Blade Runner [Hardcover]

Les Martin (Author), Philip K. Dick (Author)

Book Description

In the year 2019, lifelike robots clash with their human makers in an effort to alter the destiny for which they have been programmed.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a book that most people think they remember and almost always get more or less wrong. Ridley Scott's film Blade Runner took a lot from it, and threw a lot away. Wonderful in itself, the film is a flash thriller, whereas Dick's novel is a sober meditation. As we all know, bounty hunter Rick Deckard is stalking a group of androids who have returned from space with short life spans and murder on their minds--where Scott's Deckard was Harrison Ford, Dick's is a financially strapped municipal employee with bills to pay and a depressed wife. In a world where most animals have died, and pet keeping is a social duty, he can only afford a robot imitation, unless he gets a big financial break.

The genetically warped "chickenhead" John Isidore has visions of a tomb-world where entropy has finally won. And everyone plugs in to the spiritual agony of Mercer, whose sufferings for the sins of humanity are broadcast several times a day. Prefiguring the religious obsessions of Dick's last novels, this book asks dark questions about identity and altruism. After all, is it right to kill the killers just because Mercer says so? --Roz Kaveney, Amazon.co.uk --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

From the Publisher

The classic novel behind the cult film classic directed by Ridley Scott. As atmospheric and even more compelling than the film. A dystopian tour de force.

--Fred Dodnick, Vice President, Director of Trade Production --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 91 pages
• Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers (May 12, 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394853032
• ISBN-13: 978-0394853031
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (106 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,514,514 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars thought provoking but less than great prose, June 18, 2007

By 

E. Cetin (East Quogue, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blade Runner (Movie-Tie-In Edition) (Mass Market Paperback)

Androids takes place in a not-so-distant future where a world war has spread a cloud of radioactive dust across the globe, many forms of animal species are extinct, many of the survivors have emigrated to colonies on Mars and the remaining humans are encouraged to emigrate, except for those who have been tested and classified as "specials" meaning the ones with diminished mental abilities because they have been affected severely from radiation. Emigrants are given androids, very sophisticated robots, as slaves. As the technology gets better, newly manufactured androids become more and more human-like, both in appearance and behavior, to the point that they are very hard to distinguish. Discontented androids sometimes kill their masters and find ways to smuggle themselves to earth, in hopes for a better life. In the post-world war earth, life is regarded so precious that owning and caring for an animal is both considered a highly moral life and a status symbol. Because real animals are so rare, many people have fake, very sophisticated and real-like electronic animals that they care for and hide from their neighbors the fact that their animal is fake. On the one hand there are bounty hunters who catch and kill androids, human robots which dreamt of a better life, evidently with some feelings. And on the other hand there is the value which people place upon animal robots. On the one hand there are intelligent, sophisticated androids like the one who made a successful carrier on earth as an opera singer; on the other hand there are hunters who emotionlessly kill her without regard to her artistic talent, or there are simple-minded specials. Throughout the plot, readers are given a lot to think about questions like what is life, what is empathy, where do you draw a line between the value of real and artificial life? It is a philosophical novel and the author puts all these questions before us with brilliant comparisons between characters. The only negative feeling that one might get is the unusual, somewhat simple prose style but overall, a very good, thought provoking novel.

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Android, Human, Android, You know who you are?, October 8, 1999

By 

J. C. Rivera (Puerto Rico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blade Runner (Movie-Tie-In Edition) (Mass Market Paperback)

Strange, Dark, Intense book about what the future could be; what could happen to the human race. Phil did a wonderful work on this book. First I saw the movie Blade Runner, one the best sci-fi I've seen, then I got the computer game, wow, like seen the movie, the only thing missing was the book. This book it's probably one of the best sci-fi books I've read, now I know and understand better the computer game, because I tried to related the game with the movie, but it also got a lot of things from the novel.

This is a must read book, it travels to the year 2021 and it presents a different world, were human emotions are maybe the only thing left from the world we know; all it's gone, the animals, people are moving from earth to other planets, and the androids are moving from the other planets to earth, it's up to the bounty hunters (Blade Runners) to find them and retire them (kill); it put your emotions on the line, because at some point, I feel sorry for the androids, they only want to escape form the humans and make their own lives here on earth, the new ones (Nexus 6) are trying to develop their own emotions. It's a great book and it would make you think about a lot of thing in life and appreciate more the things you have, because in the end, how do you know if you're an android or a human? You cannot, that's the problem...

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A readable problematization of the issue of personhood., March 2, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Oceanside, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blade Runner (Movie-Tie-In Edition) (Mass Market Paperback)

Dick's book, far more so than the movie you have probably seen, problematizes the issue of personhood, as opposed to humanity. In the culture of the year 2021, the criterion for personhood is the ability to feel empathy, both for humans and for nonhuman animals. The culture has even built a religion, Mercerism, centered on empathy. Androids, who cannot participate in Mercerism, are used as slaves by humans who have colonized outlying planets. The murder and torture of animals is a crime, but the murder and enslavement of androids is required, despite the fact that androids are more intelligent than humans.

This is a readable problematization of issues of personhood which can be used to introduce the philosophically naive reader to questions about what it is to be a person:
-- Does intelligence matter?
-- Can a robot ever meet the criteria, or is there a soul or ghost in the human machine which can never be in the humanmade machine?
-- To what extent does slavery and cruel treatment construct beings as non-persons?
-- Does species matter?

Philosopher and non-philosopher alike can enjoy Dick's inventiveness (a mood organ for changing your moods, a response test for checking your empathy level, invented words like "vidscreen" . . .) and fluid writing style. The novel has action, but those looking for the action and suspense of the film may be disappointed. The book opts instead for a slower and more contemplative exploration of issues.