Product Description
In his acclaimed novels Dr. Adder, The Glass Hammer, and the Blade Runner books, K.W. Jeter masterfully re-created the grim and gritty world of Ridley Scott's classic science fiction film masterpiece.Now Jeter returns with a startling and stylish new vision of the future as only he could imagine it, a dark and disturbing universe that can be described with one word...

Welcome to the Pacific Rim, the new center of the civilized world.As the rest of the planet sinks toward economic and social disaster, the cities on the coast have become a neon-lit, high-tech paradise.Chief among them is Los Angeles, a sparkling metropolis attracting lost souls from across a shattered continent.

But beneath the sleek surface lies a labyrinthine underground feeding on the darkest human desires.Here the wealthy seek forbidden thrills through an anonymous on-line computer system that makes use of prowlers--masked simulations of human users programmed to delve into the most taboo of the hard-core sexual underworld and bring back exotic and erotic experiences to their safeguarded users.For most people, the prowlers are a way to indulge in their wildest sexual fantasies.But for others, they are something far more dangerous.

When a young executive of one of the world's most powerful corporations is found brutally slain, a retired ex-cop is called in to find his missing prowler.The corporation believes the young man's prowler is still "alive" and they want it found, but they don't care to reveal why.

McNihil was an information cop forced into early retirement.He knows he is walking straight into a trap, but he has no choice.He must descend into the noir underground, his only companion a ruthless female operative named November who has a desperate agenda of her own.Together they will uncover a web of evil far more extensive than McNihil ever imagined...a vast conspiracy that threatens to blur forever the line between the sane safety of the daylight world and the dark, dangerous world of noir.

Noir is K.W. Jeter at his very best, a dazzling and inventive futuristic drama of mystery, menace, and sexual terror set in a society of glitter and sinister darkness in which no one can be trusted and everything is far worse than it seems.


From the Hardcover edition.Amazon.com Review
Imagine a fast-moving computer game set in the black-and-white environmentof a 1940s detective movie and you'll begin to get some idea of the mixedmetaphors that fill the air in K.W. Jeter's difficult but ultimatelyrewarding new futuristic thriller.

Jeter, who also writes a series of novels based on the popular Blade Runner film aboutapocalyptic Los Angeles, centers Noir in that same city, now a darkjewel of the dominant Pacific Rim. A detective named McNihil (yes, you gotit) has had his eyes surgically altered so that everything looks like anearly Bogart movie to him. "Gray newspapers with significantheadlines--'Dewey Defeats Truman,''Pearl Harbor Bombed'--moldered in thegutters, or were nudged along the broken sidewalks by the same night windthat cut through McNihil's jacket," Jeter writes about the scene of a planecrash where the detective has been summoned by a corporate villain. A topyoung executive has been murdered, and McNihil is arm-twisted intotracking down the dead man's missing "prowler"--a computer simulation thatroams the world like an electronic ghost.

Aided by a young woman called November, whose fingertips are alive withlethal magnetic currents, McNihil brings his--and Jeter's--unique noirvision to bear on a world that for all its weirdness is the ultimatelybelievable extension of our present-day nightmares. --Dick Adler ... Read more

Customer Reviews (39)

A grotesque but brillant book...
Back when I was in high school (over 20 years ago!), I happened to read Dr. Adder (written in 1972 but only published in 1984) and Glass Hammer (1985) by KW Jeter.I thought both books were brillant and that Jeter would become a major SF writer.When Noir first came out in 1998, though, I didn't read it because I didn't like the cover blurb and ch1 was unreadable.

11 years later, I finally decided to read Noir because it's the last original novel Jeter wrote.I could almost kick myself for waiting so long because it's truly brillant.Yes, it has some rather grotesque moments (I will NEVER forget the "asp-head trophy" or a "Prince Charming" makeover).However, except for ch1, it's highly readable, has a great story and it pulls everything together for a memorable ending.

Some might find it to be too extreme but I think that reflects Jeter's horror background.Like some readers, I didn't care for the copyright rant (however, this occupies only 1/4 of the book).Let's hope Jeter returns to writing again...

Intellectual Property Theft = Death?

Noir is both a distopian science fiction novel and a rant on copyright infringement.This also seems to be the last book that Jeter wrote that was not based on someone else's "universe".Following this there have only been books set in the Blade Runner and Star Trek universes.It is almost as if Jeter somehow saw intellectual property theft as the proximate cause of the decline of his writing career.

K.W. Jeter is starting to become known for his Star Wars and Star Trek "franchise" novels. Making a living as a writer can be tough and we all have bills to pay. I've always despised people who criticize an artist for "selling out". Why should artists have to starve? So I certainly don't hold the franchise novels against Jeter. However, the franchise novels don't represent Jeter's best work. They pay the bills. I have read a number of Jeter's books over the years and Noir, although flawed, is the best so far.

Jeter has a varied body of work that goes back twenty five years or so and includes twenty books. He was a friend and admirer of Philip K. Dick and Jeter's taste for dark Dickensian surreal reality runs through his novels. Noir has elements from Jeter's first novel, Dr. Adder, so it could loosely be viewed as set in the same universe.

The title Noir is well chosen. As with many of Jeter's worlds, the world Noir is dark. A world where corporations are free from anything but the most pro-forma government constraints. Where the drive for profit has entirely taken over and life is cheap. It is possible to literally get a license to kill, as long as the victim has low enough status.

As one of Jeter's character's describes it, noir is also a reference to "low-brow American culture, ages ago, ancient black-and-white movies filled with shadows, garish paperback cover art that seemed equally devoted to guns, lip-dangling cigarettes, and off-the-shoulder cleavage". Noir is "a literature of anxiety. Somebody's always getting screwed over... it's betrayal ... That's what it's always been. That's what makes it so realistic, even when it's the most dreamlike and shabby, when it looks like it's happening on some other planet. The one we lost and can't even remember, but we can see it when we close our eyes..." And indeed the gray twists of betrayal run throughout the plot of Jeter's Noir.

At times Jeter can be profound, deep observation swirling into the bizarre.

[...] he's still looking for what every member of the male species is always looking for. Way deep down inside. He's just brave enough to come out and say it, to ask for what he really wants. What all of you want, eventually. The complete and total reunion of the male and the female principles.

[...] What men wanted; palaces and cathedrals were all very well, but the goddess they worshiped was absent from those places, and they knew it. How much better to live inside the goddess herself, absorbed and yet still separate.

The male thirst for the feminine archetype. The desire to join with the avatar of the universal woman. I know just what Jeter means. I can never get enough of my wife. I hunger for her even after I've just had her. But it would give away some of the plot to tell you what he means by "the life inside". It is here that we see a Jeter branch into strange madness.

No world, even an imaginary one, can be entirely described in a single book. There will always be details that are never fully explained. This is true of the dark world of Noir as well, but as the book progresses many of the features of the world become revealed, like some night blooming flower. One of the strangest is what appears to be Jeter's view of copyright and intellectual property:

There's a hardware solution to intellectual-property theft. It's called a .357 magnum. No better way for taking pirates off-line. Permanently. Properly applied to the head of any copyright-infringing little bastard, this works. [emphasis in the original]

Jeter is violently opposed to the oft quoted Internet saying "Information Wants to be free". He is a sort of anti-Raymond

And no utopian notions, no weird 'net-twit theorizing, propagandizing, self-serving merchandising of predictions, no half-baked amalgam of late-sixties Summer of Love and Handouts, Diggerish free food in the Panhandle of Golden Gate Park [...]

The "gift-based" economy had been a hippie dream, nice for exchanging information of no value, worthless itself for selling and buying anything worth buying and selling.

The international nature of the internet and its pervasiveness make intellectual property difficult or impossible to protect. While Jeter is outraged at this, he is not ignorant of the nature of the Internet

For a while, the inchoate, not-yet-coalesced Internet had fostered the kind of informational darkness in which thieves prospered. The so-called anonymous remailing services pleaded an ideological agenda and served as a front for criminals and vandals. The first and most famous, anon.penet.fi, folded in 1996, its spine broken by Finnish court orders. The rest were hunted down and exterminated off the wires -- it took a while -- on the simple legal principle and mechanism that receiving stolen goods was as much a crime as the theft that produced them. That was what being a fence was all about: there was essentially no difference between a sleazoid pawnshop trafficking in hot, wire-dangling care stereos and an on-line service receiving a stolen, copyrighted piece

Perhaps Jeter knows that only the threat of sure and horrible death (or horrible life in death) would have a hope of stopping intellectual property from flowing, unlicensed, on the Internet.

As a software engineer I strongly believe that I should be rewarded for my work, as I have written elsewhere. My wife and I have a large library and we collect signed first editions (which includes a signed copy of Noir), so I believe to my core that artists should be rewarded for their efforts as well. But, as Courtney Love has pointed out, markets evolve and artists must evolve along with them.

Although many reviewers have seized on Jeter's copyright rant and on the intellectual property themes in Noir to suggest that the book is about intellectual property ("a world where copyright theft is punishable by death"), this theme is not central to Noir. The copyright rant reminded me of reading De Sade, where in the midst of torture, sodomy, rape and kinky sex there appears a tract on the Republicanism and the rights of man. Then, after the position statement is read out by one of the characters, the action continues as before. Noir is an excellent book, flawed by the Jeter's extreme copyright rant. The copyright twist could be extracted and plug-replaced by another twist and Noir would have been a better book. Copyright and publishing on-line are complex issues. It would have been better if Jeter had left the ranting for his Web page.

Looking back in time, with the revolution in software caused by organizations like the Apache Foundation and Linux, it is also clear that Jeter did not see what the open source community could deliver.

Noir gives the reader every reason to believe that Jeter holds rather extreme views on intellectual property and that this is not just "the characters speaking". So in concluding this review, I would like to note that the laws protecting copyright include the concept of "fair use". In particular, quotes are allowed in book reviews and other critical works. If Mr. Jeter somehow stumbles on my humble review, I urge him to remember this. Any quotes I have used from Noir on this web page fall well within fair use.

Dark, but then the name implies that...
I picked this up off the shelf just for the name. Turned out to be one of the better reads I've had in some time. Based in a dystopia familiar to Neuromancer fans, Noir follows the antics of McNihil, a pseudo blade-runner whose targets are copyright thieves. His life, and everything in it are so dark, he's chosen to modify his vision to SEE the world in the same monochrome he FEELS it to be. His best friend is his dead wife.

Technology has run amok in his world, and it's gone beyond the control of even the ones that create it. The technology exists to animate the dead, for a time, so it's used to eliminate the last escape from debt. Debtors are reanimated, forced to pay off their debts. They must picking trash if that's the best they can do, till their debts are paid or they become so decrepit (from wear mind you) that even wildly advanced technology can extract no more payment from them.

The masters of this world, the creators of content, have trapped McNihil into working for them. He's sent to track down technology intended to allow a form of forced addiction on entertainment consumers, forcing them to pay continuously for a 'fix' that costs the companies nothing to provide. It's task that will eventually cost McNihil everything, including his life.

It's a dark world, and a dark tale and it's not for the squeamish. If you can put up with some truly sickening bits, you'll be rewarded with a decent story, and thoroughly realized world.

Contrary to popular belief, I don't think Jeter has an axe to grind on copyrights. Just the opposite, this book stands as a commentary to what would happen if copyright were king. The RIAA sues people for file sharing that have never owned computers. It holds college students hostage, demanding they forfeit their education to pay them. Al this and more over actual damages that, to be generous, might amount to a few hundred dollars. Is there any doubt that, if they COULD, the MPAA and RIAA would license asp-heads to kill tomorrow?

Not a MUST read, but a SHOULD read?
I read this book several years ago and am suprised by how many of the ideas in it haunt me. The plot is "okay." I don't really want to talk about that. The plethora of interesting cyberpunk ideas in this novel, though, have some really cool parallels in the modern world. As a teacher, I often make reference to ideas in this novel as over-blown illustrations of modern phenomenon. Intellectual property rights? Hitmen for copyright holders. Tattoing is back? Yes and what if they were communicable, like STD's?! Virtual realities? Imagine a guy with processors in his contacts that interprets the world as a noir film, so much so that he can no longer easily access reality! Personal debt on the rise? Yep. What if when you were dead you were reanimated to work off your debt?

I have a hard time recommending this book as a good read. I have a hard time not recommending this book as a collection of really juicy bits of "stuff."

a disturbing vision slowly becoming reality
Noir is an excellent novel, particularly to those more interested in reading the book than looking for mistakes. Jeter presents a cyberpunkish world in which capitalism has achieved its ultimate triumph: there are only consumers and the corporations who rule them. With every server raid and court case against copyright infringers today, the aspheads of Noir begin to look less fantastic and more inevitable. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Needed to be more serious
This book had the potential to be one of my favorite books in the first 50 pages - but then it got to be more funny than scary.I still enjoyed it, but it just wasn't 'dark' enough.The use of slang from the future made it kind of ridiculous and the fact that the book is really just one continuous chase scene with a helpless hero is pretty absurd too.

You'll need to stretch your imagination quite a bit on some of the ideas but all in all it was fun.Jeter is very creative and original, this is kind of a funny version of _The Anubis Gates_ and also similar to Gaiman's _Neverwhere_ and _The Physiognomy_ from Jeffrey Ford.

A must! Completely entertaining.
This is a great book. Very fun to read. If you like James P. Blaylock, this is way better than Homuculus. Just read it. Dane ... Read more

Product Description
He's the most feared and successful bounty hunter in the galaxy.He is Boba Fett, and even the most hardened criminals tremble at his name.Now he faces the deadliest challenge of his infamous career--an all-out war against his most dangerous enemies.

As the Rebellion gathers force, Prince Xizor proposes a cunning plan to the Emperor and Darth Vader: smash the power of the Bounty Hunters Guild by turning its members against each other.Only the strongest and most ruthless will survive, and they can be used against the Rebellion.It's a job for the fiercely independent Boba Fett, who jumps at the chance to destroy his rivals.But Fett soon realizes the game is rigged, as he finds himself the target of murderous factions, criminal conspiracies, and the evil at the Empire's dark heart.Boba Fett has always finished first.And in this game, anything less is death.

Amazon.com Review
This story, book 1 of the Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy,intercuts between the time just after Star Wars and events thattake place during Return of theJedi. It's an intricate tapestry of deceit and backstabbingvillainy among those scum of the galaxy, the bounty hunters. Principalscum include: Prince Xizor, a Darth Vader wannabe and leader of theultrasecret crime syndicate Black Sun; reptilian Cradossk, leader ofthe Bounty Hunters Guild; his son, Bossk, who makes Oedipus look likean underachiever; and finally Boba Fett--faceless, ruthless, andimpossible to kill. Thought the Sarlacc consumed him in Return ofthe Jedi? Guess again.

This first novel only kicks off thetrilogy's story, so while there is some action, there's also muchtalking and scheming, and the overall plot is only beginning to becomeclear by the book's end. Curiously, since everyone is so wretchedlyevil, there's really no hero to root for--a marked contrast to theusually quite romantic Star Wars tales. This explains, perhaps,why K.W. Jeterwas chosen to author the trilogy. Jeter, once Philip K. Dick'sprotégé, tends to avoid anything upbeat or uplifting.

Tony Awardnominee Anthony Heald doesn't just read the book, he performs it,using countless different voices. He's backed up by music and soundeffects that make The Mandalorian Armor into a full-fledgedaudio drama. Fans of Star Wars fiction and Boba Fett inparticular will be pleased with this further exploration of Lucas'srich universe. Newcomers, though, might want to start with somethingmore traditional. --Brooks Peck ... Read more

Customer Reviews (173)

And all the bad guys kept monologuing...
Dengar is scavenging around the Sarlac after the big blowout at Jabba's when he makes two discoveries: 1) a dancer named Neelah is not all she seems and 2) Boba Fett is alive.Back post-A New Hope, Boba Fett is hired to destroy the Bounty Hunter's Guild.
NOTE: Based on the novel (read years ago) and the audiobook.

I Liked:
What sane person wouldn't want to read a book starring the most enigmatic, least important, most highly sought after character from the movie?I read the book to learn more about Fett, and, in a way, I did.
Fett was well done, if a bit verbose.He is mysterious, he is cunning, he is ruthless, he is a mercenary to the core.His mind is analytical, he plans for all contingencies (well, most of them) and he isn't burdened by pity or mercy.Even with recent prequel and Traviss retcons (Well, I don't know so much about Traviss' retcons, if any, of Boba Fett, just of the Mandalorians), he holds up well.
But for me, the one who shined was Dengar.I know, it's odd, but Dengar was a very personable character for me.I liked his relationship with Manaroo (established in Tales of the Bounty Hunters, one of the good short stories), I liked how he balanced being emotional and yet a mercenary, and I liked how he teamed up with Boba Fett.
I also really liked how this book was set in the Imperial (aka between Hope and Jedi) era and not in the future.We don't get to see much of Vader, Palpatine, Xizor, so it was nice to have scenes with them.

I Didn't Like:
If you were to ask me to give two words summing this book up I would say "Slow" and "Confusing".Both are closely intertwined, but I'll try to explain individually.
This book is incredibly slow.Really, not much happens in this book.If I hadn't trudged through it the first time (it took me forever and I was tempted to give up, it never seemed to go anywhere), I would have given up.Yes, it ends on a cliffhanger, but to get me there...too hard, too long, too slow.
As for "Confusing", this book includes two seemingly unrelated storylines.I say "seemingly" because, having read the book, I know that the two stories are intertwined.But for someone who hasn't read the trilogy before, it would be mindboggling why there are two stories being relayed with the only plausible tie to the other is the characters (Boba Fett and Kuat of Kuat).I love subtlety, but this goes too far.Give me something to work with, anything.Drop a hint, a clue, a tidbit.Kriff, make the "Then" sections obviously a flashback.Anything, so I can tie the two together and not wonder if Jeter is pulling a Black Fleet Crisis with Lando's story.
Another thing that bothered me was the monologuing.Characters absolutely love to talk endlessly or think endlessly.Boba Fett is particularly prone to being overtalkative, something that seems to conflict with his on-screen persona.Kuat of Kuat does a lot of staring at screens and thinking, plotting something we have no clue.Xizor spends a huge chunk of time and pages relating in excruciating detail his plan for destroying the Bounty Hunters Guild (it goes WAY overboard).And Kudar Mu'bat, while an interesting character, grated on my nerves for his blathering.
My last complaint is reserved for Neelah.I know she's supposed to be integral to the plot, but I can't get over how cliched she is.Hot dancer?Check.Amnesia/Memory-wipe?Check.Quick-thinking?Check.Able to deliver great groin attacks?Absolutely.

Dialogue/Sexual Situations/Violence:
I caught a d*** and a p***, the latter being a surprise in a Star Wars novel.
Neelah was a dancer.
Bossk kills his father.Boba Fett is nearly digested by the Sarlac.The story deals with mercenaries and bounty hunters, so expect a lot of battles, fights, betrayals, firefights and the like.

Overall:
Mildly entertaining, this book would be so much better if it weren't so overcomplicated and ridden with characters who like to hear themselves talk/think.Decent, but unless you are a Fett fan, I would skip.

Brought to you by:
*C.S. Light*

Jeter at his best
I have enjoyed every book so far in the Star Wars, especially the Clone Wars series, in particular those by Karen Traviss. I find this book to be in the same league.The style and delivery was highly professional.OK - I sound like a college professor, but I am not. I'm a writer.Not being an avid SW fan, I can't comment how well Jeter portrays Boba Fett or Dengar and the other bounty hunters.However I think Jeter rightly takes his place with the greats such as Timothy Zahn and Michael Stackpole, for example.I like a good story line with plenty of action.This book has it.It is well written, full of dynamic imagery and memorable characters that show their individual quirks.Jeter is a master in this.I agree that Zuckuss is a whimp -but so what?I found the description of the tin man, D'harhan fascinating and gripping: "the gleaming surfaces black metal shone like the coils of an aroused serpent, intricate and deadly".I look forward to Jeter's next book.

Good read for Boba Fett Fans
After reading other's review I have to agree and disagree that this first book in the Bouty Hunter Wars does seem to be lost, as does the 2nd.But if you take the time and read all 3 back-to back it all sums up and ties together very cleaverly.Not the best book ever written, but as far as Star Wars books go it is a good read, just now before reading you have to keep trak of 3 story lines, #1. The original STAR WARS trilogy, #2. The events in the present tense of this series, #3. The past as told by Dengar in the book.If you keep all of these in focus as you read it all falls together for an entertaining read.This is by no means a life story of Boba Fett, just enough of his background and the background of others to fill you in so the books do not seem as scattered thoughts.My recommendation is to get this book with Slave Ship and Hard Merchandise and a week's worth of evening reading to read them all together for the story to unfold properly.

Audio Book - 3.5 Stars
After reading several reviews, I decided to listen to the abridged audioversion over reading the novel.3 hours of listening was just about right for this story.I would have to give the audio version 3.5 stars.I suspect that reading this novel would take 6-7 hours and unnecessarily lenghten it's plot.

I like how the original trilogies events are intervowen with this story.I'm looking forward to the next two audio books to see how this series fits in with the Original Trilogy and Shadows of the Empire.

In the vein of...
Italo Calvino...
Have you ever read, "If on a Winter's Night a Traveler"?
It's a very complex read.
This book very much reminds me of it. I love the way that the characters are built and the building of the present by presenting facts we "missed" in the original Star Wars trilogy. Boba Fett has always been my fav character so maybe I'm a little biased.
However, I've read this book through more times than I can count and I always find something new. I don't think the writing is poor at all. It is well structured - I think it's one hundred times better than Shadows of the Empire...
It is a deep dive, from three different points of view within one book, into the mind and mental capacity of Boba Fett.
Great read. ... Read more

Product Description
Cyberpunk / steampunk author Jeter's first novel. First published here as a Laser Book, October 1875. Original science fiction novels, three Laser Books were issued per month beginning August 1975 until the line folded in February 1977. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

and I had such high hopes...
The idea of the Morlocks using the time machine to menace Victorian London is a good one - I'd like to see someone else give it a shot.

I first saw a reference to this book in a science fiction encyclopedia, under the "Cyberpunk" entry. But it's not really cyberpunk, or even science fiction. It's a rather poor fantasy novel, with more sorcery than science fiction. If the idea of the Morlock-fighting protagonists, including Merlin and King Arthur, running about London's oldest and deepest sewers, which are actually remnants of Atlantis, in a recovered Atlantean submarine sounds stupid to you, then you'll understand why it was a struggle to make myself finish reading this thing.

Hardly an appropriate Sequel
Jeter utterly fails to make a convincing sequel to Wells' "The Time Machine" by worming magic and legend into a novel where it hardly belongs.Although Jeter does well in approximating Wells' style, his loping prose, he fails to carry through with the sort of "scientificromance" that so characterized Wells' work.Instead, "MorlockNight" is a piece of weak fantasy, almost entirely divorced from itsscientific foundations, and almost impossible to finish.To add to theother wrongs, Jeter tries to reinterpret the Morlocks themselves, makingthem a highly technological species, and far removed from their origins,thereby dashing the allegories that Wells worked so hard to establish.Ifyou must read a sequel to "The Time Machine", read "The TimeShips". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Mildly lascivious, but hardly ban-worthy.
The first novel by K.W. Jeter, it was considered at it's time to be too taboo or just plain "sick" and so took a lot of struggle and a healthy dose of Phillip K. Dick to get it published. Apparently the world was a much more conservative place back then because by today's standards, it's fairly light reading.
While there is an overt theme of sexual perversion, violence, and drug use, it is not excessive; the story seems to focus on the events surrounding these activities, but not necessarily as a direct result of such.
The characters take a while to develop and the reader is able to keep them at arms length throughout most of the book so the suspension of disbelief is not as well developed as often occurs in Jeter's short stories and later works.
Although vacillating between sparks of eureka prose and post-adolescent mumbling with the occasional Jeter fifty-word sentence, it is a quick read and, for being his first novel, wasn't too bad.
As a special treat, I found the "illustrated" version. --Don't buy it for the artwork.
Those already familiar with Jeter's work will appreciate the budding seed of the writer's voice in Dr. Adder; the rest may likely only consider the book a misogynistic dystopia of mutilated hookers and oddly segmented prose.

you can tell it's a first novel
K.W. Jeter's "Infernal Devices" was a very good book, and I therefore presumed that "Dr. Adder" would be, too.I was very much mistaken.

I'm aware that "Dr. Adder" is regarded as some sort of alternative classic, but I really can't imagine why; it's one of the most "so what?" books I've ever read.We're not given any reason to particularly care about the two-dimensional title character (who comes across as a misogynist, a homophobe, and an overall bigot against anyone who doesn't want to live the way he does, all traits that are customarily associated with the very "moral forces" that oppose him), we almost never see the ONE-dimensional villain (in the end it's revealed the villain is an A.I., but since we knew almost nothing about him in the first place, the revelation falls flat and his "defeat" flatter yet), and we get only a surface view of the futuristic society and no clue as to what motivates its citizens.Extraneous concepts are introduced and then abandoned, taking up space that could have better been used to make the main setting more real.

I also really have to say that the book's depiction of women is contemptible.Almost every female character is either a prostitute or a drugged drone, and that's only part of the general flatness of the future depicted here.There's little explanation for why Dr. Adder would be a "hero figure" for surgically altering prostitutes to better please their clientele because, frankly, the book doesn't depict prostitution in a positive light (perhaps this isn't supposed to matter since we get almost no serious look at the people who oppose it), and the notion that women should re-make themselves in order to better service men isn't a good one.Even a half-hearted attempt to explain why, in this future, prostitution is now something that young women would actually ASPIRE to (instead of the last resort that it usually is) would've helped tremendously.

In addition, while I don't have a problem with "foul language" per se, I felt the author was overusing it for no real reason but shock value, and IMHO overuse of such language isn't "mature," it's entirely the opposite.It doesn't matter what sort of language or images are used if nothing ever gets SAID.

Maybe my failure to get much out of the book stems from a misunderstanding of what "cyberpunk" is supposed to be; maybe I looked at it from the wrong perspective.Maybe I wasn't SUPPOSED to get anything out of it but a few vague concepts connected by profanity.If that was the point, then mission accomplished.

As noted, I am aware that K.W. Jeter has written at least one good book; however, I'd have to say this one wasn't it.But very few writers succeed every time, and judging by the other reviews, it obviously appeals to others.Okay.

Brilliant darkness
I highly recommend this book to any fan of Philip K. Dick. (At times Jeter's fiercely ironic style made me wonder if I was in fact reading a "lost" Phil Dick novel!) Jeter's perverse, dark vision of the L.A.of the future envelops your senses with a mixture of revulsion and fascination as the story unfolds. Other reviewers here have already summarized the plot and setting, so let me just add that the book is disturbing and brilliant, and if you can stomach the sexual perversions and gore, you will come away astonished that somehow "Dr. Adder" (written pre-1972, anticipating cyberpunk by at least 12 years) has escaped your attention until now. The afterword by Dick is noteworthy too. One of the characters in the novel is based on Dick, although Phil mis-identifies that character in his afterword, in my opinion.

Disturbingly brilliant
Dr. Adder is one of those books that gets better the longer you read it. The story starts off thrusting the reader into the disturbing streets of a future L.A. where the title character is a specialist in transforming prostitutes into mankinds most twisted desires. Tempting to put down (as I did, regrettably, the first time I started to read it), the story begins to take on a live of its own.

The story focuses not on Dr. Adder, but instead on E. Allen Limmit and his discovery of life outside the corporate home he spent much of his life. As his life becomes inevitably intermixed with Adder and Adder's arch-nemesis, he learns he is a pawn in a much larger story, one he was, literally, born to be. Writen 12 years before it was published, the book is brilliant, one of those incredible first novels that shows the author knows more about writing than some long-established authors. The ending had me laughing for minutes, and though I had once told a friend that I would never read it again (while still in the disturbing subject matter of the first fifty pages) I look forward to additional readings of this classic in the years to come.

pre-cyberpunk
_Dr. Adder_ by K.W. Jeter is about a dark and violent Los Angeles of the future in which terrorists can be heroes to a disaffected youth.

One of society's idols, Dr. Adder, can, for price, plunge into a client's subconscious and dig up his or her deepest sexual desires, then provide the necessary surgical modifications to fulfill those desires.Hoping to wreak vengeance upon Dr. Adder and break his stranglehold upon society, his equally dark foe stages a violent end for Dr. Adder which is ultimately fought in a cyberspace-like melding of minds and television networks.

Action-filled and a quick read, this book is recommended for fans of a sort of dark, pre-cyberpunk in the style of Philip K. Dick. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Obscure book but a minor classic...
Death Arms (1987) is the 3rd book in the so-called "Dr. Adder trilogy".However, it's an independent book, having nothing to do with Glass Hammer (1985) or Dr Adder (1984).All 3 books are wildly different in storyline and style but they do share some themes.

Like Dr Adder, the protagonist, Legger, is a young man with an infamous father, who returns to LA as the story begins.Set in the near future, the entire West Coast of the US has been largely abandoned after a mysterious mass panic ("the Fear").Legger's father was an assassin with the mutant power to "call" his victims to their deaths.But he died before killing his last target, a powerful and corrupt corporate executive, who had something to do with the Fear.

The novel starts out slow, but Legger is soon swept up in his father's unfinished business and the story literally races along like a bullet until the last page where "death arms" takes on a new meaning.

Death Arms is very reminiscient of a Philip K. Dick novel from the 1960s in terms of writing style and tone except it replaces PKD's usual reality-twists with paranoia and conspiracy.Glass Hammer is probably the best of the bunch; Dr. Adder is one of those books you either love or hate; and Death Arms, the most obscure of the three, is a minor classic that seems to have been forgotten.











... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

The Darkest Future
Jeter was, if not the first to write a Cyberpunk novel (Shockwave Rider was arguably first) his Dr. Adder helped define what Cyberpunk is. Also the man who invented the term 'Steampunk' Jeter's visions are influential, if obscure to many.
The Glass Hammer is my favorite of his books and showcases his gifts as a writer, if also emphasizing what some find disturbing. Easily switching between writing styles and points of view, Jeter takes his time to slowly reveal a world that may be worse than post-apocalyptic full of people who have no idea how grim and bleak their lives are in the grip of forces beyond their awareness, let alone grasp. The focus of the book, Shuyler, is trying to get by and live as he comes to realize that he may be the most helpless of them all.
A tough read, but a rewarding book.

Invites comparison to Philip K. Dick
Jeter has sometimes been compared to the incomparable Philip K. Dick.In the case of The Glass Hammer, the comparison is apt.The story has the religious overtones that characterize Dick's later novels.The novel's presentation of religion is ambiguous:often satirical yet, in the end, raising the possibility of true belief.The satire is hilarious:the Godfriends, a female religious sect, believe that they will give birth to the child of God if they become pregnant and so avoid pregnancy--until one of them becomes pregnant by the novel's protagonist.A more mainstream religious organization devotes extensive resources to the reconstruction of stained glass windows, using elaborate computer programs to calculate the probable arrangement of the glass before the windows were destroyed.The rest of the novel deals with a post-apocalyptic future in which industrial forces use the media and religion to control and placate the uneducated workforce.The novel is written in an interesting style, switching between conventional narrative and the format of a shooting script.Characterization is sometimes weak and logic is sometimes lost, but Jeter's ideas are powerful and the payoff at the end makes the novel worth reading.

Prescient author and novel
If, when reading or hearing about helicopter gunships firing missiles with pinpoint accuracy, you wonder what the world has come to, K.W. could be therapy for you. In addition to that particular horror which is a background to "Glass Hammer," what Jeter's world is coming to is much, much worse.
This novel is not likable, nor are its likenesses, "Dr. Adder" and "Noir," yet there is reader value extant especially for (you) genetically created optimists. I know what you want, I know what you married, but you'd still get a frisson from K. W. Jeter; an intelligent depressive that you can put down and pick up at your pleasure (vis a vis 'spousey') and whose unspeakably horrid prognostications seem to be coming true with alarming frequency.

Liturature disguised as SF
Not having been real impressed with Jeter's take on Blade Runner, it was almost amazing that I gave The Glass Hammer a try. It was a difficult book to begin reading, and I almost gave up. But it paid off in the end. The Glass Hammer is undoubtably one of my favorite books of all time. Having just finished it -- again -- I felt compelled to let others know that if you can find this book, read it. The first 30-40 pages of it are a difficult read. Jeter writes a story about a man, Schuyler, who races across the Arizona desert night amid hailing laser missiles to deliver illegal computer chips to European buyers. He has become a minor celebrity by apparently being the father of the second coming of God. A production company is doing a bio of Schuyler and the story is writen as part present and part past, told as both video images and memories. Difficult to follow at first, but once you get into the flow, the story becomes engrossing, and the plot even more intricate. Well worth reading, even if you are not a fan of the genre.

Liturature disguised as SF
Not having been real impressed with Jeter's take on Blade Runner, it was almost amazing that I gave The Glass Hammer a try. It was a difficult book to begin reading, and I almost gave up. But it paid off in the end. The Glass Hammer is undoubtably one of my favorite books of all time. Having just finished it -- again -- I felt compelled to let others know that if you can find this book, read it. The first 30-40 pages of it are a difficult read. Jeter writes a story about a man, Schuyler, who races across the Arizona desert night amid hailing laser missiles to deliver illegal computer chips to European buyers. He has become a minor celebrity by apparently being the father of the second coming of God. A production company is doing a bio of Schuyler and the story is writen as part present and part past, told as both video images and memories. Difficult to follow at first, but once you get into the flow, the story becomes engrossing, and the plot even more intricate. Well worth reading, even if you are not a fan of the genre. ... Read more

Product Description
K.W. Jeter picks up the tale of Rick Deckard, the `blade runner' created by Phillip K. Dick and popularized by Ridley Scott's cult classic film.  Consistent with the sordid vision of 21st century Los Angeles crafted by Dick and Scott, Jeter creates a stylish piece of thrilling, futuristic suspense that finds Deckard not only in the role of hunter, but also hunted.  Again, Deckard is on the trail of an replicant, not knowing that it may be the most elusive and dangerous android of all.


From the Paperback edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Pleased with the plot
I just got through reading this, and I must say that I was happy with the job Jeter's take on the Blade Runner world.

First off, I am a huge Blade Runner/Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep fan. I know there are many of us, and some take their passion to a higher degree than others. That being said, if you read this book with an open mind, and don't hang on the original book's/movie's every word, you will enjoy this read.

Jeter follows the storyline of the movie rather than Dick's novel, but I was able to pick up the story right away. The story is innovative, and fresh. Of course a sequel would be silly now, but I wouldn't mind seeing this book turned into a graphic novel or animation movie.

Overall Blade Runner 2 is a fun romp through the Blade Runner world with creative twists and turns. As I said, unless you walk around dressed like Roy Batty or Deckard all day, you should enjoy most of this novel.

I would give this book less than 1 star if I could
I tend to be open about all forms of literature and most writers, even if there books are simple or immature you usually can get some interesting insights or at least superficial visceral entertainment from most stories. Sadly this writer gave me the first experience with the word HACK that I have ever truly encountered. Never before have I slammed face first into a pile of words that would actually be better described as excrement.

I did not find anything wrong with P.K. Dick's book, loved Ridley Scott's interpretation of the film, Blade Runner. But this was so bad I wondered if it was originally written on toilet paper, lost in the woods, and then found by some Hollywood type who hoped to sell it as a "property" to a B-Movie studio.

I have my own interpretation of the nuances in the original novel and the movie, as most do, but this clown seems to not understand any of the basic story premises as well as having the blackest mental cesspool for a view of the world I have seen since Mein Kampf. Early in the book we find that the basic premise is that, we (All humans) want our slaves to be as human as possible so we can "enjoy" there suffering. If your basic outlook of humanity is this low, I don't understand how he had time to write this book. I would expect Jeter would be in a cave somewhere and living off roots or shackled to a wall with a 200lbs Dom leaving red marks across his ass.

I kept reading this book thinking that all the stupid mistakes and idiotic premises thrown like feces from a monkey cage, would be exposed in the end, and we would return to somewhere near the original Dick/Scott galaxy.He has no additional insight in to any of the caricatures he reused from better writers, and I suspects, he needs to spend more time in the real world getting to know humans that are not drawn on his hand, to gain some wisdom about how real people operate and why.

Do not give this guy even the 1% royalty by purchasing this book anywhere(Sorry Amazon), except to support your local used book store to clear shelf space for ANYTHING else.

A Sequel Too Hard To Swallow
Let me begin with the admission that I was unable to finish this book. I made it to about page 90 and just had to put it down. So, my review will be based on that fact. Also, there are probably what would be considered to be some plot spoilers here, so please skip this review if you don't want to know information that might reveal some plot twists too soon.

I am a Bladerunner fan. I love the original, and I love the director's cut. I own them both. I have watched them so many times, I have lost count. I thought it was awesome that somebody wrote a sequel. I was reluctant to buy it, because I am not a fan of Mr. Jeter's other works. However, I finally picked it up one day.

I was determined to finish this book. Even when I saw that J. F. Sebastian, to me a person who was irrefutably killed in the movie, was still alive. And then, Pris is still alive. I thought at first Mr. Jeter did a fair job with the characterization of Deckard, and then that began to disappoint me, too. Then finally, the thing that made me put the book down. Mr. Jeter would have us believe that Pris was not truly a replicant.

I ask any fan of the movie if this is even conceivable? To me it was not, and was the final nail in the coffin for the book for me. I just couldn't go on any further. The book became an insult to it's source material in my opinion. I honestly don't see how any one who is a true fan of the movie could enjoy this novel.

Like many sequels, this one would have been best left unmade. Most sequels are more stillborns than vibrant offsprings. The best sequels are the ones we create in our own minds. I applaud Mr. Jeter for his effort to create a sequel to such a bastion of sci-fi history, but I question his outcome. Like any author, he deserves praise for his talent, and his creation, but it is not for me, and I would imagine, not for many Blade Runner fans as well.

Based on the merit of reading the first 90 pages or so of this book, I do not reccomend it. I'll stick to the movie, but this book is not Blade Runner canon to me.

Good for what it is
A movie-nerds' ... dream, what they'd all wished had been done with Highlander. A 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 cityinfrastructure). Pretty good for the Geekbook mindcandy category.

Not too bad for a sequel to the movie
Jeter does a so-so job in this book at picking up where the movie left off. However, this book is in no way related to DADoES? (which the book claims to "tie-in" with the movie) except for the character J.R.Isidore. My biggest grudge (which is even MORE apparent in the 3rd book!)is the fact that Jeter basically "re-runs" the movie so manytimes.IE) Many events in this book already happened in the movie, and arejust re-written a little differently. However, the plot is okay and you areleft with an unexpected twist at the end, which is good. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

One of the best
One of the best science fiction novels I have ever read.Original idea and concept together with good writing, good characters and good story.

Not Jeter's Best, but Surely Worth Reading
It deserves to be read. It is an ambitious experiment: can a novel reproduce a videogame? Jeter succeeded in doing that. The novel is a videogame. But it is a videogame on paper, peopled by characters with a soul and a (sometime) questioning mind (one of these is Sai). The apparent plot is a frantic adventure in a surrealistic virtual world whose shape is a scandal for reason. But here and there Jeter suggested that things aren't exactly what they seem (he was a friend of Philip K. Dick, after all), and there's more in this novel than the breathless quest of Ny Axxter in a grotesque cyberworld (maybe the ultimate cyberworld). Basically it is a satire of many aspects of the videogame imagery/subculture, and a discussion of its covert ideology. Not as food as other novels by the same author, Dr. Adder and The Glass Hammer, but a novel worth reading. And subtly funny most of the time. 'Tis a pity it's out of print!

A gripping hard SF thriller
Jeter invented a truely wonderful world for this novel. The setting is a huge, cylindrical building that towers above the earth. Most of society exists inside the building but those who are outside society, on the edge,live on the outside of the building, on the "Vertical".

Thenovel's protagonist, Ny Axxter lives on this wall and tries to make aliving as a freelance artist working with video and graffex. One day, hehas what appears to be a stroke of good fortune and he thinks that he is onthe verge of making it into the big time as a major artist.

At thispoint, his world starts to fall to pieces and he discovers that reality isnot what he, and everyone else thought and that the major players in hisworld now want him out of the way.

While many parts of the world areunexplained, Jeter throws in enough in the way of technical details to makethis hard SF and not fantasy. The writing style is very sharp.

Jeter isregarded by many as an heir to the mantle of the great P.K.Dick and thisbook is worthy of that regard. I always think that a sign of good writingis the quality of the pictures inside my head as I read and, on themeasure, this was very good indeed.

Farewell Horizontal is a grippingread and I highly recommended it.

If you only read one...
If you only read one K.W. Jeter book then you are missing out on some of the most significant science fiction of the last twenty five years. Still, this is the one to read if one is your ambition. Astounding ideas,breathless surgical execution and the very best gusto an amateur can bringto the field, here wrapped in one pocket-sized package by a trueprofessional. How many authors could pull off a motorcycle chase up theside of a building and still make you want to read more? Simply marvellous.

Absolutley brilliant sci fi romp.
See the other description for what this is about.This is one of my favourite books.The idea is totally origional and all my friends say the same.Gives a breath of fresh air to sci-fi. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A true thriller...great read
This is the 6th novel by KW Jeter I've read- but only the first of his many horror novels.While it's not his best work, it's certainly the most thrilling out of the 6 I've read.I finished it in only a few nights of reading.Most of the book takes place over a day or so.

This is a fast-paced book filled with extremely disturbing imagery but relatively "gore-free" compared to some horror novels.Its supernatural elements are debatable- are they real or merely the product of drug-crazed minds.This book also has great characterization and I guess about as happy an ending as can be expected given the premise.Highly recommended.

my favorite Jeter
Before KW Jeter turned to novelising DEEP SPACE NINE and such, he'd built up quite a cult following. Part of this -- in regard, specifically, to the novel DR. ADDER -- had to do with his associations with Philip K. Dick -- but Jeter really had his own voice and concerns. His novels from the time of DARK SEEKER (including MANTIS, THE SOUL EATER, and THE NIGHT MAN) are rather interesting psychological horror stories that often focus around buried rage, child abuse, and male protagonists who are barely able to remain stable, being tempted by various forces, both inner and outer, into darkness and self-destruction. Themes of homelessness and the perceptions of people beaten outside of the social structure also tend to arise... As his troubled heroes slide, their sense of what is or can be real and of the solidity of their own identity often gets grievously challenged. Some of these novels, like MANTIS, carry their ugliness too far into what amounts to self-indulgent misogyny and chaos; the most interesting of them, however, is DARK SEEKER. If nothing else, it has a BRILLIANT premise. It posits the existence of a hippie cult based around the use of a psychedelic drug that a) unites the users in a shared, telepathic psychosis and b) involves hallucinatory visits by dark, evil forces that goad the users on to do horrific things. The cult was disbanded years ago, after members were implicated in murder (reminiscent of the Manson clan). The protagonist of the novel is a survivor of the group; he is able to lead a normal life, by medicating himself daily with antipsychotics and so forth, but constantly misses the intensity of his past experiences. He also has memories of murder that other people, also using the drug, committed, and is disturbed by knowing on some primal level that the act felt good... He has to continually protect himself against the possiblity that the cult will again surface into his life to tempt him, which, of course, it eventually does... At his best, Jeter questions and deconstructs male attractions to violence and darkness, linking them to severe abuse (he was working in a reform-school type situation, on the night shift, when he wrote some of these -- notably also THE NIGHT MAN, which is also a pretty good book). At his worst, he romanticizes the brutality and revels in it. It's been a few years since I read DARK SEEKER -- but I'd recommend it, tentatively, based on how much I liked it at the time (when I was a moody, troubled adolescent -- possibly Jeter's ideal audience, which I know isn't really a compliment). Can't say much about his recent work, though -- haven't read it. ... Read more

Product Description

Political tensions on Bajor are once again on the rise, and the various factions may soon come to open conflict. In addition, a series of murders has shaken everyone on board the station. While Security Chief Odo investigates the murders, Commander Sisko finds himself butting up against a new religious faction that plans to take over Bajor and force the Federation to leaveDeep Space Nine.

Odo soon traces the murders to a bizarre and dangerous form of holosuite technology--a technologythat turns it's users into insane killers and now threatens Sisko's son, Jake. As the situation onBajor deteriorates, Sisko learns that the political conflict and the new holosuites are connected. Both are the work of a single dangerous man with a plan that threatens the very fabric of reality.

The plot is darker than anything Sisko has faced before, and to defeat it, he must enter the heartof a twisted, evil world where danger lurks in every corner and death can come at any moment--from the evil within himself, from his closest friends, or even at the hands of his own son. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Space...the boring frontier........
One has to be warped to read this boring wordy hardcover. I'm glad I only paid $3 bucks for it (2.99 too much in my opinion). The only good parts were the moments with Odo and Quark. Other than that it was a waste!! zzzzzzz..thats all you will do if you read this tedious, wordy novel. Boring boring boring !!!!!! No wonder it's thrown in discount bins around the galaxy. Live long and prosper but dont read this book!!

Who are you? And what have you done with the real Sisko?
Believe the title. The reason "Warped" didn't sell very well was that the author fundamentally misread the DS9 characters and feel. If you want to see stronger work from K. W. Jeter, read the Boba Fett books. The same cynical, violent outlook that works so well in that Star Wars story just seems creepy here. It's like all the Star Trek characters you know and care about have been replaced with twisted dopplegangers of themselves.

This is a paranoid book. Corridors are dark and oppressively silent. Much of the action takes place at night. A string of bizarre and violent murders upset the calm of the station. Political unrest stirs Bajor. There is even a ghost! Oh, and somebody's been tinkering with the holosuites, which now twist their users into violent and sociopathic behavior. It's a premise that deserves a stand-alone novel instead of trying to squeeze it into the rubber suit of DS9.

If you like dark books, and can avoid plot holes without mental distress, this is a decently-written story. However, big DS9 fans should avoid this one.

DS9 Warped - Poorly written and executed!
As a general rule I do not normally like to completely run an author's work into the ground, so in this case my intent is to be as fair as possible with reference to this title.It was not thoroughly surprising to see "Warped" be the second and final Star Trek novel by KW Jeter, who I know to be a very popular author in other genres.Between this and his first DS9 novel "Bloodletter," an astute fan of the series can quickly catch on that the author just didn't seem to grasp the characters or the overall theme of the series very well.

Although no one but those at Pocket Books can say for certain, I believe that the reason that this was the only hardback Star Trek Deep Space Nine release up until DS9's "Unity," which is due out this year, is because "Warped" did so poorly in sales due to it's slow pace and lack of familiarity to the actual series.I find this to be a sad fact as well, considering the novels that came out later that so richly deserved a hardback release!

The cover art for this novel is standard fare for the time it was published, not exceptionally imaginative.

The premise:

Attempting to capitalize on the outstanding second season trilogy episodes of "The Homecoming," "The Circle" and "The Siege," the author brings into play these aspects, playing on the political strife in the newly formed Bajoran provisional government.A series of murders occurs on the station and Commander Sisko finds himself dealing with a new religious faction that wishes to force the Federation away from Bajor.

Odo soon traces the mysterious murders on the station to a dangerous new form of holosuite technology which has also affected Commander Sisko's son, Jake.Sisko must now deal with this new religious faction and the very real possibility of murder coming his way from any direction, to include his own son.

I've also owned the audio tape for this novel for several years; read by Rene Auberjonois, it can be an "okay" distraction for three hours while driving down the highway.Of course, Rene Auberjonois' reading is excellent for what he was reading.

Overall, the premise to this story is an extraordinarily intriguing one; it's in the execution of the story where it falls flat.I would only recommend this title as a collectors or completist's type find.{ssintrepid}

Not for everyone.
If you're one of those fans of Deep Space Nine who enjoy that series' tendancy to supply a healthy dollop of psuedo-mysticism along with the usual Star Trek psuedoscience, you'll doubtless love this book. It was well-written, the characters were handled well, the plot moved nicely, and so forth.

If, on the other hand, (like me) you find the credibility granted the Bajoran mysticism and mumbo-jumbo (including Sisko's status as the "Emissary") to be at best minorly irritating, then this is definitely NOT the book for you. The basic concept was just a little too silly for words.

A little warped, but overall not bad
I don't understand why everyone keeps saying that this book is so bad.I picked it up, and couldn't put it down.Sure, it got a little overinvolved with some technological details at points, but it's not bad.

The only reason I will give it only four stars is because the author made one slight mistake.As I am writing a book about Federation starships, the author used both the runabouts Mekong and Ganges.Well, during my research, I learned that the Mekong is the runabout that was assigned to Deep Space 9 after the Ganges was destroyed.Just a little annoyance with me that the author did not research the information first.

Overall, a good pick.I highly recommend you pick it up to read. ... Read more

Product Description
Starfleet Command has learned that the Cardassians are planning to construct a base on the other side of the wormhole to establish a presence and claim the rich unexplored territory. Now, it falls to Commander Sisko, Major Kira, and the crew of Deep Space NineTM to set up a Federation station there immediately.

Before Major Kira can deliver the new base, a fanatic from her violent past appears. Kira must engage in a life and death struggle with an enemy who will stop at nothing to destroy her, as the fate of Bajor, the wormhole, and possibly the entire Federation hangs in the balance. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Early DS9 effort
This 1993 novel, #3 in the series of DS9 novels is set early in the series, shortly after the discovery of the wormhole and long before the Dominion appears.If you don't have any idea what any of those things are you really won't enjoy this book at all.

The Cardassians are attempting to stake a claim to the far side of the wormhole, naturally the Federation and Bajor are opposed to this and so a race is on to establish the first outpost in the Gamma Quadrant.As if this is not enough a group of Bajorian fanatics had name Kira as a traitor to Bajor and targeted her for elimination.Naturally the two plot lines become entwined.

This is not an especially good Star Trek novel nor a particularly bad Star Trek novel (and bad ones do exist), it is just rather....blah.The characterizations just aren't quite right.Kira in particular is portrayed as rather inept, wimpy even.This Nerys would never have survived the Occupation.Many novels start a bit slow but at some point pick up making the reader anxious to finish.This one just stayed slow leaving this reader at least to wonder when it would end.If you are a DS9 fan, and why else would you be reading this, and really need a visit to DS9 then by all means read this one if you cannot find any of the better entries in this series.

DS9 #3 Bloodletter - Good premise but poor execution!
I found this author's writing style to be fairly good and the premise of this early Deep Space Nine story to be a sound one, however, the overall execution of the story more or less falls flat.Despite the fact that this is but the third in the Star Trek Deep Space Nine fiction series and the author probably had but one season or less of episodes to base his characterizations on, his characterization for Major Kira Nerys just doesn't wash.One would definitely think that if an author were going to set out to write a story in these series that they'd take an interest in learning the characters and failing that, the editor would catch these things and make corrections.This just doesn't seem to be the case with this novel though.

The cover art for "Bloodletter" can be counted among the standard fare of Star Trek novels of the time where minimal effort was involved.

The premise:

As stated above, the premise is a fairly interesting one in which Starfleet Command has learned that the Cardassians are planning to construct a base on the other side of the wormhole in order to have a presence there and claim as much of the unexplored territory as possible.Obviously this is well before the Dominion became a known factor!The Federation has opted to preempt the Cardassians by having the command crew of Deep Space Nine build a station there first.Coming from Major Kira's past though is a fanatic who will stop at nothing to destroy her, the fate of Bajor, the wormhole and possibly even the fate of the Federation.

While this novel is certainly not among the best of the Star Trek novels in print, it isn't the worst either.I would recommend it to help complete your Star Trek Deep Space Nine collection and as a somewhat viable read.{ssintrepid}

Nice try.
But the plot and characterization have holes you could drive a starship through. And I mean a big one, a galaxy-class ship.

The writing is pretty good, actually, so it's a shame to have to rate the book so low. The dialogue is better than fair, and the plot moves well until the end, when it completely falls apart.

I don't want to say TOO much about that, because it would give away too much. All I can really say is that the day that Major Kira can't handle one lone psychopath with a broken arm who's armed only with a knife one-on-one (to say nothing of with assistance from Dr. Bashir) without having to destroy an expensive and important piece of equipment, is the day that the author truly doesn't understand the characters s/he's writing about. Granted, this was an early book, but STILL...

Most of the second half of this book reads like a cheap slasher movie, with Major Kira playing the part of the terrified potential victim of the near-unbeatable slasher. Problem is, we've seen absolutely nothing to indicate that he really has the kind of semi-mystical invulnerability enjoyed by Freddie and Jason; Kira should have made mincemeat of him, without so much as mussing her hair.

An uninteresting read
The characterizations are flat, and the novel is mostly just confrontation after confrontation with nothing to hold your interest. It was boring.

Somewhat entertaining, but mostly flat.
I thought Bloodletter was more interesting in the beginning, with the evil villian's planning, but when Bashir and Kira go into space, it just turns into one endless confrontation after another, with fairly boring characterizations. ... Read more

Product Description
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. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Not Free SF Reader
I suppose you could say this is bleak and getting bleaker.Replicant Night starts off with making a movie of Deckard's replicant hunting adventures, of all things.

Bizarre.Then there is the whole Tyrell woman love me or kill me scenario.

Presumably it is trying to bring into question whether anyone in the book, or even the reader, has any idea what is going on.

Series killer
I enjoyed the moive, and the original and the blade runner 2 book. However, this book 3 is not worth the read. Once you start the book, it gives you teasers, and deckard the information but not you. So you wait and read to find out what deckard knows. Then when you do, it was not much. It reads more like a crime drama that takes place in a movie set than anything to do with science fiction. The author must have been hanging around movie sets at the time of writing. The book basically makes deckard look lame, he does nothing on his own, he only reacts to all these people feeding him different information. The story does not even make a good case for why he is picked for this information. Some author's write a private bible of the world they are writing about, then they write the book based on that world they created in their bible. However I get the feeling that this book is lacking so much information because the author never took the time to write a bible before the book and doe not know any of the answers himself to this world in the book. My advice is to stop at the second book. Don't let this book ruin the series for you. Too bad someone like Kevin Anderson did not write this.

A Really Bad Read
There is little to recommend for this book.The only way I finished reading it was by reading only the first and last sentences of a paragraph.Near the end of the book, I was only reading the first and last paragraph of a chapter.

This book is really bad.

Very Disappointing
Jeter's "Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human" was a fairly good read that captured most of the feel of the movie Blade Runner.(It's important to realize that these books are sequels to the film, not the Phillip K. Dick Book "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?")I got the feeling that Jeter's intention of his first sequel was to provide closure to what happened after the events of the film and would create new adventures in the Blade Runner future.Instead, in "Replicant Night", he goes right back to Los Angeles 2019 and revisits scenes that were done in the film.I felt I did not need those scenes embellished any further, I wanted something fresh.Unfortunately, there was nothing fresh about this book at all.

Mediocre read for those with a casual interest in BR
The book could be condensed and made more enthralling without Jeter's constant references to the first two installments of the trilogy. This is especially true in the beginning of the book.

I wouldn't recommend it todie hard BR (movie) fans as it lacks the depth of the original. While themovie embellished existing technology and explored moral and philosophicalquestions surrounding it, this book is more of a fantasy/actionstory.

Nor will it be of much interest to someone new to the BR universe.Despite Jeter's constant references to past events, you really need to knowthe original story and how the characters fit into it.

That said, it's adecent read with some interesting plot twists towards the end.So, if youlike sci-fi and have a casual interest in BR, this book may be of someinterest to you. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

An eighties horror movie come to life.
I'm a guy from Holland and in the early nineties I got my first exposure to the horrorgenre via countless horrormovies on videotape and my local comicbook store which imported FANGORIA magazine.

I have to mention both in this review. First because FANGORIA wasn't that flattering in it's review of this book and second 'cause THE NIGHT MAN just feels to me like a lot of the horrorvideos from that time (think the Freddy Krueger and Jason films and more obscure gems like THE HITCHER and MAD JAKE).

I have to disagree with FANGORIA though (sorry Dave Kuehls). I admit THE NIGHT MAN has a somewhat average setting and there is some moralising (I read somewhere Jeter used to work with troubled youths himself) but the parts with the fantom avenger and his black car are just so cool and everything just ties up real good in the end.

The plot is simple (An abused kid has his revenge on those who pestered him, and his life somehow gets entangled with that of an aspiring writer slash nightguard) but there's enough horror in the parts with the abandoned drive-inn and (once again) the avenger to keep a horror buff like me interested. It's also a fairly short read which I finished in a day (another pluspoint in my book).

I haven't read Jeters other books (The rumor is DARK SEEKER and SOUL EATER are better) but this is entertaining in it's own right.
It's just too bad Jeter abandoned the horrorgenre to become a franchise writer for the likes of STAR TREK (yuck!).

One of Jeter's better horror novels
Jeter, known now for novelisations of Star Trek stuff and for his Philip K. Dick ties, wrote some pretty good horror novels. DARK SEEKER is another one. This book, written while Jeter was working nights at some sort of juvenile correctional facility, deals with both child abuse and adult male violence in a reasonably thought-provoking and sympathetic way. It encapsulates many of Jeter's obsessive concerns -- child abuse, troubled men uncertain of their identities, and so forth -- and may -- I don't know -- include some bits of autobiography (since one of his protagonists in the novel is working at a job identical to the one Jeter was doing at the time). See my review of DARK SEEKER for more on Jeter, and my notes on MANTIS for a bit of a warning -- Jeter can fall in love with the violence he depicts, and may not be healthy reading... I actually thought his horror novels were much more interesting and unique than his forays into SF, though they're out of print now and the observation may be irrelevant...

Great book, worth reading.
This book was the excellent tale of a young boy who was kicked around his whole life and then in one instant vengence was his. THE VENGENCE OF THE NIGHT MAN!!! An emotionally-provocative story very well written. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Victorian Romp!
An over-the-top mad Victorian romp that is both very funny and very imaginative. If you are expecting dark horror from Jeter, which is what he often delivers, not for you.

Started out dark then got funny
This book had the potential to be one of my favorite books in the first 50 pages - but then it got to be more funny than scary.I still enjoyed it, but it just wasn't 'dark' enough.The use of slang from the future made it kind of ridiculous and the fact that the book is really just one continuous chase scene with a helpless hero is pretty absurd too.

You'll need to stretch your imagination quite a bit on some of the ideas but all in all it was fun.Jeter is very creative and original, this is kind of a funny version of _The Anubis Gates_ and also similar to Gaiman's _Neverwhere_ and _The Physiognomy_ from Jeffrey Ford. ... Read more

Product Description
K.W. Jeter picks up the tale of Rick Deckard, the `blade runner' created by Phillip K. Dick and popularized by Ridley Scott's cult classic film.Consistent with the sordid vision of 21st century Los Angeles crafted by Dick and Scott, Jeter creates a stylish piece of thrilling, futuristic suspense that finds Deckard not only in the role of hunter, but also hunted.Again, Deckard is on the trail of an replicant, not knowing that it may be the most elusive and dangerous android of all. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (23)

Terrible from cover to cover
The simpliest way to describe the novel is that it misses both the original work (the Electric Sheep story by Dick) and the movie (Bladerunner) by a long shot.

Jeter simply isn't as good of a writer as Dick was, nor was he as blatantly crazy and it's the sheer bizarre nature that gave Dick's writing a lot of what it had. Jeter also doesn't seem to be upon the Bladerunner side as in the novel he openly mocks the question of Deckard being a replicant.

No, if you want a true sequel for the Bladerunner movie, instead try to find the Bladerunner PC game from the mid-90s. It feels like Bladerunner much more than any of Jeter's dreadful novels.

[...]

Not that great.
This is the 3rd installment in the Bladerunner series.It has a few interesting ideas, but overall did not move fast enough to keep me interested.I did manage to finish, but really had to force myself.Some scenes seem very similar to the premise of Bioshock, the new highly acclaimed game for the XBox 360.

A fun ride
The reviewer who described this book as "geekbook mindcandy" made me laugh. I totally agree.As a shameless fangirl, I enjoyed the Phil Dick novel, the film in all its versions, and this tie-in book.It pulled me into the suspense of the plot.I enjoyed the descriptive passages--Jeter clearly loves this version of the future.I'm disappointed to see that this book and the rest of the series are out of print, but copies are readily available for a reasonable price.

Worthy Sequel
This story is a sequel to the BR movie. Though at time the author can get a bit wordy and drag things out, it's not enough to really take a star away from the book. The story comes together nicely in a world where everyone is out for themselves and no can be trusted. The plot twist at the end left me saying wow and the story can easily hold your attention.

Awful. Just...awful.
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. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

"Good" book but definitely NOT for everyone...
Mantis (1987) is a horror novel which was written in Jeter's most productive period.Like "Dark Seeker" from the same year, the subject matter is very dark and gruesome; however, Mantis is far more intense and disturbing...

Michael Turner, the narrator, is a (once) highly succesful graphics artist who now lives in a slum studio apartment in the bad part of town which he calls the "Wedge".The narrator has created an alter-ego for himself ("Michael") who roams the streets at night, looking for women who are "asking for it" (i.e., want to be beaten and raped).Early on, he relates that all men are bitter at women for not consenting to sex (on demand) and because many women prefer "bad boys" over "nice guys"; and SOME of these women even want to be raped/murdered.Michael believe he can recognize such women by "scent" alone and that he has almost superhuman senses.Michael is able to limit himself initially (i.e. he only commits one murder) until he meets Rae, a women who's on the "same frequency" as himself and dares him to commit even more murders in an ever escalating game...

Eventully, we realize that Turner is completely insane and delusional. He constantly boasts about his male prowness and his "sharp" senses.However, he's completely UNRELIABLE as a narrator- he can't remember conversations and events and he can't even remember his own name!Turner expresses guilt for having severely beaten his ex-wife but that turns out to be another false memory (a fantasy).The ending reveals that Rae is actually a split personality of himself. So one has to wonder how "willing" his victims truly are or if the murders even happened at all.

Michael constantly repeats how he is only giving his victims what they "asked for".I guess the moral of the book is that people have delusions (like egomania, racism or misogny) in the first place in order to justify themselves...

Incidentally, the character of Bennet is based on Philip K. Dick, who was a friend of the author.This kind of split narration was also used by PKD and Barry Malzberg, whom the book is dedicated to, another great SF writer.

Strange and Bizarre, but Horror?
An advertising genius down on his personal life (divorced) is living in a slum and seems to be connected to two different people that he can sense.On is a man named Michael.The other is a woman whose name he does not know.He prowls the streets following Michael and trying to locate the woman.Eventually we learn more about the man and about Michael.Finally, they both, and the reader, meet the woman.The remainder of the book deals with the relationship of the three and how they interact.

This is a strange book and definitely not for everyone.Michael is a predator and "tunes in" to women looking for a very rough encounter.The nameless woman seems to be like Michael.There is plenty of obsession and no small amount of madness making this a tale of tragedy but, other than the cover, there is little to describe it as horror.By the end of the book I was glad it was short.Some readers will be disappointed in the ending while others will drop out before then.Beware.

Intense, riveting Malzbergian horror
Involving, intense, riveting horror/slasher novel reminiscent in its narrator's tone & in some aspects of plot construction 2 some of Barry N. Malzberg's better works -- the book is dedicated 2 Malzberg. The narrator is unreliable (tho it takes awhile 2 realize this), but the story is almost instantly involving, hypnotic, & the tension & bizaareness constantly escalates. The Nding is a bit disappointing -- the narrator disintegrates & Jeter pulls back his focus 2 a "God's-eye" view. But it's worth the trip. I Njoyed the writing style if not the subject matter & events. I'll B looking 4 more horror novels by Jeter....

Hatred and violence towards women
I liked some of Jeter's books from this time -- thought occasionally he did a pretty good job of rooting around in the dark places of the male psyche. At the time of my reading them, of course, I was a troubled teen and a big Cronenberg fan. In retrospect, I think THIS particular book of Jeter's, however, gets far too carried away in the abuse of women, which it depicts with glee -- the main character's alter ego is a violent thug who knows that there are SOME women out there who like it rough, who are attracted to violent men -- and who stalks the night, looking for women who want to be raped and killed. Sick stuff. It rolls around in it's blackness. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone... ... Read more