Reviews

The Terminator by Randall Frakes, James Francis Cameron

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fandom4ever's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

A rewatch of the three Terminator movies and Salvation, led to looking further into the story and the discovery that Terminator had not only novelizations of its movies but several other series along with some comics. I read how this book added a ton more story to what was shown in the movie and I eagerly sought out a way to read it.

The wiki wasn’t joking; there are so many additional scenes and expanded scenes in this book that add so much to the overall story. One of my favorites is the additional step Terminator takes to try and verify if it killed the right Sarah Connor; it gives more knowledge about Skynet and its failings. Not only that but we get many more future scenes, which we get few of in the movie, and John is in them too! The story is still tense, sometimes even more so with seeing how Terminator operates. I loved the emphasis of how he is definitely a machine, no matter how human he looks. We also get more characterization of each of the characters; even those we saw for only a short time on screen which helps flesh everyone out and brings greater understanding.

I was sad when the end came because I enjoyed this book so much and it is definitely in with my top movie novelizations. Now the book is very hard to come by and if you can find a used copy they’re usually in the $50 price range. But if you can find a cheap copy or a PDF version as I did, it’s absolutely worth the read. I can’t wait to continue on with the rest of the books!

Content Warnings

ofclumsywords's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

What a great addition to the movie! We get to see the thought process of Terminator and how it functions and computes the data it sees as it is going about it's mission. Unlike the movie where we only get to see 'through' Terminator's eyes the code and responses that flash on the screen. There is also much more information on Skynet, the time displacement machine, and how Reese and Terminator actually got to LA 1984. But by far the best part was getting to know Sarah more and who she was before Reese and Terminator showed up in her life. We see her relationship with Ginger and Matt in more detail and her very monotonous daily life that we as humans take for granted. Then it shows the evolution of her going from the young college student to the beginnings of the Sarah we know she will become. She is so young and fragile in this book and knows next to nothing and its a good reminder that she is only human and we get to discover that along with Reese as he realizes there is more to her than the lore he grew up hearing. I can't wait to continue this series and get more information that the movies were unable to show us.

Content Warnings