Customer Reviews

The Edge of Human (Blade Runner, Book 2)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I really enjoyed both "Blade Runner" the movie (it's in my top five favorites of all time,) and the PK Dick book the movie was based on, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep." _BR 2_, however, is just unfiltered tripe.

This novel attempts to be a sequel to the movie, rather than the novel, and, let me say it again, it's done so in a truly awful manner. The (un)original bits that Jeter came up with are frequently interspersed with flashbacks to the movie in a really uninteresting manner, and the writing itself is clunky and amateurish. One example, and I swear I'm not making this up or embellishing it in any way:

"She ascended to the appointed place, at the appointed hour. Without effort, almost without will, thermal sensors had registered her presence within the small space, a disembodied voice had asked if she'd wanted to go up to the building's roof, far above the dense weave of structure and light that formed the static ocean of the city."

[SPUTTER!]

Oh, and there are more equally bad paragraphs I could throw at you, but I won't foist those other atrocities off upon you - I don't dislike *anyone* that much.

If you, like me, thirst for ever more "Blade Runner" Stuff, my best advice is to stay right the heck away from this novel, and read some of the other (non-fiction) pieces that have been written about _DADOES_ and about the movie - you'll find it far more satisfying, and you'll be much less inclined to beat your head repeatedly against something hard and/or spikey to erase this travesty from your brain.

Oh, was I using my Outside Voice when I said that? Well, K.W. Jeter, I would apologize for such a scathing review of something you are in all likelihood very proud of; however, I don't recall anyone apologizing to me for the hours of my life I lost whilst reading this book, so I'm calling us even.

This novel was quite entertaining, but I found Jeter's writing at times to be pointlessly descriptive, and I often skipped down as much as a page waiting for him to get back to the action instead of rehashing old scenes in the movie, or filling up whole paragraphs with flowery language that had no relevance to the story and brought it to a halt. Other than that, it was an enjoyable read with good pacing.

BR2 was, overall, an enjoyable read. It succeeded in keeping me guessing what exactly was going on, but left me disappointed with it's resolution.

The book draws heavily on images, characters, and dialogue from the movie, with a little help from Dick's novel. As with some of the Star Wars novels, however, this feels like a mantra used to evoke something without full justification. It also seems to be asking for someone to make a movie sequel out of it, being writen in an almost cinematic style.

Blade Runner (the movie) and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep both had their amazing qualities, and the creation of BR from DADoES was an impressive feat. By trying to reunite the two, Jeter does both a disservice.

This book is the sequel to the movie not a sequel to Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, for being what it is it's a very good continuation, there are a couple of things that bothered me but were background elements, not anything to do with the story itself, I would really like to know what other people think about this book, not many people have reviewed it even though it's selling. I don't suggest you to read the third book, unless you are a hardcore fan.

This is a movie-nerds' wet dream. This is what they'd all wished had been done with Highlander. A continuation of the movie's story in the style of Dick's book, with multiple scenes which are reproductions or reflections from the original (another Deckard/Batty fight in the rain on decaying city infrastructure). Pretty good for the Geekbook mindcandy category.

Pretty bad in just about every other way.

The simpliest way to describe the novel is that it misses both the original work (the Electric Sheep story by Dick) and the movie (Bladerunner) by a long shot.

Jeter simply isn't as good of a writer as Dick was, nor was he as blatantly crazy and it's the sheer bizarre nature that gave Dick's writing a lot of what it had. Jeter also doesn't seem to be upon the Bladerunner side as in the novel he openly mocks the question of Deckard being a replicant.

No, if you want a true sequel for the Bladerunner movie, instead try to find the Bladerunner PC game from the mid-90s. It feels like Bladerunner much more than any of Jeter's dreadful novels.

[...]

This novel reads like an unsold script for a Blade Runner movie turned into book form. It's just a rehash of the original...except not nearly as thought-provoking or entertaining. This was one of the tougher reads I've ever experienced. If this were the only book I had on a deserted island...I'd just eat it, because there's no way I could re-read it.

This book is a quagmire of mixed imagery the reader must slog through, only to wind up revisting a poor reprise of the classic showdown between the original Deckard and Roy Batty. The author barely got me to the anti-climatic ending. I was confused and irritated with constant changes in the plot that never addressed the real question on the minds of true Blade Runner fans- is Deckard a replicant? Fans of the Science Fiction and Cyber Punk genre should buy another book. Blade Runner 2 reads like a hoky TV series adapted from a great movie. The names are the same, but the soul is missing. Even for a replicant.

The problem with most sequels is that their predecesors come to natural ends. That is a problem in this sequel as well, but not as much as it could have been. Unfortunatly for readers, to understand this book you HAVE to have seen the Blade Runner: Director's Cut because this book contradicts the International Cut and Theatrical Release's "happy ending" completly. I'm not going to spoil the book, but it just does. It is very well written, even if it soes rely to much on the events of the film(there are about 15 references to "Wake up....time to die!"). It also features characters from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?(including JR Isadore, the character JF Sebastion was presumably based on). The greatest thing about this boook is the ability to keep the reader guessing(I never expected the event at the end of the book), which makes it a fulfilling read.

This is the 3rd installment in the Bladerunner series. It has a few interesting ideas, but overall did not move fast enough to keep me interested. I did manage to finish, but really had to force myself. Some scenes seem very similar to the premise of Bioshock, the new highly acclaimed game for the XBox 360.