****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
In the last 20+ years I've read every PKD book I can get my hands on, in some cases more than once (or with VALIS, three times) but, for some reason I'm not even sure of now, I never read this one. Never saw the movie either. I think I thought it was a short story (and I don't care for his short stories.) Or maybe thought what I knew about the movie wouldn't make the book enjoyable? Either way, I'm not sure what I was thinking - this book is fantastic and the differences between the two are notable and kinda funny.I picked up What If Our World Is Their Heaven recently, I had some Kindle credits or something, and, while I was enjoying the interview, it was quickly occurring to me that I was going to spoil both this book and related movie. So I put it down and for the first time ever started Electric Sheep. It is very obvious why they chose this book to make a movie out of, and why they left out some of the more curious parts. The whole thing with the electric animals is both the weirdest and best part of the book. A man hunts human robots but is fine with robot animals? Sure he wants a real one, but is willing to settle for a robot sheep?This book has everything you could want in a PKD novel. The straightforward stuff that is 60 years ahead of its time - the philosophical arguments of what defines life when it comes to organics and synthetics (and as I type this AI is the hottest of topics.) The weird stuff that almost nobody would ever consider putting into a novel - the idea that war killed off all the animals and now humans are obsessed with them, both real or fake, as some sort of status symbol. And then the ultra out-there stuff that's kind of hard to understand - all the Mercer/empathy box parts that you read and basically have no idea what's going on. And yet altogether this is an amazing package, open for multiple interpretations, timeless, and full of action, characters progression, and amazing writing.Going back to What If Our World after I finished the book, I honestly didn't gain much more insight. He's just very excited for the movie and the production behind it all. And I'm frustrated because I can't find the movie on any streaming services. There are also significantly different versions/cuts? I'll probably give up and not even try to watch it. The book was that enjoyable. I'm not sure I need a watered down version of the story. My hope is that it still manages to dig into the arguments of what defines life. But without the electric animals, I'm not sure how it fully could.Either way, though, I think this book could be an excellent introduction to PKD or, if you’re like me, an excellent way to save the best for last.
