Technology can extremely helpful in making life easier and accomplish things faster, however there is a line that we have to figure out not to cross. In Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep, New York Times bestselling author Paul Tremblay explores how far people will push the boundaries such as artificial intelligence. A thought-provoking, science-fiction, horror story that is sadly closer to real life than we should hope for.
Meet Julia Flang, a twenty-something former semi-professional gamer, living with her retired uncle, and working two jobs she doesn’t like. Out of the blue, her estranged mother, a CFO for one of the world’s largest tech companies, offers her a temp job with a payday Julia can’t refuse. One sham interview later, she’s offered the job: to chaperone a man in a vegetative state—one with proprietary AI implanted in his head—from California to the East Coast.
To sum up in Julia’s own words: “You want me to remote control this dead dude across the country.” In a word, yes. But he’s not dead dead.
Meet a middle-aged man who wakes within a disorienting hellscape filled with monstrous grotesqueries. Worse than the fluid, morphing reality in which he’s trapped, he has no memory of who he is. He certainly doesn’t remember getting the rabbit tattoo on his arm. He only knows that he must find a certain person. Who? He can’t remember.
Using a cell phone modeled after a video game controller, Julia fumblingly navigates the man she calls “Bernie” from the company campus and onto planes and through one of the largest airports in America. All the while, the man endures an ever-changing and worsening nightmare that offers clues as to who he was—and who he must track down. And as their two lives intertwine, Julia and Bernie become unlikely allies and fugitives on a collision course with reality.
Computers and the advancement of technology has been super beneficial for the human race over the years, but we are in an age of artificial intelligence that is getting sloppier by the second. Such places at the generative spaces is unnecessary and ugly, but there is also a line we shouldn’t cross when things become a little more blurry on the ethical side of things. These ethical boundaries are being pushed on a daily basis and it’s this real-life horrors that make Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep hit closer to home and all that more terrifying.
Tremblay explores AI in a way that was eyeopening and horrifying. The lines that people will cross for financial, personal, and selfish gain are fading away. What makes it the most scary and sad is how people don’t care as much and how normalized using AI for whatever you need or want has become. Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep is deeper than the surface issues with this technology and has extremely heartfelt and emotional moments I wasn’t fully expecting. AI can be evil, but sometimes the technology itself is innocent enough, it’s those who wield the power of AI that are even more evil.
It’s not just the story itself that is fantastic with Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep, it’s the way Tremblay writes this book and how it is laid out. He uses two different perspectives that can confuse you to start, but are written with such purpose. Not to mention a couple of special additions throughout that serve a purpose, but also give a little fun to the book. Tremblay crafts a story that is extremely well written, but also compiled in such a wonderful way. Reading this story was more than just enjoyment, but an overall amazing experience. Not to mention the bonus I give Tremblay for mentioning Stephen King and my great home State of Maine.
If you are someone who dabbles in the world of audiobooks I will highly recommend enjoying Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep in this format. Yes, Tremblay crafts an amazing story, but it’s only amplified by the narration by Sophie Amoss, Graham Halstead, John Pirhalla & Dan Bittner. Some stories are just simply narrated and others bring an entire other level to the book, this is one of those books.
Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep is an unsettling and surprisingly emotional, yet unsurprisingly smart exploration of technologies relationship to morality and dangers of pushing innovation too far. Paul Tremblay crafts a story that is both science-fiction and horror that feels frighteningly relevant. Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep is a thought-provoking story that turns the real-world horrors of AI into something terrifyingly unforgettable.
Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep hits bookstores everywhere on June 30, 2026 from William Morrow. The audiobook is available via Libro.fm!
