Guest Review: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick

I'm happy to be posting the first guest review! An anonymous reader sent in the following review:

          Forget Bladerunner. Sure, the book and the movie contain some characters with the same names in similar situations. You could probably write a plot synopsis that would work for both if you tried hard enough. There are even one or two familiar scenes. However, it will be easier for both of us if I stop writing about Bladerunner and you stop thinking about it.

          Philip K. Dick's novel is one of variety. In its short life it introduces a large cast and creates a rich and unique setting. The narrative is unpredictable which, at times, can seem capricious. Mood shifts frequently, characters are complex bordering on inconsistent, and the story slips into absurdity or surrealism more than once. However, I think this is all to its credit. It, unlike so much speculative fiction, does not offer up an obvious meaning. It leaves you with numerous questions and few, and contradictory, answers. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is art not fable.

          Unfortunately, there are also flaws to be considered. Some of the situations can seem unrealistically complicated. Saying gender stereotypes are overused would be an understatement. And there is sexual manipulation that, while somewhat critical, is treated more frivolously than it should be. With these caveats in mind, I do suggest reading it.

Read if you like: William Gibson, Isaac Asimov, Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut

Review S3: The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington

         Overall, I really liked The Hearing Trumpet, though there were a few things that are negatives for me. The Hearing Trumpet starts out with a little too much back story—and what turns out to be pretty unnecessary back story. It seems to be intended to set up the rest of the story, however, because of my lack of emotional tie to the protagonist, the beginning of the book, the spillage of information, was mostly just confusing. I ended up having to flip back to the first part of the book throughout my reading in order to seek out more information about things referenced later on in the book. It would have been nicer for the first part of the book to be interwoven with the rest of the book, so you could learn more as time went on, a little at a time.

         All that being said, the story gets more and more surreal, absurd, and impossible (and in my opinion, much better and stronger) as time goes on. While the story started out a little too normal for me, the way in which Carrington ramps up the strangeness made the beginning work for me, though I still would have preferred less of an information dump at the beginning. The impossibilities are of a somewhat ridiculous and bizarre nature, and the events that take place are born from a wild imagination—truly reminiscent of a dream.

         Two things that might be negative to some, though were positive to me, are the use of a sub-story and the ambiguous ending. At one point the story shifts and you begin reading a secondary story—one that the main character is reading—which continues for about 1/6 of the book. This dragged for me a bit for the first couple pages, but then picked up quite a bit and became extremely interesting. After that I was as engaged in this sub-book as I was in the main book. This sub-story was integrated in with the rest of the story, as well, though at the time you are reading it, it seems at least somewhat unrelated. The end of the story leaves many things without proper conclusions. I tend to like unclear endings, and I feel as though it was done in a way, in this story, that added to, rather than detracted from, the story as a whole.

         One thing that I would have liked to see more of is the integration of things that the author set up in earlier parts of the book, in the later parts of the book. This happens at times and the author does it masterfully, but a lot of things seem created and then forgotten when they could have been used wonderfully throughout the book.

         All in all, it is an easy and short read, and an entertaining one, as well. I would recommend it to people as such.

You might like this book if you liked: Alice in Wonderland, Jane Bowles