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Deeksha Aachi

Book Review: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Set texts are always the main part of any English course or any language course I’m sure. Those who took English as their first language and were in IGCSE would know that one of these set texts, The Secret River, was a text that not many people enjoyed. As a result, the IGCSE was criticized by the students for their poor text choices. However in IB, in my opinion, these set texts become much better. One such text is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is a science fiction novel written in 1968 by the author Philip K. Dick. The novel is set in a post-apocalyptic San Francisco, and after a global nuclear war damaged life on Earth. This novel is about a Bounty Hunter by the name of Rick Deckard who needs to get rid of rogue androids in a sea of humans. This book is one of Philip K. Dick’s best works and has also been adapted into a movie by the name of ‘Blade Runner’.


After a global nuclear war damaged whatever life was present on earth, bounty hunter Rick Deckard is in search of android replicants who are his so-called prey. When he isn’t ‘retiring’ them or killing them off, Rick dreams of owning the symbol of status - a live animal. To achieve this, Rick gets a big mission to accomplish: to kill Nexus-6 androids for this reward. But things never turn out to be easy as Rick’s life turns into a nightmare to earn what he truly wants.


Even as a person who doesn’t usually read sci-fi, I found this book to be really interesting. Like any other book though, it starts off a little bit slow as the beginning is used to set the scene and introduce the characters. However, it slowly starts to increase in pace when reading. The changes in events start to create tension when reading making the scenes more lively and attention grabbing. The author also tries to create a realistic post-war society in the future, which was one fascinating aspect of the book. As a person who doesn’t read that often, I thought that this book was a bit complex in nature but riveting at the same time.


The main themes explored throughout this novel are Humanity, Reality/Power, Memory, Animals and the Environment and Consumerism. How the author explores these themes is when throughout the novel, he loves to ask the question ‘What is real?’ ‘What is fake?’ which causes the readers to think and ask questions. The main question that the author wants the readers to think about is alongside what the possible reality could be is ‘What is human and what makes us human?’. Most of these questions that the readers think about during the book do get answered but what I didn’t like was that he left many questions unanswered, leaving the readers on a cliffhanger. Moreover, the exploration of the theme related to animals shows that the characters feel a sense of nostalgia for the natural world as they all dream of owning real animals to show their stature in society.


Overall, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a very complex philosophical and deep story but at the same time very compelling. In the beginning it may look like a typical sci-fi book but in this book the author makes the characters and the settings very realistic and believable for an Earth in the future. I think that any die-hard sci-fi fan should definitely read it or to those who want something more than to entertain themselves.


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