I’ve watched the original Bladerunner1 (many times) and the new one2 (once), but I hadn’t read the original novel3 (“Do androids dream of electric sheep?”) ever, despite repeatedly resolving to, and buying it, renting it, whatever.
I still haven’t (hah), but thanks to Comixology, I’ve done something similar, which is reading the amazing graphic novel of the same name, published in a 24-part series about a decade ago4.
There were a few … dated bits5, but c’mon, it was written over half a century ago6 now.
Something I wasn’t prepared for: it is much more than the movie, and way*, way wierder than the movie. The movie is very normal compared to the story in the book, and I can see why … there’s enough going in with the dystopian future and he grim task of retiring Androids, to then bring in Mercerism into the mix (which seems like a minor side-detail towards the beginning, but gradually seeps into the whole environment — and the graphic novel really shines in this part — contributing more to the man vs. machine question than anything in the movie.
It gave me the same feeling as the movie in parts, and I’ll admit I read some of it while listening to the soundtrack7 🙂
It’s very easy to recommend, well worth the time 8. You might expect it to be “mostly the same as the movie”, which I did too, but it truly is a whole different experience.
- A year before I was born ↩︎
- ”2049” ↩︎
- Fun link: here’s a list of all the various cover pictures the original book’s been published with, in different languages ↩︎
- available separately, or as a single Omnibus version ↩︎
- using physical coins to make calls, the presence of the Soviets, and … flying cars ↩︎
- 1968 !! ↩︎
- read an article about it, listen on Spotify ↩︎
- $9.99 on Comixology, or free with the subscription ↩︎
Abacus Noir 