Terminator 3: Terminator Dreams [Hardcover]

Aaron Allston (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 19, 2003

Despite the heroic efforts of John Connor and Kate Webster, and the ultimate sacrifice of a T-850 terminator, Skynet became operational and mobilized its machine forces in all-out war against its prime enemy: mankind. More than twenty years later the war continues, fought by human resistance forces led by John and Kate, and by people in secret enclaves around the world. Raiding machine facilities, using small guerrilla forces to sabotage and destroy Skynet forces, the resistance is holding its own . . . but it's not enough. The self-aware AI that controls the robot terminators, the hunter-killers, and the rest of what used to be America's arsenal is too smart, too quick, too flexible to be defeated.

Or perhaps the answer to human victory lies shrouded behind the mists of time. Before Judgment Day, Danny Avila was a programmer on the project that became Skynet. In the months leading up to Judgment Day he began to have nightmares involving Terminators rampaging and destroying the world. Then, two days before the holocaust, he disappeared. Found years later by John and Kate, completely amnesiac about events of his life prior to Judgment Day, he became a useful member of the resistance, with an uncanny ability to predict Skynet tactics.

Now he is having Terminator dreams again, dreams of the days when he was on the Terminator design team . . . of the days when the world was on the path to destruction.
Could there be some kind of psychic link between the Danny of today and the Danny of nearly thirty years ago---a mental "wire" through which thoughts and images are transmitted forward and backward in time? Might this one desperately stressed man living in two eras be the time machine the resistance needs to undo the devastation of Judgment Day? A daring and dangerous experiment may prove the salvation of mankind's future . . .

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Adolescents of all ages will have fun with Allston's rock-'em sock-'em riff on the characters and settings of last summer's Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. It's shortly before "Judgment Day" (supercomputer Skynet's attempted annihilation of humanity), and cyberwizard Danny Avila is refining the arch-robot Terminator into America's ultimate fighting machine. He dreams ominously of robots gone rogue, destroying their creators. Jump to 2029, and Daniel, now a middle-aged amnesiac fighting alongside human resistance leaders John Connor and his wife, Kate, dreams strange dreams of the past he can't consciously remember, dreams that spill over into the sleep of his fellow guerrillas and draw Skynet's wrath down on them. Caught in a horrible dilemma where he must help produce the very weapon that may wipe out the human race or risk being fired and thus become impotent to help future humanity, present-day Danny tears through one wild and lethal chase scene after another, while in 2029 Connor, supported by his daughter Kyla's Hell-Hounds, takes on wave after wave of advance-model Terminators. Breathless action and unstoppable pace propel both parallel plots to so relentless a denouement that the cardboard human characters, their equally two-dimensional robotic nemeses and their all-too-predictable motivations scarcely matter. Arnold's adventure fans, rejoice; this is the stuff that role-playing dreams are made of.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Arnold''s adventure fans, rejoice; this is the stuff that role-playing dreams are made of." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (December 19, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765308525
• ISBN-13: 978-0765308528
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #234,940 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Aaron Allston is the New York Times bestselling author of the Star Wars: Legacy of the Force novels Betrayal, Exile, and Fury; the Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Enemy Lines adventures Rebel Dream and Rebel Stand; novels in the popular Star Wars X-Wing series; and the Doc Sidhe novels, which combine 1930s-style hero-pulps with Celtic myth. He is also a longtime game designer and was recently inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design (AAGAD) Hall of Fame. He lives in Central Texas.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Book That Salvages the T3 Movie Disaster, November 6, 2005

By 

H. Mccorvey "SuperFistoJunkie" (Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Terminator 3: Terminator Dreams (Hardcover)

Aaron Allston superbly patches up the gaping holes created by the movie T3: Rise of The Machines. This book gives an exciting and technically competent look at the world as it is in 2029 while providing the reader with a new story that is very much more convincing than the crap created by the introduction of TX in T3. If you are like me and were very dissapointed with T3 the movie, and found it very difficult to believe that a defeated Skynet could produce and send back in time not only the prototype T-1000, but also a fully functional T-X, then this book is for you. Allston deliberately stays away from using TX in this book. The only real link to T-3 is the involvement of one of the Skynet programmers working under General Brewster just before judgment day; otherwise, this could very well be a standalone work that is a brilliant addition to the Terminator series. Another great feature of this book is that the reader "finally" gets a real close-up look at the day-to-day operations of John Connor's resistance. The 2029 battles are superbly described and technically believeable! The action is riveting. Best of all, Allston doesn't fill up the story with a lot of "fluff." The whole story is to the point and keeps your attention throughout. What a story. If I were king for a day, I would erase the movie that "was" T-3 and find some way to adapt this book for the T-3 sequel - It's just that good. Enjoy.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Allston does it again!, February 12, 2004

By 

Nathan (Wilmington, DE United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Terminator 3: Terminator Dreams (Hardcover)

I was torn when this book came out. On one hand, I thought Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was a very mediocre film. The fact that not only did it fudge the continuity of the previous films but was also inconsistent within itself did not help matters. So when I heard there was going to be a tie-in novel, and a hardcover to boot, I had no interest in reading it. Then I heard it would be by Aaron Allston. Allston, whose X-Wing novels rank among the best of the Star Wars expanded universe, and whose "Doc Sidhe" novels are also surprisingly good, is one of my favorite escapist writers and he has, I think, the potential to write some Really Good Books down the line. So, as I said, I was torn: I wanted the new Allston book, but I certainly did *not* want to buy a hardcover Terminator novel. Well, I found it cheap, so I bought it. And once more, Allston failed to disappoint.

Allston's writing is not as strong here as in some of his previous novels, but it's still well above the standard for movie tie-in novels. He writes action (and in this novel there's certainly plenty of it) well; this is definitely a page-turner. The characters aren't terribly interesting, but they're consistent and amusing -- one of the things I love about Allston is his ability to make me laugh -- and not *too* clichéd. And if you can forgive the never-quite-explained time-traveling-dreaming thing, the plot is certainly lots of fun to watch unfold.

This novel is much better written and much more entertaining than S.M. Stirling's (now obsolete) T2 trilogy, if not as dense. It also goes a long way toward filling in many of the plotholes and inconsistencies in the Terminator 3 film. It's interesting to see more of Cyber Research Systems' and Skynet's history, as well as a better look than we've seen before (outside of the comics) at the post-Judgment Day future. Although I will say that the future here certainly seems a lot less bleak and grim and horrible than it did in the flashback scenes of the original Terminator film. But I digress.

If you're a Terminator fan, if you've liked any of Allston's other books, or if you're just looking for a fun, action-packed and reasonably well-written leisure read, this is for you. Lots of fun; recommended.

I do wish, though, that Allston had a slightly higher original novel to tie-in novel ratio. I think right now he's got three original novels and eleven books set in various film or RPG universes. I hope he has the chance to even up that score a bit.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good book in the terminator universe, January 27, 2005

By 

M. E. Newell (Georgia, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Terminator 3: Terminator Dreams (Hardcover)

Judgement Day has happen. Millions are dead. Skynet rules the earth. But John Conner and Kate Brewster lead the resistance for mankind. A member or Conner's intercircle Daniel Avila has found a way to communicate with his younger self. Danny Avila was young programmer who was working on the Skynet. Now the Conner will launch a bold plan to use the Danny of the past so all of mankind can have a future.
This was a good book. Mr. Allston does a great job of taking the Terminator 3 characters to a whole new level. This book moves a good pace that keeps the readers interest. A fan of the terminator movies will want to miss this book.