Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
by Philip K. Dick
I’m a huge fan of sci-fi which is how I decided to pick this book up. Unfortunately, I found the book falling short of my expectations. Rather than an simple science fiction pieces, the books strays into more philosophical arguments.
However, rather than fully exploring these arguments, it toes right up to the line of posing the question and then rapidly backs down. A central theme in the book is about the “humanity” in androids and perhaps a question of whether someone who acts like humans, functions like humans, and to a near perfect degree, thinks like humans, is an human. But the despite describing all three of these first parts perfectly, the book then shows the androids torturing a spider without any purpose of entertainment. Rebellions from the androids are minimal whether through small scale desertion or showing that Mercerism, the main human religion, is a hoax.
Overall, the book left more questions about the book rather than diving deeper into human questions such as, do androids dream? And if so, do they dream of electric sheep? And what that means for the status of androids.
5/10
Next - A Gentleman in Moscow