Terminated edition

Relentless. That’s how I can best describe Timothy Zahn’s prequel book to the upcoming movie, Terminator – Salvation: From the Ashes. For the first review in the ‘Galaxy Not So Far Away’ column, I’ll take a look at this book, give a spoiler summary and my opinion and recommendation on the novel itself. Click on the link to read the rest of this entry.

After a short prologue to set the stage by introducing one of the new characters, Marine Sergeant Orozco, just as Judgment Day hits; the rest of the novel takes place some untold years later during war itself. John Connor’s resistance cell is just returning from a successful raid against Skynet, when they discover that Skynet has tracked them back to their base. As his forces retreat, we’re introduced to his rag-tag group which include; a squad leader named Barnes, who’d probably be a violent sociopath if he weren’t living in a post-Judgment Day world; Blair the hotshot pilot who lost her lover to Skynet; Wince who’s kind of like Star Trek’s Scotty, the miracle mechanic who keeps Connor’s machines in working order; and Kate Connor, John’s wife and a medic who is trying to find a way to break out of John’s protectiveness and become a leader of the resistance in her own right – among many others.

His forces retreat to a backup base, where we discover that Connor is only one resistance leader, under a command chain where he has yet to really prove his force’s worth. To do that, he decides to use some information he’s gotten about Skynet’s plan to systematically wipe the remnants of humanity scraping out an existence in a particular area of Los Angeles. Connor knows that Skynet uses a staging area when doing these kind of exterminations, a place where Terminators and HKs (the Hunter Killer flying machines seen in the movies) can come back to refuel and rearm. If Connor’s team waits until Skynet’s forces have begun their raid on the people living there, he can move in on the unprotected base, keeping them from their ammunition and holding the base from them, proving the worth of his unit to Command.

But what Connor doesn’t realize is that Kyle Reese, his 16-year-old future father is one of the people living in that area of Los Angeles that he’s allowing to be used as bait for Skynet. Kyle and his mute friend, a 9-year-old girl named Star, are living in a community that has managed to stay out of Skynet’s sights for years, under the guidance of Sergeant Orozco and a former businessman named Grimaldi. As Connor sends a team to recruit for the resistance into this area, tensions rise in the settlement as some people decide to stay and some decide to go off and fight. Through a series of missteps, Kyle and the resistance members don’t meet at this point, but Orozco, knowing now what’s to come for his home, is determined to make sure his two charges, Kyle and Star, do not die at the hands of the Terminators.

Orozco betrays the trust of the settlement by using their supply of gasoline (the only thing they have left worth trading) to buy Kyle and Star’s flight from the settlement with some traders, but as they try to leave, they are ambushed by Terminators who are trying to keep the settlement locked down until nightfall – when the actual raid will begin. Kyle and Star lead the Terminators into a battle with a nearby gang. As night falls, Kyle and Star hear the raid beginning on their settlement, and they are determined to return and help any way they can. But can they get past the one Terminator that seems to be doggedly pursuing them in time to help their home?

At the same time, Connor has started having second thoughts about allowing the settlement to be used as bait, and decides to split his team so that half will continue with the capture of Skynet’s staging area as planned, while the other half will return to the settlement to help those people defend themselves. But are both missions doomed to failure?

As I said at the beginning of this review, this book was relentless. The chapters are long, but they need to be, as the story truly never really stops. About the ‘slowest’ part of the book was when we’re first introduced to the settlement and Connor’s people come to recruit – and even then, we’re given so many insights into the realities these people face every day (gangs, lack of food, constant watchfulness) that it never gets boring. And the story never really stops, it seems to take place over the course of just a couple of days, driving forward at top speed moving from one important scene to the next. If I were to have any complaint, Skynet is much more of a background threat through most of the novel. HK’s show up every once in a while, but we’re missing the kind of connection we get in the Terminator movies in knowing a specific Terminator model going on its hunt. The closest we get to that is one Kyle nicknames Fido, a Terminator that late in the book seems to be pursuing Kyle and Star like a dog.

The reader is given a lot insight into the characters in Connor’s group, and I’m hopeful that some of these will be in the movie itself. I liked how John is not yet the ‘world renowned’ respected leader of the Resistance, though he certainly has earned the undying respect of his team. I also liked how Kate is trying to get out from under his wing a bit, it shows real humanity for both their characters. The action scenes were well done, and the setting (of which we’ve only really had glimpses of in past movies) was captured very clearly in the descriptions. Frankly, I felt that Timothy Zahn was really on his game with this novel, and certainly can easily recommend it for any fan of the Terminator series.