Read: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is set on Earth, which has been largely abandoned as people emigrated to Mars after the end of WWT or World War Terminus. The Synthetic Freedom Fighter, a weapon of the war, was modified to become the "mobile donkey engine of the colonization program", and each emigrant received one. These androids are so sophisticated that it is difficult, almost impossible to tell between them and human beings. They were banned from Earth but some of them still make it there, fleeing from slavery.

Rick Dekard makes his living hunting down these rogue androids. But how do you know an android from a human? Empathy.

"Empathy, evidently, existed only within the human community, whereas intelligence to some degree could be found throughout every phylum and order including the arachnida."

The book explores what it means to be human. I found it quite fascinating that ownership of animals was one way the humans emphasized empathy. But as animals are also a symbol of social status, they are very expensive. Dekard himself owns an electric sheep, that is, until he can afford a real animal. To distinguish androids from humans, bounty hunters pose them questions involving animals while measuring involuntary eye movement and blushing. But the sophisticated androids often prove this incredibly difficult. The situation of 'chickenhead' Isidore further confounds this issue. He's human but has had brain damage, and as a result wouldn't necessarily have the typical human responses to these questions.

Like plenty of science fiction, the book can initially be a bit difficult to get into. But sometimes that's the fun of reading science fiction - figuring out the pieces of the puzzle that you're thrown into, often head first. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep was my first Philip K. Dick book and it was quite an interesting read. I look forward to reading more of his works. Blade Runner is loosely based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. I'm going to have to move that up my Netflix queue now.

This book is my third read for the Sci-Fi Challenge.
(Source: Library)

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Read: The Children of Men by PD James

"Earlier this morning, 1 January 2021, three minutes after midnight, the last human being to be born on earth was killed in a pub brawl in a suburb of Buenos Aires, aged twenty-three years, two months and twelve days."

And with this whopper of an opening sentence, PD James kicks the reader into this dystopian future. It takes a moment to sink in. The "last human being to be born on earth"? Whatever does that mean?

It all began in the Year Omega, or 1995, where "overnight, it seemed, teh human race had lost its power to breed. The discovery in July 1994 that even the frozen sperm stored for experiment and artificial insemination had lost its potency was a peculiar horror casting over Omega the pall of superstitious awe, of witchcraft, of divine intervention. The old gods reappeared, terrible in their power". In England, under the rule of the Warden, the elderly are encouraged to commit suicide, criminals are exiled to an island prison where visitors and communication with the outside world are forbidden.

Oxford historian Theodore Faron, the cousin and former adviser of the Warden, is approached by a woman named Julian, for help advocating her group's causes, which includes stopping compulsory sperm testing and the group suicides of the elderly. Theo's meeting with the Warden and his council doesn't quite work out but working with the dissidents (especially Julian) relights Theo's fire. Then something unexpected happens that has the group (and Theo) fleeing to Wales.

PD James is very masterful at the quiet kind of shock. She introduces vignettes of what life is like in this future, such as when Theo comes across a woman pushing a pram with a doll nestled inside: "The glossy irises, unnaturally large, bluer than those of any human eye, a gleaming azure, seemed to fix on him their unseeing stare which yet horrible suggested a dormant intelligence, alien and monstrous. The eyelashes, dark brown, lay like spiders on the delicately tinted porcelain cheeks and an adult abundance of yellow crimped hair sprung from beneath the close-fitting lace-trimmed bonnet."

It is a quiet book, it isn't all up and in your face. Initially, it stuns as the reader learns about its no-offspring world. But the pace slows down as the character of Theo is carved out. He isn't the most compelling of characters and that can take a lot of steam out of the book. However, I'm glad I stuck with it, as The Children of Men is incredibly thought-provoking and intriguing. Many of these fears are relevant today and this future that James created is just so sad and so unbearable.

(Source of book: My library)

Read: The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

It is the year 2024 and the world is a mess. Children don't go to an official school because they're not allowed to leave their walled community, which are more like prisons than homes. If they have to go outside, residents go in groups and with guns. Water costs more than gasoline, and when firefighters or the police have to be called in for an emergency, they have to be paid. There is poverty and lawlessness. It is a dangerous, frightening world.

Our narrator, the teenaged Lauren Olamina, the daughter of a minister, is a unique character. She is hyperempathetic: "I get a lot of grief that doesn't belong to me, and that isn't real. But it hurts". As a child, she would even bleed when she saw others bleeding. Not only that, she has found her god, the book of which she calls Earthseed, which she continues to write as the story progresses. She is an incredibly strong, resilient person, especially for someone that young. She studies up on survival strategies and plans to head north as soon as she is able. She doesn't understand how life can go on as normal - or at least what is normal to the community - for her family and neighbours.

Then one night, their community is attacked, their houses destroyed and their belongings looted, many of the residents are killed, the others have fled in all directions. Lauren manages to escape with her survival kit and comes across two of her neighbours and they join her in her northern quest on the dangerous highways.


The Parable of the Sower was a great read. It was well-paced, although initially slow going. Butler has created a very believable future which is the result of the collapse of civilisation. While it can be terrifying with all the dark and disturbing things happening around them - violence, slavery, hunger, poverty - Lauren and her growing group of followers show that there still is hope.

This is my first read for the Sci-fi Challenge.

I'm joining the Sci-Fi Challenge!

I came across the Sci-Fi Challenge hosted by Stage and Canvas via Farm Lane Books and thought that sounds right up my alley as I've been trying to read more science fiction books this year.

Essentially it requires the reading of "3.14 or 8 books (or audio books) of the science-fiction genre" from August 28, 2009 to August 8, 2010. I will aim for 8!

Here's my pool:
The Children of Men - P.D. James
I, Robot - Isaac Asimov
Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler
His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire, Book 1)- Naomi Novik
Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
Passage - Connie Willis
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?- Philip K. Dick
Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke
The Female Man - Joanna Russ
The Other End of Time - Frederik Pohl
The Illustrated Man - Ray Bradbury
The Telling - Ursula K Le Guin
Woman on the Edge of Time - Marge Piercy
Fledgling - Octavia Butler