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Terminals #1-5
Terminals: The Complete Saga
This combined volume contains all five Terminals novellas: Transformation, Regression, Fabrication, Purification, and Dissimulation!
Since the Red Event, one out of every hundred people have gained super powers. Rather than a golden age of heroes, the results are catastrophic. The transformed have become villains. A few have become unstoppable monsters. If the world is to survive, true heroes will have to be made.
Jill Hammond is a teenage girl, one whom the Red Event didn’t touch. She is also a terminally ill cancer patient who’s been given a chance at becoming something much more for the last four to six months of her life – The injection of a mutagenic compound will transform her cancer, giving her superpowers. All she has to do is join the U.S. Army and become part of a top secret special forces team made up of other terminal cancer patients.
Since the Red Event, one out of every hundred people have gained super powers. Rather than a golden age of heroes, the results are catastrophic. The transformed have become villains. A few have become unstoppable monsters. If the world is to survive, true heroes will have to be made.
Jill Hammond is a teenage girl, one whom the Red Event didn’t touch. She is also a terminally ill cancer patient who’s been given a chance at becoming something much more for the last four to six months of her life – The injection of a mutagenic compound will transform her cancer, giving her superpowers. All she has to do is join the U.S. Army and become part of a top secret special forces team made up of other terminal cancer patients.
402 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 9, 2016
1 person is currently reading
10 people want to read
About the author
Thomas Cardin
14 books28 followersI was born in 1963. Started reading fantasy and science fiction with the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs when I was 7. As I grew I added more and more authors to my list, Isaac Asimov, E.E. Doc Smith, Tolkien, etc. Every book with a cover by Frank Frazetta was soon in my collection.
In high school I made friends who introduced me to Dungeons and Dragons, a brand new game at the time. Now I could both READ and PLAY out the adventures I loved so much.
A lot of my desire to write comes from playing dungeons and dragons and inventing worlds to play in since about 1978. My friends and I would sit around to ponder and question the mysteries of magic, dragons, and other planes of existence in fantasy worlds.
We came up with our own answers and those are at the core of my fantasy writing.
In high school I made friends who introduced me to Dungeons and Dragons, a brand new game at the time. Now I could both READ and PLAY out the adventures I loved so much.
A lot of my desire to write comes from playing dungeons and dragons and inventing worlds to play in since about 1978. My friends and I would sit around to ponder and question the mysteries of magic, dragons, and other planes of existence in fantasy worlds.
We came up with our own answers and those are at the core of my fantasy writing.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 6, 2016
(Disclaimer: This review is more or less a combination of my reviews for the individual books that are in this collection).
Way better than Heroes!
Seriously, where Heroes was extremely confusing and merely pulled a simple but extremely dark twist on the superhero genre, Terminals pulls a rabbit of creativity out of the hat of Thomas Cardin. It starts off as a superhero genre type but escalates into so much more with the realm of science fantasy and mythology intelligently thrown into the pot.
If you’re not familiar with Thomas Cardin, I advise that you do so very soon because this guy writes stories that are meant for the screen, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he got an offer within the next couple years. I loved his Gifts of Vorallon trilogy where I found out I could trust him to deliver emotional and extremely cool plotlines while running next to his characters, rooting them on, the whole way.
Now, having read the Vorallon trilogy, I was right in expecting Cardin to think outside the box and put cool elements into this superhero universe that we don’t see in all the others. It’s not just flying, super strength, and X-Ray vision. People can also turn into “monsters” while obtaining high end abilities. No spoilers, but something very cool happens to Jill that had me dedicated to seeing her story through to the end of this series--because, hello, they don’t DO stuff like that in the Marvel universe.
There’s a lot of awesome elements in this book, but my personal favorite is a villain called the Balrog named after Tolkien’s demon. However, unlike Tolkien’s demon, Cardin reveals to the reader what it is like to be inside the mind of a sick bastard-turned-monster as well as the extent of his abilities with gruesome results. Let’s just say teleportation and heat go a long way when picking off your enemies. I seriously could not get enough of that guy.
As I read through this I noticed I could count on Thomas Cardin for his pacing. I don’t feel rushed when I read his material and I don’t feel that I want to skip anything because everything that he dwells on is necessary for the plot and/or character development. That specific talent worked out well here despite each Terminals book being no more than 100 pages or so.
Other than pacing, I found that Cardin likes to back up everything that comes out of the characters’ mouths with fact. Personally, I believe this is the true definition of “science fiction” where the author, in addition to creating a story, masses any alien/future technology with a sturdy explanation that most likely will be achieved in the near future. However, other than paying attention to the information that I was interested in, I mostly skimmed over a lot of the facts of Abby’s inventions. But if, for any reason Cardin is questioned, he’s got a source of strong theorizing to back up his stuff.
After reading the Vorallon trilogy I felt like I really knew Thomas Cardin as an author. He cared about his characters in a way that put me, the reader, in the fray of their emotions. Because of this I feel like I can trust him. Even at parts that slow down or don’t show much interest to me, I feel like I can keep going till I reach the end because I know he’s going to deliver a satisfaction and experience that I only get from few selected authors. Definitely give this one a try. I say it’s worth the read.
Way better than Heroes!
Seriously, where Heroes was extremely confusing and merely pulled a simple but extremely dark twist on the superhero genre, Terminals pulls a rabbit of creativity out of the hat of Thomas Cardin. It starts off as a superhero genre type but escalates into so much more with the realm of science fantasy and mythology intelligently thrown into the pot.
If you’re not familiar with Thomas Cardin, I advise that you do so very soon because this guy writes stories that are meant for the screen, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he got an offer within the next couple years. I loved his Gifts of Vorallon trilogy where I found out I could trust him to deliver emotional and extremely cool plotlines while running next to his characters, rooting them on, the whole way.
Now, having read the Vorallon trilogy, I was right in expecting Cardin to think outside the box and put cool elements into this superhero universe that we don’t see in all the others. It’s not just flying, super strength, and X-Ray vision. People can also turn into “monsters” while obtaining high end abilities. No spoilers, but something very cool happens to Jill that had me dedicated to seeing her story through to the end of this series--because, hello, they don’t DO stuff like that in the Marvel universe.
There’s a lot of awesome elements in this book, but my personal favorite is a villain called the Balrog named after Tolkien’s demon. However, unlike Tolkien’s demon, Cardin reveals to the reader what it is like to be inside the mind of a sick bastard-turned-monster as well as the extent of his abilities with gruesome results. Let’s just say teleportation and heat go a long way when picking off your enemies. I seriously could not get enough of that guy.
As I read through this I noticed I could count on Thomas Cardin for his pacing. I don’t feel rushed when I read his material and I don’t feel that I want to skip anything because everything that he dwells on is necessary for the plot and/or character development. That specific talent worked out well here despite each Terminals book being no more than 100 pages or so.
Other than pacing, I found that Cardin likes to back up everything that comes out of the characters’ mouths with fact. Personally, I believe this is the true definition of “science fiction” where the author, in addition to creating a story, masses any alien/future technology with a sturdy explanation that most likely will be achieved in the near future. However, other than paying attention to the information that I was interested in, I mostly skimmed over a lot of the facts of Abby’s inventions. But if, for any reason Cardin is questioned, he’s got a source of strong theorizing to back up his stuff.
After reading the Vorallon trilogy I felt like I really knew Thomas Cardin as an author. He cared about his characters in a way that put me, the reader, in the fray of their emotions. Because of this I feel like I can trust him. Even at parts that slow down or don’t show much interest to me, I feel like I can keep going till I reach the end because I know he’s going to deliver a satisfaction and experience that I only get from few selected authors. Definitely give this one a try. I say it’s worth the read.
March 22, 2023
Fantastic sci-fi thriller
I came across and picked up this book only because of the cool dragon on the cover and the promise of a character that would transform into one. The book definitely delivered on that expectation then some more. Certain plot events and twists had been completely unpredictable and kept me flipping through the pages. This saga had been a very engrossing thriller!
I came across and picked up this book only because of the cool dragon on the cover and the promise of a character that would transform into one. The book definitely delivered on that expectation then some more. Certain plot events and twists had been completely unpredictable and kept me flipping through the pages. This saga had been a very engrossing thriller!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews