Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is oddly simple, dwelling on the loneliness of existence and human beings' endless pursuit of connection and deeper feeling in an ever-more isolated and artificial world. It starts strong, introducing a new world that's exciting to discover and seek to understand. Rick Deckard's motivations are engaging, and the mysteries of androids and the question of whether they're "good", "bad", or neither, is something worth investigating.
But somewhere along the way, it feels like Dick loses steam and along with it, interest in his own story. At what should seem to be the climax of the story, Deckard shows up to battle his supposedly toughest adversaries, but finishes the job with head-scratching ease and the scene is over, just like that. Deckard's character is suddenly tired and confused, inexplicably losing the personality that originally made him so likeable.
The ending, in a quiet moment showing Iran, Deckerd's wife, taking care of him for the first time feels incomplete and lacking warmth, but maybe that's the point. Like Deckard, the reader must ultimately settle and go on with their lives.
