I had wanted to read Do
Androids Dream of Electric Sheep because it was the inspiration
for the movie Bladerunner once I learned of the book. Somehow,
I hadn't gotten around to it. I had heard that the book was better than the
movie, and since the movie was pretty good, that must mean the book would be
great. Well, I finally read it and I enjoyed it. The movie does keep some aspects
of the novel, but also changed others to fit the formula for a typical movie.
There is more to the novel, than the movie. Just as the movie is about what
it means to be human, so is the novel, but the novel has a different approach
and veers into some philosophy that I couldn't always follow.
The book breezes along for a while and then a little more than a third of the
way in, the story throws such a curve that I was sucked completely for another
third of the book, when things settled down again. Some aspects of the climax
lost me, but the observations made by humans about androids and androids' comments
about humans were poinant. Deckard's character has his own "spiritual experience"
that I didn't completely understand, but paralleled a theme already present.
I'm not sure what the author's message on this level was, which gives me a reason
to go back and read the book again. If you enjoyed the movie, the book should
be enjoyable as well.
