Customer Reviews

An Evil Hour (Terminator 2: The New John Connor Chronicles, Book 2)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

August 23, 2002

The other day I was at Universal Studios in Orlando, FL and completely enjoyed the T2:3D presentation. I went into the gift shop and immediately purchased this book (and another T2 related book). I am already more than half way thru it. The book is incredible!

There are two major story lines for the book. The first story line takes place immediately after the events of T2. It depicts the lives of Sarah and John Connor after the destruction of Cyberdyne and brings to light their continued fear for the Judgement Day which may or may not come and their desire for a normal life.

In the second story line the author of the book also expertly tells the story of an alternate time line in which Miles Dyson successfully builds Skynet. This time line depicts everything we know happened (how Skynet was built, why a Judgement Day and the Human Resistance) but until now have not had first hand knowledge of (we know of them because of Kyle Reese and the 1994 T-800 Terminator). I can tell both time lines are on a collision course and I am sure complete satisfaction will be the result for the reader.

This book fleshes out the characters and moves in an exciting pace. It answers so many questions and leaves me hungering for more. I am very excited to know that this is the first of a trilogoy. I sincerely hope this is just a warm up for a new and equally exciting T3! I reccommend this book to any one who enjoyed the T1 and T2 movies. The book will really bring it to life for you.

"Dark Futures" is an exciting novel with a lot of fast action and an incredibly mean new Terminator from the future.

The story moves really fast, on two different time lines. On both of them, John Connor and his mother Sarah are trying to stop Skynet from destroying humanity, but it is a lot stronger than they are, and maybe smarter. The new Terminator is almost indestructible, and they have to hit it with everything they've got.

As well as all the action, between the lines, the book is looking at interesting stuff like Artificial Intelligence, and whether we can change the future, or whether the future is fixed. You can tell that the author has really thought about how AI and time travel would work.

The characters are good, too. It is interesting to see John Connor grow up in the two time lines. The genetically enhanced people who come back from the new future to help him against Skynet and the new Terminator are especially cool. They are still human, but maybe only just. Jade is really strong, much stronger than any of the men, and very beautiful, but she is also quite a complex character.

Ok i just finished reading this book and i must say it was excellent. There are 2 storylines included one continues directly from T:2 but the other is basically going from as if they decided to go into hiding and never defeated the T-1000 meaning John still has the help of his T-800 body guard. It was really good and both stories end with one hell of a cliffhanger which makes me really wish that i didnt have to wait until May for the second book. My advice is if your a fan of the series to definately go out and get this book. Some say its confusing but only in the first 5 pages once you get farther and get used to it you will greatly enjoy it.

It is very, very easy to recommend this to any Terminator fan in existence. Author Russell Blackford takes the material very seriously, does his research, and gives it his all.

He tackles a T2 movie sequel-novel in much the same way a fan might want someone to - as he answers many of the most interesting questions that are left open at the end of the movie in some very engaging ways.

Here are a few examples of such questions that this book smoothly answers:
-What do John & Sarah do directly after the T-1000 steel-mill battle to escape the area?
-What contact do they then have with Miles Dyson's wife?
-What becomes of her now father-less son, Danny Dyson?
-How do they ultimately evade the remaining human authorities to later resume their life and preparation for the potentially dark future ahead?
-What happens to Sarah in the future war setting?
-Who does John befriend to help and comfort his rise as a leader in the future war?
-How does Cyberdyne and its leaders start to rebuild itself after the T2 office building attack? Who are the company's new leaders on this front?
-How, when, and where does Skynet actually become self-aware?
-What are some of the details with regards to the development of time-travel?
-What would have happened to Sarah and John if they never went back to LA to attack Miles Dyson after having escaped to the desert outskirts of Enrique's compound with the "Uncle Bob" Terminator?
-What other kinds of radical Terminators and technologies exist out there?

This novel answers these questions and many more in fast-paced but well-thought out ways. It's true that the book skips between two seperate major plot-lines regularly and that the events/perspectives between them can be a little tricky to discern - but to those who would be curious about the answers to the above questions - this action is a welcome choice. Also, one of those plot-lines seems to be completely resolved within the course of this first book.

As entertainment, the book has a ton of practically non-stop action and drama. The sci-fi aspects of the Terminator universe seem to have been meticulously researched and some of the lengthy action sequences, if filmed, - would rival anything that the series has seen so far.

The ending which has several cool things happen neatly in a short series of paragraphs leaves you with a bit of a twist and cliffhanger that will have you highly interested in the next book. I haven't read the sequels yet but this one is well worth tracking down. It largely works as a stand-alone book since A LOT of time and events transpire within its pages.

Try it if you are a Terminator fan. The two timelines cause confusion sometimes. The author tends to jump back and forth in terms of time even in a single timeline. Perhaps, narrating the events in a proper sequence will make it easier to understand.

If you want nothing but action, then this one is a good read.
But for a nice twist in the story, read T2: Infiltrator and T2:Rising Storm. S.M.Stirling books are superior than this one.

Yes mate it's a bangin book. I've read S.M Stirlings 2 terminator book which are also great but this one was so action packed and the sroryline kept up it's pace all the way through. It left me wanting to read the next book AN Evil Hour straight away but i'm still waiting for it to come out. Also the squad of soldiers that are all super hard was a great idea. Jade is one tough bird.
Drop me a line if you have any news on the next book, cheers dunk.

Terminator Model--. This is the second book so I suppose it may make a bit more sense after the first, but there is a model 799.

Also, some Skynet plot to suborn humans to do its will by programming. Mostly, the interesting parts of the book are when John is involved.

The characters themselves have discussions about how it is very hard to cope with all this time travel stuff, and now they have superwarriors from another reality with them, and are looking to travel to others. That's a lot of fighting to do.