I have to confess: I like Blade Runner better than I like Dick's novel. Dick is one of those authors who are great as a starting point of philosophical speculations (or academic articles) but not very engaging to read. To put it differently, his books say more than he does. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? blends together several issues - entropy, identity, empathy - but ultimately fails to synthesize them into a coherent whole. I do agree that it takes the whole debate about the nature of replicants in a different direction from the movie.
I have to confess: I like Blade Runner better than I like Dick's novel. Dick is one of those authors who are great as a starting point of philosophical speculations (or academic articles) but not very engaging to read. To put it differently, his books say more than he does. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? blends together several issues - entropy, identity, empathy - but ultimately fails to synthesize them into a coherent whole. I do agree that it takes the whole debate about the nature of replicants in a different direction from the movie.