Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human in Philip K Dick

Mar 11, 2012 Lixma rated it it was ok

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 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) ...more

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Sep 24, 2017 David Agranoff rated it liked it

Shelves: cyberpunk, dystopia, paranoia, tie-in-novels, weird-crime, set-in-la, hard-boiled-sci-fi

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 th 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. ...more

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Jan 14, 2011 Byron 'Giggsy' Paul rated it liked it

Shelves: phildickian, dystopia, cyberpunk

so I actually read 60% of Blade Runner 3 before I realized I grabbed the wrong book off my shelf as I hadn't read 2 yet. So I stopped and read this one. It's okay overall, has some portions of brilliance recreating the brilliance in the Ridley Scott's film, but much is ordinary and some places don't come close to matching the beauty Dick or Ridley created. I do know that I prefer Replicant Night (Blade Runner 3) even though that one is still unfinished at the time of this review - Jeter seems mo ...more

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