Work · one recording

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

It tells a story. Hardcover files this book as fiction, and its readers there call it reflective, mysterious and dark. Facts, not factors: neither plays any part in our call.

Either. Don't overthink it

Every book we have judged on how far the recording outruns the page: 201 of them, the page's answer at the left-hand end and the recording's at the right. Marked for scale: All the Light We Cannot See, To Kill a Mockingbird and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. This one sits between the bottom 31% and the top 42% of our shelf of books for how far the recording outruns the page. −0.40, where we start backing the page; 0.40, where we start backing the recording.Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
close call · 0.36 from tipping either way

It genuinely does not matter much: the audio case sits between the bottom 31% and the top 42% of our shelf of books for how far the recording outruns the page, the band where this figure settles nothing on its own, and neither the reading nor the format is far enough from the middle of the shelf to settle it. Scott Brick’s reading sits in the middle 40% of our shelf of books, on 11,184 ratings of the narration. Pick whichever you will actually finish.

Length does not decide this

9h 12m to listen, at 1×7h 22m to listen, at 1.25×6h 08m to listen, at 1.5×5h 15m to listen, at 1.75×4h 36m to listen, at 2×about 9 hours to readabout 6 hours to readabout 5 hours to readabout 4 hours to readabout 3 hours to read

The runtime is Audible’s own, shown at the speed beside it. The reading time is our estimate: 258 pages at 30 pages an hour, the pace you told us. Ours is 50, about 300 words a page, read at 250 a minute.The runtime is Audible’s own, shown at the speed beside it. The reading time is our estimate: 258 pages at 40 pages an hour, the pace you told us. Ours is 50, about 300 words a page, read at 250 a minute.The runtime is Audible’s own, shown at the speed beside it. The reading time is our estimate: 258 pages at 50 pages an hour, which is about 300 words a page, read at 250 a minute.The runtime is Audible’s own, shown at the speed beside it. The reading time is our estimate: 258 pages at 65 pages an hour, the pace you told us. Ours is 50, about 300 words a page, read at 250 a minute.The runtime is Audible’s own, shown at the speed beside it. The reading time is our estimate: 258 pages at 80 pages an hour, the pace you told us. Ours is 50, about 300 words a page, read at 250 a minute.

Slot → commute-safe

Harder work in audio than Slaughterhouse-Five.

All the books we hold · 222

About as much work in audio as most of the books we hold.

Fiction · 176

About as much work in audio as most of the fiction we hold.

Middling-length books · 55

About as much work in audio as most of the middling-length books we hold.

Reading load against listening load

Every book we hold placed by how much work it asks on the page, left to right, against how much it asks in your ears, bottom to top: 222 of them. Easy both ways is the bottom left corner, hard both ways the top right; above the dashed line the ears work harder, below it the page does. Marked for scale: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Diary of a Young Girl. This one is in the top 16% of our shelf of books for effort on the page and in the top 24% of our shelf of books for effort in your ears.
The dashed line is where a book would be same effort either way. This one sits on that line (the format is not fighting you either way), between the bottom 34% and the top 23% of our shelf of books for extra work in audio.
On the page0.62
In your ears0.55
Audio disadvantage−0.10

Where that puts this one among the books we hold: in the top 16% of our shelf of books for effort on the page and in the top 24% of our shelf of books for effort in your ears. The middle of the scale is not the middle of the shelf (most books sit below the average on both), so a book at 0.00 is already in the top 43% for effort on the page. Each of the three is measured against the whole shelf separately, so the bottom figure is not the top two subtracted. It is this book’s own distance from the middle.

What the audio disadvantage is made of. Two things and no others: how fast readers say this one moves, and how demanding the reviews we read found it. There is no third: the structural one has no data source, so it contributes nothing rather than being guessed at. Both directions are declared priors we have never fitted against a real verdict, which is the weakest-evidenced part of the whole model.

Every book we could measure both features on placed by pace, fast to slow, against how demanding the reviews we read found it, plain to demanding: 166 of them. The easiest listens are the bottom left corner and the hardest the top right, which is the shaded one. Marked for scale: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Diary of a Young Girl. This one reads at about the pace of most books we hold and more demanding than most, and neither is pushing it far from the middle of the shelf.
This one reads at about the pace of most books we hold and more demanding than most, and neither is pushing it far from the middle of the shelf.

How the call was made

Where a bar carries ticks, the grey one is the middle of our shelf and a coloured one is a line we publish, cool where we start backing the page, warm where we start backing the recording. The evidence squares at the foot are a different thing: how far each of our four sources went, hatched where there was nothing to measure at all.

The audio case
0.04It sits between the bottom 31% and the top 42% of our shelf of books for how far the recording outruns the page. Inside the band where neither side has made its case on this number alone, so the call is settled by what else is on the page.
Narration payoff
−0.06Scott Brick’s reading and the book are received about equally well: in the middle 40% of our shelf of books, on 11,184 ratings of the narration. This is a difference, not a score: it sets the reading against its own book, so a much-loved book with a merely good reading sits low on this shelf even where nobody disliked either. Asked the other way (how the reading stands against what the book’s own readers made of it, which is a different crowd rating a different thing), it comes out −0.25. We report that one and never score it: two crowds that do not overlap are held together by nothing but the standardising, which is a cost the figure above does not pay.
What is at stake
−0.36It sits between the bottom 27% and the top 33% of our shelf of books for how well the print crowds think of a book: middling regard, so this barely moves the call either way. Blended across 534,994 Goodreads ratings and 2,292 on Hardcover, each scored inside its own population first, and never added together.

For the page

  • The crowds’ regard did not reach the line where we protect a first read, this reason did not apply

For the recording

  • The voice and the book are received about level
  • Audio is neither helping nor fighting this one
  • 11,184 listeners behind it

Neither column won it: the two came out level, which is the answer above.

A bigger dot counted for more: the voice and the ear are sized by their share of the sum above, the other two by how much stands behind them. A hatched square is a reason that did not apply here, which is not the same as one that counted for little.

Evidence
1.00How much of the picture we actually have, out of 1.00: four questions, each answered as far as the source could answer it, less anything taken off for reading fewer reviews than we aim to.The reading11,184 people have rated this reading: as good as it getsThe second sourceHardcover knows this book, with 2,292 readers there: as good as it getsThe matchHow sure we are that the recording we scored is this book: as good as it getsThe reviewsWe read 300 reviews to judge how demanding it is: as good as it gets

What each crowd complains about

We would need 40 reviews from each crowd before setting the two side by side, and only 16 of the reviews we read said they listened to it. So we are not drawing this one.

What the two crowds said

Showing the stars as each shop prints them. The two crowds are not measured from the same place: on our shelf Audible’s listeners average 0.35 of a star above Goodreads’ readers, so a recording that is ordinary for Audible can still out-star a book that is genuinely well liked for Goodreads. Switch the toggle to take that difference off.Showing each figure as its distance from its own crowd’s middle on our shelf, in standard deviations, so 0 is a typical book for that crowd. Listeners start 0.35 of a star up, partly because anyone who finishes a twenty-five-hour recording chose it deliberately, and this takes that off. It is not a claim that audio is better, the story figure is still Audible’s own (people rating a story they heard), and none of it moves the verdict above.

4.33·Audible
overall
Audible
overall, pooled by the shop, so we hold no ruler for it
54%5 stars: 54 per cent, 7,097 ratings
29%4 stars: 29 per cent, 3,831 ratings
12%3 stars: 12 per cent, 1,581 ratings
3%2 stars: 3 per cent, 375 ratings
1%1 stars: 1 per cent, 165 ratings

13,049 ratings · performance and story, as the shop pools them

4.47−0.66 sdAudible
the performance
Audible
the performance, against Audible’s own crowd
63%5 stars: 63 per cent, 7,072 ratings
25%4 stars: 25 per cent, 2,775 ratings
9%3 stars: 9 per cent, 990 ratings
2%2 stars: 2 per cent, 231 ratings
1%1 stars: 1 per cent, 122 ratings

How often this goes badly3.2% of the people who rated the performance gave it one or two stars. More than most recordings here. The middle of our shelf is 2.0%, and half of it falls between 1.0% and 3.1%.

353 of 11,190 listeners gave the performance one or two stars

The shape of the room

  • United
  • Warm, this one
  • Split
  • Lukewarm

A warm room: most listeners are happy with the performance, and a small group are not.

11,190 ratings

4.30−0.95 sdAudible
the story, as heard
Audible
the story, as heard, against Audible’s own crowd
55%5 stars: 55 per cent, 6,110 ratings
27%4 stars: 27 per cent, 3,060 ratings
13%3 stars: 13 per cent, 1,433 ratings
4%2 stars: 4 per cent, 405 ratings
2%1 stars: 2 per cent, 176 ratings

11,184 ratings

4.09−0.41 sdGoodreads
the book itself
Goodreads
the book itself, against Goodreads’ own crowd
36%5 stars: 36 per cent, 194,454 ratings
41%4 stars: 41 per cent, 220,138 ratings
18%3 stars: 18 per cent, 97,539 ratings
3%2 stars: 3 per cent, 18,384 ratings
1%1 stars: 1 per cent, 4,479 ratings

534,994 ratings

The series

Blade Runner

Finished

3 books numbered on Goodreads’ list. The last one came out in 2000 and Goodreads lists nothing further. Five quiet years is where we start using that word.

From Goodreads’ own series index, checked on 11 September 2026.

Every reading we hold

One complete reading of this book, and it is the reading every audio figure above is measured on. If there is another, we have not found it. The shelf grows in reviewed batches, never because somebody searched for a book.

  • Scott Brickour pick9h 12m7h 22m6h 08m5h 15m4h 36m · One voice · Audible UK and US

    Performance 4.47 · Story 4.30 · 11,184 rated the reading · 3.2% of the people who rated the performance gave it one or two stars

    Hear it · Audible’s clip, its length read from them on load

The recording we mean

Runtime
9h 12m at 1×
Read by
Scott Brick
Kind
One voice
ASIN
B004FTYR2O · Audible UK
Rated in
Audible UK and US · 1,631 + 9,559 ratings of the performance
Judged on
11,184 ratings of the narration
Published
Random House Audio · 2007

Audible sorts a search by newest, so ours may not be the first one you are offered. The runtime is the check: if the one in front of you says 9h 12m, that is the reading these numbers describe. “Judged on” is the crowd behind every judgement we make about this reading: the smaller of the performance and story counts, which is why it is a little under the two shop counts added. We do not link out to a shop, and we take nothing if you buy there.