When comparing Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? vs Neuromancer, the Slant community recommends Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? for most people. In the question“What are the best cyberpunk books?” Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is ranked 1st while Neuromancer is ranked 2nd. The most important reason people chose Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is:
Philip K. Dick manages to excellently explain what a character feels or is thinking through small tells such as body language or involuntary body responses. He often uses these things to illustrate the warmth of humans and coolness of androids.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Well-researched, vivid descriptions of people
Philip K. Dick manages to excellently explain what a character feels or is thinking through small tells such as body language or involuntary body responses. He often uses these things to illustrate the warmth of humans and coolness of androids.
Pro In-depth exploration of empathy
Empathy and what it means to be empathetic is the main theme of the book and is something that each character has to deal with in one way or another.
The protagonist's belief that the ability to empathise makes one alive and that androids are incapable of true human emotion allows him to due his work as a bounty hunter that retires androids. Once he learns that some androids may be capable of empathy and some people are capable of eliminating empathy, he has to re-evaluate his stance.
Pro Conversational, casual writing style allows easily immersing in the story
Pro A seminal work in the cyberpunk genre
Neuromancer lays much of the foundation of Cyberpunk as a genre in terms of language, themes and setting. The term "cyberspace" gained enough significance through this book that it is still being used to describe Internet. Cyberpunk staples such as megacorporations, anti-heroes as protagonists, artificial intelligence and high-tech, low-life neon-filled cities that never sleep take their iconic shape here.
Its significance was acknowledged by it becoming the first novel to win the Nebula, the Hugo, and Philip K. Dick Award science fiction awards.
Cons
Con Starts out slow
Although it starts out slow with seemingly not much going on, it often manages to pull the reader in without him even noticing it.
Con The way technology is described is somewhat dated
To describe technology Gibson uses language that might have been considered futuristic back in the day, but seems out of place in today's technological world and vision of the future.