Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

I recently finished off Tolkien's, The Two Towers a week or so ago and decided to once again take a small genre break in between books and read something different. Rummaging through some boxes in the garage I came across the book entitled, Blade Runner. Blade Runner was a 1982 movie based on Philip K. Dick's, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

According to Dick's web site the plot summary goes like this,

By 2021, the World War had killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remained coveted any living creature, and for people who couldn't afford one, companies built incredibly realistic simulacrae: horses, birds, cats, sheep... They even built humans.

Emigrees to Mars received androids so sophisticated it was impossible to tell them from true men or women. Fearful of the havoc these artificial humans could wreak, the government banned them from Earth. But when androids didn't want to be identified, they just blended in.

Rick Deckard was an officially sanctioned bounty hunter whose job was to find rogue androids, and to retire them. But cornered, androids tended to fight back, with deadly results.

The story paints a bleak future in a post-apocalyptic society which raises questions about humanity and feelings of empathy, love and loneliness. For the main character, Rick Deckard, a moral dilemma arises when he realizes that the differences between humans and androids are not as clear cut as he once believed.

I finished the book around 1:45 a.m. this morning and went to bed with it on my mind and awoke this morning still contemplating different aspects of its message. It is a thought provoking book if not a little dark and disturbing.

Back to Return of the King; let's hunt some orc.