Infiltrator

T2 #1

by S.M. Stirling

Return to the blockbuster Terminator universe, with the untold adventures of Sarah and John Connor!

Following TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY, Sarah and John Connor fled to Paraguay, until one day Sarah spots a Terminator unit in the town square. A great cat-and-mouse game ensues before she realizes he′s an actual man, an ex-counter-terrorist named Dieter, the man the T-100 will be modeled on. After she tells him her story, he tells her another. He′s discovered that Cyberdyne is still active, and about to create Skynet. So she, John, and Dieter set off to finish the job. But first they must face the most insidious Terminator unit yet, one that can easily pass as human and who has all the resources of Cyberdyne, as well as several Terminators, at its command.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Time Travel, Robots, Science Fiction Fantasy, Thriller, Media Tie In

528 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Stephen Michael Stirling is a French-born Canadian-American science fiction and fantasy author. Stirling is probably best known for his Draka series of alternate history novels and the more recent time travel/alternate history Nantucket series and Emberverse series.

MINI AUTO-BIOGRAPHY:
(personal website: source)

I’m a writer by trade, born in France but Canadian by origin and American by naturalization, living in New Mexico at present. My hobbies are mostly related to the craft. I love history, anthropology and archaeology, and am interested in the sciences. The martial arts are my main physical hobby.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay I admit that I have seen all Terminator movies in the cinema and enjoyed the TV show, my daughters loved the girl terminator. But somehow I missed these books. It was because I read this writers recent Conan novel that I found out about this book and it's sequels. And as luck wanted I could lay my hands on the trilogy.
This book continues were T2 ended and gives us an alternate time line away from the movie sequels that came after T2.
The Connors have fled to South America and started a life there.
In the future a new sort of Terminator has been created more human and thus more dangerous to humans. She is send by Skynet back to the past in order to re-established the time line in which Skynet gets to live.
When the Terminator arrives in our present she becomes part of the recreation of Cyberdyne and starts building Terminators in our time and sends them out to kill the Connors and their new Ally who looks like the Terminators who were send to kill Sara and later protect John.

An excellent sequel to the brilliant T2 movie, sadly on paper instead of glorious cinema screen.

The writer did an excellent job and for the fans of the franchise there are enough inside jokes to enjoy themselves.

And with the open ending you know that after a mere 500 pages there is a sequel to be found.

I do wish somebody could explain why everything should be in trilogies these days, I personally blame bloody Star Wars.

Great fun for those who like the concept of the Terminator and enjoyed the two. Cameron movies.

[Sarah (is clearing her shelves) · Rating 5 out of 5]

7/9 - I'm a big fan of all the Terminator movies (I never really understood the hate directed towards T3 or 4, I thought they were great) and always wanted to know more about what happened to Miles' family after his death. When I first heard of T3 I was hoping it would go on straight from where T2 left off and was disappointed when it really wasn't mentioned. The prologue of T2: Infiltrator opens with Tarissa and her kids in a motel waiting for Miles' return from Cyberdyne, so I'm immediately excited to get reading.

9/9 - Fantastic four and a half to five stars. There were a few little weirdnesses or tongue-in-cheek jokes (that were just a little too twee) for fans of the movie, and a couple of instances of typos that I noticed, but other than that I couldn't find anything to complain about with this 'sequel'. The characterisation of John and Sarah was perfect and the plot was an exciting build up of tension leading to the climatic action scene at the end. Infiltrator had nothing quite so amazing as the image of 'Uncle Bob' and John on the Harley jumping into the flood overflow channel, but I would've liked to have been able to see Sarah pulling the 88mm out of the floor and firing it out the window at the terminator - that would have been pretty spectacular. I'm hoping my library has the second book in the series available, in some shape or form, immediately, because I'm feeling the need for more Terminator action.

On the 'reading on the laptop so therefore have the ability to make multiple updates' front...I didn't find it any better/easier/funner than simply making them part of my review, but I've tried it now so I can now say from experience which method works best for me and will go back to my old method with the next book whether it's online or made of paper.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I became a fan of Stirling through the Change series and came across this book. It had been a while since I had seen the Terminator movies, but I loved them, so I gave this a try. Loved it and quickly bought #2 and #3 in the series 'cause my library didn't have them.

Stirling is a great writer. I only gave this a 4 because it was a little slow in introducing the characters and setting the stage. But I'm not sure how else he could've done it. In the end, I was completely hooked and drawn to their characters. I read the last third in a few hours.

I think Stirling went down a rabbit hole with the Change series, and he ultimately lost me in the detail and I sadly didn't finish. But this book reaffirms to me that he is a great writer, drawing the characters perfectly. It would be a great movie, though the tech is now probably too dated to be appealing to many.

Sci Fi and Terminator fans should definitely read it.

[Jason Brown (Toastx2) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love when authors are handed either a deal too good to pass up or are needing some extra barbecue cash, and take up the mantle of authorship to write shitty movie adaptation books. Piers Anthony wrote the novelization of ‘Total Recall’ (based on the PK Dick short), Orson Scott Card novelized ‘The Abyss’.. and apparently S.M. Stirling wrote a trilogy of Terminator Universe novels.

I picked up T2 Infiltrator for a two dollars at Goodwill. Anyone who knows me is aware that I really think Stirling is a bad writer. I like his plot lines and a lot of characters, but in general, I find that his books piss me off more than they are enjoyed, they drag on and are soooo soooo soooo heavy handed.. In this case, I thought, ‘hey, its Stirling, I should give it a shot. Worst expected scenario is that it would be hum drum and just pass some time’. Turns out that it was a damn good book.

Knowing that time is elastic, and apt to revert to it’s original shape, SkyNet’s goal is now to work in the background. It’s primary goal is to bounce the time line back to its original shape. To do this, SkyNet needs a more malleable and versatile tool. In the future, SkyNet is building a new terminator (go figure, right?), this one is grown in a captured slave human’s womb. It is born and immediately surgically implanted with gear, grown in spurts via chemicals, and given constant combat training. A permanent mental connection/lifeline to the SkyNet system to ensure an addiction to the computer “mother’.

This new Infiltrator model’s (the I-950) biggest problem is emotions. Drugs, surgery, and training have removed most of these obstacles, but these pesky emotions are actually why the Infiltrator was created. If you cant feel, you cannot successfully infiltrate. Humans have a tendency to be able to notice unfeeling machines. The trouble is making sure that the Infiltrator can be aware of emotion, but still hold true to it’s design.

The book starts off very slow, but the background info is needed. Picking up right after the end of the 2nd movie, Cyberdyne has been blown to hell and back and is burning rubble. Dyson’s family is torn up at the loss of their father/husband/brother. The Connor mother/son have disappeared to South America. It speeds up though, and gets difficult to put down within a reasonable period of time.

Book 2 and 3 are in the mail to me, I suppose I can say I like Stirling a lot better when he is writing under someone else’s initial premise, as opposed to his own. The book has been crafted in a way that makes none of the existing plot lines incorrect, this helped with my opinion.

(an old opinion used to be here but was redacted)

[Shane Amazon · Rating 3 out of 5]

After recently watching the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - The Complete First Season and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - The Complete Second Season all the way through, and of course being a huge fan of T2, I was excited to read T2: Infiltrator after reading all the great reviews. After receiving it in the mail I tore into it right away. It started out great as the author created the compelling character, Serena. But, I should have known that the book was about to take a turn for the worse when Serena was mere steps away from killing the future Connor, but Skynet stopped her at the last minute to send her back in time. Why? Why would the author go to all that effort to build such a strong character and tell the story of her infiltrating the Resistance if he was going to abandon the storyline at the last minute.

Too bad it doesn't get any better after that. Back in time Serena goes, why she does what she does, no one knows. For the life of me I'm still trying to figure out what the point of created a deadly terminator for if she doesn't terminate anyone. Such a great character relegated to administrative work at Cyberdyne. Sure, she continues to set things up for what eventually will take place in book two, but from page fifty to page four-hundred she doesn't kill a single person, NOT ONE!

But even worse is the snooze fest at the center of the book, Okay, so some of the stuff is pretty cool, the other terminators(that actually terminate people) and the connections from past events to present situations were creative, but the author drones on and on about how Sarah is a more motherly person now and John is so grown up and accepting of his future. But all through the rest of the book the characters switch back and forth from what is in the films and what the author tries to portray them as being in his mind. The dialogue shows John as mature and then switches him to a younger kid saying radical and other words from the eighties.

But it is the end that both had me furious and entertained. After all the nonsense that the middle of the book had to offer, the end starts to come around and the fun begins. I was enjoying the action scenes the author was describing up until he ended Serena with two lines. I was furious and almost threw the book off my deck, but then I flipped through the next few pages and saw that more of her was to come and calmed down. In the end the story comes around and ends okay, nothing grand but it was pretty good.

Overall the book was just alright, I didn't hate it and didn't love it. If it had been edited down to about three-hundred or so pages and the dull center had been cut down I would have enjoyed it more. Others seemed to like it quite a bit and you might as well, but for me it was nothing special. Maybe book two will save the world the author is trying to build. We'll see

[JAMES BOUTCHER · Rating 5 out of 5]

Infiltrator is a logical next step in the Terminator series following the events of T2: Judgment Day. The Connors are in hiding with new aliases out of the U.S., and a new threat looms to continue the creation of Skynet.

It was inevitable that Cyberdyne would continue their work, picking up the pieces of their destroyed compound. Like all effective major tech companies, backups of all files were stored outside the Cyberdyne building and it takes a new type of Terminator named Serena to ensure that Skynet gets created to destroy mankind.

Serena is more human than machine this time around, although a complete synthetic, she has more human attributes and is sent back through time by Skynet to help create it. She blends in more than the previous Terminators, though she stands out in other ways.

Now it's up to the Connors and a familiar face to stop Skynet once again to save humanity from the war against the machines. The familiar face is Dieter Von Rossbach and I will let you the reader discover that one although it's not the plot twist of the book.

I won't go into the plot of this series however as a Terminator fan I admit to being skeptical when this series was recommended to me. I love T2 and didn't think anyone could continue the story properly after seeing less successful attempts. However Stirling's series fills in the gaps between T2 and the future war so well, and the villain of the piece was what Terminator 3's should have gone for.

Serena infiltrates the Cyberdyne company so she can have access to the operations to create Skynet and make Terminators. And she self heals, slowly yet surely, and she is super strong. As a synthetic with more human characteristics such as specific reactions that are less robotic, this type of villain would have been Skynet's more intelligent next step as an infiltrator and a Terminator.

The Connors are fugitives and with good reason, hiding from the American authorities. We see them do what they do best when they discover there is another Terminator and that Cyberdyne has continued. Dieter Von Rossbach is a great character that joins them for the ride and creates tension with the other characters that is both justified and good drama.

If you're a Terminator fan, read this trilogy starting with Infiltrator. It shows the aftermath of T2 and how it was all just part of the beginning. Even showing what happened to the Dyson family and the truth about Miles death and his brother still investigating was a nice touch.

[Chris The Lizard from Planet X · Rating 3 out of 5]

Terminator: Infiltrator by S.M. Stirling is a movie tie-in novel based of the Terminator Film Franchise, and the first book of the “T2” Book Trilogy. T2: Infiltrator, is set a few years after the first two movies. In the far future of 2029 Skynet after two failures, the evil computer system of the future decides to modify the newest terminator units it sends back in time to kill its nemesis John Connor while also coming up with a plan to modify the timeline to ensure it’s birth. The new Terminator the I-950 is female, mechanically and genetically enhanced but able to masquerade as a normal human woman. She is sent back in time by Skynet to the early 2000s to infiltrate the Cyberdyne Corporation to ensure Skynet is born, and protect it. She interacts with and attempts to manipulate a large cast of characters that includes, naturally, Sarah Conner and her now-teenaged son, John. Mother and son imagine they're safely hidden in South America, their anti-machine crusade over, until they are noticed by a retired CIA agent Dieter who happens to be a template for the future T-800 Terminator. When he innocently discovers who they are, the new Terminator I-950 also finds out and sends mechanical Terminator assassins after them. Forcing Sarah and John Connor to team up with ex-CIA agent Dieter to stop new Terminator, and the Cyberdyne Corporation. And the novel, which moves along steadily and efficiently, shifts into high gear. Author S.M. Stirling structures the plot well, and the action builds to a gripping climax—which doesn't really conclude much, since this is a series of three books. Overall, Terminator: Infiltrator is a decent book, and a very satisfying as an installment of Terminator franchise in general. The author captures the spirit of The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day with such awe inspiring ease. I would definitely recommend This book to any fans of the Terminator franchise.

[Benjamin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The novel T2: Infiltrator by S.M. Stirling simply feels like one of those juvenile fan fiction stories. While the story seemed to be interesting at first (the Prologue and first portion of the book was intriguing enough), it falls short in getting my attention simply due to the unrealistic dialogue and very strange descriptions of human interaction. How many times can a person smirk or grin at another person while they're in conversation? A LOT, according to this book. When I read a scene in a book where characters are interacting, I am imagining the scene in my mind's eye. The scenes that Stirling attempts to paint that contain character interaction feel awkward and clunky. Characters that should have that sort of "non-verbal" closeness that those of us in the real world experience with our best friends and loved ones feels completely missing in his scenes.


It all came to a head when Stirling attempted to phonetically convey the German accent of a character, I had to put the book down (after cringing, not grinning). It was too much, and felt VERY silly. In contrast to the themes of cyborg assassins, time travel, and the frailty of shaping mankind's fate, the dialogue and interactions between the characters felt plastic and immature. It's as if the author couldn't possibly imagine the interactions of these characters from beyond the paper. I can't stand to read a book that takes human interaction with such levity.


I guess if you can look past all of that stuff, this may be a good read for the hardcore Terminator fans. The story might be interesting, but Stirling needs some serious help in his character interaction and dialogue.

[Whitby Syme · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's so hard to expand on something good without
(1) drifting away from what made it good
(2) sticking too close the source material/bringing nothing fresh

Something that is less hard, but is done all too often in tie-in books is
(3) making lame in-jokes about the original story

Stirling doesn't fall down on any of these things (one or two from category (3) are forgivable - even grudgingly enjoyable). The story is a Terminator story - the parts set post Judgement Day are a great expansion on the original concepts - and the characters are consistent. Best of all John Connor is starting to seem like the hero he's supposed to grow into. He's still a teenager, still immature in some ways, but he knows his shit, and I particularly like how his charisma is picked up on by people who meet him, even briefly.

In terms of freshness, Serena is a great additional to the world. A great mixture of the curious alien puzzled by human culture, and a hate-filled fanatic. I reckon she could have carried the whole book.

On the negative side, there are a few far-fetched elements to the story. Coincidences I guess. There is this implied idea that some force of Fate or Time is trying to lead events to a certain outcome, but even so there were times when I would have preferred less of those sorts of turns.

There isn't a huge amount of action, but it's solid. I like how the Terminator are written in that respect. They're a bit lumbering, not so smart. Make 'Uncle Bob' seem like something special.

I'll read the sequel. I'd like to give it 3.5 stars but 3 will have to do.

[G.B. Lindsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had fun with this book, even if it was a bit belated. The Terminator is one of my favorite scifi franchises; I adore the entire premise of the closed or open causality loop in this universe. I'd never read a book set in the universe, however, so I thought I'd give it a go.

This book takes a long time to build up to the excitement. It spends the first two thirds of the story setting all its playing pieces into place so that they can cross paths in a meaningful (and yes, exciting!) way during the last third. Once that rock gets rolling downhill, it's a fun, enjoyable ride. But first you have to get through the build up, and honestly, there are some parts of it that are fairly slow. What's more, a character or two that you really don't care much about.

BUT. Then come Sarah and John, who are always fantastic, and are nicely in character here. Add to that a few new faces that really ARE engaging, and you're good to go. I have to admit, I was hoping for a little more personal development for the number one baddie, but... Well, I'd be saying too much if I went into why that doesn't particularly worry me by the end.

Not the best book I've read. But it introduces a brand new type of Skynet villain, and though it ends rather abruptly, it feels like there's a lot of potential for whatever comes next. Maybe room for exploring the threads that wistfully went by the wayside in this book.

[B. Jay · Rating 2 out of 5]

The fact that it took me nearly a year and a half to read this book should be enough to indicate my level of interest. Overly long and at times overly complicated, this continuing story of Sarah and John Connor does little to further the actual saga of Terminator. Much of it comes off reading as a template for a direct sequel to T2, including a role to be played by Arnold. The villain is the most interesting character, proceeding other characters in the movies, but not enough to warrant a recommendation.

[Donavon · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are several story lines, most good but some boring.

* Cult leader becoming documentary host and environmentalist - bad

* Dyson learning what really happened to his brother in T2 movie - meh

* German who looks just like Arnold becoming a cattle rancher next door to Connors - too far-fetched

* Connors tring to put lives together and be 'normal' - great stuff

* new Terminator/Human hybrid coming back to infiltrate until Connors reappear - fantastic stuff

[T-Dub · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book... is not a great book.

This is the kind of book I used to like, back when I didn't care about plot or subtlety at all.

Every scene is based on the luck of the scene right before it.

However, it did make for a better airplane ride than without anything. So there's that, I suppose.

[Scott Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

It starts in the future and it was interesting. Then, they go back to the present and it gets really boring and John just seems totally out of character and fake. The whole middle section could have been cut in half. The final third section picked up speed and had a descent ending to it.

If you are pressed for time skip it.

[Erik · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not very well written. Story is only interesting at all if you're a Terminator fan. John and Sarah don't really feel like John and Sarah. Every part of the plot is based on extremely unlikely coincidences.

[DeAnna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book despite a slightly slow start, but I think it would be incomprehensible (or at least unenjoyable) to anyone who had not seen the first two Terminator movies.

[Jag · Rating 2 out of 5]

The man the T-101s were modeled on moves in next door to Sarah Connor and son. Wacky hijinks ensue.

[Richard · Rating 1 out of 5]

Starts with an interesting premise but quickly degenerates into boring fan fic. The characters are nothing like their movie counterparts.

[Dani · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sarah Connor falling for the dude with the same face as the Terminator who has haunted her dreams for 17 years? Give me a break.

[Jake Morrison · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading reviews about this book, I was excited to read more about the events after Terminator 2. I'm a pretty big Terminator fan, but I was sadly disappointed with this book.
Allow me to elaborate.

The Story:
There are LOTS of characters and multiple things happening in two different time periods. The basic plot of the story is that John and Sarah Connor are hiding out in Paraguay, unsure as to whether or not they actually stopped Judgment Day. Oddly enough they run into a retired CIA agent named Dieter von Rossbach who looks identical to the T800 in previous films. Meanwhile Skynet has sent back an augmented Terminator, named Serena, to ensure the creation of Skynet.

Truthfully, I made it through about half of this book before deciding to stop. So maybe it gets better. But the biggest problem I have with the story is that it's supposed to be a Terminator story, but it's about 90% dialogue and 10% action. There are too many characters to keep track of, with unmemorable names. To make matters worse, the author often goes back and forth between using characters' first names and last names. This inconsistency made reading this story very confusing. Maybe the book gets extremely good in the end, but the unfortunately buildup is simply not there.
 
The Writing Style:
My biggest gripe with this book was how it was written. From the confusing character names issue mentioned above, to the awkward dialogue (often speaking in ways Sarah Connor and John Connor would not speak), to the author's use of unnecessary words for the sake of sounding intellectual, it's easy to see why I had no problem putting this book down.

What was actually good:
The one thing I liked about this book was the I-950, which is basically a human with cybernetic enhancements. I'm sure this is where they got the idea for the augmented terminator in Dawn of Fate, and if they didn't it's a pretty weird coincidence. I also thought the idea that you could actually bring objects back in time as long as they were surrounded by living tissue was a good addition. The abilities that were given to this Terminator model were really cool.

Overall:
A book where the writing was too confusing, had too many characters, and took too long to build the plot. Maybe one day I'll pick up where I left off. I'd love to see this book get made into a graphic novel or something.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book one of three, beginning in the immediate aftermath of Terminator 2: Judgement Day (although, presumably for some weird licencing reason, it's not allowed to have the word 'Terminator' in its title).
Six years later, believing the threat of Skynet ended forever, Sarah and John Connor are living new lives under assumed aliases in Paraguay. However, their newest neighbour is a former member of the anti-terrorist organisation Sector and his enquiries into their pasts brings them to the attention of Serena Burns. Burns is a new type of Terminator, an I-950, a cybernetically enhanced human, who has been sent back in time to ensure that Cyberdyne Systems resumes its work and brings about the creation of Skynet. As Burns sends her homemade Terminators after them, the Connors enter the war against the machines once again.

This is a pretty well-written story, with some compelling action scenes and a suitably threatening antagonist in the form of the cunning, ruthless and manipulative Serena Burns. It's a solid start to this trilogy of books which follows on from Terminator 2 (and therefore completely clashes with the lore of Terminator 3, or the Sarah Connor Chronicles).

However, I kept waiting for the book to really engage me in what was going on and, ultimately, it never really happened. In a weird way it never entirely sold me on the idea of this being a Terminator book, despite all of the elements which should've (not least, the actual Terminators).
On top of that, the characterisation of Sarah and John felt subtly off and their relationship is just a little too wholesome and loving, which doesn't really gel with the relationship we saw in T2.

Also, I never entirely got over the coincidence that the guy who randomly moves in next door to them in Paraguay is the physical basis for the design of the T-800s (which is to say, he looks like Arnold Schwartzenegger).
I kept expecting it to come up as a plot point, like it's the bootstrap paradox, but it never does and we're just left to believe that it's coincidence. It didn't help that the name the author decided to go with for this character is Dieter von Rossbach, which is very hard to take seriously.

* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *

[L. Maristatter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not going to bother with a synopsis, since other people do a much better job of it.

As a fan of all things James Cameron, I was thrilled to discover that Stirling has written three sequels (fanfic?) to Terminator 2. And unsurprisingly, this book was very, very good. The worldbuilding was impeccable, the Easter Eggs in homage to the films were a pleasure to discover, and the characterizations were believable and fun. I very much enjoyed the meticulous construction/history of the antagonist, as well as the deep dives into Miles Dyson's family members.

Although I gave this book five stars, in actuality it's closer to 4.75, because I have to ding Stirling (what?) just a little bit on the ending: It felt rushed. I wanted to savor the victories a little longer--I wanted better descriptions not only of the action, but how the characters FELT about what happened. Instead it felt kind of "ho-hum, another day at the office, let's move on to the sequel."

I'm not hating on Stirling here, because a LOT of authors do this, and I have to resist it in my own writing. So S.M., if you're reading this, please hear me: THIS IS A TERRIFIC BOOK. And maybe the fault is mine? Maybe I'm asking for too much, given the genre? Okay, that's fair. But one of the things that made T2 such a fabulous film were the relationships: mother/son, son/terminator, terminator/Skynet creator. And this is where so many other action films (and novelizations) fall flat: they sacrifice relationships for action.

Please, creative people: NEVER sacrifice relationships for action. That's where the beating heart of excellence is found.

Just ask James Cameron.

[Trek Lunden · Rating 5 out of 5]

How great it could have been had the movies followed S.M. Stirling's plot line following T2 Judgement Day...

If you are anything like me, a major fan of the original two terminator movies and devastated by the third movie onward, do yourself the biggest favor of your life and pick up this trilogy.

S.M. Stirling delivers a beautifully rounded closure to the Terminator franchise in 3 books, picking up immediately after the events of Judgement Day and following the Connors as they attempt to re-establish themselves post-threat of nuclear war only to find there is no outrunning Skynet or their crossing fates.

Giving life to Skynet's cold and efficient intellect and introducing new characters Serena, Dieter Von Rossbach, Tricker, -each is given a unique and fully-fleshed personality that shines on the page. The story drives with the inflamed passion, atmosphere, stakes, and adrenaline as the movies that started it all.

The action is hard-hitting and terrifying without the ridiculous CGI effects. The fate of humanity rests precariously upon the reluctant shoulders of a young John Connor, bolstered by his strong and capable allies, as Skynet and its' creations prove to be a relentless and deadly adversary.

A must read to discover how the franchise truly evolved and ended while the movies continue to fail.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

After DNFing way too many books in the past few months, I needed something easy and light to read.

Technically this is a reread, but I last read it 20-something years ago.

WHAT WORKED
-I'm always happy for more Sarah and John Connor
-I like the setup of them living in Paraguay and trying to have a life there
-I was happy to see Enrique Salceda and his family too
-Jordan Dyson (the brother of Miles) is an interesting character
-Marco Casetti, the 19 year old wannabe Humphrey Bogart, was a fun and ridiculous minor character and I'm glad he wisely ran away and survived
-The gag with the 3 Terminators copying each other's movements the whole time

BUT... EH?
-Serena, the supposedly bad ass Infiltrator Terminator, sucked as a character
-Also she dies immediately from a gunshot to the head. Not a very efficient Terminator
-She spends most of the book sitting behind a desk
-Seriously, I did not care about this Terminator
-There are way too many characters and side plots for each character and POVs for each character, and I just didn't care about a lot of them
-The POV jumps constantly. Between paragraphs
-The eye dialect is eye-wateringly bad
-This book needed to be trimmed by a few hundred pages

[B. Reese · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alright!

So, I'd read this years before, but upon re-reading it, there is so much I did not remember. So much so, that I found myself wondering if I've ever actually read the whole thing before. I know I never read the second two books in this series, partially because they weren't out by the time I'd read this. Also, Terminator 3 was due out somewhat soonish by the time book 2 was coming. And also, I'd read this book Terminator 2: The New John Connor Chronicles, Book 1:Dark Futures (The New John Connor Chronicles #1) and wasn't terribly impressed with it.

So I guess I read this and there wasn't anywhere to go after that. And when there was, the places weren't that great and so I only read book 1 here.

On the whole, this was a really fun book. It captured the spirit of the good Terminator movies to an extent, but was actually different enough to make it interesting. You really can't compare this book to the movies directly. It is at a much slower pace starting off. I think this is a good thing because it lets the reader see the repercussions of the events in the first two movies. Not to mention that "Uncle Bob"'s arm in the steel factory returns to haunt us.

It also helps to paint the picture that life has returned to normal to an extent for our heroes. And it would have been a good novel just with that, seeing what happened after T2 and how the characters adjust to normal life after the insanity of encountering a liquid metal robot.

To start, this book is a good chunk of set up. Not that this is bad. I said in an update that the novel "From Russia With Love" is like 3/4 set up, nothing happens except the Soviets have meetings to set up how to whack Bond. And it's riveting. And having setup here is not bad.

This book too spends a huge amount of time on setup, and this is I think the strongest part of the book. Minus the too frequent mentions of Sarah and John Connor kissing each other on the cheek or having other "cutesy" mother/son moments. On one hand, those are kind of irritating and too much. On the other, if murder robots from the future had tried to kill you, you ended up in a mental hospital/Government foster care and then another murder robot from the future tried to kill you both but failed, I'd say that probably makes a really strong bond. So while it is too frequent and kinda cheesy, it's maybe not wholly unrealistic.

The initial characterization of Sarah and Dieter are pretty strong. John, a little less so. Serena Burns comes across...I'm not sure how. I hated her to a point, which makes sense given that she's the villain. Her observations about modern humanity are borderline somewhere between spot-on and the author being preachy. She's also a little too on top of things, but that also makes sense given that she's from the future and imbued with Skynet enhancements.

However, after the initial setup, the book felt to me like it started to get a little campy. I'm not sure why though.

Part of this was that the characters went from being really believable human characters to near caricatures of their former selves. The Terminator convenioincidences start to pile up, especially in the last quarter of the novel. To the point where the deus ex machina isn't just Skynet. There were just way too many little coinkydinks.



****SPOILERS****


A few examples of this, and a couple other gripes are:

Terrorists hitting and destroying the facility that Sarah Connor wanted to take out, but was unable to. And what's up with the Luddites anyway? Their story just kind of disappears once the novel drifts from the setup phase.

Somehow, without evidence to the contrary, Sarah assumes that the first Terminator they nuke could still pose some danger to them. Not sure how she figures. Does she know there's more than one terminator or that they're being made in our time? Why didn't Skynet just send an infiltrator back to 1980, set up a terminator shop and keep them coming when the '84 terminator failed?

I know Dieter sees first hand evidence of a terminator, but he immediately takes up guns with Sarah. No questions asked. Wouldn't it be nice to see what he's thinking about this? Shouldn't Sarah give him a good rundown on the whole thing. I know we the reader probably know, but this could have been touched on.

Dieter and Sarah having a weapons contact in common who can Macguyer a super taser. They also give weapons with few questions to a woman who, as far as they know, has delusions of an apocalypse and has become a "terrorist" who could hurt people unnecessarily.

Dieter just happening to have a friend who owed him a huge, and it must have been Miles O'Keefe HUGE, favor on the base they needed to infiltrate to get Cyberdyne. This same friend also lets Dieter escape scot free after waking up from a Mickey that was induced by Dieter, and after a huge unesplained explosion takes Cyberdyne out.

Unrelated, there's still a Terminator lying around that was subdued, but never destroyed. They left him in the bushes on a military base.


****END SPOILERS****

But even with the deus ex machina and other unbelievable stuff, it was a pretty compelling read. This book continued the story of T2 from it's logical end and here we have a better sequel than Terminator 3 and a plot that made more sense to me than the one in Salvation. I haven't seen Genisys yet, but I had read this book in prep for that movie when it hits DVD.

So, give this book a read if you wanted more Terminator but not the 3 mediocre to bad movies we got. This book really messes with my theory that I blogged about that T1 & 2 are self contained perpetual infinity loops. In this book, they were able to change the future in T2, however, the timestream is still trying to correct itself to follow its original path. Evenso, I'll be interested to see where book 2 & 3 go.

[Phillip Murrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my second read. I bought the book 20 years ago when it first came out and remember liking it. I finished the Terminator Resistance video game a few weeks ago. Since that was an alternate take on Terminator 3, I wondered how this series ended. It's a 3.5 star read, but I am intrigued by the next two books. The third one is Future War, which I've always wanted. Salvation wasn't future enough. The best part (and only good part) of Genysis was the future war. I want to see John Connor at his best. We never get that. This story had old style third person omniscient writing, but I like that. I miss the all-knowing narrator from yesteryear. I look forward to reading the rest of the series. I'll have to get them on Kindle because the paperback prices are ridiculous. Hopefully, they have another satisfying tale. For the record, I like T3, so I don't need a replacement. For me, it was the last good movie. Each trilogy reboot attempt have been garbage. You don't kill John Connor.

[Christie Greenwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really good book. The plot is clever and well-thought-out, the characters are three-dimensional and relatable (even the antagonists), the prose is competent and never drags you out of the story, and the world-building is top-notch. I loved seeing insecure Sarah and teenage John, too. They're just people, not uber-competent superheroes, which ups the stakes and makes the whole thing a lot more tense. This is a Terminator story that would have been brilliant as a tv series. I'm really looking forward to the follow-up.

[A.L. Bellettiere · Rating 5 out of 5]

I initially got this book back in 2002 and while I don't recall my opinion then, I also did not keep it. But after 18 years, this book does appeal to me a lot. I'm not a big fan of the movies but I was able to connect a lot with the Connors and their allies. I enjoyed reading it and wanted to read it to the end, on the knowledge that there are 2 other books, ones I have already. If you know of the movies, I think you'll love this book. I just had a bit of difficulty recalling that Dieter is supposed to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

[Molly Hart · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! It is definitely one of the better Terminator novels. I really enjoyed seeing post T2 John and Sarah and thought that this was a very interesting take on how they would be living their lives. My only complaint would be that Serena, while an interesting villain, seemed to almost be far too overpowered in everything except actual combat, and it just made everything she did seem a little too convenient. Regardless I really enjoyed this book and can't wait to read the rest of the series!

[Richard Ferrara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would have been a better T3 than the bland movie we eventually got. It's fun to see the relationship between Sarah and John evolve as John begins to grow into adulthood and embrace his role as a fighter. Dieter and Jordan are good additions to Sarah's team, and Serena is a more creative enemy character than all the Special Effects Terminators we saw in the sequels (T-X, T-5000, Rev 9, etc.) Labane's storyline was a bit silly but it will be interesting to see how he figures into the next two books.