Blade Runner

Originally published as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

By: Philip K. Dick

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Here is the classic sci-fi novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, set nearly thirty years before the events of the new Warner Bros. film Blade Runner 2049, starring Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, and Robin Wright.

By 2021, the World War has killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remain covet any living creature, and for people who can’t afford one, companies build incredibly realistic simulacra: horses, birds, cats, sheep. They’ve even built humans. Immigrants to Mars receive androids so sophisticated they are indistinguishable from true men or women. Fearful of the havoc these artificial humans can wreak, the government bans them from Earth. Driven into hiding, unauthorized androids live among human beings, undetected. Rick Deckard, an officially sanctioned bounty hunter, is commissioned to find rogue androids and “retire” them. But when cornered, androids fight back—with lethal force.

Praise for Philip K. Dick

“[Dick] sees all the sparkling—and terrifying—possibilities . . . that other authors shy away from.” - Rolling Stone

“A kind of pulp-fiction Kafka, a prophet.”- The New York Times

©1968 Philip K. Dick (P)2007 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

A Great Fever Dream if You’re a Fan of Blade Runner

Super weird. Performance is great. Very noir. Interesting and worth it just to see the origins of Blade Runner. Other than that, the narrative is all over the place. Enjoyable but a lot of ethereal narration.

Interesting character perspectives

I’m not sure I get it. It’s hard to understand the perspectives of a sleep deprived and emotionally unstable bounty hunter, of androids, or of a chicken head. There’s a lot going on in this one.

Great questions asked, not sure tied up perfectly

Thoroughly enjoyed the whole read. The end felt like a little bit of a letdown relative to some of the ideas and questions raised.

One of the all time best Science Fiction Novels

Headline says it all. You'd be hard to pressed to find 5 other books in the history of storytelling that cover as much artistic ground as this one does in just a couple hundred pages. The narrator could've been a bit better, but it's hard to go wrong with Philip K. Dick

Like Quicksand

I found this book very slow going and a lot of it seemed aimless and pointless. Brick's reading drags and is read in a dreary tone. I've listened to approximately 100 audible books and only two were so bad that I set my iPod at fast speed just to get finished with them. This is one of the two. And Scott Brick is usually one of my favorite readers. If this book interests you, you should listen to Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan.

Far less interesting than the movie

This novel and the film adaptation differ enough that it's probably not even fair comparing them directly. Fortunately, Ridley Scott and his screenwriters had the good sense to leave the silliness about obsessions with having a more interesting pet than the neighbors behind when creating the movie. Normally I love Scott Brick's narration, but he misses the mark here, sometimes reading in a style that's so painfully slow it seems to strip the characters of emotion. I found myself mentally begging him to speed up. Not overly long; I recommend it only for fans of the movie who would like to round out their knowledge of the film with exposure to the source material.

Terrible narrator

As usual, Scott Brick butchers the book. Way too melodramatic. He should be acting in a soap opera.

Fantastic

Read this years ago. Forgot how great the story was, and was happy to rediscover it.

Better than what I've heard.

My preference is heavily based towards this interpretation of Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?

I don't know if it's exactly how the origonal was portrayed, but in my opinion, this version is more appealing than the more modern interpretations. I also prefer the terms bounty hunter and android to blade runner and replicant. An android with biological components is just far more interesting to me than just flat human replications. It shows how the original product was just a machine, but towards the later versions starts to look and act more human.


Great book would listen again.

So much more than Blade Runner

It’s such a shame no one has actually made a movie of this great story. In my opinion, the Blade Runner movie (while well-made and enjoyable) borrowed the least interesting parts of this strange and deeply thought-provoking book.

You’ll find yourself examining what it means to be human from several angles, considering the value of organic life in all its forms, and wondering where the hell we’re headed as a species and society.

The narrator is excellent, especially in his reading of J.R. Isidore and the female characters. When listening to a book like this—with quite a few characters, alternating protagonists, and an “unreliable narrator” writing style—it really really helps to have a performer who really knows how to do consistent and distinct character voices.