Terminator Salvation: Cold War

Terminator Salvation

by Greg Cox

We Fight Back

Russia 2003. When it appears that the United States has unleashed its entire nuclear arsenal upon the world, Captain Dmitri Losenko, commander of the nuclear submarine Gorshkov, has no choice but to retaliate. His target? Alaska.

Alaska 2018. Fighting for survival in the frozen wilderness, Molly Kookesh struggles to protect her makeshift Resistance cell from the Terminators. Inspired by John Connor’s radio broadcasts and following a brutal encounter with a fearsome machine, she decides it’s time to fight back…

An official novel exploring the post-judgment day world of the hit movie Terminator ® Salvation™.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Robots, Media Tie In, Post Apocalyptic

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 20, 2009

Reviews

[Antony Dayal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Almost

Well paced, interesting, wonderful characters. The author gives you a sense of what judgement day would of been like.
The only negatives, which subtract from the story as they are jarring, are the authors lack of knowledge around aircraft and items such as the fighters using mobile phones. One would think that mobile coverage in
Alaska in the wilderness would be non existent in today's world, but judgement day happened in 2003. One would assume that in 2003 where mobile technology was in its infancy the network in Alaska would have been in the urban areas only.
These are but minor points as the story is able to make up for it. If you want evil terminators galore, then this is for you.

[Chance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Covers two separate but interconnected story line one follows the weeks and months after judgment day from the point of Terminator 3 showing the founding of the Resistance lay the secound set 20 years later shows how people try to fight in there own ways with little aid from any major Resistance forces.

Most of the story is better then other Terminator books I’ve read has it shows a wider breaths of world were shown and it’s emback on the rest of the war.

[Molly Hart · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! As one of the first non-connor family focused terminator books that I've read I was a little weary going into it, but I was very quickly pulled into the story and new and interesting characters. It was really interesting to see a take on how the world handled post Judgement Day and the terminator super train was equally fascinating. Highly recommend!

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got about halfway through this one before abandoning it. It seemed well written and mildly interesting but at the halfway mark there was not really much of a plot. The characters were all interesting and the action was relatively credible and easy to follow but it just jumped back and forth between two groups of survivors of the initial attack without a sense of direction that I could pick up on. Each had a few exciting encounters with a couple of different kinds of machines, but it didn't really seem to be driving towards a goal of any kind. I got kinda bored since there was not really anything specific to look forward to other than more robot fighting. You would think that would be enough but it just didn't hold my attention.

[Daniel Kupres · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cold War

Cold War because of location or positioning. The correlation between the characters and the title didn’t dawn on me until the end. While the main protagonist can be viewed as Skynet, it was really man vs himself. In the Terminator world, this was a side story with not much hope for the future of humanity but humans still persevered.

[Carl Ewing · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read

Definitely gets you hooked into the story.
Though I'm sure in the movie the sub is Russian not u.s.
He captures the fear and determination of mankind to fight against the machine well

[Jeffrey Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

An avid fan of the movie series and lover of humanity, so I appreciated Greg Cox's vision of judgement day from a different perspective.

Humankind vs the machines

[Sam Nicholson · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/10

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

ok boys this was an amazing Terminator book I think my fav out all of salvation tbh

[Saphirablue · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book and its take on these two situations - Judgement Day in an other country and "today" in a part of the US that is not in the "hot zone" of the war against the machines.

First of all - the two characters don't get killed. In the book. Since Losenko becomes part of the head of the Resistance he'll get killed in the movie when Skynet destroys the command submarine. :( And an other character that I got to like gets killed off too. :(

Other than that? A good book. I really like that we get to see Judgement Day from the POV of an other country with all the questions, paranoia and accusations that comes with it. And the desperation when the submarine goes back to Murmansk and finds everything destroyed and the first sailor goes mad/deserts and so on and so on. The question 'Are we the only ones?' is present all the time and the desperation that comes out of that is palpable. I also like that Losenko & Co. don't trust the transmissions that it isn't the fault of the US and later on Ortega and later Ashdown immediately. After all, they don't know what happened. They only know for a long time that the US sent its nuclear arsenal to destroy the world. Only after they see the Terminators for the first time themselves they start to believe in this computer malfunction and the AI that took over.

I also like the plot in Alaska. Molly is such a great character - hurt, broken, determined, kickass and a good leader. My heart aches for her every time she looses someone but I love her determination to bring down Skynet in her remote part of the world. And that she manages to do it in little steps. :) Also, I really wouldn't mind to see her character again - in a book or in a movie (hey, someone can wish and dream. ;)).

I squeed out loud when Losenko and Molly talked via video conference! I so hoped that these two would meet. :)

All in all, a good book that makes me want to watch Terminator:Salvation again (what I'm probably doing tonight.).

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Greg Cox is a very talented novelist, notwithstanding the fact that he almost exclusively writes movie, TV show, and comic book tie-ins. Yet, he doesn't write as if he's in it solely for the paycheck. His Underworld prequel, Blood Enemy, was far superior to Revenge of the Lycans (the only movie that ever made me fall asleep while in the theater), and it's apparent that he has made a real from-the-heart effort in writing this Terminator novel--even incorporating a fairly impressive amount of nuclear submarine research. Yeah, his teenage girl character's dialogue seems better suited for a video game then a novel, but I can easily get past that. The big problem inherent with tie-in novels like this is that movie and TV producers can be pretty restrictive in how they allow their characters and mythos to be used. Thus, though entertaining, Cold War is pretty insignificant in terms of its impact on the world of Terminator. Even the characters know that, at best, the culmination of their efforts will result in nothing more than a minor setback for Skynet. John Connor's role in the story is little more than a footnote. The aim of this book is to simply flesh out the world of post-Judgement Day a little bit, not break any new ground. Despite having "Terminator Salvation" on the cover, it has very little to do with the movie...and even less to do with the Terminator Salvation novel that preceeded it, From the Ashes by Timothy Zahn. Still, I'd reccommend it to any rabid Terminator fan, and I'll be interested to see what Greg Cox comes out with next.

[Randy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novel based on concepts from the films, but except for mention of John Connor, has none of the characters from the films.

There are two story threads running in alternating chapters. One, starts on Judgment Day in 2003. Captain Dmitri Loshenko, captain of the Russian nuclear submarine Groshkov receives orders to set off his nuclear missiles in retaliation for the U.S.'s unprovoked launch. His targets are major cities in Alaska. We see his exploration of the devasted coastal regions of his country, his first encounter with the machines of Skynet, and then the resistance.

The second story is in 2018 and involves a small Alaskan resistance cell led by Molly Kookesh and her battles against Skynet, attacks against her group, and her plan to take out a robot train loaded with uranium..

The two lines finally merge as Molly receives tentative backing from Loshenko.

Nice adventure novel.

[Khari · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has something to do with war. It was very intense just how like the movie was. Their was lots of destruction. People lives were at stake. Explosive bombs and other types of items killing many people. The people who were alive had the best ways of staying alive. They didn't want anything to harm them. Lastly, the people apart of the war had difficult tasks ahead bu they still had to do what was needed to survive on this world.
I like this book because it has a lot of violence in it. Books that have this amount of action in it is something I like to read. This book reminds me of a lot of war based or action packed movies I have seen. Also, I don't dislike anything about this book at all.
I would recommend this book people. Finally, it would be recommended to the people who like to read science fiction books with this much action like a movie is.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice tale that doesnt directly relate to any of the other characters in the salvation arc but nicely shows some scenes during and just after judgement day.  The new characters are good but the tie in between the stories is a little weak and ultimately ends with little real impact.

Strange that this was released as part four in the series as chronologically it fits far better as book two.  A good read nonetheless.

[Fritz · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a thrilling, non-stop action packed page turner that, for a tie-in/spin-off novel, adds mounds to minor characters in Terminator Salvation. Following in the footsteps of the Russian Captain Losenko, who later becomes General Ashdown's 2nd in command of the resistance...who struggles with a world ruled by terminators...which he himself, is partially responsible for.

[Jared Reynolds · Rating 3 out of 5]

Terminator Salvation, Cold War was a good book. It was very entertaining. However, it has a lot of complexity in it. There were some pointless events occuring, and I was very confused as to what was really going on at some points, however other readers might understand it better than I did though. All in all, it was very good book that was worth buying, and reading!

[Vince · Rating 2 out of 5]

Summer read a couple years back (2010) I think. The plot was ho-hum, but it had action and was set in the Terminator Salvation universe. I enjoyed Timothy Zahn's prequel to the movie and his immediate post-movie instalment, so I'd hoped more novelizations in this universe would take off so I gave this one a try. This was functional. I liked Zahn's stories better. A quick beach read.

[Larry B Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good book from Greg Cox that is full of action and easy to follow. Charactors are easy to believe and identify with.

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

Molly Kookesh, Dimitri Losenko

[Keith B]

Fun read.

[Darby]

Good.

[Marc N · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great page turning sci fi!

[Dion · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid read. But could have had more sweep and more character development. The parts in 2003 about the Russian nuclear submariners was the most interesting.

[Jennifer Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really liked this book. It gives you a view of right before and the world after Judgement Day. Loved how it twisted the two stories together in the end.

[Pat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too many f bombs and wasn't that interested. I'm not finishing it.

[I B Broome · Rating 4 out of 5]

A vision of the world post Judgement day. The unlikely alliance in the resistance between an Alaskan Park Ranger and the Russian submarine commander who nuked Anchorage does what it says on the tin. Very enjoyable.