Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human

Blade Runner #1

by K.W. Jeter

In 1982 the brilliant science fiction movie Blade Runner  was released, and a phenomenon was born.

Set in the steel-and-microchip jungle of twenty-first century Los Angeles, this masterpiece re-created our vision of the future, telling the story of Rick Deckard, a ‘blade runner’ who tracks down and executes renegade androids. Now, for the millions of fans of the movie, as well as those coming to the saga for the first time, K. W. Jeter’s stylish and sophisticated new novel reenters that seedy, high-tech world and opens a new chapter of thrilling, nonstop, futuristic suspense. This time Deckard himself becomes both hunter and hunted in a race to prove his own humanity by tracking down the most elusive and dangerous android of all . . .

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Cyberpunk, Dystopia, Science Fiction Fantasy, Robots, Novels

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Kevin Wayne Jeter (born 1950) is an American science fiction and horror author known for his literary writing style, dark themes, and paranoid, unsympathetic characters. He is also credited with the coining of the term "Steampunk." K. W. has written novels set in the Star Trek and Star Wars universe, and has written three (to date) sequels to Blade Runner.

Series:
* Doctor Adder

Series contributed to:
* Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
* Alien Nation
* Blade Runner
* Star Wars: The Bounty Hunter Wars
* The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror
* The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror

Reviews

[Lixma · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, it begins with Rick Deckard being dragged back for 'one last job' and ends with a life or death struggle with Roy Baty.

Where have you heard that before?

There are many faults with BR-2 but the overriding one is its complete and utter unoriginality. Perhaps the author was contractually obliged to write the novel the way he did, or maybe he wanted to let fans of the film feel at home; whatever the reason - reading The Edge of Human is like wearing a straight-jacket. The Blade Runner universe is, you'd think, visually and philosophically rich enough to support all manner of explorations. So it's both surprising and depressing to find that the 'official' Blade Runner sequel is so claustrophobically reverential to the source material as to leave the reader wondering why bother writing it in the first place.

Symptomatic of the book's lack of vision is the fact that for all intents and purposes there is not a single original character in the book. Practically speaking the entire cast has been recycled from Blade Runner.

Deckard, Rachel, Bryant, Holden, Baty, Pris, J.F. Sebastian...they're all there. "But wait, didn't such 'n' such die in the movie?", you ask. Well, you'll have to read the book.

There are two characters who could, at a stretch, be said to be original. One is Sarah Tyrell, the other is John Isidore. Sarah Tyrell is Eldon Tyrell's niece and the 'templant' for Rachel, Deckard's love interest. So basically it's just Rachel with an attitude.

John Isidore is the only main character not to have featured in Blade Runner, but even here the distinction is moot. Isidore was a character in Philip K Dick's novel 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' and provided the inspiration for the film's character J.S. Sebastian. In narrative terms Isidore's puzzling cameo makes little sense, and if you've read 'DADOES' then you'll soon realise that Jeter's Isidore bears scant resemblance to Dick's. I suspect the reason for his inclusion was simply to create a bridge between Dick's novel and Scott's movie.

If the thread-worn familiarity of the cast doesn't have you crying out for something (anything!) original then the constant and blatant references to the source movie will drive you up the wall. Not a page goes by it seems without some character's heavy handed reminiscing about the events depicted in Blade Runner. About fifty pages in it becomes a sport whereby the reader begins to pre-empt the next reference to the movie. Midway through the novel you are now an expert - you can see them coming a mile away.

I've gone on too long for a book that by the end I was disliking more and more so I won't even touch on the plot. A plot which is, incredibly, drawn from a mistake made in editing the movie. I suppose it makes sense really, that a novel that extracts as much from the movie as humanly possible would not flinch at rummaging around the cutting room floor for inspiration.

Not recommended.

(Two stars, as there is some brief but interesting philosophical exploration on human/replicant themes)

[Brett · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sucked. Absolutely sucked. If you are a fan of Blade Runner the movie or the original book (do androids dream of electric sheep) Do NOT read this garbage. Jeter urinates over everything - brings back dead characters, changes history, ridiculous reveals, and to top it off his writing is at 5th grade level. I have never hated a book more and I only got halfway through. (on a side note: I was reading a star wars bobba fett book and 1/3 of the way through I thought: this writing is TERRIBLE, it reminds me of that horrible BR2 - I looked up the author and low and behold the same guy. I never finished that book either). Jeter should STOP writing spin offs of other people works. Better yet he should stop writing.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Please note that this is NOT a sequel to Philip K Dick's novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep".
What it is, is a sequel, of sorts, to the Blade Runner movie.
As sequels go, it's not bad, but I got the impression that the author was contractually obliged to tell us the same story as the movie... but with a few changes here and there so as not to offend the hardcore fans. It's too bad, cause had the author been able to mesh the movie with the Philip K Dick book, this could have been a whole lot more interesting and original.
I loved the movie... but the movie wasn't Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.
I love Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, but I prefer to think of the movie and the original book as two different entities.
This book offers a sequel to the movie... of course, should there ever be a Blade Runner sequel movie, I doubt very much that this would be the source material.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book chooses a direction in which Deckard has to travel after the events in the movie. It also shows more about the nexus 6 replicants and the less than savory world of the Blade Runner. All characters from the movie return in an different role and in some cases as an epilogue to the Ridley Scott movie.
A quite decent follow-up by a more than decent writer.

[Haneul · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought I'd really enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, but it was nothing like it. And it has (almost) nothing to do with it. It's basically a sequel to the 1982 Blade Runner movie (which btw is horrible)
The disappointment starts with the writing, so awkward and confusing.
-There is a repetitive cycle of events that made things predictable.
-The dialogues are shallow and boring.
- The characters are so stupid and take a long time figuring out something so obvious.
I can confirm that the first and last 50 pages of the book were good, and everything in between is screwed up.

[Rodrigo Tello · Rating 2 out of 5]

Para poder darle algún sentido a esta secuela directa de la película de Ridley Scott, Jeter (quien en vida fue amigo de Dick) utiliza una estrategia bastante descabellada aunque no menos previsible: que todo lo narrado en la película resulta no ser cierto, y que lo que creemos que les ocurrió a todos los personajes de Blade Runner (1982) no fue como se describe en la cinta. Partiendo de esta polémica base, crea una "secuela" muy floja, carente de interés, si bien con algunas escenas interesantes por lo nostálgicas, pero con un final que es para partirse de la risa. Supongo que se la puede considerar un pastiche que, salvo por la aparición de un único personaje de "Sueñan los androides...", no tiene absolutamente nada que ver con el clásico de Philip K. Dick. Me queda la duda de si esto fue aprobado por la familia Dick.

[Lee Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those of you that saw the Ridley Scott film and have always wished for a sequel...Here it is in printed form. I was journeying through books to read and came across some of Jeter's work and low and behold saw he had two more sequels to the original "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep" which is the book that was adapted to the big screen in Bladerunner starring Harrison Ford. All kinds of questions that were left unanswered in the original get answered here with a lot more to add to the Rick Deckard story. This was another hard to put down read for myself as i look forward to reading his next in the series.

[Haris Sladic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ovo je nastavak ne direktno knjige nego vise filma Blade Runner. Iskreno s obzirom da ovo nije pisao sam Philip Dick, ocekivao sam da ce ovo biti cisti promasaj. No medjutim ovo je sasvim solidno djelo, moglo bi se reci i vise nego dobro. Sigurno da nije na razini prve knjige, al je sasvim blizu nje. Radnja je zanimljiva, ali joj fali malo vise atmosfere iz prvog dijela. Pogotovo ja mislim da je ovdje najveca mana, jako mali broj likova i lokacija, i tog pozadinskog svijeta koji mi je u prvoj knjizi bio predobar. Na kraju siguran sam da ce se ovo djelo svidjeti svima kojima se svidio filma, a vjerovatno i onima kojima se vise svidjela knjiga.

[David Agranoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book sat unread on my shelf for 10 years. I bought it for a quarter at a library book sale in Port Angeles Washington. I knew the back story, KW Jetter who is a cyberpunk author I respected had been friends with PKD during his life. The story goes that he and Dick had discussed before his death his thoughts on seeing the rough cut of the movie, and his plans to write sequel novel Jetter then with permission of the family wrote a series of books that are a sequel to the movie more so than the novel.

The main reason I decided to give this book at spin was to kinda get back into the Blade Runner world before the release of the new film. So I re-watched the blu-ray of the final cut, and read this book. Thought that would be a fun way to get excited for the new film. I read Do Andoirds Dream Electric Sheep and re-watched Blade Runner about 10 years ago. At the time I remember thinking that the movie was more faithful to the source material that it is often given credit for. Certainly there are many concepts in the novel that don't get explored like the empathy boxes and the very term Blade Runner is only in the movie.

That being said the concept of animal extinction, empathy towards animals and the very idea of empathy as a test for humanity is very clearly a translation of the novel into the film format. Watching it again I found little subtle moments that I realized meant nothing to me when I first saw the film and would have no meaning to me without having read the novel. When Deckard asks the replicant stripper if her snake is real and she says "of course not, how could I afford it?" Having read the novel I understand that most animals on earth are extinct that fake animals are status thing. Or in the Tyrell corporations penthouse when Tryell's owl gets a close-up it is clearly a fake but that is never mentioned.

So considering that it was interesting after watching the film again to enter into Jetter's sequel. While there are nods to Dick's novel, this is not an androids sequel it is very much a Blade Runner sequel. There are pros and cons to this. If there is one serious negative is that Jetter doesn't introduce new characters hardly at all, the setting hardly changes. He takes very few risks. It was almost like he was told we have to use all the same actors and sets. Understandable for a movie or TV production just didn't make sense in a prose setting.

Odd choice because it was a book, none the less he finds interesting twists into the story and brings back characters (some of whom died) in interesting ways. At this point I am going to talk about spoilers. The book is many years old, and about to become obsolete. I think many of you want to read this review to skip the book rather than actually than deciding if you want to read it. As a fan of Blade Runner I enjoyed it, but unless you are hugely devoted to the film I don't you have to read it.

I enjoyed reading it rated four stars at first but lowered my score to three after thinking deeper about it. It is fun, but it breaks no new ground and pretty much re-hashes the film over and over.

SPOILERS:

In this novel Rachel has been put in a sleep chamber and Deckard is forced back to LA to look for a last Nexxus 8 Replicant. This mission is given to him by Sarah the template for the Rachel Android. Roy Batty returns in the form of the human template. Holden the Blade Runner shot in the early scenes of the movie returns with a new heart and lungs after nearly dying. Holden and Deckard are both convinced that the other Blade Runner is the last Replicant. This is pretty good PKD paranoia,but the best twist of the novel comes at the end of chapter 8 on page 153. Holden comes the conclusion that perhaps all the Blade runners are Androids.

I thought this was a fun twist. In the end we are left with the same mystery and I am not sure I have reading the other two books.

[The Bookseller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Someone once said to me that fan-fiction has a habit of trying to explain problems away, rather than trying to tell an original story. When it comes to tie-in-media, it’s hit or miss whether you will find an author who does this in an official and profession novel. Unfortunately Blade Runner: The Edge of Human, did exactly this.

I really wanted to love this book, but it unnecessarily explained far too much. Jeter obviously felt there were several things that didn’t make sense, or could be expanded that the original film didn’t. This leads to several problems.

Firstly the story takes a back seat and everything slows down as several characters spend far too long discussing and uncovering new revelations. Deckard at the Pet Shop and Holden at the Desert Hospital dragged on-and-on. You could be very tempted to skip these bits.

Secondly several things were retconned like you wouldn’t believe. The main plot centres on an elusive Sixth Replicant that Deckard was not aware of and needs to be retired. Now if you are a hard core fan or (like me) watched the film two days before starting to read this novel, you would know that there were six replicants mentioned in the film and accounted for. So throughout the entire novel, you are constantly reminded that Jeter has got something wrong.

Another retcon is about Deckard discovering that Pris was actually a human, deluded into thinking she is a replicant. Not only is that really disappointing to read, but you are given nothing to believe it. The original film didn’t suggest that, and this novel presents you with no scene or evidence to accept it. It is so out of place that you seriously question whether or not this is said to mess with Deckard’s mind. However, a chapter later it is simply taken as the truth. If this was an original novel, an author would spend time convincing you that this was the case, not just say it is and expect you to accept it.

It really felt like K.W. Jeter didn’t really flex his creative mussels for this novel, as he brings back several original characters from the film. Even ones who should be dead return in one form or another. The concept of hunting down a sixth replicant is simply the story of the film, and the ending to the film is pretty much played out again in the novel.

I sometimes think about the Mortal Engines series by Philip Reeve, and how with each book he created new characters, new problems to overcome and even shook up the overall format he started off with. I think Jeter could have done a lot better in expanding the Blade Runner universe.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved K.W Jeter writing style and really want to read some of his original fiction. The way he strung sentences together was beautiful. I do believe he was the best person to write a Blade Runner novel, but he clearly failed when writing the story. But I did love the twist at the end. That was really cleaver.

[Anthony Hillman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this book entirely out of curiosity. It's actually far better than I imagined. K.W. Jeter is a good writer. I just didn't like all of the contradictions to the movie, and things that are put in with the intention of fleshing out the universe but end up just rehashing ideas from the film.
Wasn't the worst £3 I've ever spent on eBay by any means. But the current comics have done a far better job than this novel did.

[Brennan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not very good

[David Dalton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Been wanting to read this title for years. I seem to be in a Blade Runner cycle right now.

I have read the collected editions of:

Blad Runner 2019 (Vols 1-3)

Blade Runner 2029 (Vols 1-3)

Blade Runner Origins (Vols 1 and Vol 2) (issue by issue after the 2nd volume.

And I am current on the 4 issues out so far on Blade Runner 2039.

Love them all. Recently watched the 4K version of Blade Runner (1982) Final Cut. I also have the 5-disc collection with several versions of the film.

I have a Blu-ray of Blade Runner 2049, have not watched it yet.

Now I can add the Jeter version of Blade Runner. It took a while to get into it, but I was glad once I did. Takes off just after the 1982 movie ends. Ties into the movie very well. Still the gritty gloomy LA from the film.

These Jeter Blade Runner books are hard to find. I ordered this hardcover from Thriftbooks, and just ordered the next one: from Amazon. Might be tough to find the 3rd title, for under $10. Might be out of print.

[vonblubba · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Low expectations" was the name of the game when I started reading this book. Not because I feared it was badly written, Jeter has a decent reputation as a SciFi writer after all. It was because I was afraid of the direction the plot would take.
I've got mixed feelings about what Jeter attempted here. He picked elements form both the original movie and Dick's book. Which is probably a really crazy thing to attempt given how different the two works are.
He also used small details (and mistakes) from the movie for his own purposes. For instance, there's a part of the plot centered on the (in)famous movie sixth replicant, which is generally considered to be a plot hole (corrected in the final cut edition of the movie if I'm not mistaken). This at least shows that Jeter knows (and loves?) the original material.
The result has its moments, but I did not feel it managed to capture the mood of the movie (and that's what I was looking for). Some of the ideas Jeter added to the BR world really worked and felt coherent, others not so much.
Overall a decent read, but probably not necessary even for hardcore fans, since this novels are no longer canon since Blade Runner 2049.
There's one thing Jeter did that I really couldn't stand: 2019 Los Angeles with SUNNY DAYS and heat. No way. I refuse to even try to imagine the city landscape beaten by the sun.

[William Bainbridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.8/5
Enjoyable and easy to read. A stark contrast to the original blade runner in both its concepts and story, the first sequence (by Phillip.K.Dick) being both in my eyes a masterpiece and genius take on humans and A.I as a whole whereas this book felt more like an enjoyable read that had an emphasis on a fun and exhilarating ride. Holden was a great character who I definitely grew to love and deckard was executed great the author managing to keep his character true to the original. I was not a fan of sarah and felt her story was rushed and improvised which isn't ideal for the main antagonist all in all though the ending is satisfying and the book was fun. Main gripes with the book are its out of place writing in parts and its rushed stories.

[John Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps going a little too far afield in expanding the Blade Runner world this was still a good read.
Jeter was a rising star in the late 90s early 2000s SF field whose visionary writing never seemed to click with the world.
Here we see Rick Deckard dealing with the aftermath of the groundbreaking film (Blade Runner).
Trying to find his way now that he has been thrust back into the world of corporations and replicants.
Including the one he is in love with whose expiration date is coming all to fast.

[Quinnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Er nimmt einfach das Ende vom film und richtet den plot so zurecht, dass deckard und roy nochmal im finale prügeln und auf ruinen bei schlechtwetter klettern. der eine war schon mal tot lol
aber manche vertiefungen in die replikanten existenz und deren philosophie sind tatsächlich schön und sinnvoll, macht also auch spaß. oder wenn deckard moralisch konfrontiert wird und sein tun vor sich selber rechtfertigen muss um nicht total abzukacken. sich aber fast nur am film zu orientieren und szenen darauß zu zitieren ist irgendwie eigenartig, man merkt dass eine buch basis da mehr getan hätte.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a sequel to the movie (sorta) "Blade Runner". The plot is incoherent jumping around or taking chapters to make a point. The characters don't follow the original story. Just bad.

(Razor said that everyone knows that cats are real and dogs are just robots.)

[Wafaa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book definitely had potential and I'm so sad to see it go to waste due to the boring, repetitive dialogues.

Btw, this guy Dave Holden ruined the whole vibe with his extreme stupidity that I found myself wondering how he got his job as a blade runner in the first place !

[Scott Holstad · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of people seems to hate this book, but for the most part I found it somewhat satisfying. This is the author's attempt to marry "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" with Blade Runner, and I think he does a fairly good job. Does he open up the Blade Runner universe? No, not really. But he's simply trying to bring back the atmosphere of the movie for us and I think he does a decent job of it. New characters? No, and maybe that's a weakness, but we get more detail about the characters from the movie, more background material, and I think that's good. Now, he does inexplicably resurrect a couple of dead people from the movie, which is odd, but he tries to make do with it and almost pulls it off. Sarah is handled with care, as she vacillates between caring and outright evil. Decker's character runs true to the movie. There was a lot of Holden and Baty and I enjoyed the interplay between them. Jeter takes great pains to explore what is really human and what is not, which I think remains true to Philip K. Dick's spirit. The book could have been better. It was pretty easy to guess at what was going to happen throughout the book and I think that's a weakness. Still, I enjoyed reading it and I've read the next book in the series already. I've heard there's a third and I may want to pick that up. It's not a great series, but it's not too bad and it holds my attention, so that's good. If you liked Blade Runner, you might like this book. If you prefer Dick's Androids, this might not be the book for you. Cautiously recommended.

[Michael Allan Leonard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as a bad as I had expected, nor as good as I'd hoped. This is a sequel to the classic film that essentially defined the visuals of cyberpunk, and modern comic book fans will feel at home with some of the ridiculously annoying sensationalized twists that try to re-contextualize the events of the film to provide a series of mild shocks (unlike the official description of the book here, which spoils a major plot point right off the bat, I'll keep mum) and impose a sense of 'you didn't really know what was happening .... until now'.

It's entirely possible that the author was saddled with following plot points that were dictated to him by the rights holders -- the story here does seem like it was generated by a producer who had little reverence for the film and was more interested in trying to set fans off to cash in on the controversy. That said, the best part of the book was the exploration of some of the smaller details the film didn't get a chance to delve too deeply into, and the noir atmosphere was handled well, if a bit heavy-handed to the point of self-parody at times.

Not unreadable, but not really worth seeking out, either: Edge of Human is one of the most middle-of-the-road works I've read in a while. It would've been far more interesting to see a different blade runner protagonist, so there was a lot of potential that a new story could've provided that was lost because Rick Deckard wasn't allowed to ride off into the neon kanji sunset.

[Mark Palmer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was so excited to read this book and finally tie together Philip K. Dick's original novel with the Ridley Scott movie. But, this book was painful to read in places, the story was very muddled, and in my opinion ultimately ended in a cop-out. I think this book has completely put me off of this author, quite possibly for life.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Frustrating read this one.
Been on my tbr pile forever, it has the bones of a good story there, but ultimately gets lost in it's own vagueness.

[Rish · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5⭐️~2⭐️/5⭐️

I would like to preface by saying that, to be fair, this is not a book that I normally would've picked to read out of interest. I just recently watched the Blade Runner movie (which was ok but not an all-time fave for me) and am now making my way through reading/watching pretty much everything else of the franchise because I'm kind of an extreme completionist lol

In general, this wasn't horrible as in it was readable and I managed to finish it. But it definitely has some awkward dialogue and writing choices (I'm still not over "flattened girl-chest" 😭); plus, a lot of the conversations felt so long and round-about without getting anywhere or contributing anything (yes!!!!! give us nothing!!!!), which I think was partially due to the overuse of plot twists. Literally, the entire book was like, "This character died in the movie? Actually, they're still alive. But is it actually them?" or "This character is a human? No, they're not. Or are they?" PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!!!!!!!

ANYWAY this was apparently supposed to bridge discrepancies between Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Blade Runner. I don't really feel like it did that besides Isidore being introduced, which was a bit disappointing because it didn't feel much like my beloved Isidore and then he was killed off anyway. 😭 He could have just been left out of it since he didn't even contribute much (if anything) to the story, unless maybe I missed something??? But trying to bridge the two stories together was unnecessary to begin with. Blade Runner was a loose adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? so of course they have their similarities, but they're also different enough that Blade Runner is kind of its own story and connecting them doesn't make any sense.

I absolutely HATED Holden. Definitely one of the Top 3 Dumbest Characters I've ever experienced in any media. He seemed incapable of thinking for himself and would just cling to whatever idea was placed right in front of him, and would still be wrong about literally everything. Anytime he did finally use his brain, he would still jump to a completely wrong conclusion. I don't even feel like giving a specific example or going into more detail because I don't want to waste anymore time thinking about him after how many brain cells I probably lost having to read his thought process. He should've stayed dying in the hospital!!! BOOOOOO!!!!

My favorite part was the homoerotic, almost enemies-to-lovers fight scene between Deckard and Roy Batty (more like Roy BADDIE 💅🏼) at the end. 😍

He made no answer, but rammed one knee against Batty's gut, hard enough to break the hold at his throat. Batty staggered backward, arms flailing, catching himself just before the crevice gaping behind him.

Deckard twisted as he fell, his spine hitting the edge of the concrete, shoulders leaning back onto empty air. Before he could scrabble away, Batty was on top of him.

"Good job-" The words slid through Batty's clenched teeth. "You know... you really are one of the best." His hand gripped tight on Deckard's throat. "I hate to have to kill you."

They should have ran away together 😔

[Jon Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I purchased my copy of this book used at a local antique mall earlier this year. Hoo-boy, this book is a stinker! The copy I bought was published by Bantam, in hardback no less. If not for those two facts, after reading it I would have thought this book was self-published fan fiction by an aspiring author who really, really needs to hang on to his or her day job. I had never heard of this book before I stumbled across it in a used book stall. It was published in 1995 and is a direct sequel to the 1982 "Blade Runner" film directed by Ridley Scott. The events in the book take place in 2020, a year after the events in the film. Rick Deckard is off the LA police force and has taken up a hermit-like existence in a primitive backwoods cabin somewhere in the wilds of Oregon, where he watches over the almost-corpse of his replicant girlfriend Rachael. She is kept in suspended animation to delay the end of her built-in 4-year lifespan. Just about every character that appeared in the film who wasn't killed off (and some who were) appear in the book. There are only a couple of new characters introduced. An extremely minor character from the film is elevated to prominence in the book: Holden, the blade runner seen for about 10 seconds in the film as he is being gunned down by the replicant Leon, is resurrected by mechanical means. All the rest of the film cast is back as well: JR Sebastian, Bryant, Gaff, even the replicants Pris and Roy Batty, both of whom looked like they were pretty well killed off in the film. The book contains many, many callbacks to the film. None of the characters as written in the book seem true to their natures as seen in the film, and the dialogue will make you wince in some spots. Not much new about the world built by Ridley Scott is revealed, except for a semi-religious group of "replicant sympathizers", and this plot element goes basically nowhere. My biggest complaint is that nothing much actually happens in the book, and the big mystery that Deckard is trying to get to the bottom of is never clearly resolved. The only reason I read the book all the way through was to see if anything EVER happened. Nope. One mildly interesting thing in the book was an explanation of the origin of the term "blade runner," but I won't spoil that for anybody curious and foolhardy enough to crack open this tome. I was surprised to learn after reading this that the author KW Jeter wrote two more(!) sequels - Blade Runner 3 & 4. I can only imagine what those are like, because I sure won't be reading them. Two out of five stars.

[Wise Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me, this started out slow and I couldn't get into it much until about 100 pages into it. Then, it does pick up quite a bit. Some parts drag on too long for my taste, such as a section in chapter one that went on for several pages about a break in. It went into so much detail about a helicopter (?) type thing called a "spinner" crashing into a hospital to kidnap a patient while blowing up equipment, walls, etc.

That part read more like an action movie, which I do actually enjoy sometimes. But it was just too long of a description. There are more parts like it throughout the book, but not a whole lot.

Maybe because I knew it was going to be by another author that I had a biased outlook from the beginning, thinking, "This probably won't live up to the first book."

The suspense kept up all the way to the end, along with the dark tone. It's in L.A., CA which doesn't surprise me. Most dystopian post-apocalyptic books take place in L.A....way in the future. Or N.Y. sometimes.

But it's chilling that the setting for this is August 2020......I see it was written in 1995 or published then. That theme of mankind being doomed is common in sci-fi, yet I enjoy it since it's a wake up call.

What I liked best was how the replicants were getting so human like, it was hard to tell them apart. And because they are too much like us, there's a plot to get rid of them. I mean, WE created them then realized we made a big mistake in doing so.

I will be reading the third book but not right away.

I did like the original Blade Runner movie, but I've never seen the reboot and have no interest in doing so. I'm kind of a traditionalist in that way, but there are some reboots I like. I've read in this site somewhere that a sequel to the Blade Runner is in the works as well.

I don't go to the movies anymore, but I do know special effects these days can really blow me away. Still, there's nothing like one's imagination.

Overall, this was better than expected, esp. from an author I wasn't even familiar with.

[Rory Powell · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all I would like to apologize for all of my negative opinions. I have great respect for anyone who has taken the time to publish a book, article, blog or tweet. Putting your thoughts out into the world for any clown like me to criticize takes guts and should be commended.

That’s why it’s with great disappointment that I inform you that this book was just not super great.

The first issue, and this is something you can look past, is that Jeter’s style is just not the same caliber as Dick’s. He paints the same dark setting but the narrative feels unpolished. Dialog especially feels forced, redundant and cyclical at times. Have you ever turned a page in a book and thought, didn’t I just read that? Well this will happen to you multiple times in BR2. Also the way most characters speak feels overly colloquial, like the dialect from a bizarre 90s urban sitcom starring Bob Saget, the Terminator and the orange ninja turtle. And if I read “sonofabitch” one more time…

The second issue, slightly more flagrant, was with Isidore. His character is a “special” whose genes were damaged by exposure to radiation. This character story is essential to BR1. And yet suddenly, he is able to have a complex metaphysical conversations with the protagonist in BR2. Just no. And the entire interaction, which went on for pages (did it span chapters?) was pointless.

Speaking of spanning chapters, Jeter weaves between characters and scenes without any regard for the chapters of the book. Sometimes a scene will start in the middle of one chapter, span into the next chapter, only to then break away to another scene in the middle of that same chapter. Why did he even need chapters? Or why not change chapters with the scene?

Three stars may be generous here but I will say I enjoyed the end well enough that I’ll probably check out BR3 also.

Bottom line, if this is a universe you appreciate definitely see if you can get these books from your library or used book store. Just don’t expect Shakespeare.

[Artur Coelho · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jeter faz um bom trabalho de continuação dos temas e linhas narrativas de Blade Runner. Do filme, não do livro em que este se baseia. A narrativa segue o estilo cinema noir do filme, com uma história convoluta de conspirações. Deckard, exilado numa cabana na floresta onde tenta prolongar a vida da andróide Rachael, pela qual se apaixonou, é forçado a regressar a Los Angeles para dar caça a mais um replicante. É obrigado a isso pela sobrinha de Eldon Tyrell, a jovem que serviu de modelo aos andróides Rachael, e que nutre um ódio profundo ao tio e a tudo o que representa. Um ódio tão profundo que a leva a colocar em marcha uma tortuosa conspiração que levará à destruição das Tyrell Industries.

Pelo caminho cruzamo-nos com outros personagens do filme, como o inspetor Bryant, Holden, o caçador de replicantes cujo falhanço fez Deckard entrar em jogo e cujo corpo foi reconstruído, sendo talvez ele próprio um andróide, e o humano que serviu de modelo a Roy Batty, tão psicopata como o andróide do filme. Pelo meio de uma narrativa de ação constante, Jeter vai questionando as fronteiras fluídas entre o real e o simulacro, entre o artificial e o natural. O final é algo surpreendente, com Deckard a deixar-se enganar e a fugir para fora do planeta com quem pensa ser a sua adorada andróide Rachael, mas é na verdade a mulher humana que lhe serviu de modelo, herdeira renegada das indústrias Tyrell. Não é uma leitura profunda, nem o pretende ser. Jeter expande o filme seguindo as mesmas lógicas narrativas, sublinhando um pouco mais a fina diferença entre ser andróide e humano no mundo de Blade Runner.

[C · Rating 1 out of 5]

This reads like a fanfic from the 90s, which I suppose is exactly what it is. Cartoon villainy, faux-deepness, suicidal teen angst, and enough indecipherable prose that attempts to reframe mundane details as novel poetry to make any play-by-post roleplayer jealous. Jeter makes some interesting decisions about how to ret-con characters and details from Blade Runner in a way that's just not believable, because it doesn't build upon anything established in the film.

For instance, you learn early on that Tyrell was an incestuous child molester and that Rachel was an adult copy of his secret teenage niece, Sarah? She ends up being the main source of the cartoon villainy, as she engages in grotesque rituals, has useful people killed for no reason, and offers herself to Deckard as a reward for him doing a job for her, and he considers it! This makes no sense, given that he's just been risking his life to save Rachel because of romantic love — but he has almost no relationship with her, either, yet is devoting his life to her in a Bella Swan move.

Also, Pris wasn't a replicant and Deckard is in trouble for murder, because suddenly, a condition exists where a human can so completely believe that they're a replicant, that no one can tell the difference. This addition is a little more interesting, but still an unnecessary change that doesn't add to the message of the story.

It makes no sense, but none of the characters do. This comes off as if the writer has a worse understanding of how humans work than an Android would.

[Hidekisohma · Rating 4 out of 5]

So i have always loved the aesthetics of the blade runner movie (Even though the movie itself was REALLY boring) and thought maybe a book sequel would be more interesting. And interestingly enough, it was. A lot more was going on here than the movie and i quite enjoyed it.

The book takes place a while after the movie where Deckard gets pulled back to LA along with the guy from the beginning of the movie Holden who you thought died in the very beginning of the film but gets brought back. The two are on separate storylines trying to track down a 6th replicant (there were 5 in the movie).

The language in this book was easy to understand, there were more than enough actions scenes to keep me interested, and, most importantly, i found myself excited to pick up the book again. And that, to me when reading a book is the most important. Am i excited to pick it up again?

The book wraps up some things but leaves it on kind of a "we could definitely tell more stories" thing, and obviously they do as there's 2 more books after this.

Was it a perfect 5/5? well no. There were definitely some long winded conversations about 'what really is humanity' and 'who's a replicant' etc, but it was easy enough to get through those. They made some interesting points philosophically but it did get a little long winded at times.

Overall though, interesting book and i'm definitely going to want to read book #3.

4 out of 5