Tears in Rain (Bruna Husky)

"Tears in Rain" take its title from the movie "Blade Runner", where replicant Roy Batty delivers the following soliloquy just before he (*spoilers*) dies:"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.""Tears in Rain" shares other elements with "Blade Runner": it also features replicants and a detective trying to solve a mystery on a dystopian future Earth. In a way I think this is unfortunate because it makes it easy for the potential reader to dismiss this novel as "Blade Runner" fan-fiction.But it's not.This is a deep, poignant and compelling work in its own right, and if it was inspired by a film, it manages to explore that film's themes of memory and death in a much deeper way. Although the author acknowledges the existence of the film "Blade Runner" within the book's timeline (how could you not?), this is definitely not a sequel or even a story set in the same universe. This is a book that transcends both its genre and its roots. And it's a damn good read.Here's the setup:It is about one hundred years in the future and the Earth is a very different place. Breakthroughs in technology have lead to the creation of replicants: genetically engineered human beings who are 'hatched' at a human-equivalent age of 25, implanted with false memories of a fictional childhood, and then sent to work in dangerous conditions, fight in wars or explore hostile worlds.A replicant uprising has lead to theoretical equal rights for 'reps' in the newly formed United States of Earth, but in practice they are still feared and discriminated against. To complicate matters, a rep has a natural lifespan of about ten years - at that point their bodies suddenly decay and death quickly follows. Science has not been able to solve this problem.Bruna Husky is a combat rep who has 'retired' and become a private investigator in Madrid. When a fellow replicant goes insane and tries to kill her, Bruna starts to investigate a strange string of murders: replicants who have been forcibly implanted with new false memories that drive them to kill.Miriam Chi, the leader of a group for replicant rights, suspects that this is part of a conspiracy to turn human citizens against reps. Bruna is skeptical, but soon finds herself becoming paranoid as the conspirators appear to be able to track and anticipate her every move. She needs allies, but is torn between the disgraced memorist whose final work was to create Bruna's own false memories and the sly human policeman who claims he's on her side.Meanwhile, replicants with infected memories are committing ever more horrific killings and the an anti-replicant hate group has inexplicably risen to political power. And Bruna is haunted by memories, false and real, of her own past and the ever shortening frame of her own future.Author Rosa Montero has created a really interesting future in Tears in Rain. Human teleportation is possible, but carries grave risks. Humans have created orbital colonies, the so-called Floating Worlds, organized around fringe ideologies. The shortening of the vast distances of interstellar space has brought humanity into contact with alien civilizations. Yet despite all these advances, pollution has rendered much of the Earth uninhabitable, horrific wars and genocides have killed millions, and people still age and die.This novel properly belongs to the sci-fi subgenre of 'cyberpunk', which concerns dystopian near-futures. And it owes a lot to a Harrison Ford movie from 1985. But this is a rare book that transcends its own genre. The mystery is not really the heart of the story. Montero is writing about loss and how we remember the people we have lost and what that means. Bruna's false memories of the childhood she never had are more vivid than her friend the aging archivist Yiannis' true memories of a child he lost long ago. If the dead live on in memory and memory is fragile and mutable and eventually we all die... where does that leave us?Montero's novel is poignant and compelling, all at the same time. The themes she works with are resonant ones, and her world is one I would very much like to explore further. Word is that she's writing a sequel. I for one will be looking out for it.

I bought this book mostly because it was advertised as a spiritual successor to Blade Runner. The book is not an actual sequel, but it touches upon many of the themes and issues raised in that movie. Of course, anything that claims to follow Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Ridley Scott's Blade Runner is going to set expectations very high. Remarkably, Rosa Montero succeeds. This was easily one of the best books I read in 2013.The story focuses on Bruna Husky, a replicant who works as a detective. She notices an odd and disturbing pattern of crime amongst replicants and sets out to investigate. The plot itself is fairly straightforward. What really captured me was the characters. The characters in this book feel absolutely real. The characters experience complex emotions. Montero does an excellent job at showing how individuals can feel so many different and sometimes contradictory moments at the same time. We see characters who feel one thing but feel compelled to say something completely different, yet their actions are believable because their complexity resembles our own.Montero also does an excellent job at situating Bruna and the other characters in a world that feels as alive as those street scenes in Blade Runner. The characters interact with each other and appear and reappear in different contexts. Characters who seem initially to simply provide a bit of information necessary for Husky's investigation to proceed might later help her with an emotional problem. It's neat to see how the pieces all fit together and really makes the characters feel more real. Human relationships are complex and multifaceted and this book portrays that better than most others I've seen. In short, "Tears in Rain" doesn't just have an ensemble of characters, but a living community.The book also addresses some big themes. This is an excellent exploration of tolerance, difference, and coexistence in society. Bruna finds herself in the middle of supremacist groups, one which advocates replicant rights and the other that seeks to enforce human superiority. The book actually goes beyond Blade Runner by introducing aliens and as yet another source of difference. Characters change and characters' perceptions of other characters change. I found myself shocked to find that my own perceptions of characters also changed and found myself having to overcome some of my own prejudices.If the book has a flaw, it's that it introduces too much too quickly. Rosa Montero's world is huge and there are many historical development between now and 2109. Montero litters the book with in-universe archivist notes, which serve both to bring the reader up to speed on key historical developments and to further the central mystery of the book. However, it still feels like there's so much to absorb. I wouldn't have minded a slightly longer introduction to some of the characters, aliens, and developments before the murder mystery begins in force. However, I say this more because I enjoyed Montero's world-building and wanted to absorb more of it rather than because I ever felt lost in the book.Some reviewers have issues with the translation. Rosa Montero wrote the book in Spanish and Amazon provided a translation. To be quite honest, I was a bit worried, but overall I found the translation to be remarkably strong. The prose is highly readable and the dialogue actually sounds like human conversation (except where it isn't supposed to, as in the case of aliens or replicants). The writing is probably better than a lot of English-language science fiction I've read, including more prominent authors. Granted, the writing never reaches the heights Montero probably intended. The writing is prose, not poetry. I can only imagine how beautiful this book sounds in Montero's native Spanish. However, the most important point is that the writing never interferes with enjoyment of the novel. Kudos to the translator!Overall, if you like science fiction that treats its characters as real individuals with a range of emotions AND explores big ideas, I highly recommend this book.

The title of this book is taken directly from the "tears in the rain" soliloquy by Rutger Hauer in the film Blade Runner. In fact the whole book is a homage to the film. Rosa Montero's main character Bruna Husky is an ex-solider, turned detective, she is also a short lived Rep (Replicant) human with an approximate life span of 10 years. Replicants were made to do the difficult and dangerous jobs that humans don't want or can't do, and often despised by society as a lower class which sparks interesting tensions through the book. The difference that marks them out are their eyes which have vertical pupils like cats, so no Voight-Kampff polygraph test required here. The book actually makes reference to the film but ironically doesn't mention Philip K Dicks original book the film was based on "Do Androids dream of electric sheep".This is an original script based on an established premise. It's an easy read, with several nice twists, and a few well written pieces that string together nicely. I read it over a couple of days and enjoyed it, but wouldn't read it again.If you like blade runner, you'll probably like this book.

In a way it is unfortunate that this book is billed as derivative of Blade Runner, as it seems to have prompted a lot of 'This is not as good as Blade Runner' reviews. I think reviews on Amazon can be very uneven in standards; I have read five star reviews of books that are not a patch on this one, some being absolute rubbish. Technically it is grammatically good, well written and devoid of the usual howlers you find in similar works at 99 pence. It is twice as long as 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' and to buy this will cost over four times as much, so on value for money terms I rate it.OK so, are the characters two dimensional? Not really all of them. The key protagonists are given some depth, except for the policeman who is kept very enigmatic and ends up being a bit two dimensional as a result. My main criticism is that the denouement is very rushed and a little simplistic, but all in all I enjoyed it reading it as a stand alone and not making comparisons.

The main character is a Replicant who only has ten years to live, but she gets roped into a huge conspiracy to destabilise earth by making all Replicants (Androids) to blame for a series of deaths, initially amongst themselves then humans.Clever and weaving, with some very strange but interesting characters drifting in and out.Only four stars because it leaves a couple of things unsolved and the continuous griping / age counting of the main character even got me to say "oh give it a rest" out loud on a train.But different from many in this genre, and would certainly grow to more books, with plenty to explore.BTW this is NOT Blade Runner, nor is it supposed to be. So those expecting this, get over it. It references this film in the same way it references artists and music etc to give context, not to drive the story.

A very interesting story, one in which I hope will be continued. The title of the book does not do it any credit at all so this great story would I am sure be just glanced at and missed.The fact that is is about replicant humans and humans together and a mention of blade runner is the only thing that connect the two, they are very different, I liked blade runner but to be honest I prefer this and could easily see this in a film format.The writing is good with the exception that the author keeps alternating the names of the lead character (the replicant then her name or her title detective) this can be a bit confusing as there is a police detective in the story as well.I still gave it 5 stars as it was very hard to put down.

This is not too bad a read.It is obviously a rip-off/spin-off from the film Blade Runner, - (and no attempt has been made to disguise it!) - which in turn was a rip of the book by Philip K Dick, called Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. There are also a couple of nods of recognition to the Master, Dr Isaac Asimov, and his positronic robot series, and his three laws.At first, it is a rather vague, rambling tale that lacks direction, and I nearly gave up with it on a couple of occasions, but as the book progresses, it tightens up and begins to make sense.Would I read another Rosa Montero book - I doubt it, unless it was offered at a silly low price.