(Listopia) Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick - 3 stars

[annapi]

I don't really know how to review this because I don't know what to think about it. This story was the basis for the movie Blade Runner, and both book and movie have been touted as science fiction classics. I saw the movie for the second time around 25 years ago, and can't remember anything about it except I thought it was over-hyped. Well, now that I've finally read the book I think it's over-hyped too.

Maybe it's just because it was written before my time, when sci-fi was still new, still evolving, and these dystopian ideas were still radical. The future Earth of this book in 2021 is pretty much dead, covered in the radioactive fallout dust that slowly contaminates every living thing, eventually turning some people into "specials" who are the despised and pitied low caste of society. Living creatures are precious and owning a pet is a sign of wealth. Most humans who are anybody or who can afford it emigrate to Mars, where they are given androids so life-like they are almost indistinguishable from humans, and these androids are banned on Earth. Some escape to Earth and try to live a clandestine life, and they hunted by bounty hunters who "retire" them, permanently. Rick Deckard is one such bounty hunter.

The atmosphere of the whole book is morose and depressing. It's meant to be philosophical about mankind's existence and yada yada, but I found I just couldn't care much about it. It put me in mind of one of Heinlein's books that I read as a teen, except in that dystopic future the Earth was overcrowded, unlike this one where humans on Earth are pitifully few. I struggled then to understand what great profundity the book was trying to convey, and this book was no different - and frankly it just never engaged me enough to want to figure out what it was trying to say. It was entertaining enough to keep me reading, but its world-building had so many holes I was a bit disappointed. I think it's just that I've read so much better over the years that this one just felt passe.