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shimmery's review against another edition
4.0
Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter, whose job it is to 'retire' any androids found on the ruined, war torn earth. Though his job requires cool calculation, Rick's main motive for hunting the robots is his love of animals: he wishes to have enough money to own a real animal. Mostly extinct, animals are expensive and rare; all Deckard can currently afford is an electric one.
The yearning for an animal, introduced right in the novel's opening pages is a wonderful piece of characterisation. This is a world you are thrown in to, and even as we try to work out what is going on as Rick and his wife Iran dial numbers on a machine for feelings, this at least we can empathise with.
This novel is beautiful and sad, with the sound of silence everywhere in apartment blocks emptied of people, monotonous TV shows playing on repeat, loneliness and dust clouded skies. It's a wonderful if tragic work of imagination, one far ahead of its time and one I'm sure we'll see variations of as AI continues to advance.
The yearning for an animal, introduced right in the novel's opening pages is a wonderful piece of characterisation. This is a world you are thrown in to, and even as we try to work out what is going on as Rick and his wife Iran dial numbers on a machine for feelings, this at least we can empathise with.
This novel is beautiful and sad, with the sound of silence everywhere in apartment blocks emptied of people, monotonous TV shows playing on repeat, loneliness and dust clouded skies. It's a wonderful if tragic work of imagination, one far ahead of its time and one I'm sure we'll see variations of as AI continues to advance.
tom24's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
yorkslass70's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.0
athenapool's review against another edition
1.0
It's a truly impressive feat to create such an interesting world and make the surrounding story and characters ridiculously boring.
I did not enjoy a single thing about this, the book is written in such a sexist way every single female character gets a description describing what her boobs look like. At some point the description "her boobs smiled" is used and I wanted to throw myself out the window. I was so bored reading this that I immediately went to find an audio book version from my library so that I wouldn't fall into a coma reading it. Even as an audio book I was bored to tears. I've never seen the movie but I will be checking both out, out of curiosity.
I did not enjoy a single thing about this, the book is written in such a sexist way every single female character gets a description describing what her boobs look like. At some point the description "her boobs smiled" is used and I wanted to throw myself out the window. I was so bored reading this that I immediately went to find an audio book version from my library so that I wouldn't fall into a coma reading it. Even as an audio book I was bored to tears. I've never seen the movie but I will be checking both out, out of curiosity.
witchestea's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
drunkenwatcher's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
vk_fox15's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Didn't finish the book.
Dick is a fine author, I have nothing against him or his writing style. I was required to read this book for a class and have nothing against him personally. I initially went in with high expectations and for that reason I was unable to read through this book as I normally do with other books. To me it just felt dry.
I appreciated the world building and liked just how desperate the people of earth were. I praise Dick for his efforts in writing this novel, and can see why it has become such a highly praised literary classic amongst Western audiences, yet I just couldn't get through it.
The more I read the book the less I could picture myself within it, and for me, being able to immerse myself within the story is something I need to get through a book. Stories like 'Harry Potter' are heavily immersive, despite how unprofessional JK Rowling may be as a person, I could very well see myself within the dorm rooms of the Ravenclaw house (not to complement her).
'Do Androids...' isn't necessarily a "bad" book by any means, it just isn't immersive for me. There's something missing from it that I just can't put my finger on, and that's why I had to put the book down. To end this review, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking to get into the science-fiction genre, especially people who are into stories adjacent to 'The Hunger Games' concerning themes of government corruption.
Dick is a fine author, I have nothing against him or his writing style. I was required to read this book for a class and have nothing against him personally. I initially went in with high expectations and for that reason I was unable to read through this book as I normally do with other books. To me it just felt dry.
I appreciated the world building and liked just how desperate the people of earth were. I praise Dick for his efforts in writing this novel, and can see why it has become such a highly praised literary classic amongst Western audiences, yet I just couldn't get through it.
The more I read the book the less I could picture myself within it, and for me, being able to immerse myself within the story is something I need to get through a book. Stories like 'Harry Potter' are heavily immersive, despite how unprofessional JK Rowling may be as a person, I could very well see myself within the dorm rooms of the Ravenclaw house (not to complement her).
'Do Androids...' isn't necessarily a "bad" book by any means, it just isn't immersive for me. There's something missing from it that I just can't put my finger on, and that's why I had to put the book down. To end this review, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking to get into the science-fiction genre, especially people who are into stories adjacent to 'The Hunger Games' concerning themes of government corruption.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Abandonment, Ableism, Animal death, Classism, Death, Drug abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Police brutality, and Xenophobia
sdhague's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
pascalracobene's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
1.0