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

Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter with the San Francisco police department whose job it is to track-down and "retire" fugitive androids amidst a post-world war terminus/three, radiation-ridden and largely de-populated Earth. The radiation left over from last world war has killed off the vast majority of the Earth's animal population and destroyed the biosphere, forcing large parts of the Earth's population to emigrate to colonies on the moon and Mars. Those who are left behind, or have chosen to stay face the constant risk of physical and mental degradation from the radiation. Androids were taken with the colonists, but the occasional android turns on it's masters, fleeing to Earth which is where Rick comes in. Rick is called in to follow up on a case of eight recently reported fugitive "andys", all new advanced nexus-6 models, two of which his predecessor Dave Holden retired before being caught off guard and lasered by the third. Before setting off after the andys, Rick is sent to Seattle to visit the Rosen corporation, manufacturer of the nexus-6, to test whether the department's standard test for detecting androids, the Voigt-Komp test, is still effective. Androids are developed using biological components that make them physically identical to real humans, except by means of a detailed laboratory analysis of bone marrow. The Voigt-Komp test measures empathic response to a series of scenarios read aloud by the examiner; androids are not thought to be capable of real empathy and so usually fail the test. Empathy is an important distinction for real humans, who participate regularly in a shared empathic experience using an "empathy box", all part of a mystical religion "Mercerism", in which followers are pelted with rocks while ascend a simulated hill with a vision of the religion's founder Wilber Mercer. Ownership and the sacred/social prestige status of animals is also an important part of Mercerism; to own a real animal is a statement of one's humanity and those who can't afford one, purchase a fake, electronic version of their favourite pet.

In Seattle, Rick meets a company android, Rachael Rosen, originally posing as the daughter of Eldon Rosen, the company's founder, in an elaborate rouse intended to discredit the Voigt-Komp test by making Rick think that he had incorrectly classified a real human as an android. Rick sees through the attempt and the company later offers Rachael's assistance in tracking down the remaining six fugitive androids. After retiring the first android on his list (the one that lasered Dave Holden), Rick attempts to apprehend the second on the list, a Miss Luba Loft, posing as an opera singer and is caught off guard and arrested by a police officer called in by Luba after she denies being an android and accuses Rick of being a stalker. The officer denies any knowledge of Rick or his department and takes him off to a seemingly duplicate police station on the other side of town. There Rick meets another bounty hunter Resch and eventually uncovers (with the help of Resch) that the entire police station is an android run operation (where Rick manages to knock off the third android on his list, posing as Resch's superior and leaving Resch in doubt as to whether in fact he is an android too with falsely implanted memories of being a real human). After returning to retire Luba, with the help of Resch, it turns out he is a real human after all, and Rick is forced to question the moral and philosophical position of his job as a bounty hunter.

Developing feelings of empathy towards androids, Rick engages in a sexual encounter with Rachael Rosen and resolves to quit his profession after finishing off his final three targets. The remaining androids are holed up deep in an abandoned apartment block, solely inhabited by J.R. Isidore, a "special" who has succumbed to the radioactive dust, and has a reduced mental capacity. Rick tracks down and retires the remaining androids and suffering somewhat from his philosophical and existentialist dilemma, drives off into the uninhabited wastelands, where he undergoes a mystical experience as Wilber Mercer, climbing a weed-infested hill-top.

In "electric sheep", Phillip K. Dick confronts the reader with the question: what does it mean to be human? We are provided with a self-paradoxical example of Rick, the empathic-bounty hunter; in order to retire androids he must suppress his empathy towards them, becoming android-like himself. If empathy is a defining characteristic of humanity, then we are forced to question the authenticity of empathy: it remains ambiguous if the new nexus-6 model can actually pass the Voigt-Komp test, Mercerism is exposed as a fake and consider the Penfold Mood Organ, where humans can so easily re-program their emotional behaviour, irrespective of the state of the world around them. Like in his other novels, Dick also asks the question what is real? I found the section of the book where Rick attempts to arrest Luba really great in this regard. When he is arrested his identity comes into question: is he an android with falsely implanted memories? Then we are lead to believe that Resch is certainly an android: the background adds up and he exhibits the same android-like lack of empathy that allows him to be so good at his profession; but then suddenly it turns out he is definitely human. I really like the way Dick shakes the foundations of what the reader believes is real one minute and then not the next ... or is it? Theres so much that I also didn't quite understand the underlying significance of (I feel like there is a lot of complex themes at play): the significance of the apparitions of Wilber Mercer, Rick's mystical experience at the end of the novel, finding the toad. I feel like I'll need to come back to this one again.

There is so much to love about this book; the cult of animal ownership and Rick's constant reference to the Sidney's catalogue of animal prices, the Penfold mood organ (I love the opening chapter, so entertaining), the obnoxious Buster Friendly. So far, I've really enjoyed the two other Phillip K. Dick novels I've read, he think he is such a great writer. A really cleverly constructed story. Definitely recommended.