Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human

Jeter, K. W. Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human. London: Orion, 1995. Rev. Peter Wright, Foundation Number 66 (Spring 1996): 124-27, our source here.

Sequel in print fiction to Ridley Scott's BLADE RUNNER film (1982), using elements of P. K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Wright notes that Deckard in this novel loses certainty in the Voigt-Kampff empathy test, designed to tell humans (with empathy) from replicants (without) — and loses confidence in much else.

No longer certain that he can trust the VK machine or his own perception of reality, Deckard begins his quest for the sixth [escaped] replicant [mentioned but not found in BLADE RUNNER]]. Inexorably, he [Deckard] reaches a point where he can no longer distinguish between what is real and what is artificial. His uncertainty is shared by the reader, whose ability to determine which characters are humans and which are replicants is destabilised by Jeter's introduction of machine-like humans, human-like machines, doubles, psychotics, schizophrenics, and cyborgs. [...] Ultimately, the distinction between the [... human and replicant] is seen to be inconsequential as the division separating the human and the nonhuman is revealed to be both breaking down and independent of an individual's biological origins. (Wright, p. 126)

RDE, Initial Compiler, 12May19