A cultural great, I had images and an atmosphere in my head that I was expecting to find, in the end it was quite different from what I had imagined. Less cool, affected sci-fi, more thoughtful, quiet thriller.
We find ourselves in a world where a large proportion of the population have left earth and live with human-idential android slaves. In some off-world colonies androids rebel and come to earth to live in hiding. We essentially follow a police contractor as he tries to find and 'retire' androids masquerading as humans. Meanwhile we get a look into his world, the way of life and his hopes and worries.
It as similar themes to Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan, but less clear, there are lots of different ideas swimming around; categorisation of people, slavery, animal/human/sentient life. It's a thriller with a lot to unpack, I guess that's why it's part of the cultural consciousness.
