Sci Fi Audiobooks: Ongoing column reviewing classics of sci fi and fantasy as well as current works available in audio format.
Book Summary:
This book is set in the near-future world of 2001 (it was published in 1968), when Earth is suffering from the effects of “World War Terminus,” which has destroyed much of the planet and left many impacted by the nuclear fallout that followed the conflict. Survivors have been encouraged to leave the planet and colonize other worlds (with Mars being the closest location), and as an incentive, they are given human android servants if they emigrate. However, some of these androids (“andies,” as they are referred to) flee their servitude and return to Earth. In such cases, bounty hunters working for police departments hunt them down and “retire” them.
In San Francisco, Dave Holden is the lead bounty hunter, but he is hospitalized by a Nexus-6 android, a superior model with a highly advanced brain. Holden’s backup, Rick Deckard, is then brought in and dispatched to retire the six fugitive androids in the city. Interspersed with this story is Deckard’s struggle to deal with his depressed wife (who refuses to use mood organs properly to adjust her temperament) and his desire to acquire a real animal (a sign of status in what’s left of society) to replace the electric sheep he currently owns. We also follow the life of J.R. Isidore, a “special”/“chickenhead” whose IQ has been detrimentally impacted by radiation. Three of the androids come to his building to escape notice, and he befriends them and pledges to protect them.
Book Rating: 3 ½ out of 5 Stars
Audiobook Rating: 3 ½ out of 5 Stars
Bottom Line:
Philip K. Dick’s most famous novel delivers some interesting concepts and has had a notable impact on the science fiction genre, but it does not quite live up to its legacy. The audiobook version by Scott Brick delivers a competent and professional reading of the story, though he may not have been the best choice of narrator.
Historical Context:
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? came out at the height of the Cold War and reflected fears of nuclear conflict that were widespread at the time. It was also a period of rapid technological development, with space exploration and computing advancing by leaps and bounds. The novel explores androids and artificial intelligence while also delving into existential dilemmas surrounding identity and consciousness. It is widely considered a proto-cyberpunk novel, and the later film adaptation by Ridley Scott (Blade Runner) is viewed as a seminal work of that subgenre. The book—and film—have had a lasting influence on the genre, visible in Japanese anime such as Akira and other works like The Matrix and Black Mirror.
A Closer Look:
This tale is better known by genre fans by the Blade Runner title from Ridley Scott’s adaptation of the book, even though that was borrowed from Alan E. Nourse’s 1974 novel The Bladerunner and had no connection. And while the film takes several liberties with the source material, the basic structure remains similar.
In both, a group of superior Nexus-6 androids escapes from an off-world colony and returns to Earth. A bounty hunter named Dave Holden is incapacitated by one of the androids, and Rick Deckard is brought in to take over the pursuit. In both the book and movie, Deckard visits the corporation that manufactures the androids—Rosen Industries in the book, the Tyrell Corporation in the movie—where he administers the Voigt-Kampff empathy test on a woman named Rachel. She is believed to be a control subject, but it turns out she’s an android, though in the book, this is suggested as a ploy to throw off Deckard and discredit the test. Several of the escaped Nexus-6 androids take refuge in a mostly vacant building inhabited only by a mentally challenged man, J.R. Isidore in the book, and J.F. Sebastian in the movie. After retiring the other fugitive androids, Deckard tracks the remaining ones to this building for the final confrontation.
But while there is a similarity in structure, these are still very different stories. Blade Runner is much more atmospheric, moody, and action-oriented while it also offers plenty of moments of introspection and asks the viewers to question what it means to be human. The book delves further into the philosophical side, and while it questions what it means to be human, it also asks what it truly means to be alive. Are the humans in this book really living better, more meaningful lives than the androids, who have only a short life-span but who seek to find some sort of meaning to their existence? The humans concern themselves with possessing animals (ostensibly to preserve the few remaining species, but it’s really more about social status), they control their feelings artificially with mood organs, and they fill their lives with the sham-religion of Mercerism and the daily exploits of The Buster Friendly Show. These are interwoven into the underlying themes of the book, and they help give the story its depth.
But unfortunately, these concepts don’t quite carry the book as well as you would hope. Phillip K. Dick is very much an idea guy and his tales generally center around one or two philosophical concepts that provide the central theme, with story development really an afterthought for him. His ideas work best in short stories like “Minority Report” and “We Can Dream it for You Wholesale”, though even those also fall a bit short of delivering a well-rounded story (they still succeed better than Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?). With a novel-length tale, Dick tends to meander and the story feels rather padded. And he leaves too many loose ends dangling without satisfying resolution (i.e., J.R. Isadore’s story, the mock-police department run by androids, the Phil Resch character, and more).
Another drawback of this novel is that the main character Rick Deckard is not a particularly strong central figure. It’s not that he is an unlikeable anti-hero type, it’s more that he seems like a very weak individual, and you wonder how he ever succeeded as a bounty hunter in the first place. I realize that’s part of the point, but it makes it hard to empathize with Deckard (hmm, maybe the book is a Voigt-Kampff test on the reader?) and also results in somewhat of a difficult read. Of course, part of my issue here is that Blade Runner is one of my all-time favorite movies, so I expect the same sort of heightened experience that the film delivered instead of the slow-burn of the book. If I did not compare the two as much (which I find it almost impossible not to do), I might enjoy it more. But in any case, I find this book less than satisfying, even if it does deliver some interesting questions and thought-provoking concepts.
That said, I still recognize it as an important work of science fiction that deals with some ground-breaking ideas and should be considered an important work in the genre. It’s just that its accomplishments and reputation don’t always translate to a good read, similar to Robert A. Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land and Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy. Science fiction fans will feel obliged to encounter Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? at some point, and I do encourage reading it, just go in with expectations tempered. And also know that you will find better examples of Phillip K. Dick’s talent in his shorter stories like the ones mentioned above.
Comments on the Audiobook:
The audiobook version that I listened to was read by long-time voice veteran Scott Brick who has many genre titles to his credit. He delivers his usual good reading, though I have to admit that I did not feel like his voice fit this book as well as when I have heard him read the works of other authors. His monotone seems to better match with the drier writing of writers like Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke and actually complements that prose. His reading here didn’t quite seem to flow as well with Dick’s writing, though I wouldn’t say it was bad or detracted from the book. He did a decent job, I just like him better with other authors. Still, this is a good way to encounter this book, and if you have not read it yet I would suggest getting the audiobook version. Note that it does go under the title Blade Runner (even though that term is exclusively from the movie) and claims to be “adapted from” Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, but it is the original Philip K. Dick novel. It is available from Audible.com, and you can also get it in eBook and print format.
