cover - This being a pre-Bladerunner cover, we see a simple pastoral scene of a shepherd in <BR>a green field against a clear blue sky (a common theme, the blue sky) together <BR>with his flock of sheep. The shepherd, being composed of silver and pink skin <BR>and having wires poking out from the stump of its upraised right arm, is clearly an android.

World War Terminus had left the Earth devastated. Through its ruins Rick Decard, bounty hunter, stalked in search of his renegade android prey. When he wasn't 'retiring' them with his laser gun, he dreamed of owning a live animal - the ultimate status symbol in a world all but bereft of non-human life. Then, one bleak January day, Rick got his chance. He was assigned to kill six Nexus-6 androids, representing a total bounty of six thousand dollars. 

But in Rick's world, things were never that simple. His assignment quickly turned into a nightmare kaleidoscope of subterfuge, deceit - and the threat of death for the hunter rather than the hunted.

Star Trek The Next Generation

Philip K Dick