Terminator Salvation: Trial by Fire [Mass Market Paperback]

Terminator Salvation The Movie was released in the summer of 2009. Halcyon Company, backed by Warner Bros, spent 200 million American green-backs on bringing McG's directorial vision of the Post-Judgement Day Terminator world to life. The final box office tally, while respectable, did not deliver the profits hoped for: $110 million was garnered stateside with a further $276 million from the worldwide box office. $376 million from a budget of $200 million was satisfactory but was no-where-near being considered a hit. It was this relative commercial under-performance that lead to the Halcyon Company slipping into administration as, along with the failure of other ventures, they were unable to pay off their debts. Their precarious financial position prior to their liquidation also prompted last minute cuts to the theatrical cut of the picture, leading to roughly 10 minutes being excised from the movie to enable the picture to be shown as many times as possible per day to recover some of their investment. This lead to a number of knowledgeable fans of the franchise being noticeably irked, even more so when that cut of the picture wound up on DVD, the additional material being re-instated only for the Blu Ray release; Extended Cuts of movies being a staple of DVD releases for many years.

The rights to the Terminator Franchise were snapped up by a group of high powered US investment bankers known as The Pacificor Hedge Fund. Pacificor has previously bank-rolled Halcyon so it was a foregone conclusion that they would successfully beat off competition for ownership of the rights from film companies such as Lionsgate and Sony Screen Gems. Given the present state of affairs it is unlikely there will be another Terminator movie for the foreseeable future unless Pacificor (who I imagine know next to nothing about making movies) decide to sell the rights to a legitimate film company. In the interim all we have to keep us going is this final last-gasp attempt by the administrators of the defunct Halcyon Company to make back some money. The dire financial situation has lead to this very well-written and exciting little spin-off novel to arrive with very little fan-fare or marketing - Don't feel bad if you haven't heard of it. It hasn't even made it to the shelves! I only noticed it during an amazon search of Terminator Salvation products!

It is the aftermath of John Connor's and Marcus Wright's heroic mission against the San Francisco Hub of Skynet's military forces. John Connor is recovering from his heart transplant and Blair Williams is mourning the loss of Marcus. Kyle Reese is despatched, along with fellow Resistance fighters Callahan, Zac and Garrow to scavenge for weapons and other discarded material from the ruins of San Francisco. After making a grievous error of investigating a deep rent in the ground beneath a fallen T-700, Kyle and the others find themselves trapped underground - forcing them to play hide and seek for several days in the deep darkness of a collapsed tunnel as a company of Terminators repeatedly march past on a secret and deadly mission. Barnes meanwhile requests permission to travel to the radar base they attacked recently (the opening of the Salvation movie) and bury the body of his brother (the fellow that fell lifeless from the chopper when Christian Bale tapped him on the shoulder). Connor grants him permission only on the condition that he take Blair with him so that they might mend the rift between them; a mistrust caused by Blair's decision to help Marcus Wright escape the Resistance camp.

From the cabin of her Blackhawk, during the mission, Blair spies a mysterious power cable lurking just beneath the top-soil and twists Barnes' arm to follow it so as to investigate where it may lead. They encounter a small concealed mountain settlement known as Baker's Hollow, populated by an unusual group of individuals who, peculiarly, seem to have been ignored by Skynet since the on-set of the post-judgement day conflict. We're also introduced to the wanderings of a mysterious human survivor named `Jik' as he evades a T-700 hunting party on his way to reach Baker's Hollow.

I have previously been less than kind to these spin-off novels. But this time, ironically, I have been impressed. It seems Halcyon inadvertently chose this moment to release a high quality Terminator product just as trading drew to a close so that any success was rendered redundant due to their decommissioning. Timothy Zahn too has improved the quality of his story-telling in the Terminator verse after a very middling prequel novel released during April 2009. The story of Blair's and Barnes' mission is incredibly well-written, including some very well-developed civilian characters; Preston and his daughter Hope are prime examples. The plot is very detailed and compelling. I found myself re-reading certain segments before moving on just so I could be sure I had taken in the clever plotting. The action also delivers and paints a vivid picture, especially a dirty scrap between Blair's Blackhawk and a very determined enemy during the finale. I wish I could tell you more but I wouldn't wish to give away the plot. I do wonder whether anyone will read my review given that few people may even be aware of the product. Nevertheless, if you are on the market for a piece of fast-paced sci-fi pulp you could certainly do a lot worse. Top Notch!

Im not an out and out terminator fan but came across the Terminator Cold War book by Greg Cox which I really enjoyed. That left me wanting more of the same and Terminator Trial by Fire certainly wasn't a disapointment. The story was easy to get into and I probably would have read it quicker had I the spare time. Others have delved into the book so all I will say is Ive read all the Terminator books available, some better that others but ALL worth reading especially at the price they are sold at on Amazon.