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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? / A Scanner Darkly
In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? the Earth has been poisoned by war, populated only by those doomed by contamination or too poor to move to Mars. Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter tasked with ‘retiring’ illegal andys – androids so indistinguishable from humans that only an empathy test can root them out. When a gang of Nexus-6 models escapes their colony and hides on Earth, Deckard must track them down before they retire him, while his own understanding of what is real and what is fake is thrown into question.
Published over a decade later, psychedelic cult favourite A Scanner Darkly follows narcotics cop Fred as he goes undercover to bring down the dealers of a lethal new drug called Substance D. It’s dangerous work, requiring Fred to become a user himself, but with his high-tech ‘scramble suit’ his identity is safe – not even his colleagues know who he really is. As the drug does its insidious work, Fred is caught in an increasingly complex web of paranoia, multiple identities and double crosses, made all the more nightmarish by a series of reality-shattering illusions. Who are his friends? Who are his enemies? And who, ultimately, is Fred?
Published over a decade later, psychedelic cult favourite A Scanner Darkly follows narcotics cop Fred as he goes undercover to bring down the dealers of a lethal new drug called Substance D. It’s dangerous work, requiring Fred to become a user himself, but with his high-tech ‘scramble suit’ his identity is safe – not even his colleagues know who he really is. As the drug does its insidious work, Fred is caught in an increasingly complex web of paranoia, multiple identities and double crosses, made all the more nightmarish by a series of reality-shattering illusions. Who are his friends? Who are his enemies? And who, ultimately, is Fred?
488 pages, Hardcover
Published September 1, 2017
3 people are currently reading
138 people want to read
About the author
Philip K. Dick
2,006 books22.4k followersPhilip Kindred Dick was a prolific American science fiction author whose work has had a lasting impact on literature, cinema, and popular culture. Known for his imaginative narratives and profound philosophical themes, Dick explored the nature of reality, the boundaries of human identity, and the impact of technology and authoritarianism on society. His stories often blurred the line between the real and the artificial, challenging readers to question their perceptions and beliefs.
Raised in California, Dick began writing professionally in the early 1950s, publishing short stories in various science fiction magazines. He quickly developed a distinctive voice within the genre, marked by a fusion of science fiction concepts with deep existential and psychological inquiry. Over his career, he authored 44 novels and more than 100 short stories, many of which have become classics in the field.
Recurring themes in Dick's work include alternate realities, simulations, corporate and government control, mental illness, and the nature of consciousness. His protagonists are frequently everyday individuals—often paranoid, uncertain, or troubled—caught in surreal and often dangerous circumstances that force them to question their environment and themselves. Works such as Ubik, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, and A Scanner Darkly reflect his fascination with perception and altered states of consciousness, often drawing from his own experiences with mental health struggles and drug use.
One of Dick’s most influential novels is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which served as the basis for Ridley Scott’s iconic film Blade Runner. The novel deals with the distinction between humans and artificial beings and asks profound questions about empathy, identity, and what it means to be alive. Other adaptations of his work include Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, and The Man in the High Castle, each reflecting key elements of his storytelling—uncertain realities, oppressive systems, and the search for truth. These adaptations have introduced his complex ideas to audiences well beyond the traditional readership of science fiction.
In the 1970s, Dick underwent a series of visionary and mystical experiences that had a significant influence on his later writings. He described receiving profound knowledge from an external, possibly divine, source and documented these events extensively in what became known as The Exegesis, a massive and often fragmented journal. These experiences inspired his later novels, most notably the VALIS trilogy, which mixes autobiography, theology, and metaphysics in a narrative that defies conventional structure and genre boundaries.
Throughout his life, Dick faced financial instability, health issues, and periods of personal turmoil, yet he remained a dedicated and relentless writer. Despite limited commercial success during his lifetime, his reputation grew steadily, and he came to be regarded as one of the most original voices in speculative fiction. His work has been celebrated for its ability to fuse philosophical depth with gripping storytelling and has influenced not only science fiction writers but also philosophers, filmmakers, and futurists.
Dick’s legacy continues to thrive in both literary and cinematic spheres. The themes he explored remain urgently relevant in the modern world, particularly as technology increasingly intersects with human identity and governance. The Philip K. Dick Award, named in his honor, is presented annually to distinguished works of science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States. His writings have also inspired television series, academic studies, and countless homages across media.
Through his vivid imagination and unflinching inquiry into the nature of existence, Philip K. Dick redefined what science fiction could achieve. His work continues to challenge and inspire, offering timeless insights into the human condition a
Raised in California, Dick began writing professionally in the early 1950s, publishing short stories in various science fiction magazines. He quickly developed a distinctive voice within the genre, marked by a fusion of science fiction concepts with deep existential and psychological inquiry. Over his career, he authored 44 novels and more than 100 short stories, many of which have become classics in the field.
Recurring themes in Dick's work include alternate realities, simulations, corporate and government control, mental illness, and the nature of consciousness. His protagonists are frequently everyday individuals—often paranoid, uncertain, or troubled—caught in surreal and often dangerous circumstances that force them to question their environment and themselves. Works such as Ubik, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, and A Scanner Darkly reflect his fascination with perception and altered states of consciousness, often drawing from his own experiences with mental health struggles and drug use.
One of Dick’s most influential novels is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which served as the basis for Ridley Scott’s iconic film Blade Runner. The novel deals with the distinction between humans and artificial beings and asks profound questions about empathy, identity, and what it means to be alive. Other adaptations of his work include Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, and The Man in the High Castle, each reflecting key elements of his storytelling—uncertain realities, oppressive systems, and the search for truth. These adaptations have introduced his complex ideas to audiences well beyond the traditional readership of science fiction.
In the 1970s, Dick underwent a series of visionary and mystical experiences that had a significant influence on his later writings. He described receiving profound knowledge from an external, possibly divine, source and documented these events extensively in what became known as The Exegesis, a massive and often fragmented journal. These experiences inspired his later novels, most notably the VALIS trilogy, which mixes autobiography, theology, and metaphysics in a narrative that defies conventional structure and genre boundaries.
Throughout his life, Dick faced financial instability, health issues, and periods of personal turmoil, yet he remained a dedicated and relentless writer. Despite limited commercial success during his lifetime, his reputation grew steadily, and he came to be regarded as one of the most original voices in speculative fiction. His work has been celebrated for its ability to fuse philosophical depth with gripping storytelling and has influenced not only science fiction writers but also philosophers, filmmakers, and futurists.
Dick’s legacy continues to thrive in both literary and cinematic spheres. The themes he explored remain urgently relevant in the modern world, particularly as technology increasingly intersects with human identity and governance. The Philip K. Dick Award, named in his honor, is presented annually to distinguished works of science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States. His writings have also inspired television series, academic studies, and countless homages across media.
Through his vivid imagination and unflinching inquiry into the nature of existence, Philip K. Dick redefined what science fiction could achieve. His work continues to challenge and inspire, offering timeless insights into the human condition a
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
November 19, 2023
It’s always a bit hard to give a review for a collection of books… so I’ve given “androids” a separate review (4 stars for that one, absolute banger), this 3-star review is mainly for A Scanner Darkly.
The idea and execution of A Scanner Darkly is really not all that bad, there’s a lot of mystery and some nice twists which make for a layered story that the reader gets to slowly uncover.
While I can appreciate that a lot of the drug den snippets are autobiographical, I did find the ramblings of the drug addicts very tedious. I think the novel would have done better in short story form. Ultimately there are just too many pages of drug-induced paranoia and repetitive hallucinations that don’t really add much to the story. They are a veil that helps the mystery set itself deeper, makes the truth harder to uncover and leaves endless room for doubt. Neat idea, but still, I don’t want to read hours of tripped out brain dumps.
The idea and execution of A Scanner Darkly is really not all that bad, there’s a lot of mystery and some nice twists which make for a layered story that the reader gets to slowly uncover.
While I can appreciate that a lot of the drug den snippets are autobiographical, I did find the ramblings of the drug addicts very tedious. I think the novel would have done better in short story form. Ultimately there are just too many pages of drug-induced paranoia and repetitive hallucinations that don’t really add much to the story. They are a veil that helps the mystery set itself deeper, makes the truth harder to uncover and leaves endless room for doubt. Neat idea, but still, I don’t want to read hours of tripped out brain dumps.
April 22, 2019
Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly is one of my favorite novels, filled with humor, sadness, and a great deal of compassion (something not commonly found in science fiction). Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a decent novel as well, but not one of Dick's best, and overshadowed by the excellent film adaptation by Ridley Scott, which featured a much improved take on the rather rambling structure found in the original novel.
The Folio Society's decision to combine these two novels into one bound volume has some downsides, principally the fact that it makes for a large, heavy, and unwieldy object for reading. Nonetheless, the production values are top-notch (as is always the case with the Folio Society) and the pairing of these two seemingly unconnected novels does reveal unexpected commonalities, particularly the role that empathy plays as a defining characteristic of the human race.
The Folio Society's decision to combine these two novels into one bound volume has some downsides, principally the fact that it makes for a large, heavy, and unwieldy object for reading. Nonetheless, the production values are top-notch (as is always the case with the Folio Society) and the pairing of these two seemingly unconnected novels does reveal unexpected commonalities, particularly the role that empathy plays as a defining characteristic of the human race.
February 17, 2024
Many take away from the story of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? the moral is that the difference between a thing's appearance and the actuality of its identity (emotion/compassion being the deontological decider for humanity) is moot: "If it talks, speaks, and thinks like a person, it is a person." It also questions if there is a difference between sentience and programmed routine and what constitutes self-awareness.
In the distant future of the 1990s, nuclear war has destroyed nearly all life on Earth. Almost all animals are extinct; only a fraction of the human race remains on Earth. Those left behind are either unwilling to leave or are "specials" (called "chickenheads" or, in severe cases of mental damage, "antheads") who are ineligible to leave due to overexposure to fallout. The people on Earth give their lives meaning by caring for the last animals left on the planet. As a proof of their empathy and humanity, those who can't afford a real animal inevitably buy an electric model instead; it's considered antisocial, if not downright sinful, not to have an animal to show the neighbours. Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter working for the San Francisco police department. He's assigned to hunt down and "retire" six Nexus-6 androids who escaped from Mars after the previous man on the case was critically injured. His task is complicated when Deckard meets Rachael Rosen, a beautiful young woman associated with the leading android manufacturing company, and he begins questioning his job's morality. Deckard's life isn't going quite the way he wanted: he's stuck on Earth, his wife has discarded artificial moods in favour of actual depression, and his sheep is electric.
PKD likely intended for the androids to be bio-engineered humans. This book was written during an era when genetic engineering concepts were limited to tinkering with existing life instead of creating life from scratch. Today, the androids of this story would more likely be called something else, just like they were in the film adaptation. As in most PKD novels, the characters are all extremely confused about their identity and surroundings. Some plot twists are overly apparent from the start. Although the novel never explicitly states why the characters don't notice them quickly, it can be assumed that everyone suffers from some level of fallout-related brain damage and detachment from reality. The result is a very dreamy, expressionistic story that has become one of Dick's most famous works. Is this novel anti-AI or pro-AI? It can be interpreted either way.
A Scanner Darkly was based on PKD's own experience with drugs. Dick dedicated the book to numerous people he knew that died, became insane, or irreversibly ruined their health because of drugs. Among that list, he placed himself, as his own early 70s drug use had destroyed his pancreas and eventually caused his premature death in 1982. Bob Arctor, the protagonist, is an undercover narc in the war on Substance D, a drug which gradually destroys a person's ability to think or perceive reality. Substance D deteriorates a person's mind until they are obsessed only with the drug and endanger themselves and others going after it. It seems to be made in only one place, but the narcs can't seem to find that place or stop the flow. When Arctor appears in public, doing anti-drug talks or comparing notes with other narcs, he wears a special suit that hides his features completely by changing how he looks every second and removes the effect from his voice. His supervisor and colleagues know him as "Fred". This is supposed to be to protect the narcs from internal corruption; not knowing what your fellow undercover agents look like makes it much harder for a crooked cop to sell out to the cartels.
I really admire Dick's deadpan, almost calm presentation of the most bizarre and terrifying events. This story goes far in service of the "drugs are bad" moral. There's a surveillance government in the pursuit of a War on Drugs that results in no one trusting anyone else enough to form genuine attachments; the weak and powerless are preyed upon by drug companies to profit from them, which is equally reprehensible. The horror of all of this is delivered with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, but this is understandable given that Dick was talking about issues relevant to his time and perhaps even in the modern day. However, the book's moral and theme became more relevant with the general controversy of the War on Drugs (namely mass incarceration and racial profiling with no effect on stemming drug crimes) along with surveillance and loss of privacy in recent eras.
In the distant future of the 1990s, nuclear war has destroyed nearly all life on Earth. Almost all animals are extinct; only a fraction of the human race remains on Earth. Those left behind are either unwilling to leave or are "specials" (called "chickenheads" or, in severe cases of mental damage, "antheads") who are ineligible to leave due to overexposure to fallout. The people on Earth give their lives meaning by caring for the last animals left on the planet. As a proof of their empathy and humanity, those who can't afford a real animal inevitably buy an electric model instead; it's considered antisocial, if not downright sinful, not to have an animal to show the neighbours. Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter working for the San Francisco police department. He's assigned to hunt down and "retire" six Nexus-6 androids who escaped from Mars after the previous man on the case was critically injured. His task is complicated when Deckard meets Rachael Rosen, a beautiful young woman associated with the leading android manufacturing company, and he begins questioning his job's morality. Deckard's life isn't going quite the way he wanted: he's stuck on Earth, his wife has discarded artificial moods in favour of actual depression, and his sheep is electric.
PKD likely intended for the androids to be bio-engineered humans. This book was written during an era when genetic engineering concepts were limited to tinkering with existing life instead of creating life from scratch. Today, the androids of this story would more likely be called something else, just like they were in the film adaptation. As in most PKD novels, the characters are all extremely confused about their identity and surroundings. Some plot twists are overly apparent from the start. Although the novel never explicitly states why the characters don't notice them quickly, it can be assumed that everyone suffers from some level of fallout-related brain damage and detachment from reality. The result is a very dreamy, expressionistic story that has become one of Dick's most famous works. Is this novel anti-AI or pro-AI? It can be interpreted either way.
A Scanner Darkly was based on PKD's own experience with drugs. Dick dedicated the book to numerous people he knew that died, became insane, or irreversibly ruined their health because of drugs. Among that list, he placed himself, as his own early 70s drug use had destroyed his pancreas and eventually caused his premature death in 1982. Bob Arctor, the protagonist, is an undercover narc in the war on Substance D, a drug which gradually destroys a person's ability to think or perceive reality. Substance D deteriorates a person's mind until they are obsessed only with the drug and endanger themselves and others going after it. It seems to be made in only one place, but the narcs can't seem to find that place or stop the flow. When Arctor appears in public, doing anti-drug talks or comparing notes with other narcs, he wears a special suit that hides his features completely by changing how he looks every second and removes the effect from his voice. His supervisor and colleagues know him as "Fred". This is supposed to be to protect the narcs from internal corruption; not knowing what your fellow undercover agents look like makes it much harder for a crooked cop to sell out to the cartels.
I really admire Dick's deadpan, almost calm presentation of the most bizarre and terrifying events. This story goes far in service of the "drugs are bad" moral. There's a surveillance government in the pursuit of a War on Drugs that results in no one trusting anyone else enough to form genuine attachments; the weak and powerless are preyed upon by drug companies to profit from them, which is equally reprehensible. The horror of all of this is delivered with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, but this is understandable given that Dick was talking about issues relevant to his time and perhaps even in the modern day. However, the book's moral and theme became more relevant with the general controversy of the War on Drugs (namely mass incarceration and racial profiling with no effect on stemming drug crimes) along with surveillance and loss of privacy in recent eras.
June 13, 2022
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep:
An incredible science fiction story with complex characters and complex questions.
The contrast between the imagined tech and tech that would have been available for the author at the time is really amusing. I find it funny that these characters have android animals but they're still using a phone book to find phone numbers. And that they can control their mood by entering codes into an artificial organ but they still have to walk to the TV to turn it on. The same can be said for attitudes in the book. They live is a highly advanced civilization but the women are still unequal to men. For example, the main character changes his wife's mood to 'obey the husband' and the only female in his police department is the secretary.
The plot is fast paced, full of twists and incredibly gripping. The world building is quite complicated but it's described clearly and explained well as the story progresses, so there's no info dump yet I never felt in the dark. We follow the main character, Rick, a bounty hunter for rogue androids, constantly dreaming of owning a living animal in a world where most animals have been killed by radiation. So owning a real animal brings a man and his wife must prestige, and while he's driving around in his hover car, killing androids with his laser gun... He's looking up the price of real animals in a paper catalogue!!
The book poses some important moral questions. Including whether artificial life deserves the freedoms we enjoy and in regards to how the disabled are treated within society. Also about the way we treat our planet and the waste we create, how much we rely on technology and the importance we put on material possessions. In this case, those would be real animals.
When the book was done, I was left feeling much as the protagonist is feeling at the end of the book. Depressed, exhausted and questioning everything... Which I think is testament to how well written it is!
The illustrations in the folio society edition are wonderful and the style is so fitting for a science fiction novel, but it does bother me that they're not accurate to the story. The female android is depicted twice in the illustrations and despite her being described as having a flat chest she is shown with ample bosom in both. There's also an illustration of a spider with its legs cut off but it's supposed to be with cuticle scissors, a description which doesn't match the scissors in the image. Also the android toad at the end looks in the illustration as if it's made from metal but the android animals are supposed to be so realistic that you wouldn't be able to tell just by looking at it that it wasn't real.
It would have been much easier to ignore these small discrepancies had I not enjoyed the book so much so really it's the authors fault! I loved every page of the sci-fi adventure and I'm so excited to read more from Philip K Dick!
An incredible science fiction story with complex characters and complex questions.
The contrast between the imagined tech and tech that would have been available for the author at the time is really amusing. I find it funny that these characters have android animals but they're still using a phone book to find phone numbers. And that they can control their mood by entering codes into an artificial organ but they still have to walk to the TV to turn it on. The same can be said for attitudes in the book. They live is a highly advanced civilization but the women are still unequal to men. For example, the main character changes his wife's mood to 'obey the husband' and the only female in his police department is the secretary.
The plot is fast paced, full of twists and incredibly gripping. The world building is quite complicated but it's described clearly and explained well as the story progresses, so there's no info dump yet I never felt in the dark. We follow the main character, Rick, a bounty hunter for rogue androids, constantly dreaming of owning a living animal in a world where most animals have been killed by radiation. So owning a real animal brings a man and his wife must prestige, and while he's driving around in his hover car, killing androids with his laser gun... He's looking up the price of real animals in a paper catalogue!!
The book poses some important moral questions. Including whether artificial life deserves the freedoms we enjoy and in regards to how the disabled are treated within society. Also about the way we treat our planet and the waste we create, how much we rely on technology and the importance we put on material possessions. In this case, those would be real animals.
When the book was done, I was left feeling much as the protagonist is feeling at the end of the book. Depressed, exhausted and questioning everything... Which I think is testament to how well written it is!
The illustrations in the folio society edition are wonderful and the style is so fitting for a science fiction novel, but it does bother me that they're not accurate to the story. The female android is depicted twice in the illustrations and despite her being described as having a flat chest she is shown with ample bosom in both. There's also an illustration of a spider with its legs cut off but it's supposed to be with cuticle scissors, a description which doesn't match the scissors in the image. Also the android toad at the end looks in the illustration as if it's made from metal but the android animals are supposed to be so realistic that you wouldn't be able to tell just by looking at it that it wasn't real.
It would have been much easier to ignore these small discrepancies had I not enjoyed the book so much so really it's the authors fault! I loved every page of the sci-fi adventure and I'm so excited to read more from Philip K Dick!
October 12, 2020
A Scanner Darkly is my favorite story from Philip K. Dick - a poignant, heartbreaking memorial to all his friends who succumbed to drug addiction in the 1960s, in the form of a compelling story about an undercover cop who loses his grip on reality. The other story in this volume is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, a more traditional science fiction novella about a bounty hunter who "retires" androids which explores the question of what it means to be human. Both stories have served as the inspiration for excellent movies (the latter was adapted as Blade Runner).
This volume from The Folio Society is a creative twist on more traditional bookmaking - when you finish reading the first story, you simply flip the book over and start reading the second - they meet in the middle. I prefer the realistic full-color illustrations of Androids to the more realistic black-and-white drawings of A Scanner Darkly, but both are well done. This is a hefty book with paper that is more typically used in fancy coffee-table books - a real, tactile pleasure to read.
This volume from The Folio Society is a creative twist on more traditional bookmaking - when you finish reading the first story, you simply flip the book over and start reading the second - they meet in the middle. I prefer the realistic full-color illustrations of Androids to the more realistic black-and-white drawings of A Scanner Darkly, but both are well done. This is a hefty book with paper that is more typically used in fancy coffee-table books - a real, tactile pleasure to read.
August 11, 2022
Honestly very disappointed by this :(
May 20, 2024
So Ryan gosling aesthetic
March 29, 2025
Dream eternal dreams.
October 23, 2025
The imagery of the "mechanical zoo" is totally lost in the Blade Runner movie. In this book, the symbology of the electromechanical sheep is a powerful, visual anchor of the whole narration.
November 11, 2024
I enjoyed electric sheep (blade runner) a lot more. Darkly was a depressing longer read. The ending was good but it was a lot of intentional confusion to get there.
September 19, 2019
I really enjoyed PK Dick's book.
May 9, 2025
Two novels:
**** A Scanner Darkly (1977)
***** Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)
**** A Scanner Darkly (1977)
***** Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews