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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Weak Finish for a great series!, July 2, 2003
...The first two books in this series were great!, this one was not! I was very disapointed with it. I felt the author didnt have is heart into this book and it heavily lacked in imagination and it was apparent that the writer was rushed through writing this book to get it published within a deadline. Many of the character building plots were weak, underdeveloped, and worst of all, completely irrelevant to the story. This book really should have been broken down into a couple of books because the first 3/4 of this book cover a 6 month span of events then all at once you are left hanging at a major event at the end of a chapter and then next chapter the author sling shots you 3 to 7 years from that point of the story. It leaves you desperately trying to figure out what the heck happened. This book is very difficult to follow and I found myself having to re-read several areas of the book to figure out the details of what happend and why. Also I found the events of Judgement Day to be totally ridiculous. It was obvious that the author knows little to nothing about computer technology and I found it laughable that computers are taking over cars, tractors, and lawnmowers are driving themselves wildly in attempts to mow people down. Come on, the time line for Judgement Day is our present time. I feel that a more plausable set of events could be developed. This was primarily where I felt imagination was misplaced and not well thought out. Other problems that bugged me: The book never explained why the Terminators are cloned after Dieter. I felt Sarah was too super human and larger than life. I expected her character to die in battle. Also I expected Dieter to be captured and cloned and his clones used to infiltrait the resistance like they did in the previous books. Its almost like a completely different author wrote this book without reading the first two books in the series. There were so many holes in this story line that it left me completely irratated after finishing the book. However if you have read the first two books, you must read it just to go along for the ride. I hope the last Movie will make up for it.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but very rushed., July 27, 2004
This review is from: T2: The Future War (Mass Market Paperback)
This final entry into Stirling's great T2 series is overall a good read, telling the tale of John Connor's rise to leadership over the remnants of mankind in the war against the machines and their human followers. My major complaint is that the book feels rushed, as it covers about twenty years of war in one volume. Characters vital to the other two books, namely Snog's college buddies, are dropped here, with no explanation of what happened to them. Other characters come in for the first part of the book, but are killed off or disappear before the second half. This gets insane near the end, as Kyle Reese's entire 20+ year life is covered in about 80 pages of what are basically vignettes interspersed with the main story of John's fight. This main story is also rushed, with two years or more flying by at a time. This is seriously what's crammed in the last ten pages: -Skynet's defense grid is smashed. -The time machine facility is captured in a huge battle. -The Terminators go back in time. -Kyle Reese and the good T-800 go back. -The book ends. And no, there weren't spoilers there, if you've seen the movies, which you should have if you're reading this series. In conclusion, while the book is well-written, it feels like Stirling tried to cram what should have been two, or even more, books into a single novel. By all means, buy this if you've read the other two books and want to see the end of the series, because it's a good book. But this novel won't make anyone a new fan of the series, and even veterans of the Terminator saga like myself might get confused at the insane pace of the last hundred or so pages.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
great action packed doomsday thriller, June 22, 2003
Sarah Connor, her son John, and her lover Dieter felt destroying Clea before she activated Skynet had given them victory, but soon learn otherwise as the organic terminator managed to feed the discs to Skynet. Almost immediately Skynet concludes that humanity poses a threat to its survival and must be eradicated. Instead of complacency, Sarah and Dieter become concerned when the Pentagon announces Skynet will run all its weapon systems. Skynet begins experimenting to prepare for Judgment Day, when the advanced computer system fires all the nuclear weapons in its arsenal. Skynet starts the nuclear end run as Sarah and her loved ones hide in a fallout shelter. With human collaborators and terminator robots with advanced weapons on its' side, Skynet seems on the verge of victory. Only Sarah as a rallying point and her two cohorts lead a weak resistance that over the years is becoming stronger against a god-like enemy. T2 THE FUTURE WAR is a great action packed doomsday thriller starring three long time favorite heroes, but also provides well-rounded personality traits to Skynet so the audience knows this is an independent sentient essence. Sarah seems so much more than she was in past books and movies as she has turned into a profound leader, who recognizes she is an icon to the resistance. John has matured from his previous feelings of resentment and disbelief into the hope of the future. This finale (loosely put - need to read to understand why) is a winner as S. M. Stirling terminates the series with a triumphant doomsday thriller in which humanity fights to survive against a killing machine. Harriet Klausner
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