K.W Jeter

i read the Jeter interview in Forced Exposure when it came out- then i read all his books i could find. that was in the 80s though- have not read anything he's written in the last 15 years

i remember liking his horror books best- soul eater, dark seeker, mantis

and then Dr Adder / The Glass Hammer- those were good... he lost me around farwell horizontal

still have these around somewhere...

Nah I was turned off when I saw that Blade Runner sequel in the bookshops.

I guess he probably needed to pay some bills but I just find that kind of thing dodgy ... I for one don't need to read a sequel to the movie (it was "Blade Runner II", not "Do Androids... II") to understand what was going on.

Interesting post from K-punk though distilling his ideas etc. I'm keen to hear some second opinions too though.

Sun burnt intensity

Yeah, i've read his stuff ...
Met him in LA bk in 1996 .
Many good - great reads , dug the Bladdrunner books - combining the movie and 'Do Androids Dream ... '
was a nifty turn .
I have a nice screenplay for Farewell Horizontal

I'm reading Dr adder now after reading K-Punk's Noir review and it's incredible. Sexuality displayed as even more grotesque and revolting than it is in Burroughs' books and I really thought he was the king of that. I'm going to read the Glass Hammer and Noir after this for sure and Blade Runner II sounded actually pretty great going by the quote Mark posted. I had never checked it out because I just assumed it was going to be terrible and I'd be better off reading an old PKD book instead but it looks like I should have investigated further.

That's probably the best bit of the book, jd, though I do think it's well worth a go....

Where's that damn flashglove

Glad to see some mention of the 'ol KW .
Jeter's Dr. Adder's LA has the salt to bite

And do try Jeter's Bladerunner sequels
sure the critics savaged them upon release , but check 'em out
if you get the chance .
I found it good to revisit Rachel ...

I was really suprised by the second half of Dr Adder and a bit dissapointed (I wrote my post right after finishing the first part). It seemed to really lose it's way for a while (especially when he was kidnapped from the sewers) although once Adder returned things seemed to get back on track. I guess I was just looking forward to some flash glove destruction and maybe some more abominations. The Visitor was a strange creature though, reminded me a bit of the weird pods from The World Jones Made but without the punchline.

'It's the LA you haven't seen since Bladerunner'

Yea, JD I very much agree .
The first description of the Visitor is creepy gross enough to fit the general tone ,
but some hot sauce gets lost / watered out when rding the whole story ...

Oh well , so it goes - and it was written 20 years ago , so .

Dunno which version of the book you have , i have 2 - the Signet paperback and this illustrated
Bluejay Books edition with the byline on front 'Come boys and girls , let Dr.Adder fullfill ALL your dreams.'

It's no worse than some of the weird turns Dick has taken on occasion and it didn't turn me off reading more Jeter any but I was suprised by it and was sort of curious if maybe there were connections between the various aspects I just missed.

I've got the Signet one I think (can't find the paperback now). It's got Adder on the front looking crazed and about to to fire his arm.

'Laudable ...'

Agreed J ,
no worse then say, W Gibson's usual end of novel let downs .
The drawings (by Matt R Howarth) in the Bluebird edition are ok , kind of fun with a double page given over to the Visitor's 'suspended alien face'

I've just started reading him and i'm just really into it- i started with a Blade Runner (Eye and Talon) and it wasn't great but it was better than good and some nifty touches (combining book and film and then doing something entirely different).

Farewell Horizontal just wonderful- bloody brilliant in fact and seemingly well ahead of itself cyberpunk, Dark Seeker again wonderful- a post-hallucinogenic rumination on some manson-style murders and just starting Night Fiend now whilst anxiously waiting for Noir to arrive.

Even when the story sags slightly (although i've seen not seen much of that yet) his writing is really fluid- yeah, i'm having a ball with him right not.

Any further reccomends?

Interesting Exotic
is one of the Blade Runner sequels called Eye And Talon in UK or is that publisher ?
here they are The Edge Of Human and Replicant Night ...

Almost all the good stuff was mentioned previously up thread
Dr Adder ( essential, sleazy LA plastic surgery & PK Dick ref's)
The Glass Hammer ( classic, someone make a great movie of it please ... )
Farewell Horizontal - on first reading it's something isn't it ?

FInd this period Jeter was onto a certain tone, look, texture -
not unlike 'classic' periods of Burroughs, Ballard, Gibson, Brunner or Sterling in their own ways and times.
And not unlike Ballard, Jeter gets into certain plots and protagonist modes again and again

The California desert located Death Arms was good too , simple effective plot device,
preceeds Noir in his series.

You may also dig Jack Womack's Ambient

Many of these books have their what was called cyberpunk tropes that stretch from Escape From NY to Neuromancer. Sometimes still fun , instructive plain entertaining pocket worlds to climb into for a few days while pages turn ...

Jeter's been quiet since the BR books (he did some StarWars serials too),
last I heard from him he moved to Las Vegas.
His wife had allergies in Portland Or., they went in search of drier climes.
He was working to get a German production of one of his scripts off the ground ...

E p, I liked the mix you posted
Cheers

Wanted to read Dr Adder ever since I was recommended it by an uber-nerd at school, need to track a copy down.

See if you can hunt it down,
it's got a great early '80's edge to it.
The intro page's quote from a 1972 letter in Penthouse mag sets the tone.

Had to hunt down my copies of Farewell Horizontal from one Glenn Branca who had / has ? a stash of plastic wrapped paperbacks in Soho
!

is one of the Blade Runner sequels called Eye And Talon in UK or is that publisher ?

Click to expand...

Eye and Talon is the title- BR4 i think it is.

And yeah, i can definitely see the consistent tone a la Ballard and Burroughs- i remember hammering all of Ballard's 60's and 70's stuff in a really intense couple of months and it completely destroying my perception of things to the extent that it never left me. And thats what i'm doing now (and working on social telephony projects but thats another story)

Like Dick as well, i really dig the pulpy poetics of Jeter's writings which makes it so easy to submerge yourself in- pocket worlds- perfect descritpion

E p, I liked the mix you posted

Click to expand...

Thanks heaps- i'm working on another one now- pushing the concrete aspects, opening up more space as you kindly put it- letting the weirdness breathe a little bit and maybe a little less complete songs but i do like to put the occasional bit of poppiness in as i think it adds to the surrealism a little.

But thanks alot- really appreciated.

Aha , another Jeter B R book ...
No word on it over here, must be out tho'.
Will have a look see

Blade Runner sequels strike me as a good useful expansion of the BR mythos,
like the B R Esper sdtk mix and so on.
Especially when one just knows there will probably never be 'another Blade Runner',
We used to talk about this, how the original producers just hated the movie and sit on the rights.

I didn't know about Death Arms.. I'll try and track that one down. I read Seeklight a little while ago which had it's moments. Far future = fantasy type thing, like Jack Vance but more grounded. Very different from Dr Adder though, I was surprised as they were written both in the early 70s (unless I'm remembering wrong!)

Death Arms 1987
Noir 88

'This unshakable masterpiece of the assassin's art pursues it's victim at a leisurely, walking pace ...'