This was the third time I've read this novel, and I have to say that I've enjoyed it more than on previous readings (third time is the charm, as they say). I found myself much more enthusiastic about its themes, more sucked into its world, more affected by its implications. In short, I finally see with this is a classic.

There has been a nuclear war (World War Terminus, as they call it), leaving Earth an almost uninhabitable place. In the aftermath there is mass emigration to Mars, with advertisement promoting a life in comfort with a free android servant for anyone leaving. However, some people refuse to go, now living in the almost deserted apartment complexes and with the constant danger from radiation. Many have died in the early years, while all others still face slow modifications of their genetic maeterial and cognitive degeneration (with institutionalized forms of "chickenheads" and "antheads").

The overall plot is quite simple. The main protagonist is Rick Deckard, who is hired by the Californian police as a bounty hunter. His targets are androids who fled from Mars, now posing as "real" human beings back on Earth. Deckard's main tool is a psychological test that is to measure his subjects' capability for empathy, in this way determining if they are human or not. During the time-frame in which the story is set, Deckard is on the hunt for six androids of the new Nexus-6 type, which leads to questions about the accuracy of his test and brings him to his physical and mental limits.

The story's simplicity is deceptive. Different aspects of the story and setting are used to examine one weighty question, namely the issue of what makes us human. In the main the question is approached in respect to artificial intelligence: When would we have to admit that robots are indistinguishable from real human beings? What abilities and capabilities would that require? What would this say about us? Among his targets are androids who seem to have real ambitions and aspirations, with one of them finding meaning in her work as an opera singer. (Incidentally, this seems to be the sort of dreaming that the book's title is hinting at.) Given this fact, what is it that still makes us special?

At the same time, there are developments that will make you ask how human the general human population really still is. The most vivid example is to be found on the first first pages. They started using a machine by which you can induce whatever emotion you feel like having. Emotions seem to be an essential aspect of humanness, but what are the implications of having artificial emotions? Moreover, there are beings that, in their biological makeup, certainly are human beings, but who are cognitively or emotionally underdeveloped - are they now less human than androids who in fact do possess those capabilities?

Another important aspect of the book is the constant fear that your memories might not be real either. Granted, it is said that this would only apply for the androids, but with a book like this you never know how accurate this information really is. More importantly, you can never be entirely certain whether you yourself are an android. This question is not as much explored as it is in the move adaption, yet there are two or three chapters in which it takes center stage.

In fact, the novel also stands up on more aesthetical grounds . SF rarely impresses by its writing style, but I would say that this book is actually very well written. Moments such as the reification of silence into an all-encompassing Void, or the general psychedelic feel to it, are really quite beautiful to read. There is this constant feeling of ambivalence, never allowing you to entirely come to terms with what is going on, that I found particularly interesting.