Reading in June 2012

**Chrysippus** · June 26th, 2012, 01:42 AM

Originally Posted by Luke_B

I got caught up reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick over the weekend. I’ve had it lying around for ages, but never read it. I picked it up on a whimsy and couldn’t put it down. What a book! People will at least have heard of it as the inspiration for Bladerunner, but it is very different to the film (much better actually if that's not too hard to believe). Don’t go into this expecting a cyberpunk action thriller. Instead, expect a very thoughtful, funny and dark examination of the nature of empathy and what it means to be human. I really liked Deckard’s character: a bureaucrat more than a cop, resigned to his own imminent death on a ruined world. It's a very existentialist book in a lot of way. Some of the scenes in this book will stay with me forever, especially the scene with the spider (people who have read it will know what I'm talking about). I’ll admit I was a bit confused by the ending, but in a good way because it left me with plenty to think about. This one goes onto my list of all-time favourites.

I remember feeling pretty much the same way when I finished that. Nothing else by PKD came close, although to be honest I gave up after just three others, only one of which (The Man in the High Castle)) is to my knowledge well-respected.

As for me, I just finished Prelude to Foundation. I have mixed feelings. The dialogue was stilted, but the pace was good and the ending, of course, was pretty fantastic. Certainly I enjoyed it, but I'll be curious to see how later books in the series compare. Before reading any of those, though, I've simply got to read Caliban's War.

**Loerwyn** · June 26th, 2012, 02:10 AM

Originally Posted by Loerwyn

In roughly the mid-400s now, and it's a very intriguing novel. Stretches one's belief in Jake's abilities a bit, but it's not bad.

Finished. Wow, 11/22/63 is one goooood book.

**Awesomov** · June 27th, 2012, 11:18 AM

Originally Posted by Luke_B

I got caught up reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick over the weekend. I’ve had it lying around for ages, but never read it. I picked it up on a whimsy and couldn’t put it down. What a book! People will at least have heard of it as the inspiration for Bladerunner, but it is very different to the film (much better actually if that's not too hard to believe). Don’t go into this expecting a cyberpunk action thriller. Instead, expect a very thoughtful, funny and dark examination of the nature of empathy and what it means to be human. I really liked Deckard’s character: a bureaucrat more than a cop, resigned to his own imminent death on a ruined world. It's a very existentialist book in a lot of way. Some of the scenes in this book will stay with me forever, especially the scene with the spider (people who have read it will know what I'm talking about). I’ll admit I was a bit confused by the ending, but in a good way because it left me with plenty to think about. This one goes onto my list of all-time favourites.

It's not hard for me to believe people would think the novel is better, not simply because I agree, but because Philip K. Dick is a truly amazing story-writer.

Speaking of Philip K. Dick, I started reading The Simulacra the other day, but I'm not too far into it enough to say it's terribly interesting yet. I'm sure it'll pick up and get much better, though, because that's sometimes how his novels work out.

**EllenS** · June 27th, 2012, 06:27 PM

I'm reading Ringworld. I thought I'd read it years ago, but I was getting it confused with The Integral Trees. Looking at the recent reviews on Goodreads, I see that many readers have problems with his characterisation, but it isn't bothering me at all. I love a good BDO story, with something new being discovered every other page. This is the kind of SF I loved as a child, and still enjoy today.

I'm attempting to read or re-read the top hundred or so SF novels. I've read much more short fiction than novels, so even though I've been an SF reader for 40 years, I've got plenty of classics to get through.

**beniowa** · June 29th, 2012, 06:38 PM

Finished Kop Killer by Warren Hammond. I didn't like quite as much as the first two Kop books, but it was still pretty good.

Also read Alexander Outland: Space Pirate by GJ Koch aka Gini Koch. It seemed to be a comic offspring of the Ketty Jay books and Firefly, but nowhere near as well written.

**Colonel Worf** · June 30th, 2012, 02:34 PM

I guess I've been in a "light reading" mood lately. I just finished up Night of the Living Trekkies by Kevin David Anderson. I really enjoyed it, even though the ending was rushed. I laughed out loud several times. I thought it was a even funnier than Redshirts, which has some similar poke fun at Star Trek themes.

I'm well into Across the Universe by Beth Revis. It's marketed at teens, and some of the writing is juvenile (to be expected, I guess), but I'm really liking it too.

**banapaulo** · July 23rd, 2012, 07:28 PM

Originally Posted by Luke_B

I got caught up reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick over the weekend. I’ve had it lying around for ages, but never read it. I picked it up on a whimsy and couldn’t put it down. What a book! People will at least have heard of it as the inspiration for Bladerunner, but it is very different to the film (much better actually if that's not too hard to believe). Don’t go into this expecting a cyberpunk action thriller. Instead, expect a very thoughtful, funny and dark examination of the nature of empathy and what it means to be human. I really liked Deckard’s character: a bureaucrat more than a cop, resigned to his own imminent death on a ruined world. It's a very existentialist book in a lot of way. Some of the scenes in this book will stay with me forever, especially the scene with the spider (people who have read it will know what I'm talking about). I’ll admit I was a bit confused by the ending, but in a good way because it left me with plenty to think about. This one goes onto my list of all-time favourites.

Was just browsing but thought I'd sign up as I've recently read this and feel very differently. Blade Runner is actually my favourite film so I am somewhat biased towards it, and in fact I'd had the PKD novel on my shelf for ages but was hesitant to read it as the film was so etched in my mind. I'd recently read Ubik and The Man in the High Castle though (which I'd both enjoyed thoroughly, in fact the latter is incredible and very different to eveything else I've read by him) so thought I'd take the plunge. From the very first page you can tell it is different in tone to the film, and things that are window-dressing in the film (artificial animals) are a crucial part of the book and vice versa. I enjoyed the novel and was also very gripped in parts (especially the section set in the parallel police precinct), however I couldn't help thinking the film improved or distilled many of the best elements. In the book Roy Batty is relegated to merely the leader of the replicants, in the film he is a much more enigmatic character and with that part-improvised final soliloquy the broad philosophical questions of the novel seem much more profound and moving. Also, surprisingly absent from the novel was the (to me) inspired idea of Rachel being oblivious to what she was and having her implanted memories brutally revealed to her. Indeed, her character is entirely different in the novel and for me less interesting.

Obviously, there are many more ideas explored in the novel than a film could contain, many of them interesting in their own right, like the idea of Deckard's yearning to have a real animal rather than an electric one so as not to be the shame of his neighbourhood, and the underexplored notion of moodboxes. But I expect lots of ideas from PKD. What disappointed me was how much of the book was overt philosophising and how little the characters of the escaped replicants (or andys) were explored, the ending seemingly rushed.

I am conscious of the fact I'm unfairly comparing this to Blade Runner, which did not originate the ideas and is very special to me, but nevertheless I felt it made genuinely astute changes that I wish were more prominent in the book. I hope to read it again in time though and reform my opinion with less prejudice.

Bit of a long winded entry to the forum... hello everyone, by the way. I'm a massive science fiction fan in theory but have only recently been devouring it in novel form. I've just finished the brilliant I Am Legend and hope to read The Demolished Man next.

**Valerie** · July 25th, 2012, 02:21 PM

Originally Posted by banapaulo

Obviously, there are many more ideas explored in the novel than a film could contain, many of them interesting in their own right

I am curious why books are compared to movies in a punctual way, especially action for action. books will never have the visual impact of a movie, even most vivid acion or description in a book is losing against an average image. In the opposite corner movies can offer only glimpses of the rich philosofical flavours a book can push to the reader. I can say that a movie caught or not the author intention, or had it improved or not, but not that is worse or better than a book.