Book Review: 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'

One of Dick's most famous and beloved works to date, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? is about a world where androids called Nexus-6 become a part of the world; there are rogue robots who have human emotions and can't be distinguishable among humans. Most of all, the androids are assassins.

Rick Deckard is a licensed killer and goes after the rogue androids. He is experienced in this field, he has his techniques and equipment to test out the abilities of the androids, including something called the empathy box.

Rick Deckard is sent on a mission to 'retire' the Nexus-6 androids who have escaped Mars for Earth.

From the beginning, he meets Rachel Rosen, who is quickly recognized as an android from the empathy box, but he doesn't retire her.

After one kill, he is captured by a Nexus-6 who is disguised as a policeman and takes him to a precinct he hasn't heard off and is even accused of being an android.

Does he escape? You'll have to read to find out.

It also transitions into another setting, into an isolated building where the androids had taken refuge and includes another person called Isidore, this guy is a 'special,' damaged by the radiation that had also taken the animals.

he is intellectually challenged and tries to befriend his new neighbors because he was always living alone in his worn-out apartment.

They do begin a friendship and together, they watch the TV that disproved the belief system that was important to the entire world and Isidore himself.

The book targets similar theme in The Man In High Castle; it is about metaphysics, the question and the authenticity of reality.

The novel is set in the future and all species of animals are extinct, any sort of pets are electric, and Deckard does own an electric sheep which has already failed to function several times.

The first part of the novel is straightforward and towards the end, the philosophical section of Philip K.Dick's mind and thoughts comes into notice. Mercerism is a religion in the book and it often shows Wilbur Mercer as walking towards the mountain and facing pain from rocks being thrown at him.

He is carrying everyone else; this is usually experienced by the people using virtual reality. Iran, Rick's wife, depends on this and on a drug-machine known as a mood-organ.

There are other philosophical questions between empathy, android feelings and what it feels to be actual humans in the flesh, he also begins to question his line of work when he starts to have feelings for an android.

By my opinion, this is a much more simplistically creative work than The Man In High Castle, with the difference being that Castle was a more ambitious idea for Dick because it was different from other of Dick's work that focused on alternate history and alternate reality.

Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep? is a science fiction classic with just the right pinch of everything from the story, philosophy, the ending a great mixture of Dick's thoughts on the real-world and his mastery of story-telling.

RATING: 4.5/5

After the conclusion of the book, you are left wanting to know more about what happens next: is Rick Deckard still a bounty-hunter after whatever happened before? Does he escape into isolation and separates himself from the society?

There are sequels to the novel, but they are not written by Philip K. Dick but by another author named K.W. Jeter who was a friend of Dick and had a similar writing style compared to Dick.

Despite that, the first sequel received a 'C-' from literary critics.

I personally have never read the sequels but am probably going to in the future; not soon because the only person that definitely understood the novel as a whole and understood every texture and inch of the book, Philip K. Dick, didn't write it; there was definitely a reason why he left the book at that and wasn't planning on a sequel anytime soon.

Nevertheless, the book is a must-read for those who are into a perfect and balanced mixture of philosophy, science fiction and the rational debate about the future of the world.

This book will always remain a classic, not only in science fiction literature but in literature as a whole.