Times of Trouble

The New John Connor Chronicles #3

by Russell Blackford

Based on the blockbuster film series, this heart-stopping novel sees the war between man and machine reaching its shattering conclusion, with John Connor and his mother Sarah caught in the middle of a fierce battle that rages through time and across dimensions--and holds the survival of two worlds at stake.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Ebooks

377 pages, Paperback

First published August 26, 2003

About the author

Russell Blackford is an Australian writer, philosopher, and critic, based for many years in Melbourne, Victoria. He was born in Sydney, and grew up in Lake Macquarie district, near Newcastle, NSW. He moved to Melbourne in 1979, but returned to Newcastle to live and work in 2009.

Reviews

[Kristoph Kosicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best of the trilogy! It ties up everything and the ending is an ending that gives you a real sense of closure. So much action with the t-1000s also, really expanded on their capabilities and potential. Also, our title hero comes in clutch at the end. I really enjoyed this book, and it essentially lifts the first two Novels up a notch as ties everything together.

[Karen Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this.
Please make sure your book is proof read.

[Max · Rating 3 out of 5]

Four years ago I watched all six Terminator movies and then went "hey I like licensed tie in fiction let's go look at Terminator". Then I read the first book in this series and stopped. Then two years ago I saw the 40th anniversary screen of The Terminator and read book two and stopped. Now I saw the 35th anniversary of T2 and went "okay fine I'll read this one". And honestly? It wasn't great but I feel like it was a little less bad than books one and two to the point I'm willing to round up to three stars.

Okay, this still has some of the same issues as the first two books. Or really the same overriding issue: pacing. There's a bunch of neat ideas here but the book's pacing is terrible so it drags when it shouldn't and rushes through the exciting stuff. The whole thing is building up to this idea that now that the heroes know cross dimensional travel is possible, it's only a matter of time till some Skynet in one of the various universes figures it out. So we have to go to Jade's World and kill her Skynet.

Which is a pretty great idea and it's neat to finally see Jade's World after two previous books of how cool Jade is and how everything is much worse because Skynet started from a stronger position. But it takes until just past the two thirds mark to actually get to Jade's World. And once we do, it feels a lot like a rehash of the Skynet's World climax last book, of running around and blowing up the baddies surprisingly easily. Yeah, some secondary characters get wasted, but obviously John and Sarah can't be threatened.

But the thing is while I'm disappointed by the execution of the last part, the idea is kinda neat. And there were a lot of good ideas in the earlier part of the book set in Skynet's World. It's 2029 and the original Skynet is dead. For good this time. We checked. But now come a number of challenges. For one thing, unlike in say The Phantom Menace, blowing up the big computer doesn't immediately kill the little robots. There's still plenty of machines running around killing humans. And there's plenty of humans running around killing humans, as many of the people left behind in South America have decided to turn into warlords and carve up territory now that those pesky machines are gone.

And so the heroes are faced with how to deal with all of this. And in particular they have a rather neat dilemma. See, the two T-800s and T-1000 sent back in time in the first two movies aren't the only Terminators still lying around. There's plenty of T-800s, though we seem to have run out of Arnold Schwarzeneggers for some reason. And there's even two more T-1000s, though they hang out in the generic chrome guy mode. So now the question becomes is it okay to turn around and use Skynet's weapons on other humans? And can we keep any of Skynet's tech around or does it all need to get completely destroyed to avoid Skynet arising again?

It's cool to see this stuff explored in a Terminator story. The stories are usually set in the present or during the robot war, so it's pretty rare to see any consideration of what happens after the war has ended. It dovetails nicely with my Star Wars Legends New Republic reading, and I can't help but wishing these ideas had been explore in a better novel that gave them the proper breathing room.

So overall this was a perfectly serviceable ending to this trilogy. Except oops, there's a fourth book tacked on. But I honestly don't know if I can bring myself to read it right now. Then again, I'm not sure there's a convenient Terminator anniversary in two years - I'd certainly be surprised if anybody decides to do a T3 25th anniversary screening. So while I kinda want to eventually delve more into Terminator fiction, especially because there's Timothy Zahn and Alan Dean Foster in there, I think for now I'll leave it as "I'll be back...eventually".

[Molly Hart · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. Out of the entire new John Connor Chronicles series, I felt that this one was the most interesting. I was a little let down though by the fact that they focused soooo much time on the warlords and debating the ethics of using terminators, as both plots got wrapped up almost too quickly for the amount of focus that was placed on them. The final battles in Jade's world were very interesting and written in great detail, and I loved the inclusion of Skynet trying to preserve itself. Overall this was an interesting and enjoyable series, but I think it had more potential than what was actually given.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved this series and God the books got better and better. I do wish the romance plot was just written out like I never got the connection between the two and I felt as I was reminded there was supposed to romance.
the action was great, and all the conversations about what to do with the Terminators was really cool. this series is really great and any Terminator fan would enjoy it

[Miles Lynch · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a terminator book so it's obviously high literature; however, this one falls into YA tropes. The first two were more engrossing, better written, and at least paused to take in the world and story; this was "next mission!" the entire book.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good fun.

[Dave Hendrix · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book. Could have used a little more proof reading.

[Jim C · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wavered between two and three stars.

The final book of a trilogy. The other two must be read to understand this one. More battles between Skynet and the group from different timestreams. It was a nice conclusion. If you have come this far with this storyline, this novel is worth it to complete.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth reading.

[L.A. Henrikson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this series, I read it back when I was a teenager. I distinctly remember the super humans from the future, a friendly T-1000, and how to actually destroy one without a pool of molten metal.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worthy of reading. I brushed up on this Universe for the upcoming Terminator movie due out soon. I didn't care for the "John injected with nanites" bit but good otherwise.

[Leon Lipschitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fair