Book Description
"The most consistently brilliant science fiction writer in the world."
--John Brunner
THE INSPIRATION FOR BLADERUNNER. . .
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was published in 1968. Grim and foreboding, even today it is a masterpiece ahead of its time.
By 2021, the World War had killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remained coveted any living creature, and for people who couldn't afford one, companies built incredibly realistic simulacrae: horses, birds, cats, sheep. . .
They even built humans.
Emigrees to Mars received androids so sophisticated it was impossible to tell them from true men or women. Fearful of the havoc these artificial humans could wreak, the government banned them from Earth. But when androids didn't want to be identified, they just blended in.
Rick Deckard was an officially sanctioned bounty hunter whose job was to find rogue androids, and to retire them. But cornered, androids tended to fight back, with deadly results.
"[Dick] sees all the sparkling and terrifying possibilities. . . that other authors shy away from."
--Paul Williams
Rolling Stone
Customer Reviews:
What exactly makes the difference between man and machine?.......2007-09-15
In this second piece found in the omnibus "Counterfeit Unrealities (contains Ubik, A Scanner Darkly, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep [aka Blade Runner], The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch)," we find ourselves working between two intertwining plot lines. One is based around Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter who "retires" escaped androids - who have killed their owners off-world in the colonies and then come to Earth to live and try to blend in. The latest model - the Nexus-6 - can only be told from humans through use of a sophisticated psychological testing mechanism that measures empathy levels; empathy being the one thing that androids quite simply lack. The other plot line revolves around J. R. Isadore, a "chickenhead" (that is to say, a man who has mutated enough that he is starting to lose his cognitive abilities, but not so much that he cannot still manage to take care of himself and serve the public in some small way). He works for the Van Ness Pet Hospital, which serves people who own electric animals. However, his day gets off to an uneven start when first he discovers another tenant in his previously empty building, and then he is given a real cat - which subsequently dies on the way in to the hospital before he even realizes it is actually alive.
Similar in theme to the previous Philip Dick novel I reviewed, this book explores the differences between reality and fantasy by probing the differences between man and machine, as shown by the differences between human and android (sometimes that line is very blurred), electric animal and real animal, and so forth. Always in the background is the constant back and forth of Mercerism vs. Buster Friendly, who always gently (and sometimes not so gently) accuses Mercer as a fraud and fake.
Please note, those who have seen "Blade Runner"; it has been years since I have seen the movie, but from what I recall - the movie is only VERY LOOSELY based upon this novel.
Nonetheless, I did find the story enjoyable; dense and difficult at times, but the interchange and interplays are always deft and intriguing. This classic bit of surreal sci-fi is not to be missed.
Classic Dick.......2007-09-10
(This review is based on the novel as it is printed in the Library of America edition.)
Famed for being the basis of the cult movie "Blade Runner", this novel is, in my opinion, not as good a book as the movie is as a movie. There are big differences between the two, as far as the plot is concerned, and the mood, and quite frankly, I prefer that of the movie. But to the novel itself.
If you are familiar with Dick's style, you will not be in foreign territories here. All the features that define Dick's prose are there. Interestingly enough, and as for his other novels that I read, I never find myself bored, and it's always a pleasure to read Dick's work; and that, despite the shortcomings.
If you've never heard of "Blade Runner" or this novel, then here is a short sum up of the basics: it's set in the future, where humans colonise the universe, and have reached the level of technology enabling us to create androids, a sort of organic machines resembling humans. Those androids are illegal on earth and whenever some of them flee to this planet, bounty hunters are after them. The main Character of the book, Rick Deckard (named after René Descartes, the French thinker famous for his "cogito ergo sum", or "I think therefore I am") is one of those bounty hunters. As usual, Dick creates a very interesting dystopian world, the kind that you can't get enough information.
The story is a lot more complicated than that, and for those who know "Blade Runner", there are many things that you never heard of in the movie. Mercerism, to name but one. The fact that Deckard is a married man, and not much like the Deckard of the movie.
What I disliked about the novel was similar that what I dislike in every Dick novel I know of. For one, this novel has one of the worst titles in existence that I had the displeasure to lay eyes on. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", I cannot think this is anything close to a good title. Dick is quite bad when it comes to naming things. One reflex he has that I cannot stand is that he somehow feels obliged to give ridiculous names to either people or companies, and it just makes the whole thing sound grotesque. In "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch", one big company was called "Perky Pat Layouts"; in this novel, a TV host is named "Buster Friendly", and I won't list the others. Or just this one more: "andy". That is the word by which Dick has his novel call the androids. In plural form, this becomes "andys". Not very thrilling.
The movie changed those things. "Andys" become "replicants" and "bounty hunters" become "blade runners". All for the better, if you want my opinion. I believe the plotline of the movie to be far superior to that of the novel even though they share a lot, as would be expected. My feeling on Dick is that he crams so much material in his relatively short novels that he cannot get the best of it. Mercerism, mentioned above, is a quite obscure religion that never gets fully explained in the book, and is completely absent from the movie, and one understands why all too easily.
Another thing I think Dick is short on is descriptions. For all I remember, Dick rarely, if ever, describes much; and the result of this is that one doesn't really see the world in which the characters evolve. If you expect visions similar to those in the movie, you will be disappointed. In Dick's novel, Earth is being abandoned by everyone, and it's mostly desert and gets less and less populated. Quite unlike the Earth of the movie, quite unlike the megacities people live in. I think it's an impressive feat that the people who made "Blade Runner" based it on this book. The themes are excellent, and Dick, in my opinion, doesn't reach the full extent of what he could have done. To name one example, the relation between creator and creature, à la Frankenstein, is entirely nonexistent in the novel, whereas it's central in the movie.
If you love the movie, you will only get disappointed by this book if you expect it to do the movie justice; it won't. But it's nevertheless a good read and an interesting one with regards to the "Blade Runner" universe. It won't be as good as the movie - that's hard - but it is a good read, and that is why despite all my negative comments I still gave this novel 4 stars. I would recommend to people who enjoy the movie, but I'm not sure I would have enjoyed the book the same had I not known of the movie first. Yet, there definitely are good things in the book.
One of the best sci-fi books ever...........2007-09-08
Really I don't know what I can add that hasn't already been said about this fantastic book. A must read for even non-sci-fi fans as it could be the book that converts you to the genre!
What a Vision.......2007-09-04
I noticed that many commented on the quality of Dick's writing. This may not be Shakespeare-quality prose, but what sci-fi novel is? (Dune was actually exceedingly well written, though.) Dick is so committed to his vision that he draws you in, and by the end it's hard to escape the eerie despair of life after World War Terminus. It may be clearer after a second or third read, but my only objection is the concept of Mercerism as it's developed late in the book. Its relation to the characters is not explained in-depth, and I was left wondering why it affected certain characters in certain ways. But I don't want to give too much away! This is a definite buy if you enjoy sci-fi lit of any kind.
Are Humans Better than Machines? Let's Hope So..........2007-08-09
Dick presents us with yet another bizarre vision of the future in this fast-paced adventure novel. The protagonist is a bounty hunter who tracks down renegade androids who have killed their off-planet masters and fled to Earth to lose themselves among the general human populace. Complicating his job is the inevitable fact that as technology improves, it becomes increasingly more difficult to tell the androids from real people. So the hunter has to administer very subtle tests to his subjects in order to verify their non-humanity. These tests require the co-operation of the subject, even as the androids - knowing they are about to be detected - are preparing to kill him.
The title is a riff on the reigning philosophy of the period, a faith called Mercerism, which advocates the sanctity of all life (spiders, chickens, goats, whatever) and provides a communal experience that validates human empathy. Dick postulates that no matter how closely the machine mind may approximate humanity, it can never achieve empathy with the living, and so must ultimately fail. Even if Mercerism is a sham, it is better to believe in humanity, it is better to believe that we are not alone, it is better to believe that someone will help us when we find ourselves stuck in the tomb world, than to give in to despair. The machines, which know neither despair nor empathy, have nothing to bind them together, to take them beyond the confines of their own short existences, while humanity, which has the potential for community, can see a bigger, and ultimately more lasting picture.
This is one of Dick's best novels: well-constructed around a strong central character, with a reasonable ending instead of the jaw-dropping "twist" that (while cool) sometimes mars his books. Readers new to this giant of the genre might do well to start here.
Average customer rating:
- Beachmaster
- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe - with a Military SciFi bend
- So-so
- Surprised me
- "Imagine you're a tapworm, and then suddenly you're Goethe. It's like that."
|
The Android's Dream
John Scalzi
Manufacturer: Tor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The Last Colony
-
The Ghost Brigades
-
The Sagan Diary
-
Old Man's War
-
The Jennifer Morgue
ASIN: 0765309416
Release Date: 2006-10-31 |
Book Description
A human diplomat kills his alien counterpart. Earth is on the verge of war with a vastly superior alien race. A lone man races against time and a host of enemies to find the one object that can save our planet and our people from alien enslavement...
A sheep.
That's right, a sheep. And if you think that's the most surprising thing about this book, wait until you read Chapter One. Welcome to The Android's Dream.
For Harry Creek, it's quickly becoming a nightmare. All he wants is to do his uncomplicated mid-level diplomatic job with Earth's State Department. But his past training and skills get him tapped to save the planet--and to protect pet store owner Robin Baker, whose own past holds the key to the whereabouts of that lost sheep. Doing both will take him from lava-strewn battlefields to alien halls of power. All in a day's work. Maybe it's time for a raise.
Throw in two-timing freelance mercenaries, political lobbyists with megalomaniac tendencies, aliens on a religious quest, and an artificial intelligence with unusual backstory, and you've got more than just your usual science fiction adventure story. You've got The Android's Dream.
Customer Reviews:
Beachmaster.......2007-09-05
As an avid SciFi reader, I found it difficult to put this book down. Mr. Scalzi does a masterful job of integrating some old classic themes with his amazing story telling.
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe - with a Military SciFi bend.......2007-08-27
THE ANDROID'S DREAM(2006) follows in the footsteps of books from the humorous THE HITCHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE series - but with a serious Military SciFi bend. We have quite a few aliens - mostly of a militant persuasion. Set sometime in the 22nd Century, Earth is a weak new member of the Common Confederation (of planetary governments), who could easily be crushed militarily by other more powerful members - and this scenario (of being crushed) begins to come to pass, when an American Diplomat sneaks a "flatulance machine" into an interplanetary business negotiation meeting with the "Nidu" (a reptilian race with a supreme sense of smell... smells which are used much as humans use language)... The antics which transpire with the "flatulance machine" are quite laugh-out-loud funny... and lead to all sorts of wild scenes, as the hero of the book (Harry Creek) tries to "save the universe".
So-so.......2007-08-24
I was so impressed with "Old Man's War" that I immediately bought "Ghost Brigade", "Last Colony", and "Android's Dream". The first three I'll put in the class of the Ender's Shadow series--highly recommended! But "Android's Dream" is fluff. Mildly entertaining, with a humorous treatment of diplomatic and military bureaucracy--but the shock value of the off-color expletives soon faded and became distracting. I have trouble accepting that all aliens speak like dock-workers; or that every chapter required obscenity. I don't believe you should avoid this book because of the sporadic language irritations, but the story is nowhere near as entertaining as the Old Man's War series, and so I recommend that you borrow the book from someone else, rather than buy your own copy.
Surprised me.......2007-08-17
I read "Old Man's War" first, and was expecting something similar. Ready to quit after about 10 pages, but at 20 pages couldn't stop. I went to work sleepy a couple of days, reading this too late into the night. No, it's not "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy", it stands on it's own merits. Scalzi has his own sense of humor, and it sure had me laughing.
"Imagine you're a tapworm, and then suddenly you're Goethe. It's like that.".......2007-07-28
Scalzi is nothing if not original. He's best known for the "Old Man's War" military series, but this off-the-wall yarn is quite different, being a combination of spy fiction, interplanetary conspiracies, deliberately created theology (by a third-rate science fiction author-slash-con man, no less), a satirical treatment of federal bureaucracy, some intriguing future computer applications (involving a resurrected infantryman turned semi-superhero) planet-busting space fleets, and through it all a cynical, dour humor and some great dialogue. And every now and then, the laughter freezes in your throat when the plot shows its teeth. A good weekend's read.
Book Description
Known in his lifetime primarily to readers of science fiction, Philip K. Dick (1928-82) is now seen as a uniquely visionary figure, a writer who, in editor Jonathan Lethem's words, "wielded a sardonic yet heartbroken acuity about the plight of being alive in the twentieth century, one that makes him a lonely hero to the readers who cherish him." Posing the questions "What is human?" and "What is real?" in a multitude of fascinating ways, Dick produced works-fantastic and weird yet developed with precise logic, marked by wild humor and soaring flights of religious speculation-that are startlingly prescient imaginative responses to 21st-century quandaries.
This Library of America volume brings together four of Dick's most original novels. The Man in the High Castle (1962), which won the Hugo Award, describes an alternate world in which Japan and Germany have won World War II and America is divided into separate occupation zones. The dizzying The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965) posits a future in which competing hallucinogens proffer different brands of virtual reality. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968), about a bounty hunter in search of escaped androids in a postapocalyptic future, was the basis for the movie Blade Runner. Ubik (1969), with its future world of psychic espionage agents and cryogenically frozen patients inhabiting an illusory "half-life," pursues Dick's theme of simulated realities and false perceptions to ever more disturbing conclusions. As with most of Dick's novels, no plot summary can suggest the mesmerizing and constantly surprising texture of these astonishing books.
Customer Reviews:
dick novel sayer.......2007-09-30
The book is worth owning for the quality of the binding work. Fine paper, pages are well set, the binding is cloth and durable. The novels are also interesting, a combination of time capsule and science fiction.
Interesting but not earth-shaking collection of 1960's sci-fi.......2007-09-25
This is a collection of 4 of Philip K. Dick's sci-fi novels of the 1960's including Hugo award winner "The Man in the High Castle". The other three books are "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch", "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", and "Ubik" (see my review).
The Library of America has done the reading public a great service in printing collections of great American authors. This is the 173rd in the collection. I have read almost all of them. This one seems a little out of place, not because of the genre (I love science fiction and look forward to more LOA sci-fi), but because Dick is a second tier sci-fi author.
I know that there are Dick fanatics. But Dick's novels are dated, the characterizations are weak, the dialogue is stilted, and the plots often make no sense - and that's just what his admirers say.
Like all LOA offerings this is an excellent, low-priced hardback book that is well worth the money. Dick is still read-worthy mostly because several of his books have been made into movies - the best known of which are "Total Recall" with soft-core porn star and serial-groping Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger and "Blade Runner" with Harrison Ford. These movies are pretty good and "Blade Runner" was a great movie that has been influential. The problem is these movies are nothing like the books. The plots and characters have been changed by the screenplay authors, and I'm not talking a little bit but major changes in plot and character. So it really isn't fair to credit Dick with these movies that are loosely based, at best, on his works.
To really get the most out of these books and understand Dick's place in literature you need to understand a few things about the author. First of all Dick was nuts. Certifiably. In and out of asylum kind of nuts. His whole life. He was also into every drug you can imagine. His personal life was a shambles. His books never really sold well - as a matter of fact he was on welfare or bummed off of friends most of his life. No one knows whether anything Dick said was true or not. Many of his claims are clearly false. Some are not. He apparently was monitored by the FBI at some time, but then so were most malcontents of that period. But the prime suspect in a break-in of Dick's house was - Dick himself - as Dick himself admitted.
Dick liked to go to sci-fi conventions and use drugs. The 1968 Bay area sci-fi convention was known as "Drugcon" (Drug Convention) due to the prevalence of various mind-altering chemicals. This is important because one of Dick's novels main problems is that Dick's novels and stories often don't make sense.
And so we come to the four novels in this book. The first, "The Man in the High Castle" won the Hugo award of 1962. (The Hugo and the Nebula award are the highest honors in Science Fiction writing for you non Sci-Fi lovers) This novel is an alternate history if the US lost the Second World War. Interesting concept but the book's characters were particularly weak with none of them being particularly sympathetic. And the ending was a typical Dick ending where he made it possible that the whole book prior to that point may have been an illusion. The middle part was slow, but hey, it won a Hugo so give it a read.
The second book, "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch" is a confused work that doesn't make sense as characters die and re-appear from various time-lines. Dick's favorite theme was "Is reality real", but this book has all kinds of plot inconsistencies. And any book that Yoko Lennon wanted to make a movie of is clearly suspect.
"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" is the third book and the source of "Blade Runner". The movie screenplay is more interesting than the book. Dick's female characters almost always tended to by tricky, sex-starved, and one-dimensional. The movie does a much better job with the female characters.
The last book, "Ubik", is by far the best of the lot, though it won no prizes. The constant making fun of capitalist, American culture is one of my favorite things in this book. See my review for further details.
Overall, these are interesting books with the faults noted above. I think Heinlein, Card, Asimov, and other Sci-Fi writers are better though.
Much-deserved canonization.......2007-09-19
One needn't have been a sci-fi aficionado to have recognized Phil Dick's importance in American letters. His work had a prescience that relied only partly on the imaginative constructs that are staples of the genre. Dick's looks into the future were always grounded in a profound understanding of the eternal present of the human psyche -- man's desires and capabilities and the tensions created by the failure of the latter to achieve the ambitions of the former.
The four works in this collection reflect that sensitivity. They also explore, in successively more comprehensive ways, the relation between man and God, how each is a reflection of the other. In a real sense, they are works of remarkable piety.
As its inclusion in the Library of America suggests, these novels are well worth the time of the reading public.
Remarkable.......2007-07-26
I read alot, mostly sci-fi. I have never read anything like these stories by PKD. He must have been really deep into these stories as he was writing them. Very enjoyable.
The Definitive PKD.......2007-06-08
In the 1960s, when he wrote these four novels, Philip K. Dick was not known, as he is today, as an acclaimed "literary" science-fiction writer and visionary who inspired many films. Since his death in 1982, his reputation has steadily soared, a little bit too late, and now this former genre journeyman toiling in obscurity has become the first sf author to be enshrined in a handsome omnibus volume in the esteemed Library of America series. Of course, I had to buy it even though I already owned multiple copies of all these novels. It is a genuine pleasure to read any of the LOA volumes, so lovingly produced they are. And this one especially so, compiled as it was by an author heavily influenced by Dick, Jonathan Lethem. You will never see a biographical chronology so interesting to read in its own right: we even learn that Timothy Leary called Dick during John and Yoko's bed-in and he put the famous pair on the phone to tell PKD that they wanted to film one of the four novels contained here, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. Incidentally, Lethem's taste is impeccable. Though Dick wrote no fewer than 21 novels in the 1960s (plus a couple of dozen more before and after), these are without a doubt the four best: The Three Stigmata, The Man in the High Castle, Ubik, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? One could easily compile another such volume with four more extremely strong novels of this period: Clans of the Alphane Moon, Dr. Bloodmoney, Now Wait for Last Year, and Martian Time-Slip. However, the ones collected here are the ones I would pick, if I could have only four. They are all absolute classics and support many rereadings. I remember when in the 1970s, I encountered Three Stigmata for the first time and could not totally make sense of it, but I was intrigued. It was hallucinogenic, it was trippy, it was theological. A few years later I found myself seeking it out again, rereading with a passion, finally really "getting it," and then compulsively seeking out everything I could find by PKD. It took me years but I eventually tracked down every last out-of-print forgotten paperback. Since then all his works have been reprinted and made easily available. But my original "discovery" experience is why this LOA volume means so much to me now. The Man in the High Castle is perhaps the best alternate history ever written, a speculation on what life would have been like if the Germans and Japanese had won World War II. Ubik is a brilliant ontological quest into the very structure of reality. Do Androids Dream, the novel on which the film Blade Runner is based, is among other things a meditation on what it means to be human. These four novels have become like cornerstones in my own life's journey. For them to have been given this respectful and definitive publication is something that brings me a lot of pleasure, and would also, I think, have pleased Philip K. Dick.
Book Description
Bring a robot to life without programming or assembly language skills!
There’s never been a better time to explore the world of the nearly human. With the complete directions supplied by popular electronics author John Iovine, you can:
• Build your first walking, talking, sensing, thinking robot
• Create 12 working robotic projects, using the fully illustrated instructions provided
• Get the best available introduction to robotics, motion control, sensors, and neural intelligence
• Put together basic modules to build sophisticated ‘bots of your own design
• Construct a robotic arm that responds to your spoken commands
• Build a realistic, functional robotic hand
• Apply sensors to detect bumps, walls, inclines , and roads
• Give your robot expertise and neural intelligence
You geteverything you need to create 12 exciting robotic projects using off-the-shelf products and workshop-built devices, including a complete parts list. Also ideal for anyone interested in electronic and motion control, this cult classic gives you the building blocks you need to go practically anywhere in robotics.
Customer Reviews:
Very good Hobbiest book.......2006-11-10
Plenty of information for make very good projects, unfortunately for my taste, the autor only works with PIC microcontrollers, perhaps a very good book
Very good book!!.......2003-09-18
This book is great for the beginner. Iovine explains the subject matter in a way that makes it exciting and fun. He has a way of getting the exciting vision of building robots across to the reader. The book makes it easy to get parts needed for the projects from the authors web site. I'm really looking forward to his new book, Pic Robotics!!!
I'm glad I finally found a decent book on pics!.......2002-06-03
This was the 3rd book I purchased on pics. The other 2 books - one by Myke Predko (awful), the other by David L. Benson (dissapointing.)
I wish this had been the first. Although not geared specificly towards pics, that was my reason for buying it. I was interested in pics and robotics; so this book was right up my alley.
Admittedly the book has numerous plugs for a company the guy obviously works for, owns, or gets kickbacks from! And he wants you to put out a considerable about of cash from the get go to purchase items he wants you to use in order to follow along with him. However, that doesn't bother me. I never build any projects I see in these type of books. I only use them for learning - I build my own projects.
This book did teach me quite a bit about pics. Which was my goal. He didn't bog you down with the history or innards of pics like other books. Which I am not interested in. The book was a great mixture of hardware and software topics...
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in pics... Subsequently I purchased another book by him simply because I saw his name on it and I wasn't dissapointed! I'm looking forward to other books by John Iovine in the future...
Projects can be a bit pricy........2002-03-13
The illustrations and text I found to be very helpful for a project I was working on, but the supplies the book recommends can usually de difficult to find, and can tend to be a bit pricy.
I recommend visiting a local toy store after deciding on a project, and buying toys with the parts you need. Its more fun to make one thing into another anyway.
This book has changed my life........2002-01-23
I bought this book with the humble desire of creating a simple companion. After I finished, the Creation turned on me and my family and reprogrammed my VCR. It then proceeded to change the message on my answering machine. It somehow convinced my Nissan truck not to allow me inside. I fear for my life. How could I have let it go this far? All I really wanted was a cute little Furby but I ended up with a cyber-monster with dreams of wiping out humans and creating a robotic Utopian Hell.....other than that, the book was pretty cool.
Amazon.com
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a book that most people think they remember and almost always get more or less wrong. Ridley Scott's film Blade Runner took a lot from it, and threw a lot away. Wonderful in itself, the film is a flash thriller, whereas Dick's novel is a sober meditation. As we all know, bounty hunter Rick Deckard is stalking a group of androids who have returned from space with short life spans and murder on their minds--where Scott's Deckard was Harrison Ford, Dick's is a financially strapped municipal employee with bills to pay and a depressed wife. In a world where most animals have died, and pet keeping is a social duty, he can only afford a robot imitation, unless he gets a big financial break.
The genetically warped "chickenhead" John Isidore has visions of a tomb-world where entropy has finally won. And everyone plugs in to the spiritual agony of Mercer, whose sufferings for the sins of humanity are broadcast several times a day. Prefiguring the religious obsessions of Dick's last novels, this book asks dark questions about identity and altruism. After all, is it right to kill the killers just because Mercer says so? --Roz Kaveney, Amazon.co.uk
Book Description
It was January 2021, and Rick Deckard had a license to kill.
Somewhere among the hordes of humans out there, lurked several rogue androids. Deckard's assignmet--find them and then..."retire" them. Trouble was, the androids all looked exactly like humans, and they didn't want to be found!
Customer Reviews:
Just as fun reading as it is to watch the movie.......2007-06-30
When I saw Blade Runner for the first time I realized that I had just seen something that was original, smart and that related to me in many, many ways.
I found out that it was loosely based on the book, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" and decided that if the movie is as good as it is and it's a condensed version of the story in the book, than the book should be just as good, if not better.
I ordered it from Amazon and started reading. I was only a few pages in when I realized just how "loosely" the movie was based on the book. The book was an entirely different experience.
This book is filled with compelling drama, deception, sci-fi, and 1940's crime-noir style storytelling (complete with the classic femme-fatal) and it does not dissapoint.
Sure, you already paid to see the movie, and you might be thinking, "Why would I pay to read the same story?" You aren't. You will be pleased with this book emensely - it's a completely different story.
thought provoking but less than great prose.......2007-06-18
Androids takes place in a not-so-distant future where a world war has spread a cloud of radioactive dust across the globe, many forms of animal species are extinct, many of the survivors have emigrated to colonies on Mars and the remaining humans are encouraged to emigrate, except for those who have been tested and classified as "specials" meaning the ones with diminished mental abilities because they have been affected severely from radiation. Emigrants are given androids, very sophisticated robots, as slaves. As the technology gets better, newly manufactured androids become more and more human-like, both in appearance and behavior, to the point that they are very hard to distinguish. Discontented androids sometimes kill their masters and find ways to smuggle themselves to earth, in hopes for a better life. In the post-world war earth, life is regarded so precious that owning and caring for an animal is both considered a highly moral life and a status symbol. Because real animals are so rare, many people have fake, very sophisticated and real-like electronic animals that they care for and hide from their neighbors the fact that their animal is fake. On the one hand there are bounty hunters who catch and kill androids, human robots which dreamt of a better life, evidently with some feelings. And on the other hand there is the value which people place upon animal robots. On the one hand there are intelligent, sophisticated androids like the one who made a successful carrier on earth as an opera singer; on the other hand there are hunters who emotionlessly kill her without regard to her artistic talent, or there are simple-minded specials. Throughout the plot, readers are given a lot to think about questions like what is life, what is empathy, where do you draw a line between the value of real and artificial life? It is a philosophical novel and the author puts all these questions before us with brilliant comparisons between characters. The only negative feeling that one might get is the unusual, somewhat simple prose style but overall, a very good, thought provoking novel.
Things Pretending to be People.......2007-03-24
This anti-robot novel is oft misunderstood by those who come to it with expectations formed by the pro-robot movie. The novel is essentially a paranoid fantasy about machines which pretend to be people. The pretense is so horrifyingly effective that a bounty hunter engaged in the entirely necessary task of rooting out and destroying these monsters finds that his own humanity has become imperiled.
Originally entitled "DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP," this novel was re-titled "BLADE RUNNER" to tie it to the Ridley Scott film loosely based on it. It remains available under either title (and with separate entries on AMAZON), but it is the same book. The film studio wanted to market a "novelization" of the film, but PKD adamantly refused to authorize this, forcing them to instead market his original novel under the film's title. Good move, Phil!
This decision, however, has led to confusion and/or disappointment when readers approach the novel with expectations formed by the film. Many reviewers here (whether they like the book, the film, or both) have commented on how different they are. Few seem to realize, however, the extent that they are in direct and fundamental conflict. Some praise the book for tearing down the distinction between man and machine or promoting other nihilistic views and pro-robot messages that the author would have found abhorent. Others pan it for lack of focus in failing to promote the film's pro-robot agenda as effectively as the film did.
That conflict may be summarized as follows: The book is anti-robot and pro-human, and seeks to uphold the distinction between robot and human, and between illusion and reality, in the face of a most-insidious challenge. The film was pro-robot and anti-human, promoting the idea that a compelling illusion is equivalent to reality, and that its ruthless robots were, if anything, better than humans.
The book glorifies the common man for his basic decency -- specifically his capacity for basic empathy and compassion -- and deplores the robots for their complete lack of these qualities. In the book, even a "chickenhead" (a mentally retarded human mutant) is infinitely more valuable than the smartest robot. The film on the other hand, glorifies the robot as a sort of superman ("more human than human") -- stronger, faster, more beautiful, more intelligent, -- who seem poised to inherit the future on a dying Earth. The film even seems to admire the robots for their ruthlessness.
The book makes Deckard (the protagonist) human, and loyal to humans. The film has Deckard switch sides and join the robots. Indeed, in the film (not the book) Deckard may himself be a robot (the latter is never made explicit, but director has made clear it is what he intended). This means that, in the FILM, there are virtually no sympathetic human characters -- those characters who suggest that a man is worth more than a computer program are portrayed as bigots.
In PKD's view, the androids are unquestionably monsters who must be destroyed. The irony, and the central problem posed in the novel, is that their ability to SEEM human (which,, in the NOVEL, is never more than meticulously-programmed fakery), means that those who must destroy robots risk damage to their own humanity in the process. Thus, the author approves of Deckard's wife, whose sympathy for the "poor andys" is evidence of her humanity, while still approving of Deckard's assignment.
In the novel, the robots' increased ability to fool the VK test is merely an advance in programmed mimicry of human test responses. The film, on the other hand, treats the improved performance on the VK test as evidence that the robots are truly "human". But the film's robots do not demonstrate compassion in any meaningful way. The agenda of the film is NOT so mcuh to show that robots are as compassionate as humans, but rather to show that humans are as ruthless as robots (as evidenced, mainly, by their willingness to kill robots). This agenda is eerily similar to that of the TV androids near the end of the novel, who set out to expose human empathy as a myth.
In the novel, the title question must be answered in the negative. Androids DON'T care about other creatures. It is humans who have the capacity care about other creatures -- ironically, even about androids -- even electric sheep.
So many, even among the author's admirers, have missed the novel's true focus that it may be best to defend my interpretation with a quote from the author himself, made shortly before his death (quoted in the book "Future Noir"):
"To me, the replicants are deplorable. They are cruel, they are cold,
they are heartless. They have no empathy, which is how the
Voight-Kampff test catches them out, and don't care about what happens
to other creatures. They are essentially less-than-human entities.
"Ridley, on the other hand, said he regarded them as supermen who
couldn't fly. He said they were smarter, stronger, and had faster
reflexes than humans. 'Golly!' That's all I could think of to reply
to that one. I mean, Ridley's attitude was quite a divergence from my
original point of view, since the theme of my book is that Deckard is
dehumanized through tracking down the androids. When I mentioned
this, Ridley said that he considered it an intellectual idea, and that
he was not interested in making an esoteric film."
Read all Dick's writing as a body of work.......2007-03-09
Philip K. Dick's work has to be taken as a body. All of it encompasses what I call his "ironic paranoia." "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" fits right into this.
The problems with Dick's films are two. They are either (1) too philosophical or (2) action films. Or they are both. What they have not been is ironical. And without irony, you haven't got Dick.
"Minority Report," "Blade Runner," and even "Screamers" were enjoyable films. But they all lacked Dick's wit. Only "Total Recall" came close, with its unexpected twists feeding on paranoia, though the overall result was more burlesque than satire.
Stick with "Androids" and the other novels and short stories, especially the earlier ones (through 1965). Taken as a body of work, they are monumental.
Much different than the movie. .......2007-01-05
Phil's story has a very differnt tone, a married cop, machines with slightly different motives, and much more back story on earth and what is motivating folks. I think in making the movie it was best to cut out the marriage as well as the backstory on why people all crave to have their very own animal such as sheep, horse, goats, cats and yes even electric sheep.
Nevertheless I loved this book for all its differences.
Book Description
Cassandra Kresnov is a highly advanced hunter-killer android. She has escaped the League and fled to Callay, a member of the Federation. Because of her fighting skills she was able to save the president's life and is now a trusted member of the security forces. However, not all Tanushans are happy to have her on their turf and Cassandra has to tread carefully. As Callay moves towards a vote on whether to break away from the Federation, confusion reigns and terrorist groups plot their own agendas. Cassandra becomes involved with two young troubleshooters for the secret service and finds out more than she ever wanted to know about the Tanushan underground and those on the fringes.
Furthermore, there is a delegation from the League in Tanusha, and Cassandra is not sure that they won't try to take her back. Breakaway is a great story with a cracking plot and strong characters. At its heart is the enigma of Cassandra: Is she more human than human, or is she totally untrustworthy?
Customer Reviews:
Australian SF Reader.......2007-08-01
Sandy's superhuman abilities and military knowledge and skills have led her into the Tanushan Special Forces, and a command position.
Her political opponents aren't too happy about having a GI in this position, and others like her have caused a lot of Tanushan casualties.
The League, Sandy's creators, have people coming to Tanusha for political talks. All this gets pretty complicated.
So, a bit of spy work here, through an acquaintance of her friend Vanessa Rice's, Ari, who is a spy as well as a counter-culture technologist.
Plots to uncover, people to save, as Sandy tries to stay where she is, and stop people from dying.
ambitious stuff.......2007-07-17
This project by Mr. Shepherd is quite ambitious and it is for that wider ranging scope that I'm parceling out the 5 stars. Is it the best of this type of visionary far future speculating that has been such a cornerstone of Science Fiction since I began reading it so many years ago with Issac Assimov, Poul Anderson and others? No, probably not. But it's good, real good, and there's no four and a half star rating available, so full marks.
Much like Assimov with his Robot and Foundation epics this series of books (2 out and one more planned) asks some questions about what we are as a species, as political and cultural groups, and as individuals. And by golly, it asks! There are no obvious answers provided, just folks doing the best (sometime good, sometimes dreadful) that they can. Anybody with the paucity of wit to say it lacks all merit says more about him or her self than about this future day Cassandra story as told by Mr. Shepherd.
Cassandra, of course, was a figure from Greek mythology. So beautiful was she that she turned the head of Appolo. He first gave her the gift of prophecy and, when she jilted him, cursed her by making everyone disbelieve her predictions. Certainly this Cassandra is both blessed and cursed as well, if not by a denizen of Mt. Olympus, by one of our current substitues for those gods and goddesses, science. This Cassandra doesn't have the original's prescience, but she is beautiful, implacably deadly, strong, fast, smart, sexually promiscuous (sort of), did I mention implacably deadly, and all of 15 actual years old. A product of tape digital direct learning, she had no childhood since she was created fully formed, learned what she learned in various wartime black ops, and learned in ways and directions unpredicted by her "creators" who were only looking for a better weapon and instead got, well, you'll have to read the books and decide for yourself what they got. In this particular book a 165 year old Hindu Yogi sees in her proof that the Universe itself is alive and we all share in it's collective soul. Be that as it may, she's kicks serious behind, dodges multiple political machinations, and struggles to tell the players without a scorecard.
The book is well written, has some interesting techno speculations, as well as very interesting social, cultural, personal, philosophical, and even religious ones, AND it got lots of action to keep things on the boil. All the speculations are well integrated into the plot and certainly, given the character Shepherd created and the crazy chaotic situation he's landed her in this installment, quite believeable. I am an action junkie, no doubt, so trust me, this work doesn't preach and doesn't drag. Surely one man's ceiling is another man's floor, but I think if you're looking for entertainment that'll also give you something to think about, some different perspectives to your current world view, I highly recommend this effort. Ambitious stuff.
c. francis - book lover.......2007-07-10
Joel Shepherd is brillant. You can not but fall into the story and take the ride along with his characters. There is something wrong with any one who does not like this new writer.
Save your Money.......2007-07-09
A disappointment by any standard. I am a big of fan of this type of action Science Fiction books, but nothing in this book impressed me. Although the author Shepherd gave page after page of character background and thinking, he failed to generate any interesting characters. Even the action sequences left me cold. I suppose if you're blown away of the possibility of complex networking systems that can be hacked in less then one second then maybe this is the book for you. Or maybe you love to hear rambling philosophical musings of how earth cultures developed and adapted to the colonization of planets. I barely managed to finish the book and will not burden my friends with a recommendation.
Good second book in the series.......2007-06-15
This is the second in what is supposed to be a trilogy of books centering on a military android named Cassandra Kresnov who switched sides after an interstellar war. The war was between two groups of humanity with opposing ideas on how far technology should be allowed to develop, and she is the ultimate technological development of the "development without limits" side of the war. The first book dealt with her move from a culture that accepted her but also used her to a culture that was scared of her and wasn't sure what to do with her. Many reviewers of the first book were offended by the open discussion of sex, but I saw it as a result of her creation and use in an environment where she and her fellow androids did not learn the social taboos of modern America. That dispute aside, the first book was an excellent action adventure. That continues in the second book, and there is much less talk about sex for those who are offended by it. In this book, which takes place immediately after the first book (and both books together only cover a period of several months) Kresnov is accepted into the security forces of her new society, but kept a secret because her abilities and existence still scare people. There's plenty of action and political intrigue, just like the first book, and it is a good, self-contained novel. Fortunately there's no cliff-hanger or "have to buy the last novel to reach closure" ending. I look forward to the third book, but I'm wary of what happens because of the proposed name: Killswitch.
Book Description
This book of essays looks at the multitude of texts and influences which converge in Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner, especially the film’s relationship to its source novel, Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Essays consider political, moral and technological issues raised by the film, as well as literary, filmic, technical and aesthetic questions. Contributors discuss the film’s psychological and mythic patterns, importance political issues and the roots of the film in Paradise Lost, Frankenstein, detective fiction, and previous science fiction cinema.
Customer Reviews:
Essays that , like, prove it's amazing and stuff.......2005-05-26
For the ignorant fools who didn't know what they were watching the first 168 times around, this book has essays with subtexts and subconcious imagary that will blow your mind.
A box office failure shined to gold by looking-back critics and an army of fans, Blade Runner is now the requisite sci-fi inspiration film. It's still a stylish but bleak, cold film and has rightfully earned its supercult status. A lot of people responded to it in their own way.
The book has plenty of food for thought, but it gets to be much after a while. Authors compare the various themes in Blade Runner and use this as a springboard for ruminations on Frankenstein, feminism, film noir, you name it, Blade Runner has it. Slave narrative, horror film, it's in there. And there's room for an updated version as plenty of published material has appeared since this book did in the early 90s. Recommended for the obsessed Blade Runner fan--and there is no other kind.
Fascinating and Exhaustive.......2001-08-30
I thought my 10 year career as Blade Runner appreciator would have overturned all the 'stones' of interest - and yet this book yields countless articles many of which containing subtleties and revelations totally new to me. Of course, if you're not a major blade runner fan you'll want to become one first.
Oxygen for any Blade Runner fan.......2001-08-21
A must have for any die hard BR fan. Well crafted essays and opinions covering every angle a fan could ever hope for. Reads similar to a textbook. If only Scott could release a DVD version of BR this detailed.
A difintive analysis of 'Blade Runner'........2001-06-18
This book is a must-have for Blade Runner fans. Wonderfully written essays. Desser's article comparing the film to John Milton's poem/novel Paradise Lost and Frankenstein is a writing at its mind-bending best.
One of the finest books about this amazing film.......2000-07-17
If you are looking for info about the making of BLADE RUNNER you'd best look elsewhere, but if like me you want to read intelligent analysis of this amazing film then this book is one of the finest you'll find. The range of the essays is wide, looking at every facet of the film; the script, music, symbolism and much more. I've read many books on the subject of BLADE RUNNER and this one was one of the most enlightening and informative. There is more to BLADE RUNNER than you might think - and this book will show you in considerable detail. Highly recommended for fans of the film.
Customer Reviews:
One of the best.......2003-06-20
In this book, Marco and Jake discover an old friend of Marco's named Erik handing out flyers for the Sharing. They discover that he is an android created by the long-dead Pelmites, and though hard-wired for nonviolence, the Chee hate the Yeerks and act as spies for the ANIMORPHS.
Reader Over 25.......2002-09-08
There are several other basic synapsis of this book already written, so I won't rehash it all here. As with all my other reviews (I'm working on the entire series as they get reread) I'm here to offer up a different point of view. If anyone out there is wondering what someone way out of the normal age group sees in these books, then this one is for you.
This book swings back into more suspense and battle format than the last one. The balance is better in that you have Marco narrating it, and his sense of humor leaving the reader laughing, alongside a bit more action overall to go with the emotional threads. As always, there's more to it than a very good, solid, well thought out story which is both entertaining and a "can't put it down" read. Marco has much more to him than meets the eye, and although he's flippant, funny, and sarcastic even in his narration thoughts, he's also smart and quickest of all of them to see the long view. With his family being torn apart by the Yeerks taking his mother as the host body for Visser One, he has to deal with a lot of anger and rage in this book. There's a scene the other reviewers don't touch on (which is fine, that's why I'm doing this, because I'm double the normal age and see things differently). Marco gets Tom on the phone, who is a Controller. The Yeerk in Tom's head tries to sway Marco into bringing his father over into the Sharing, so they might be able to seduce him into being a voluntary host. Exploding, Marco runs red with rage over a short span of this book, finally letting most of it drain off when he morphs the spider for the first time and almost kills a beetle for food. He'd decided that he'd do anything to keep the Yeerks from getting his Dad as well as his Mom, even take down Tom if necessary. Yet, it also stresses that riding that wave of rage is like a drug, it leaves you empty and tired when its over.
There's also an interesting and fun new "species" introduced in this book with the dog-like Chee. The Androids, created as toys by a race so peaceful and playful they knew no hatred or war, could not fight because it was against their programming. After a breathtaking theft on the part of the Animorphs, they manage to get the component needed to allow the Chee to reprogram themselves. There's also something nice in Applegate's writing, because the Animorphs make a serious mistake over something very small at the end of the book, and it turns into a fighting retreat which almost gets them all killed. Erek is able to reprogram himself and save the Animorphs via mass slaughter of the enemies. However, the price of losing their "innocence" is so high, its unacceptable. The Chee can never forget, and lack the human ability to put something behind them. Although many of the younger readers might well miss it, it leaves a residue thought of "what if... every bad thing we've done in our lives was burned right at the forefront of our minds and we had to relive it every single moment?" That was the reason the Chee could not fight, and the price was simply too heavy. Themes like that tend to stick with readers a long time after the story is read, and I think that's what may very well keep Animorphs around to endure into a modern classic some day.
I gave this book a 4 instead of 5 star rating on the basis of believability. I take into account this series is written for an age group of 9-12, but Applegate tends to be good with most of her realism (for Sci-Fi of course). This one stretched it quite a bit with a huge, underground park which had mobs of dogs running around in it. The space was vast, even having a false sun, and a huge amount of dogs running loose in it. That one stretched things a bit, even with the technology available to the Chee, just in maintaining it, feeding all those dogs, general pet care/clean up, and the sheer size of it. A fun idea, but just enough "out there" that it lost a star in my ratings. All in all, however, a very entertaining read and wonderful addition to the series as a whole.
Fabulous!!!!!!!.......1999-10-11
This book was fantastic!! I loved it!! Of course, I love all Animorph books!! It was weird, crazy, and insane all at once!! KA Applegate is the best author ever! She did a fantastic(times 100000000000000000 more)Buy this book! Or the Yeerks shall get you.
one of the best books in the series.......1999-08-11
i really enjoyed this book along with the other books in the series (so does my 20-year-old sister). this was one of the most exciting animorphs books i've ever read, i especially liked the way k. a. applegate expresses marco's point of view. i would like to recomend this, and all the other animorphs books, to anybody who loves to read.
"The Android has LAUGHTER in it," says Hector........1999-05-10
This book made me laugh, but it also has adventures. I like this book because of its adventures. It is a very good book. I think noone is going to doubt this book.
Average customer rating:
- Enthusiastic Recommendation
- No Muss, No Fuss
- Look no further for detailed and anatomically correct human modelling! Excellent book!!
- Pretty Good.
- He thought of everything!
|
Building a Digital Human (Graphics Series) (Graphics Series)
Ken Brilliant
Manufacturer: Charles River Media
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Graphic Arts
| Graphic Design
| Design & Decorative Arts
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Guides
| Job Hunting & Careers
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Web Graphics
| Web Design
| Web Development
| Computers & Internet
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Artificial Intelligence
| Computer Science
| Computers & Internet
| Subjects
| Books
Robotics
| Artificial Intelligence
| Computer Science
| Computers & Internet
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Programming
| Computers & Internet
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Graphic Design
| Computers & Internet
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Software
| Computers & Internet
| Subjects
| Books
Robotics
| Mechanical
| Engineering
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Arts & Photography
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Business & Investing
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Computers & Internet
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Professional
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Stop Staring: Facial Modeling and Animation Done Right
-
Polygonal Modeling: Basic and Advanced Techniques (Worldwide Game and Graphics Library)
-
Modeling Digital Dinosaurs (Graphics Series)
-
Texturing: Concepts and Techniques (Graphics Series)
-
Digital Texturing & Painting
ASIN: 1584502851 |
Book Description
In the universe of 3D animation and graphics, the final frontier isn't the vast unknown depths of outer space but rather the intimately familiar human form. Replicating this body is by far the most challenging journey to undertake as a digital artist. Why? Because everyone knows what a human looks like. Digital humans are in our midst. They are stuntmen and background extras in movies such as Titanic. They are your favorite hero or heroine in video games like Tomb Raider. They are the main characters in Saturday morning children's shows such as Max Steel. And now, they have even taken center stage as full fledged, photorealistic actors in such feature films as Final Fantasy. It is clear that digital humans are here to stay; and that artists need to know how to create them. To help artists learn how to master today's powerful 3D tools and improve their skills, Building a Digital Human explores the entire modeling process from head to toe. Beginning with the fundamentals of assembling reference material (photos, anatomy books, etc.) through the details of texturing and refining the skin and hair, a complete human model is built. Once the model is complete, a female and fantasy troll are created to illustrate how easy it is to transform the basic model. Building A Digital Human teaches modelers and artists the texturing and modeling skills needed to create 3D digital humans. It also provides fundamental skills that can be used for a variety of other 3D projects. The models in the book were built using NewTek's LightWave 3D, however, the techniques can be applied to just about any 3D package on the market. The ideas covered utilize a relatively small toolset, so transferring the steps to your program of choice isn't difficult. To make the transition between programs as easy as possible, a quick list of corresponding tool names from Maya, 3ds max, and LightWave 3D is included.
Customer Reviews:
Enthusiastic Recommendation.......2007-05-07
This book is great for the self taught person with significant insignificant questions. In completing this book, all those questions answer themselves. None of that "cutsie" just great tutorial. Instruction is easily to understand and follow. I've gone through the book a couple of times and discovered something new each time. When I finished with this book, I knew what I was doing and why.
Money well spent on this book.
No Muss, No Fuss.......2007-02-09
Straigh-forward writing with no pretension. Some knowledge of 3D graphics vocabulary is helpful but not necessary.
Book is one example from beginning to end; presumably the author. Starts with some pictures and, step-by-detailed-step, ends with an avatar.
The only fault I found is that he doesn't mention Poser in the list of 3D modeling programs for human figures.
Look no further for detailed and anatomically correct human modelling! Excellent book!!.......2006-10-03
If you want to learn how to model a detailed digital human,this is THE book for you! You start out with totally empty viewports,and if you follow the book you'll end up having created a model with an incredible amount of detail.
The author explains in great detail the process of modelling every body part (head,neck,arms,hands,legs,feet and torso) with anatomical references where they're most important.
I wanted a book which I could use as a definitive guide to model a detailed and anatomically correct human body or body part,and I'll look no further when I have to do so. It's also got a clever chapter about modifying the same model to create very different ones, and a good chapter about texturing and UVW unwrapping. Finally, it refers to cloth and hair (somewhat briefly) and,no,it DOESN'T cover rigging. But it does cover, extremely well, human modelling, which is what mr.Brilliant had set out to do,I assume. Very very good!
Pretty Good........2006-08-03
I used this as a class textbook and it worked fairly well. This is not a single program book so this will work well with whatever program you model with. Although, depending on what you model with, depends on if you need to go out and find plug-ins that will do what he does. The book is really good going through step by step. Although there are some occasions where he leaps forwards ahead with really telling you what to do. Also, sometimes when he gives instructions, there aren't any images to go along with them, so you have to end up guessing what to do.
This is modeling for realism/cinematics and if you want to use this book to model in-game characters, you are out of luck. The was he teaches you to model is extremely high poly (especially in the head). The CD doesn't do much for you, it mainly just has naked pictures of the guy he models on it so you can copy exactly what he does. The book does give good information on the differences between modeling men and women, although it is fairly brief. He does go into UV mapping pretty good as well as modeling hair. The book doesn't, however, go into modeling clothing fairly well, just a short chapter. The book also doesn't even mention rigging, which I think is a crucial part in character modeling.
He thought of everything!.......2005-09-30
Given that you are already familiar with some type of modeling software, this book is the best resource you could have! The non-software specific approach of the book keeps it focused on the concepts of creating a good model rather than the user interface. Every detail of the body is covered with step-by-step diagrams, and a lot of it focuses on creating a topology that is animatable and will subdivide correctly (ie the mesh is mostly in quads). It also covers texturing, rigging, facial animation, both modeled and simulated hair, and simple clothing. The book discusses anatomy to the extent that it is needed to create a realistic model, and uses those concepts to demonstrate how the male model you create can be changed into a female, or into a fantasy character that looks completely different.
One thing that did make it a little difficult to use was that in the screenshots, the mesh was transparent and therefore you couldn't tell whether vertices were at the front or the back of the model. More screenshots with an opaque mesh would have made it easier to see the topology.
Overall, the explanations are concise and makes the task seem efficient, easy, and fun.
Amazon.com
Book Description From the amazing automatons of feudal Japan to giant animated robots and the cutting-edge androids of today, Loving the Machine is a fascinating journey of passion and discovery.
 |
| Watch a video clip featuring author Timothy Hornyak--and robots |
How Much Do You Really Know About Robots?
(After reading Loving the Machine: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots, you'll know a lot!)
Q: Where did the term "robot" first appear, and who coined it?
A: Karel Capek, pronounced [KARL CHAP-ek], in his 1921 play R. U. R. (Rossum's Universal Robots).
Q: One of Japan's first "robots" was a clockwork servant who would bring guests a cup of tea, then return to the server with the empty cup. In what century did these "tea-serving dolls" as they were known, appear?
A: The Eighteenth century, Japan's Edo period.
Q: The animated hero Astro Boy may have 100,000 horsepower strength, but does he have a human soul?
A: Yes—and more importantly, he can fire bullets out of his backside!
Q: Wakamaru is a robot created by Mitsubishi that can recite news and weather forecasts that it receives from the Internet, look into people's eyes when being spoken to, and charge itself when its power is running low. For what purpose was Wakamaru built?
A: For domestic help.
Q: The RoboCup, in which robot teams of soccer players from around the world compete, has as its ultimate goal the creation of a team of robots who will be able to take on the reigning World Cup champions. By what year do the RoboCup's founders hope to have a team of robot Beckhams ready to face humanity's top players?
A: 2050.
Q: What team's humanoid robots won the RoboCup in the summer of 2006—and in several years before that?
A: Team Osaka (which is managed by Systec Akazawa Co. and includes robotics experts from Osaka University).
Q: Which team won in the Small Robot League this past summer?
A: Carnegie-Mellon University's CMDragons.
Q: Sony's Aibo robot, first available to consumers in 1999, was not a humanoid robot. What did it resemble?
A: A puppy.
Q: One of the most advanced robots in the world is ASIMO, a humanoid who can recognize faces, serve drinks, and run at 4 miles per hour. ASIMO rang the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange in 2002, and was parodied on a South Park episode in which Eric Cartman tried to pass himself off as a robot called "AWESOM-O." What Japanese corporation created ASIMO? A: Honda.
Q: In 2006, android maker Hiroshi Ishiguro unveiled an android clone of what person?
A: Himself—he figured it would help cut his workload in half!
Book Description
From the amazing automatons of feudal Japan to giant animated robots and the cutting-edge androids of today, Loving the Machine is a fascinating journey of passion and discovery.
Customer Reviews:
Fasinating.......2007-09-14
I though that some parts overdone with comic characters and Japanese attitudes but overall fascinating. I loved examining the photos of some of the earlier robots over 200 years old. Some look incredibly intricate as well as beautiful.
I also felt inspired to get one of these modern robots too.
fascinating, absorbing, informative.......2007-01-04
What else can I say that my title doesn't convey?
My only carp--perhaps--is that the author fails satisfactorily to address the issue of why robots, so very hyped (albeit less so than, say, thirty years ago), have failed to establish significant inroads in domestic settings. Visit a Japanese automobile factory and you'll see robots everywhere--mounting parts, soldering, painting (even painting one another--accidentally, one hopes!). But in the home--as comedically immortalized in Woody Allen's 1974 hootfest, "Sleeper"--you don't see robots other than as curiosities, such as non-pooping "dogs."
Hornyak could have made the book more entertaining by including the anecdote about Herbie--had he known it. Herbie was a non-anthropomorphic robot that delivered inter-office mail in an AT&T facility in Silver Spring, Maryland. His route was not preprogrammed, but was "taught" to him by spray-painting a gradually fading metallic stripe onto the carpet: Herbie would follow the stripe, stopping whenever someone stood in his path. (Herbie was very polite: not only did he move slowly, but he did not step on feet.) One conniver thought it would be funny to spray-paint the stripe right over to the fifth-floor picture window, whereby Herbie committed hara-kiri in a spectacular blaze. (The jokester was less upset at being fired than at the eighty-thousand-dollar legal judgment.)
Robots friendly, robots nice.......2006-11-10
Do you want to know what's going on in the world of human-like robots? This book will bring you up to the present and it's happening in Japan. It's good light reading with the right balance of photos of robots. Not any kind of depth - just a light entertaining read. Kid's will like it as well as any adult who's interested in cartoon robots and real cutting edge human-like robots.
The book really shows how easily human-like robots are slipping in the psychie of Japan (and eventually the rest of us). Are we really ready for the coming robot world? Doesn't matter. We're all being softened up by these friendly and so nice robots. Nice, nice robots. Step by step with the help of their human inventors and advertisers, they've started their march into human society. I'd suggest watching the movie "I Robot" after you've read the book, or give both as a gift.
I really want a robot!.......2006-09-04
All of my life, I have been promised that the age of the robot is just around the corner. It seems like one of those things that is always in the immediate future, and always just out of reach, an eternal carrot that we keep moving towards, always one step ahead. Fifty years ago, they figured we would all be living with robots in our homes by now, doing domestic chores, entertaining us, educating us. Our plastic pal whose fun to be with!
"Loving the Machine" again makes this promise, and again I am inclined to believe it. Author Timothy Hornyak plays show and tell, taking you on a guided tour through robotics from the primitive first attempts to the modern marvels of Asimo and the semi-android Replee Q1expo. They really are stunning, and one can almost feel the fire of creativity and inspiration driving modern robotics research. The scientists are building robots out of passion, out of a real sense of discovery rather than commerce, and that is what always drives technology forward. All of the different fields are coming together, mixing software with hardware, sharing breakthroughs and triumphs that far outnumber failures and disappointments.
Ostensibly, "Loving the Machine" is also about Japan's relationship with the robot, and it is. Japan's culture of robots stretches back into its distant past, with the Karakuri automatons that are still wonders of ancient technology, unable to be replicated today. Whereas Western cultures have Superman, Japan has Mighty Atom, the robot superboy. Whereas the US has GI Joe, Japan has the super robots Gundam and Mazinger Z. Japan has nurtured a deep-seated love for the robot, and the whole country holds its collective breath waiting for the first truly intelligent robot to announce its own birthday. However, in attempting to contrast cultures, this is where the book loses its footing. The author makes much of The Terminator and the Replicants from "Blade Runner", stressing the West's fear of technology out of control, but never mentions R2-D2 and C-3PO from "Star Wars", Rosie the Robot Maid from "The Jetsons" Johnny 5 from the films "Short Circuit," Bender from "Futurama," or Isaac Asimov's heartbreaking hero from "The Bicentennial Man" There is not even a mention of how the fearsome Terminator returns for a second movie, this time as the hero saving a young boy. While not on the same level, the West has also long had a love affair with cute, friendly robots who are friends and companions rather than just functional machines.
I've been let down before, but "Loving the Machine" has given me a boost, returning me to the childhood where, when asked to draw a picture of what I thought life would be like in the year 2000, I drew a happy home complete with robot butler and flying car. The flying car may be out of the question, but there is at least still some hope that I might live to see the first truly intelligent robot announce its own birthday. Frankly, I can't wait.
A fascinating and informative tribute to Japanese popular culture and its love affair with humanoid robots.......2006-09-02
Loving The Machine: The Art And Science Of Japanese Robots is a fascinating and informative tribute to Japanese popular culture and its love affair with humanoid robots ranging from anime's Astro Boy to automatons imagined in speculative fiction to have existed in the Edo period of Japanese history. In stark contrast to American movies portraying robots as ruthless, Terminator-style killing machines, Japanese cinema and television has a tradition of gentler robots that mimic human activities. Full-color photographs on every page illustrate this unique analysis of what Japanese culture celebrates robots, Japan's historical connections to robots, and what modern technology indicates the future holds. Loving The Machine is very highly recommended reading -- especially for modern Japanese culture buffs.
Books:
- Dreams of Steel (The Fifth Chronicle of the Black Company)
- Driven by Eternity: Making Your Life Count Today & Forever
- Driven To Distraction : Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood Through Adulthood
- Essential Spider-Man, Vol. 8 (Marvel Essentials)
- Ex Machina Vol. 5: Smoke, Smoke
- Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall
- Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq
- First Amendment Law (University Casebook Series)
- Foundation Analysis and Design
- Foundation's Triumph (Second Foundation Trilogy)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Heads-Up Baseball : Playing the Game One Pitch at a Time
- The Winner Within
- The Cider House Rules
- STAR TREK DEEP SPACE NINE FALLEN HEROES
- Strangers to These Shores: Race and Ethnic Relations in the United States
- The Sciences: An Integrated Approach, 2nd Edition Update
- The White Tecumseh: A Biography of General William T. Sherman
- The Animator's Workbook: Step-By-Step Techniques of Drawn Animation
- Stumbling Toward Faith: My Longing to Heal from the Evil That God Allowed
- Renewal of Normal Trade Relations With China: Hearing Before the Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. H
