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Do androids dream of electric sheep?


Do androids dream of electric sheep? is a science fiction novel written by Phillip K. Dick in 1968. After a world war, the planet is devastated, radioactive dust it in the atmosphere and eventually it will extinguish human race. U.N have created a plan to save human life by encouraging emigration to Mars, offering to each emigrant family a robot that will work for them as slaves, they are called Androids –or Andy-. Yet a new series of androids have been developed, they are completely organic and their intelligence level is superb, consequently they can disguise easily as humans, this new type of Andy are called Nexus-6. Some of the Nexus-6 have escaped from Mars to Earth in order to live totally free amongst humans (yes there were some humans dwellers in the planet as some people refused to leave, the eventually will die as a result of the radiation). A bounty hunter, who at the same time, a police officer will ‘retire’ them by using a well proven test in order to find out emotional reaction from the Andys.

I have to admit that I cannot remember the last time I had read this kind of stories, I am not a big fan of SC, but someone had recommended it, so I gave it a try. Do androids dream of electric sheep? Is an incredible piece of SC. It was a bit complicated for me to start up as In the first chapter Dick starts talking about something in particular, in chapter two changes the theme and so on for three or four chapters. The amazing thing is that while the story did not grab me at first, the author was delivering lots of essential information. Once we get on board it is just a delightful reading. It is not the story… there are something else, few moral concerns, and philosophical questions that are given to the reader. Blade Runner, the movie by Ridley Scott during the 80 was based on this book but there are many differences, yet both of them worth to watch and read.

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‘Blade runner’ (entiendo este es el titulo en español) es una novela de ciencia-ficción escrita por Phillip Dick en 1968. Después de una guerra mundial, el planeta ha sido devastado, nubes de polvo radiactivo están en la atmósfera y esto inevitablemente destruiría el planeta y la raza humana. La ONU ha creado un plan para salvar la especie promoviendo la migración a Marte y garantizando a cada familia que lo haga, los servicios de un Androide que le serviría de esclavo. Sin embargo un nuevo lote de Androides ha sido desarrollado, estos son completamente orgánicos, con una inteligencia muy superior a los anteriores y prácticamente imposible de diferenciar de un humano. Estos son los Nexus-6. Algunos de estos androides han escapado a la tierra para vivir libremente entre los hombres. Un policía y a la vez caza recompensas es empleado para deshacerse de los últimos seis Nexus –6, usando una serie de pruebas para determinar reacciones emocionales en los Androides y así desenmascararlos. Una novela un poco complicada de leer al principio ya que el autor varia los temas de capitulo en capitulo al princio per a la vez entrega una cantidad de informacion que mas adelante uno necesita para entender la historia. Despues que la historia lo agarra a uno... es una delicia leer el libro.

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Comments

Kev Cruz said…
Yo Darko,
I'm also not a big fan of SI-FI...but the book sound quite good! Maybe I'll check it out!
11:40 AM
Darko said…
Worth to read mate!... thanks for the comments.
12:27 PM
Rob said…
If you liked that one, try "A Scanner Darkly".
Superb.
http://www.philipkdick.com/works_novels.html
3:52 AM
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