Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

ahaha. Nice Ben. I'd love to hear the thought process as you were reading this. It reminds me of the Wheel of Time series. There once was hope and then 400 plus pages later, it's been destroyed. It's rough my friend, it's rough.

Sometimes I come across a review that makes me wonder whether the reviewer and I actually read the same book. I must assume that we did, but I will then submit that if you do not see why taking three pages to buy a goat serves a rather central purpose in the story, you certainly missed one of its points. This will also explain why you think that a character "falls in love" over just one sentence, and why you seem to have missed that the "love" story line (if that's what you like to call it) is in fact not only continuously developed from the first page all through the entire story, but is its major theme and the vehicle that allows Dick to discuss his ideas about what it means to be human, to possess the faculty of empathy, and to have a free will.

Since we do not seem to agree on what are the major points of this book, I find it as amusing as it is unsurprising that we also disagree regarding the pacing of the book. While I agree that the latter half felt rushed at points, the entire first half was almost sluggish. It felt like Dick spent the first 150 pages slowly setting the stage, and only after that began to tell the actual story.

You missed the entire point of the book. Try reading it again and figure out what the author was trying to tell you, instead of what you wanted the author to say. Him giving you five pages of material about the goat and a few words about love shows what is more important to Deckard. The goat has more meaning to the story than Deckard falling in love with an Android.

I definitely agree with Daniel. The first sentence of your critique perfectly illustrates the whole point of this book.

'five full pages for a character to buy a goat and ONE FRIGGIN' SENTENCE for a character to "fall in love"'
Ha ha, love that response and see exactly what you're saying. But, for me, that's exactly the appeal of this book (and others of PKD) - the way the characters pursue their own obsessions in a world radically altered by the absence of real animals. Deckard is a kind of hero but he's also a pretty damaged individual getting no support from his wfe, and buying the goat assumes an unusual significance for him.

Best opening sentence on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ. Best one-sentence review.

Herb wrote: "Best opening sentence on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ. Best one-sentence review."

Best one sentence comment. Why are there arbitrary letters after "Best opening sentence on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ.", though? ;)

The movie is nothing like the book (well there are similarities of course), it's much deeper and it has more layers. You should see it, I don't think you will regret it.

See the movie, it is better than the book (honestly this rarely happens, but it did). Also try P.K. Dick's latter work, like A Scanner Darkly, he has much more skill and maturity and accomplisher more with those pages...

Five pages isn't all that long for someone to buy a goat. I'd rather have that than an entire chapter dedicated to knots(re: Moby Dick). I feel as though much of Dick's work revolves around concepts, themes and social/human commentary, rather than predictably structured narrative. In my opinion, what you have critiqued about the book is precisely what works to effectively emphasise its ideas, especially the question of human/non human empathy or lack thereof.I actually loved the pacing of the story. It was a breath of fresh air from the usual fluffing around a climax that so many authors seem to do.

Totally agree with you. This is a horrible book. Started out good but wound up being terrible.

Whether you liked the book or not, you're seriously missing out by not having watched Blade Runner!

I agree the first third or so of the book was great then it just seemed to go on and on and on. I am glad I read it but such a shame it was so long winded.

you're doing yourself a disservice by not watching Blade Runner. It is only inspired by this novel. Not an adaptation in any way because the plots diverge in many respects. It's one of my favorite films of all time.

It makes me really sad that commenters here don't read Dr M and Daniel's comments. Please read the other comments! :(

I forgot Emily, who heartily agrees with Daniel, as do I. Colleen missed the whole point of the book!

Next time you read this book, how about you pay attention to its themes? Did you read this book in fragments and forget what was going on every chapter or so? Read it in a day or two, and it might register as to why Philip K. Dick chose to write it as it is.

what a dummy.

ohh you have got to watch blade runner!
This book is a shadow of the movie. My major problem with the book was that the main andys were not developed as characters very well and I couldn't even if I wanted to feel any empathy for any of them. Watch the movie and you'll realize what the book could have been.

Daniel is right

Daniel wrote: "You missed the entire point of the book. Try reading it again and figure out what the author was trying to tell you, instead of what you wanted the author to say. Him giving you five pages of mate..."

I think you guys are missing Colleen's point. I don't think she necessarily cares about how much words were put into those particular events but the fact that he fell in love with the android so abruptly out of nowhere in just about no time which is so unnatural and felt very rushed. Dick didn't need to spend as much time as the goat buying but a little more emotion in the love story from Deckard would have been appreciated more.

Colleen...Funny review! BUT I hope your wrong. Starting the book now. :]

Thanks for the spoiler, you are a wonderful person. And how some people said, maybe you need to read the book again and maybe understand it well enough to make a review. Maybe you prefer something like Twilight where everything is easy to understand.

HAHAHAHA love your opening line, so true.

falling in love can happen a lot faster than an entire sentence... and buying anything worth buying takes an eternity. But in that inversion, I suppose, lies the difference between men and women...

I think you will find that most Philip K Dick books have the problem of abruptly ending and leaving you thinking 'that is what anti-climatic means.' With that said, I do enjoy his work, but never expect a strong finish. The man was a drug addict and wrote most of his stories in few days while hopped up an crystal meth. So when it was bedtime, the story was concluded.

I think that the way Philip K. Dick writes - for example, taking five pages to describe the purchase of a goat and only a sentence for someone to fall in love - indicates how he sees human priorities. Humans are more interested in what they own than who is in their life. This is also apparent in the fact that Rick agonizes over not having a living animal but he finds it rather easy to cheat on his wife. It's a profound insight into human nature and addresses one of the main questions of the novel, which is: What separates human beings from androids? What is it that makes someone human?

I had the same initial reaction as your review. In fact, it was only after reading your review that I started thinking along some of the other happenings in the book that illustrated how retarded Rick Deckard is at emotional stuff, and if he's the one judging the androids, aren't we all just kind of screwed? I mean, he falls in love with a toad (pretty much) and it turns out the TOAD isn't real! WTF does he know about love and empathy? He doesn't even like his wife. Well so I still am not sure if the whole 'love' thing was Dick being deep or Dick being an under-emotional science fiction writer. What was the important part of the book to him? The love story, or the robot-empathy story?

Thanks for making me think though with your review :)

What got me about it was; here's a story set in the future, but women are still going to be sat at home twiddling their thumbs waiting for the man to come home from work. That 50's model of gender roles is obviously so great that it's just going to carry right on. Right? Or if you get any ideas that you might want to be, say, an opera singer, then we're going to shoot you.
Notice Iran doesn't seem happy at all til the end when she's properly caring for her man?
Misogyny at its finest...

I actually wondered if there was significance to her name, too. I mean who names somebody in their story after a middle eastern country unless they have some agenda? Totally good point though

I actually wondered if there was significance to her name, too. I mean who names somebody in their story after a middle eastern country unless they have some agenda? Totally good point though

Oops guess it DID actually go through. Sorry

Rick is not a reliable narrator. He thinks he loves the android, but he realizes he doesn't by the end. The whole point are the varying perceptions and gray moral areas.

The emphasis on the sheep in comparison to love is what the books about. The sheep is more real and more important to him than his partner.

The emphasis on the sheep in comparison to love is what the books about. The sheep is more real and more important to him than his partner.

Blade Runner is amazing, and only very loosely based on this book. I recommend it. It is an entirely different story. I gave this 4 stars, which is more than you did, but I can say the movie is far superior.

Agreed. I'm still trying to figure out what all the hype is about?

I totally agree with this review and I also never saw the movie. I felt he was doing a good job building up toward something but then it kind of just ended, very anti-climatic.

In my opinion, the movie isn't superior to the book. Both are great, in their own right and also add to each other's experience. I watched the movie after I read the book after I watched the movie, and each time, I got more out of the story.

I found the movie to be much better than the book, but part of that was the wonderful cinematography, and Harrison Ford was a perfect Noir lead.

My one piece of advice to enjoy this book, read this to understand the author's point of view and what he is "saying" instead of reading for a story. Like most good science fiction this is a commentary on humanity, not necessarily a story about one human's experience. (okay, so I have another pretty unrelated piece of advice. Watch Blade Runner. I say unrelated because it's very different from the book, but also an amazingly fun movie.)

Um, not sure we've read the same book? I've read this a couple of times and it's complexity and depth gave this reader imense satisfaction. Something else that seems to get missed in all the talk about PKD's various obsessions is that he is very funny. The bounty hunter's relationship with his electric sheep gets me smiling. Dark, dystopian, deep and funny. What a genius!

oh i agree with the initial absurdity. even with phil, the suddenness with which he starts empathizing with the androids is a little too abrupt. i would not say that took a lot away from the book, but these points stuck out sore

A lot of people seems to agree that Blade Runner is actually better than the book (even my literature professor thinks so), so dont make your disappointment with the book stops you from watching the movie.

Exactly! I was worried I didn't like it because it was a school book, but I agree with you 100%. I mean there are a few cool themes in it but the beginning was so slow and the end was so convoluted. It was just boring to be honest.

Hahahahah ya one sentence to fall in love and five pages to buy a goat, id say that's pretty accurate to how things go

I found the love story with Rachael ridiculous too, he met her once and then wanted to marry her?!

I believe Dick really wanted to ram the idea of consumerism home, and the rather absurd and ironic role it had in this novel's desolate society. Thus, the goat scene was necessary!

I don't buy the relationship between Deckard and Rachael though. I had to read a couple of those pages again because I didn't understand how he even fell in love with her, given their brief interaction in the hotel.

( Never seen Blade Runner so I can't comment on that. )

I wanted to buy the book, but first I visited Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ. There were a lot of good reviews except this. I thought, well, there will be always haters. I buy the book and start reading it without rushing time. As you said, the 100 first pages were okay... but wtf. All the bounty hunter thing just to buy a goat' And how about the toad from the end... In the movie, Scott give us a great finale fight with the andys, but here is ridiculous.

Sorry, I regret saying that you were a hater. You were right...

Amazing theme but I think I didn't feel connected with the writing style.