Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?: Rating: 4 stars

On a dystopic future Earth, a bounty hunter tracks down androids and dreams of owning a live sheep.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Philip K. Dick)
Written by Philip K. Dick
Fiction · Science Fiction
Reviewed July 29, 2006

I reread this recently for our family book club (and yes, I was the one who recommended it); calling it one of my favorite books might be going a bit too far, yet it sticks out in my mind as one of the best books I’ve read. And yet, it’s not that good, at least writing-wise — Dick’s prose is clunky, his dialogue stilted, and the language downright tortured at times. It’s the philosophy of it that grabs me, the musings on empathy, ethics, and the value of life. And it’s an all-too-realistic depiction of our planet’s future, reeling from the social and environmental after-effects of a devastating nuclear war. It’s not as well-written as, say, Fahrenheit 451, but it packs a similar punch.