I Dreamed Of Them

Blade Runner is a title that I imagine many in the western world know whether they have seen Ridley Scott's repeatedly released with extras masterpeice. However the number of people who would recognise the title Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is undoubtedly smaller, which is in my mind a great disappointment. At first when I began reading it was difficult to not make comparisons between the two works however I soon stopped as I found that they were undoubtedly two DIFFERENT peices of work. I will at no point say one is better than the other, nor will I deny that the movie is made from the book but they are deffinitely different beasts.

The book looks at a post appocalyptic world where the dust from the fall out has killed most animals and made the majority humans infertile, deformed, and mentally retarded (though I hate having to I would like to stress I use this term in it's full and literal sense, characters find their mental abilities become retarded due to exposure) and the only chance is to escape to the moon. Within this world people are encouraged to own animals though they are of great cost, a real animal is a status symbol, though if out of your price range you can obtain an electric one. In this world as well, or more importantly off this world on mars, there are also electric humans of a sort; androids. Andys as they are known are not known to the general public and are not permited on earth, highly intelligent though decidedly inhuman with their lack of empathy they are slaves on the colonies of mars and other planets. But they have sentience and on occasion rebel, and when they rebel and come to what's left of San Fransisco Rick Deckard is not usually the man they call. But the latest Nexus-6 units have outwitted and near fataly injured his supperior so it falls on him to "retire" the remaining six of one violently rebellious group. Despite the best efforts of the Rosen organization to stop his investigation Rick powers on outsmarting them and the first Nexus-6 chasing the $1000 bounty on their heads and hoping he might be able at the end of it all to replace his electric sheep. Outside of this there is a world where moods can be inflicted by machines, where empathy boxes connect you with Mercer, the conept of empathy that guides the unity of mankind, and through out the book Buster Friendly and hif Friendly Friends build up to a big announcement. The story goes beyond Rick's gruff monologue on his investigation and we are introduced to some of the androids as well as a "chicken head" a special as they are known. The story is therefore given three dimensions and we follow many moral struggles as the characters go through a rough 24 hours. There are tense moments and action right next to philosophical musings and science fiction marvels.

This book is amazing, it reads well and easily switching between characters fluidly and giving a real indepth view of a world far disconnected from ours. There are twists and turns, and the sory is full of intigue, at moments you are left just as confused as that characters and at others we are left to lament for the ignorances. The story is not unbeleivable and with few mistakes or plot holes, questions are brought up about humanity, the roles we lead, the power of corporations and the rights of people dependant on status. Philip K. Dick shows an amazing talent at creating a world with out getting dragged into over written description. More over and most importantly we are given characters who have a real quality to them, with whom we can relate, and who we end up careing for even if some of them we only know briefly. The end is in a way a little disappointing as after a number of revelations we a left to guess as Rick goes to bed. Overall I find it hard to find fault but at times a little more description would have been nice, and there are moments where double bluffs and questions as to who is human and who is an Andy becomes confusing. These are little problems though in a world of wonder.