We Can Build You

Louis Rosen and his partners used to sell spinets. Not they're selling peopleor, to be more precise, ingeniously designed, historically authentic simulacra of such personages as Edwin M. Stanton and Abraham Lincoln. The problem is that the only prospective buyer is a rapacious billionaire whose plans for the simulacra could land Louis in jail. And then there's the added complication that someoneor somethinglike Abraham Lincoln may not wantto be sold. Is an electronic Lincoln any less alive than his creators? Is a machine that cares and suffers inferior to the woman Louis lovesa borderline psychopath who does neither? With irresistible momentum, vast intelligence, and sly wit, Philip K. Dick creates an arresting techno-thriller that suggests a marriage of Bladerunnerand Barbarians at the Gate.