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)
I suppose after reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, one's expectations of The Edge of Human get rather skewed. K.W. Jeter did the best he could, I am wont to say, given the circumstances and not being the originator of this series, his artistic licence was on a short leash. That said, the entire plot in The Edge of Human was insanely convoluted and hard to follow. It is one thing to write a thriller that keeps the reader guessing and another thing to not leave any breadcrumbs us mortals can grasp at and create our own biases about the eventual outcome. The Edge of Human doesn't afford one that luxury and I found it to be off-putting. I felt the writing style went overboard with the descriptions that went on and on and on.The pace of the plot itself takes a while to take off-I waited half the book to see some action. A less patient person would have shelved it. I was ready to sign this off as a freakshow, horror story because everything went haywire from day one, but Jeter redeemed himself with that nice touch at the end. I really loved it. He's a great writer though i would rather have had him write his own work so that his creativity would let him do as he pleased.
What do You think about The Edge Of Human (2000)?
A good follow up to the movie and the Phillip K Dick novel. Was very true to the original story and revived pretty much all the original characters (since most were replicants with several copies). Interesting paralles between the Battlestar Galactica SyFy show in terms of - what really defines humanity? While good to visit the original characters, I wish Jeter would have ventured a little further afield and expanded the Blade Runner universe some. Oh well, I understand he did two other Blade Runner books so I may have to check those out.
—Jim
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.
—Scott Holstad
As a big fan of Blade Runner I've always wanted to read these books and find out what might have happened to Deckard after the movie. I have to say I was a little disappointed. Instead of expanding the story we just get a rehash of the movie using the same characters in the same situations - even characters that we thought were dead. While I found that side of things ok to a certain extent as I was just happy to be back in the universe, it was the ending that really lost this book a 3rd star. The reasons for setting in motion the whole main plot of the story were, to say the least, a little bit rubbish!
—Wayne Farmer
