Where do I begin...Philip K. Dick is probably one of the most influential SF writers from the last 30 years. This book is the inspiration for probably the most influential SF movie of all time. It would be stupid of me to say that this book is not good because it is not like the movie. The same themes and even some of the characters were trasnferred from the page to the screen. It was a pretty decent story, and adds a much needed, other dimension to what was covered in the movie. I can't help but relate the two, since I saw the movie many times before I actually read the book. I also noticed a few plot points were actually used in the PC game, which was neat. I had a few problems with this book, though. First of all, PKD cannot write very good dialogue. It's choppy, sometimes confusing and hard to read. I was hoping it would turn around half way though, and I would get a nice coninuous sentence. Also, some of his descriptions were a bit redundant/out of place, almost as if they slipped past the editor. The underlying theme of "Mercerism" was a bit confusing in places, but he uses the theme of empathy and humans very well. There were some great passages on Deckard's morality crisis and him sympathizing with the androids. Overall, though, the book wasn't up to snuff. Read it if you want to know where Blade Runner came from. Rating: *** (Added 1999.12.11)