Testament [Mass Market Paperback]

David Morrell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1993

Master of the high-action thriller, David Morrell is a five-time New York Times bestselling paperback author (First Blood, The Covenant of the Flame). Back in print after eight years, Testament--a chilling novel of a race for survival against a fanatical white supremacy group--is newly repackaged to kick off Warner's much-in-demand Morrell backlist program.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

My father was killed during World War II, shortly after I was born in 1943. My mother had difficulty raising me and at the same time holding a job, so she put me in an orphanage and later in a series of boarding homes. I grew up unsure of who I was, desperately in need of a father figure. Books and movies were my escape. Eventually I decided to be a writer and sought help from two men who became metaphorical fathers to me: Stirling Silliphant, the head writer for the classic TV series "Route 66" about two young men in a Corvette who travel America in search of themselves, and Philip Klass (whose pen name is William Tenn), a novelist who taught at the Pennsylvania State University where I went to graduate school from 1966 to 1970. The result of their influence is my 1972 novel, First Blood, which introduced Rambo. The search for a father is prominent in that book, as it is in later ones, most notably The Brotherhood of the Rose (1984), a thriller about orphans and spies. During this period, I was a professor of American literature at the University of Iowa. With two professions, I worked seven days a week until exhaustion forced me to make a painful choice and resign from the university in 1986. One year later, my fifteen-year-old son, Matthew, died from bone cancer, and thereafter my fiction tended to depict the search for a son, particularly in Fireflies (1988) and Desperate Measures (1994). To make a new start, my wife and I moved to the mountains and mystical light of Santa Fe, New Mexico, where my work changed yet again, exploring the passionate relationships between men and women, highlighting them against a background of action as in the newest, Burnt Sienna. To give his stories a realistic edge, he has been trained in wilderness survival, hostage negotiation, executive protection, antiterrorist driving, assuming identities, electronic surveillance, and weapons. A former professor of American literature at the University of Iowa, Morrell now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (April 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446364487
• ISBN-13: 978-0446364485
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #193,910 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book, December 23, 2000

By 

Jamie "Jamie" (FLORENCE, KY, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Testament (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is very disturbing. Early in David's career he wrote stories where the hero didn't always win, and the line between the heros and the villains was much less easily seen.

Interestingly enough this book is somewhat 'hypothetically autobiographical' (I think I made that up). The story involves a character who is a writer who has studied survival skills for his first book (like David did for First Blood) and is then put into a situation where his life and his families depend on those skills. And it's not just survival skills like living off the land and finding shelter, it's dealing with weapons and booby traps and also how to evade a pursuer.

Considering the somewhat disturbing turns of events in the book it makes the autobiographical nature seem a little odd. Suffice it to say that I understand that David's wife did not like that the book depicted them so well in light of the direction the story takes. I think for that aspect the book is fascinating.

FYI, this book was not actually written in 1993 as the publication date suggests but was actually written in 1975 and was David's second book after First Blood.

If you like good suspense and action, and David always delivers on both fronts, then you should try this book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unforgettable!, February 28, 2001

By 

James (San Juan, PR United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Testament (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the first time I have ever reviewed anything on the internet, I gues I never felt the passion that I feel about this book. There seems to be alot of mixed review of this book which surprises me. I remember the first time I ever read this book, I was interrupted by an exam I had to take and had to set down the book for several months. After finally getting back to the book months later, I picked up where I left off, to my surprize I remembered every last detail. It is just one of those books that creaps up on you and won't let you be. It has been a good 7 years since I read it and I have to say it is still the best novel I have read to date. I am a big fan of David Morrell, but this novel is the leader of the pack. To start off it has by far the most shocking oppenner I have ever read in any book and the ending leaves you thinking. Out of all the books I've read this one stands out the most, definately Unforgettable. I still to this date remember the book, and every scene vividly.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking, May 13, 2000

By 

Colin W. Stewart III "drgngnr" (AZ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Testament (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is extremely fast paced and somewhat disturbing. It is one of those page turners that keeps you up all night reading and tired at work the next day. The introduction by Morrell makes you wonder about the stories ending. It's ending is unexpected and if you go back and read the last 2 or 3 paragraphs of the introduction, you have something that keeps you thinking about the book for 2 or 3 days. I highly recommend this book and any other book written by Morrell