Welcome to our first book review of 2024! I am excited to review my favorite read from 2023 to introduce this year to many more book reviews. How can we be a book blog without the book reviews?
There are books we put down, books we enjoy, and books we dislike. Some books we might find are impossible to put down. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick is one such book. From start to finish, I enjoyed every second. If you enjoy science fiction dystopias or stories about robots this book is for you.
This book eventually received a movie adaptation called Blade Runner. The movie however, does not do the novel justice. Philip K. Dick takes his readers for a thrilling chase, hunting down androids, and asking the important questions. What makes humans human? Is it intelligence or empathy? Do androids dream of electric sheep?
The Summary
Proceed with caution; this summary contains spoilers. Read at your own risk.
Rick Deckard lives with his wife on a dying earth, devastated from past wars. The fallout from these wars caused mass animal extinctions. Many humans died as well. Most people who could leave, left to explore the stars. The Rosen Corporation enticed many people with a free android if they left earth. Rick stayed because he had no reason to leave earth. Rick enjoys taking care of his electric sheep but dreams of owning a real live ostrich. His last living animal died suddenly of a sickness. To keep his status of owning an animal he quickly replaces it with a cheaper electric sheep.
The Rosen Corporation builds and sells androids on Mars. Occasionally, androids rebel and try to escape human ownership by hiding on earth. That’s where Rick comes in. The police station hire Rick and other bounty hunters to hunt down and exterminate these dangerous runaway androids. One day he gets a call to hunt down not just one but six of the newest model of androids. He realizes if he accomplishes his task, he can finally afford a real animal again. He accepts the job, but before he can hunt he must make sure the test to differentiate androids and humans still works on this new model.
Rick goes to the Rosen Corporation on earth where he tests Rachel Rosen. He tests her and the test tells him she is an android, however Rachel and her uncle argue saying she is a human. They try to blackmail Rick into dropping the test because it shows they have been killing humans. Rick decides to ask her one more question and rightly determines her to be an android. He can continue his hunt using the test.
On his way out he receives a call to meet another bounty hunter from Russia to tag along with him to see how these androids behave. Rick accepts and flies to go pick him up. Rick quickly discovers this other bounty hunter is a fraud and is one of the androids he is supposed to hunt. He quickly dispatches the android and decides to visit the next one.
![](https://i0.wp.com/umbraexlibris.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Its-the-basic-condition-of-life-to-be-required-to-violate-our-own-identity.png?resize=640%2C640&ssl=1)
The next android is an opera singer. When Rick confronts her she calls the police thinking he is an intruder. A different police station Rick does not know about comes to pick him up. Rick soon discovers the sergeant who interrogates him is another one of the androids he needs to kill. He takes him out and quickly returns to the opera singer.
When he confronts the opera singer, he realizes he feels empathy toward the female androids. This worries him that he might not be able to finish his job without dying. After taking out three androids, Rick decides he needs a mental break. During his break, Rick went to a pet store and bought a real Nubian goat. His wife is ecstatic when he brings it home to show her.
Due to his fears, he calls Rachel to ask for her help, and they meet in a hotel room. Rick and Rachel end up sleeping together where after Rachel admits to sleeping with him so he cannot kill the last three androids. This causes Rick to double his resolve since Rachel used him for her own goal. Rick’s boss calls and reveals the location of the last three androids.
Rick heads to the location and confidently kills all three androids with his newfound resolve. Rick goes home to tell his wife the good news. He figures she will be happy they have extra money, but when he gets home he finds her in tears. While he was hunting, Rachel came and threw his goat off the building, killing it.
This depresses Rick and he flies to desolate Oregon to reflect. He arrives in the desert where he finds an animal he thought was extinct, a toad. He excitedly takes the toad home and shows his wife before passing out in bed. His wife discovers the toad is an electric toad but she vows to take care of it anyways.
The Good
I had a very difficult time putting down Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. The beginning shows a dystopian earth become and introduce the concept of androids. Unlike robots, androids were humanoid. They looked and talked just like you and I. However, androids lacked empathy. Dick argues in his book empathy is the one thing that separates humans both from animals and androids. This is also reflected in his story by humans taking care of both electric and real animals, while the androids have a total disregard for either.
After world building, the book picks up in pace getting quicker and quicker until the final showdown with the androids. When Rachel killed Rick’s goat I felt shocked and angry. Why would she do such a horrible thing? I was also surprised about Rick’s wife. I thought for sure she would end her own life like most dystopian novels such as Fahrenheit 451. It came as a nice surprise to me she stuck around and decided to make Rick feel better about his toad. I did not see the ending coming at all.
This book is everything I look for in science fiction novels. It contained science fiction like androids and flying cars along with existential questions about what makes humans human. Unlike other sci-fi books the science is not in depth or extreme either. While his words might be complicated, the science behind his story is not. To me too much science and explanation often bog down an often great story.
![](https://i0.wp.com/umbraexlibris.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Untitled-design-2.png?resize=640%2C640&ssl=1)
The Bad
I only took away two things negative from this story. Dick’s story is short but he throws away a lot of ideas and does nothing with them. For example, the book starts out with Rick and his wife using a machine that can manipulate emotions. This is such a neat idea but it’s only talked about briefly and they argue about what emotions they want to feel. Dick could have used this idea more than once or used it to actually impact the story. I don’t see why such a unique device was included but then never used again. This happens a few times where he mentions something briefly and then skims over the idea. It left me wanting more from the book about these little ideas he brings up.
Secondly, some topics left me confused. Dick talks about this religion the destroyed earth has called Mercerism. When I read these parts, I had to go back and reread them. I still am left clueless about the point of it in the story. I could see it used maybe to differentiate between the humans and androids more, but I just didn’t understand enough about it. There were a couple parts I had to reread to fully understand, which is fine, however I just couldn’t wrap my head around the point of Mercerism.
The Rating
This book is a great book to read if you want to get into science fiction. The themes and motifs throughout the book are a great introduction to themes and motifs in other works of science fiction. I would recommend this book to high school students and above due to the high level vocabulary Dick uses along with the slight adult themes. This book was published in 1968 which adds to some of the language difficulty.
For fans of science fiction, this book needs to be on your to be read list at least and at most a copy on your bookshelf. It is worth the time and effort to read. Afterwards, I could not stop thinking about the book for weeks, recommending it to all my friends. To answer the question the title asks, no androids do not dream of electric sheep. If you want to know why, you’ll just have to read the book for yourself.
9.5/10 Brilliant.
Have you read this book? Is there another science fiction book I must read? Let us know down below in the comments or on our Instagram page. We love to hear from you!
As always, happy reading!