Weekend Rec: Blade Runner by Philip K. Dick

The weekend is here!

Like many of you, I try to use the weekend to catch up on reading. Therefore, every week, I will feature a paperback or ebook that is newly available — released during the week — for your reading enjoyment. A book I feel everyone should read.

For this Friday, I have chosen a oldie paperback returning to our present and beyond — Blade Runner by Philip K. Dick.

Why should you read this book? Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? — its true name — is one of the most important SF books. Ever. Not only is it a great read by itself and is a cornerstone of the genre but it is the basis for the movie Blade Runner, a cult classic that sits firmly in our SF cultural lexicon. And with Blade Runner 2049 to hit theaters in a week, I feel it is important to pay homage to the Dick novel that started it all and maybe let people know there is a book for them to read that is every bit as entertaining and important as the movies.

Plus I love what Rolling Stone said about Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?: “[Dick] sees all the sparkling—and terrifying possibilities . . . that other authors shy away from.”

That’s exactly what great SF authors do!

More details below:

ABOUT BLADE RUNNER MOVIE-TIE-IN EDITION

Here is the classic sci-fi novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, set nearly thirty years before the events of the new Warner Bros. film Blade Runner 2049, starring Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, and Robin Wright.

By 2021, the World War has killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remain covet any living creature, and for people who can’t afford one, companies build incredibly realistic simulacra: horses, birds, cats, sheep. They’ve even built humans. Immigrants to Mars receive androids so sophisticated they are indistinguishable from true men or women. Fearful of the havoc these artificial humans can wreak, the government bans them from Earth. Driven into hiding, unauthorized androids live among human beings, undetected. Rick Deckard, an officially sanctioned bounty hunter, is commissioned to find rogue androids and “retire” them. But when cornered, androids fight back—with lethal force.

Blade Runner by Philip K. Dick is an important piece of SF history and is as pertinent today as it was fifty years ago. And this is a great way to read it before the new movie comes out!

Return to the future!

A new recommendation next Friday!