Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

For a kid who remembers (and was a full participant in) the Star Wars insanity of the late 1970s and early 1980s, I am surprised I never developed a taste for science fiction. One of the many benefits I've derived from following the List is it gives me the opportunity to delve into some genres I've neglected.

Most people are familiar with the early 80s feature film Blade Runner which starred Harrison Ford fresh from his Star Wars gig as Han Solo. The film, based on this novel, has become something of a cult classic and has been reedited and recut several times in the ensuing years.

The novel, by Philip K. Dick, is really a detective novel set in the future on an earth that has been depopulated. Most citizens have joined a colony on Mars, leaving a decrepit and decaying society behind. Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter who hunts incredibly life-like androids who have sneaked off of Mars and infiltrated Earth societies. There are certain tests that will allow Deckard to detect whether or not the 'person' he is pursuing is actually an android. Deckard wants to do an excellent job, make some money, and replace his electric sheep with a real live animal (most of whom seem to have died off). The main part of the action revolves around Deckard's pursuit of four or five extremely high quality androids and he begins to wonder how human he is himself.

There's a great sense of paranoia about the novel, as well as the usual themes of identity and ethics that seem to be present in a lot of sci fi. I enjoyed the book; it was a quick read and had some nice action sequences. It didn't make me turn the corner to becoming a full-fledged sci fi fan, but it didn't push me further away either.

Under the Skin

I had no idea what to expect when I picked up Michel Faber's Under the Skin. This was a book on the list that I randomly selected when picking out some new books. I expected a detective story or perhaps a psychological thriller based on the title and cover alone.

Under the Skin is a hybrid: thriller, science fiction, mystery, and an animal rights polemic all rolled into one. The novel introduces us to Isserly, a young female who drives the relatively deserted roads of the Scottish Highlands looking for male hitchhikers, specifically those who are robust or well-muscled. Through a series of encounters with these hitchhikers, and the aftermaths of their rides with Isserly, we are slowly exposed to the truth of her identity, motivation, and mission. I won't go any deeper into the plot than that so potential readers can pick up on events on their own. Much of the pleasure in this novel lies in the way the reader is slowly lead into the details of what is actually happening, with new layers added all the time.

This book is creepy. Over the course of reading it, I actually had a couple of mild nightmares based around the events in the book. There is something about Faber's prose that gets, well, under your skin and stays there. I highly recommend this one to anyone who enjoys science fiction, especially the pulpy novels of the sixties and seventies.

What really sets this one apart, however, is the effect it will have on most meat eaters. Our assumptions about identity, souls, and the relative hierarchy of life on this planet are challenged in a variety of ways. Prepare to squirm.

Never Let Me Go

Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go was the last book on the initial publication of the List. Evidently, there are updated versions of the List that drop some books and add others, and this book is one that was dropped. To keep myself semi-sane, I'm sticking with the original list that I used, which can be found here.

I knew nothing about Ishiguro or his body of work when I picked this up. I recognized a book that he'd written, The Remains of the Day, from an award winning movie starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson (which I have not seen).

Never Let Me Go was a fantastic introduction to fiction on the List that I'd never considered. I guess you could technically call this book science fiction, as it deals with a dystopian Britain of the near-future. Still, if 'science fiction' to you means robots or space ships, that's not what is happening here.

The novel unfolds at its own pace, with Ishiguro revealing key plot points as he sees fit. This creates an incredible curiosity in the reader to determine just what is going on. The basic premise of the novel involves a trio of characters who went to an extremely exclusive boarding school in the wilds of rural England. It is clear from the beginning that it is not a normal school, and once the three graduate it becomes even more evident as they transition to what can best be described as a halfway house of a rustic farm that acts as a buffer for them as they integrate into regular society. Soon it becomes clear that the three, and all of the other students at their school and schools like it around the nation, are being prepped for a chilling purpose.

The novel is told from the point of view of one of the three, a young nurse when the action commences, who is looking back upon the relationship she shared with her two best friends, and how they have come to be reunited as adults. This one is highly recommended and raises more questions than it answers. What is the future of genetics? What are the potential moral ramifications of genetic science? And what is the essence of the human being?