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Imagine living in a world where mere robots are nearly indistinguishable from humans, and the only way to find out which is which is no longer the Turing test, a test that robots have been able to pass for the last 300 years. In the 1968 book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, reality is in the “future” although it can be stretched 50 years from now based on the date referenced that is in our past. The setting of the book is Earth, with mentions of people moving back and forth from Mars. Moving to Mars is all the rage for normal humans, but it is illegal for anyone who is either special or an android. 

There are several main characters: Rick, Isidore, and Rachel. Rick was hired by the government to hunt down and kill all of the new android types called Nexus 6 androids. These androids are supposed to stay on Mars, a planet long colonized by humans already. However, the androids that illegally immigrated to Earth must be killed by law. For each android that Rick kills, which in his fancy job description he calls it "retiring" an android, Rick gains an enormous sum of money. Yet the money is not given to him until he has "retired" every single suspected android. 

Rachel is also an android, working for the Rosen Association, a group aimed at improving androids and testing them using the newly instated Voigt-Kampff test, a test used to test empathy, something not found in androids. However, Rachel fears of androids becoming too similar to humans, so she decides to help Rick, who does not have her on his bounty list. She ends up becoming a close friend of Rick, and this book employs a very clever plot for her in the rest of the story. 

Isidore is a regular human being barred from moving to Mars because he is classified as a "special", a person without the basic knowledge and/or intellect to function as a normal being in society. Isidore was mutated due to all the radioactive dust that fell upon Earth after a war. He works at a pet shop, where pets are synthetic to the point that they are unnoticeable. He lives in a small, dusty apartment and ends up helping the rest of the androids take cover out of the kindness of his heart. 

This book is very insightful though a nightmarish vision from the author. A Wild West theme set in the future is bound to be a great read and an excellent book to recommend to others. There are some pretty graphic descriptions of the way androids are retired, as well as many phrases that many now would find to be very offending. Nonetheless, this book is great. The audio book lasts somewhere around 7-8 hours, or it can be visually read in about 4 hours. I recommend this book to be read by people ages 13 and above, as some aspects may be gruesome and trauma-inducing to younger audiences. During the time when it was first written, the imagination seemed far-fetched. With the modern day technology, the story seems to gain some possibility. I recommend readers pick up the book before watching the derived 1982 movie called Blade Runner.