The Androids Dream

Download or read book The Android's Dream written by John Scalzi and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2007-10-30 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A human diplomat kills his alien counterpart. Earth is on the verge of war with a vastly superior alien race. A lone man races against time and a host of enemies to find the one object that can save our planet and our people from alien enslavement ..." "A sheep. That's right, a sheep. And if you think that's the most surprising thing about this book, wait until you read chapter one. Welcome to The Android's Dream." "For Harry Creek, it's quickly becoming a nightmare. All he wants is to do his uncomplicated mid-level diplomatic job with Earth's State Department. But his past training and skills get him tapped to save the planet - and to protect pet store owner Robin Baker, whose own past holds the key to the whereabouts of that lost sheep. Doing both will take him from lava-strewn battlefields to alien halls of power. All in a day's work. Maybe it's time for a raise." "Throw in two-timing freelance mercenaries, political lobbyists with megalomaniac tendencies, aliens on a religious quest, and an artificial intelligence with an unusual backstory, and you've got more than just your usual science fiction adventure story. You've got The Android's Dream."--BOOK JACKET.

Download or read book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (Book Analysis) written by Bright Summaries and published by BrightSummaries.com. This book was released on 2019-04-03 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unlock the more straightforward side of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? with this concise and insightful summary and analysis! This engaging summary presents an analysis of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, which follows the bounty hunter Rick Deckard on his quest to “retire” androids in an imagined post-apocalyptic version of San Francisco. The androids, who are treated as subhuman but are indistinguishable from humans in their appearance, and at times even in their behaviour, raise a host of questions about empathy, the role of technology in our lives and what it is that makes us human. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is arguably Philip K. Dick’s most famous novel, largely due to its status as the source material for the blockbuster film Blade Runner starring Harrison Ford. Dick was a pioneering and prolific science writer, and is also known for his novels The Man in the High Castle and A Scanner Darkly. Find out everything you need to know about Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? in a fraction of the time! This in-depth and informative reading guide brings you: • A complete plot summary • Character studies • Key themes and symbols • Questions for further reflection Why choose BrightSummaries.com? Available in print and digital format, our publications are designed to accompany you on your reading journey. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time. See the very best of literature in a whole new light with BrightSummaries.com!

Download or read book Facing the Crises written by Ljubica Matek and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2014-06-26 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Owing to the diverse research interests of the contributors, this collection of essays offers a varied picture of the current approaches to Anglo-American literature and culture, and points to the need for a deeper understanding of current cultural, economic and social processes in the globalizing and globalized culture of the West. Because “crisis” seems to be the key word of contemporary Western culture, the first part of the book, titled “In the Face of Crises”, explores the implicit or explicit idea of a crisis between the real and the simulated, suggesting that one of the major issues for the contemporary man is how to deal with the virtual or with the “absence of the real”. Our fast-paced, technology-laden and materialist-oriented existence brings about the need to rethink our human identity, putting into perspective our relationship to technology, the impact of capitalist economy and colonial past, as well as consequences of constant warfare. The second part of the book, “New Perspectives on Literary Genres”, analyzes forms, topics and styles in literary texts belonging to specific, sometimes marginalized, genres. Literary analyses in this section also touch upon the idea of crisis: be it the crisis of understanding and redefining a particular genre, or a crisis that is inherent in the controversial topic or form of the text. As a reaction to recent allegations concerning the crisis of humanities as “non-profitable”, this book shows that humanist research is indispensable and crucial for understanding the human condition, making this book a relevant addition to the contemporary discussion of literature and culture.

Download or read book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? written by Philip K. Dick and published by Del Rey. This book was released on 1996-05-28 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A masterpiece ahead of its time, a prescient rendering of a dark future, and the inspiration for the blockbuster film Blade Runner One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years By 2021, the World War has killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remain covet any living creature, and for people who can’t afford one, companies built incredibly realistic simulacra: horses, birds, cats, sheep. They’ve even built humans. Immigrants to Mars receive androids so sophisticated they are indistinguishable from true men or women. Fearful of the havoc these artificial humans can wreak, the government bans them from Earth. Driven into hiding, unauthorized androids live among human beings, undetected. Rick Deckard, an officially sanctioned bounty hunter, is commissioned to find rogue androids and “retire” them. But when cornered, androids fight back—with lethal force. Praise for Philip K. Dick “The most consistently brilliant science fiction writer in the world.”—John Brunner “A kind of pulp-fiction Kafka, a prophet.”—The New York Times “[Philip K. Dick] sees all the sparkling—and terrifying—possibilities . . . that other authors shy away from.”—Rolling Stone

Download or read book The Twisted Worlds of Philip K. Dick written by Umberto Rossi and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philip K. Dick was one of the most popular science fiction novelists of the 20th century, but the contradictory and wily writer has troubled critics who attempt encompassing explanations of his work. This book examines Dick's writing through the lens of ontological uncertainty, providing a comparative map of his oeuvre, tracing both the interior connections between books and his allusive intertextuality. Topics covered include time travel, alternate worlds, androids and simulacra, finite subjective realities and schizophrenia. Twenty novels are explored in detail, including titles that have received scant critical attention. Some of his most important short stories and two of his realist novels are also examined, providing a general introduction to Dick's body of work.

Download or read book Apathy in Literature: A Discourse on Emotionless Characters and Concepts written by Tony McCracken and published by Anchor Academic Publishing (aap_verlag). This book was released on 2013-08 with total page 101 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This discourse focuses on the different concepts of apathy that appear in literature. Not only characterizations of apathetic protagonists, but also abstract concepts of apathy help to explore this special topic. Several important literary works from all sorts of genres function as examples to explain these concepts. Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’, ‘Camus’ ‘The Stranger’, Palahniuk’s ‘Fight Club’, Süskind’s ‘Perfume’, and Dick’s ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ are only few of many literary works which are examined under the aspect of apathy in this study. Apathy is the lack of any kind of emotion. As emotions are essential to the conception of the human being, many approaches to understand this phenomenon have been made. The fields of psychology and biology are only two of several sciences which try to explain this phenomenon of alexithymia. But, whereas the core and origin of this human condition are still being analyzed, literature has been using the theme of apathy in several different ways. How this theme is used and which different concepts of apathy exist, will be examined in this discourse.

Download or read book The Sex Doll written by Anthony Ferguson and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This scholarly study of the centuries-long history of fornicatory dolls examines the enduring obsession with creating an idealized, silent female sexual object and the manifestations of this desire through the ages in mythology, literature, art, philosophy and science. This particular sexual impulse has been expressed in a great variety of forms such as statues, mannequins, sex dolls, and gynoids (robots). In particular this study focuses on the evolution of the sex doll through its original incarnation as a sack cloth effigy, through the marketing of inflatable dolls, to the current elaborate cyber-technology figures, in an attempt to discover the hidden drives and desires which fuel this ongoing fantasy of creating a perfect, powerless, silent partner.