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Update 22 April 2024: I’ve lowered my rating to 2, because it took me way too long to get through and put me in a reading slump somehow!!!

This book felt way ahead of its time and surprisingly much deeper than I thought it would be. I was sort of expecting more…robot bounty killing and action?

Anyways, almost immediately, I’m struggling to not associate this with franchises like Cyberpunk – I’ve never actually seen Blade Runner, so no issues there. There’s an almost comical contrast between the old and new technologies that was really interesting to read about. After a spout of info dumping about androids, I felt jump scared by the appearance of Kleenex. Truthfully, I had questions about the state of the Earth, but…you know when the answer is just ‘because sci-fi?’ The worldbuilding wasn’t too bad, but I wanted to know a little more about the off-world and android situation.

I greatly enjoyed the interactions with the androids and was having fun second guessing who was or wasn’t an android. But about half way through, where the other MC J. R. Isodore and ‘Mercisicm,’ (a religion? Cult?) intersected with bounty hunter Rick Deckard…. I started to lose interest. It ended up feeling like an ‘ersatz’ grand ending, but I felt so small reading this, whether because of the language barriers, or because of the pacing in the latter half I have no idea.

My very lukewarm review…. I neither disliked nor liked this. It was okay.

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jameserinoreads's review against another edition

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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.

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andrewkroninger's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

belgian_fantasy_fan's review against another edition

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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

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zombiezami's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

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itsnicholaslashay's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I’ve never watched Blade Runner so I didn’t have many expectations coming into this other than what I’ve heard about PKD. Unfortunately, he did not deliver for me and I couldn’t get myself to be interested in this book.

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marlimeuw's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

It’s a short dystopian novel that I’m not sure about. If you are interested in Blade Runner or what the value of lives are, then give it your time. But it takes some interesting twists and I’m indifferent about the ending.

Also Isidore is the best character, I wish him happiness. I hated Deckard the whole time, he is crazy and needed some fucking sleep the whole book.

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thereadingdude's review against another edition

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adventurous 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

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frenchkey's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The book is thought provoking and interesting. I found myself rooting for Deckard, almost despite myself at times. The philosophical questions raised are interesting and I enjoyed that no answers are provided, leaving me thinking long after I finished reading.

I did not enjoy the way the women (android or human) are treated by the narrative. The writing is very much a product of its time and the objectification is not enjoyable to read. Otherwise, excellent book.

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