Review of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

Philip K. Dick isn't the most literary writer, but the ideas he presents in this novel are engaging and I am sure that they were ahead of his time. Present day, with all the thoughts and worries involving large language models, an android filled future may not be too far away.

The book's plot is simple. A bounty hunter wants some cash so he can splurge real live animal (and not one of those low-quality electric ones). The bounty hunter, Rick Deckard, is at the top of his field. With numerous retirements under his belt, Rick signs himself up for a group of bounties, all located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Along the way, Rick finds love, lust, and reasonable moral considerations.

There is a religious subplot that is sort of forced into the story. Mercerism. It sort of seems like Dick came up with Mercerism then said "well now I need to write a story around this." It's possible that this techno-religion is meant to me interpreted metaphorically, with a grand statement like: Mercerism and the collective consciousness the novel's humans participate in is real; the human condition is tapping into this consciousness at all times.

Overall, a good book; showed me one of the formative sci-fi works and understand the history a little better. 3/5