Replicant Night

Blade Runner #2

by K.W. Jeter

The Blade Runner adventure continues in this dark and stylish novel of nonstop futuristic suspense as ex-blade runner Rick Deckard must cross the most dangerous line of all--the line between human and android.

Rick Deckard had left his career as a blade runner and the gritty, neon-lit labyrinth of L.A. behind, going to the emigrant colony of Mars to live incognito with Sarah Tyrell.  But when a movie about Deckard's life begins shooting, old demons start to surface.  The most bizarre and mysterious is a talking briefcase--the voice belonging to Deckard's most feared adversary.  The briefcase tells Deckard that he's the key to a replicant revolution back on Earth.  Deckard must deliver the briefcase--the secret contents--to the replicants of the outer colonies before he is tracked down and killed.  Is the briefcase lying?  Who is really after Deckard?  And who is the little girl who claims her name is Rachael?  Once again Deckard is on the run from a sinister force determined to destroy him--and already closing in.


From the Paperback edition.

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

321 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

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

[Quinton Baran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based on the reviews I had read before starting this book (and finishing Edge of Human), I almost decided not to read this book. I am glad that I overrode my reluctance.

It is true that portions of the book deal with the plot of the movie Blade Runner. However, that is what most sequels do, is build on the material that they are developed from. I was expecting a bunch of retread, and every chapter I read, had a little trepidation of that. For the most part, my trepidation's were unfounded. I found this to be an introspective discovery of the meaning of humanity (much as I found the 2nd book). Despair, madness, even love are threaded through this book in a method that I found meaningful.

That said, it did take me some time to complete this book. Some portions moved rather slowly, other portions I was able to read through quite quickly.

[Paul · Rating 1 out of 5]

i wish i hadn't wasted my time reading this. It's a tacked-on hack job of writing to the movie plot of the great Blade Runner film.

Remember how in the lame ending of the theatrical release (removed from the director's cut) Deckard rides off with his robot lover to live happily ever after? Well, this book is the happily ever after... or not so happily.

The book's plot is a ridiculous contrivance where someone shoots a movie about Deckard and blah, blah, blah. Stay away.

Read the original Blade Runner screen play by Bill Burroughs. It's much more interesting, though not at all related to what Ridley Scott did with the movie. Scott just ripped off the interesting-sounding title. In Burrough's version, Blade Runner actually means something.

[Byron 'Giggsy' Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeter's Blade Runner sequels don't get high ratings, but it's a touch act to follow Dick's novel and Scott's film.

But I definitely really like this one and think it's better that Blade Runner 2. Jeter is more at his own with his own voice and ideas although keeps it close to Ridley Scott's world. Like BR2, this is a sequel to the film and doesn't have much to do with Dick's book, although this one seems much more dickian that the first sequel. I also felt reminded some of William Gibson's cyberpunk that followed just after the film.

I feel fans of the film, Dick's original novel, or cyberpunk in general can enjoy this one, and I'd even recommend skipping BR2 unless you really really want a what-if as to what immediately happens after the film's close.

[Marijan Šiško · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nastavak Blade Runnera, odrađen rutinerski, lako štivo.

[Scott Holstad · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't think this was a bad book, unlike other reviewers online here who think it was terribly written and the pacing was slow. I enjoyed it. I thought it was written just fine. It was a compelling story using characters from Philip K Dick's Blade Runner world and adding to that mythology. I welcomed the additions and felt the author did an admirable job at keeping to Dick's vision. Where I had a problem, however, was late in the book when a seemingly minor character from early in the book who we don't see again at all suddenly appears out of nowhere to talk to the protagonist Deckard in a bar. Deckard's been in a mystery world with so many questions about so many things, like what's in the briefcase he's been wandering around with for one. This character tells him EVERYTHING like he's an omniscient god-like being. He even knows about Deckard's recent drug induced virtual reality trip to visit a "deity" in his own mind. Now how could he possibly know that? Indeed, how could he possibly know half of what he shares with Deckard about the UN, the replicants, etc., et al? He couldn't. And before we're told how he knows all this stuff, he's killed, shot to death in the bar. It just seems like an awfully convenient plot device for the author to use to fill we readers in on things he couldn't otherwise explain in the book, and it's kind of pathetic. Other than that huge hole, it's an enjoyable book and I do want to read its predecessor. Yeah, I'd read this author again, unlike others, so I guess I cautiously recommend this book. The reason I'm knocking it from four down to three stars is because of the omniscient bar encounter.

[Joey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful, long and hard to read...I have a funny story about this author. I was pretty young when I read this book and I never looked at authors. I struggled with this book for weeks. It left me drained. A few months later I started to read the first Star Trek DS9 novel based on the TV series. 1/3 of the way into the book and I could not help but think that this Star Trek book was just as awful as the Blade Runner book. Sure enough I looked at the authorship and what would you know??? yup, same guy! Never again Mr. Jeter...never again will you take my time from me! Shame on you, I will never get that time back. I love Star Wars and I have read about 70 of the books...but I will not read the ones you wrote. Never. You have already taken all that you will get from me, sir.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

In some ways this book starts to go all over the shop with conspiracy and counter conspiracy and yet ultimately...it comes together quite nicely and resolves itself in a satisfying way.
A cerebral (yet not so much so it loses you) book which utilizes the cinematic blade runner plus the feel of Phillip K Dick to create a book that furthers the Scott/Dick mythology.
I haven't seen the cinematic sequel to the film which I suspect makes this book and the one prior redundant but if this does (as I suspect) offer a alternative kind of timelime...well maybe it's best enjoying it just as that.

[Wise Cat · Rating 2 out of 5]

A more accurate rating would be 2 1/2, but alas we can't do 1/2 star ratings. For me, this book didn't pick up where the last one left off. And it didn't state the year, as I wondered if it was still 2020. (Since it's now 2020, it makes it even creepier that this takes place in that year, at least the second book did)

It had odd words like "patois" instead of just saying "jargon" or "lingo". Or "ceegeed" instead of "cheaply and quickly fixing over". It wasn't even in my dictionary, but it's old anyway. I had to look up these and many other words, but I got tired of doing that so stopped not long after starting that hassle.

After about 200 pages, I still wondered when/where the rebellion of humans vs. replicants is supposed to happen. I'm not sure I understood the part about Sarah seeing a little girl, at least not in hindsight. I couldn't tell if she was hallucinating or not. And the part about Sebastian's "world" (vs. a real one) was creepy, confusing, and hard to figure out. I really didn't like that part about the talking toys. Unlike in Toy Story, this was NOT cute. It just gave me the heebie-jeebies, just plain weird. And they didn't just "talk", they were "alive"--thinking, functioning creatures---self aware and conscious....

Even at page 200, the plot didn't resemble sypnosis or summary in inside flap of the book cover. I normally like this genre, but since it takes place in 2020 of all years, it feels less like futuristic fiction and more like where we are headed.....and soon. I know it was published in the 1990's, so it was eerily prescient of the way our society was going to be more and more dehumanized/digitized.

I didn't like how some horrible things happen to a cat; that wasn't necessary. And the sentences ae quite long and convoluted, making it hard to read, laborious even at times. Example:

"The lights' spectra had been shifted down to an icy blue, colder than the streets' veins of neon, shadow fluttered across him like the wings of unseen, untouched birds as staggered ranks of archaic wind tubines, blades long and scimitar-curved, rotated in the damp breeze coming from the edges of the set".

Wordy...."Shifted to icy blue" is enough for me. I get it. I don't know what "scimitar" means and didn't bother to look it up because I didn't care. Too much trouble. Those long sentences like the example above appear pretty frequently through out the book. It made it exhausting to read at times. I do like details and descriptions, but this was too long and cumbersome.

The ending was a surprise but I wasn't sure who killed whom. It's sort of an open ended ending, but the last 100 pages or so were way better than the first 200 or so. This could have been 100 -150 pages shorter. Since it took so long to get going, all of that could have been left out.

I know there's fourth book, but I'm not going to read it for awhile. Dystopian books don't read like the "escape" they used to anymore, given the direction the country and world is going in (climate change for one....) The first and second books got 4 stars from me, but this was so "draggy" for so long, I almost didn't finish it. Still, I had to see if it redeemed itself in some way, and there are some good parts, hence the 2 stars.

This was a cross between horror, sci-fi and dystopia, all 3 genres of which I like. But it didn't have the action/suspense of the first two books. I even put it aside some days, not reading from it each day as it was definitely no page turner.

[Nik · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is far more adventurous then Blade Runner 2, and I can't help liking it for trying. But ultimately is still let down by some rather over-simplified plot devices.

Where BR2 was still based on Earth and focused as much on the revived Holden as it did Deckard, BR3 takes us to the Moon and Mars with Sarah Tyrell being as much in focus as Deckard. There is much new thinking here, moving away from the original film in some interesting directions, Especially where Sarah investigates the spaceship that she was born on and encounters a young Rachael. This part of the book was very interesting and showed great promise.

So what lets it down? Well firstly, Sarah is painfully one-dimensional and dim-witted. Her entire focus appears to be suicide and murdering her faux partner Deckard. And secondly the notion that as if by magic, humans are only able to procreate on Earth, and Replicants can pro-create anywhere but Earth. This is a far too simplistic and convenient notion for the plot to be hinging on. This is not a children's book and requires something a bit better than that.

Ultimately, I did enjoy this more than BR2 as it showed a bit more inventive thinking. But it still wasn't that great.

[Oscar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm. In the same way that this book twists between characters dealing with existence and origin, human or replicant, lost and purposed, I am conflicted between having enjoyed the payoff but having felt exasperated and teased on the ride. It's probably for the best that the last book in the series is near impossible to get a hold of ... it makes it that much easier for me to stop my obsession here.

[Rodrigo Tello · Rating 2 out of 5]

Menos interesante que "El límite de lo humano", con menos acción, más lento y más delirantes aún las ideas de Jeter para esta nueva entrega, que vuelve a usar la polémica hipótesis de que todo lo que vimos en la película de Ridley Scott no fue lo que pensamos, y que por ende no se nos contó la verdadera historia, que Jeter sí cuenta aquí. Un final fallido que me deja con ganas de no seguir leyendo esta saga. Fue muy superior lo que se hizo en la pantalla grande con "Blade Runner 2049"

[Penner · Rating 1 out of 5]

Completely pointless putative sequel to Blade Runner, which starts with Deckard walking around with Roy Batty in a briefcase. So much for Roy's profound and poetic acceptance of death. It is slightly cool to hang out with familiar characters again, but there is far too much running around in broken spaceships, nonsense adventures on a movie set, and his ex-wife (who naturally is the human on whom Rachael was modeled) being a shrew.

[Stijn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lesser than the previous one, this got all the right ingredients but the combination is sometimes a bit shaky. Conversations are sometimes a bit flat. A had hoped it to be more than a nostalgic trip of the first story. It tried to be, but the focus and storyline didn't always made that clear to me. Maybe the Sarah character isn't getting enough conspiracy and ruthlessness about her. The surrealistic household items are then again a wink to Philip K Dick's work, which I greatly appreciated.

[Lior Korobeynikov · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's an enjoyable book unlike Jeter's first entry to this franchise but I still don't think it's a good book due to the same issues present in the last book.

Still probably worth a read if you're interested in this genre.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeter is a great Science Fiction writer!
Having read his second Blade Runner sequel I feel like there are moments where it shouldn't work but he does justice to Dick's concept and develops the theme well.

[Will Scifi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of blade runner for the movies and books, but this one was alright in comparison to edge of human.

[Allen Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first three quarters of this book I hated it. I struggled to get through it. The last 3 chapters made up for it. Now I actually want to read the unavailable fourth novel.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t realize I was reading the third and final book of the Blade Runner series. The Blade Runner movie is the first. Jeter then wrote Blade Runner 2 which falls between the movie and this book. There's enough back fill to keep me in the story, however would've preferred to have read them in order. I liked the first 1/2 to 3/4 of the book because it was creatively extending the story beyond the movie however I found the ending a bit confusing and lacking in a clear moral or feeling that accompanies many movies. This book seemed like a screen play in that the imagery was very aligned with the original movie and you didn't really get to add your own interpretations. That was good for the true fan, but also a bit confining, I thought.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sequel to the sequel?
Again, nothing to do with the original Philip K. Dick book, Do Androids Dream of Electric sheep and nothing is really added to the Blade Runner mytho.
Basically just a well-writen repetition (hick-up?) of the movie and sequel #2.
Fodder for the fans that just can't get enough, I guess.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yeah, well o_O

(Blog review manages to be a little wordier ;) )

[Mitchan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Again, pages and pages of inane blurb that drag chapters out for pages and pages. There are some interesting parts where we are treated to some detail of what happened on the Salander 3, but then it's back to who is a replicant who isn't a replicant.

[Jonathan Davison · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a second sequel you still to see the movie

[Russ Painter · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretty bad. ALL of the characters from the movie get resurrected in some form or another, and the story gets torn apart rather than build on. No sir, I don't like it.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I, like many of you reading this, truly loved Ridley Scott's Bladerunner so much that I wanted more of of that world. This book, although not great, gave me that.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth reading.

[Dave Swavely · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as The Edge of Human, but it's the only way to explore even more of the Blade Runner world, and like Edge of Human has some really good moments.

[Mike Cremedas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed it but, like Blade Runner 2' I felt the pacing was a bit slow for my taste.