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The Edge of Human (Blade Runner, Book 2)

The Edge of Human (Blade Runner, Book 2)

List Price: $6.50
Your Price: $6.50
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Decent, but inconsistent. Doesn't live up to Scott or Dick.
Review:

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.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wonderful and tragic sequel
Review: Blade Runner 2, while not as philosphical as DADES, is a suspenseful tale full of action. This is also of course, a large amount of personal pain to be inflicted on Deckard, and he has to make some tough decisions. A great book, especially if you liked the movie.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not what it could've been
Review: I can respect this book for carrying on the Blade Runner story, but in reality the whole thing's just a waste because it's pretty obvious that Deckard was a replicant. Once you know this and watch the movie, especially the Director's Cut, it becomes pretty obvious. I mean, first of all the guy gets beaten around unmerciful by just about every other replicant in the movie, yet it doesn't really seem to faze him (except for the broken fingers). He pulls himself up a building using only one hand, too. Then of course there's his Unicorn dream, and at the end of the film we see that Gaff has left a Unicorn origami for Deckard, clueing him in to the fact that Deckard himself is a replicant. Gaff knows what Deckard dreams about because he knows everything that's been implanted in Deckard's head. Of course, if this isn't enough to convince you then there's also the fact that Ridley Scott, the director of the movie, has stated that it was always his belief that Deckard was a replicant, he just never implicitly stated that in the film. My take on the end of the movie was that Deckard was slowly realizing he was a replicant (hence his fascination with playing and re-playing the interview Holden did with Leon) and then once he saw that Gaff had left the Unicorn he decided to hell with it, and went on the run with Sean Young's character, Rachel. I was hoping Jeter's book would follow this, maybe pick up right after the movie, answer some questions that the movie didn't, but instead he's just done a re-hash of the film's plot and merely given us a dry hump instead of the real thing.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not what it could've been
Review: I can respect this book for carrying on the Blade Runner story, but in reality the whole thing's just a waste because it's pretty obvious that Deckard was a replicant. Once you know this and watch the movie, especially the Director's Cut, it becomes pretty obvious. I mean, first of all the guy gets beaten around unmerciful by just about every other replicant in the movie, yet it doesn't really seem to faze him (except for the broken fingers). He pulls himself up a building using only one hand, too. Then of course there's his Unicorn dream, and at the end of the film we see that Gaff has left a Unicorn origami for Deckard, clueing him in to the fact that Deckard himself is a replicant. Gaff knows what Deckard dreams about because he knows everything that's been implanted in Deckard's head. Of course, if this isn't enough to convince you then there's also the fact that Ridley Scott, the director of the movie, has stated that it was always his belief that Deckard was a replicant, he just never implicitly stated that in the film. My take on the end of the movie was that Deckard was slowly realizing he was a replicant (hence his fascination with playing and re-playing the interview Holden did with Leon) and then once he saw that Gaff had left the Unicorn he decided to hell with it, and went on the run with Sean Young's character, Rachel. I was hoping Jeter's book would follow this, maybe pick up right after the movie, answer some questions that the movie didn't, but instead he's just done a re-hash of the film's plot and merely given us a dry hump instead of the real thing.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: It's got a good beat and you can dance to it
Review: I enjoyed "The Edge of Human" - But -(there's always a big but in every review, right?) Jeter should have been a little more original, casting off the old characters and bringing new ones to life. He does okay with the main character, Deckard, however - he just should have kept him away from L.A. Afterall, he was on the run, right? Good story though -

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The book is very good and well written.
Review: I liked both the writing style and the story of the book, and felt it actually did conform well with the movie -- a difficult task since numerous versions of the movie are available, so Jeter was forced to pick which version he would follow. (Consider this if you think this book and the movie version you saw are inconsistent) I do wish he had added a touch more originality, but then, THE EDGE OF HUMAN is a first novel in this line, trying to tie the two together. I enjoyed it, and will buy the sequel as well. My only real gripe is that the connection between the movie and original author's DO ANDROID'S DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? was lost on me.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: One of the worst books I have ever read
Review: I purchased this book hoping for an intelligently written sequel to the "Blade Runner" movie. Instead, I got a terribly thought out and unimaginative piece of trash that I couldn't bring myself to bother finishing. In the movie, Sebastian is killed by Roy, and Pris, a replicant, is killed by Deckard. But wait, in the sequel both Sebastian and Pris have miraculously survived; come on, please, let's be a little more unimaginative. Also, we're supposed to believe that Pris wasn't a replicant, or at least the body that was found wasn't. Another flaw is that at the end of the movie we are lead to believe that Rachel's life span isn't like other Nexus 6's, it is more ambiguous and not defined, but in the book that is throw out the window.

To quote Dorothy Parker, I believe, "This is not a novel to be put down lightly, it should be thrown with great force."

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Awful. Just...awful.
Review: 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.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Almost perfect
Review: I was extremely impressed by Jeter's sequel. The essence of the film and paranoia of PKD was repackaged very well. Like Dick's works (of which I have been a rabid fan for a decade and a half), EoH has stirred up some pretty polarized opinions. It's highly creative, despite resorting to resurrections of (actors) character images, if not particular examples. Umm...did somebody say Hollywood? I've heard this called the Grisham syndrome... but I digress. Like PKD in the 70s, each new encounter turns the tables on everything the protagonist has been told. Fabulous. Now, if only the next book wasn't so flawed...

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good for what it is.
Review: movie-nerds' wet dream, what they'd all wished had been done with Highlander. continuation of the movie's story in the style of Dick's book, with multiple scenes which are reporductions or reflections from the original (another Deckard/Batty fight in the rain on decaying city infrastructure). Pretty good for the Geekbook mindcandy category.


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