Customer Reviews

Terminator 3: Terminator Dreams

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

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This book is a must read for any true Terminator fan. The depth of the characters becomes palpable and you feel as though you are fighting through a post-judgement day world along side John Connor.

Quite ingeniously done, in an increasingly awkward framework. This book is a sequel to the movie "Terminator 3" and the book by S M Stirling based on that movie. Remember in Terminator 1 how it depicted the Final War as happening sometime in the late 90s? That was because it was released in 1984, and the turn of the century seemed so distant...

Well, gosh by the time T3 came out it was 2003! Opps. Luckily, the conceptual framework in T1 came in handy. It described the future as mutable. So there was still something to fight for.

So within these parameters, Allston has maneuvered cleverly. He introduces a hero in the world of 2029 that can communicate via time-travelling dreams [don't ask!] with his earlier self just prior to the War. More pertinantly, that earlier self was one of the key programmers of the early Terminators. The plot revolves around this character, with the human leader, John Connor, taking a peripheral role. The action scenes are well done, and would be quite visually appealing if this even became a movie, though without quite the nonstop bangups of T3.

The story does not end the series, as you might guess. Rather, like the much more successful Star Wars or Star Trek series, the core characters and framework remained unchanged at the end of the story, ready for the next.

These prequels and half baked novels they have coming out of nowhere now just ruin the past works on this series. They should have gone down the road that SM Stirling paved, where John meets Wendy and though he loses her, goes on to nobly defeat Skynet and at the end, meet his father. Stirling's work was much better made. this sad attempt is not even second rate. Actually, it's not even top ten rating.

I enjoyed this novel quite a bit. The main characters are drawn in depth. The plot is involved and captivating. The connection via dreams of the future Daniel with the contemporary Daniel (with himself that is) is an intriguing idea. In spite of being obviously science fiction that includes quite a bit of feasible future tech, it is a very human story, told with a lot of feeling and not just an overwhelming amount of military/warfare action. And it isn't just on a perpetual run from terminators. If you're into the Terminator world and stories, I think you will enjoy this story and probably quite a bit.

I really enjoyed this book and read it in a matter of two vacation days. The story is nicely pulled together and uses an unexplained time paradox in a highly effective storytelling way. Honestly when I realized the premise early on in the book, I was rolling eyes and crossing fingers but it very quickly proved to be a fascinating premise. (Why we roll our eyes at one kind time travel and not at another is a question for psychologists!)

I've read a number of Terminator books and I think this is my favorite so far. Easy purchase to make.