In Print: Terminator Salvation: From the Ashes: The Official Prequel Novelization by Timothy Zahn

This is a great year for sci-fi geeks especially if you are a fan of The Terminator. The Sarah Connor Chronicles got better, unfortunately in time for cancellation, but it was getting good. The new movie taking place in the future starring Christian Bale as John Connor, Terminator Salvation, comes out soon and it looks amazing! And this official prequel novelization for the movie, From the Ashes, by Timothy Zahn came out recently.

I usually get into ANYTHING with no expectations. With nothing expected you're less likely to be let down. However, having read several of Zahn's books in the past, I had a bad feeling about where this book might go. He tends to over-develop unnecessary / peripheral characters and develop known characters in ways that seem incorrect. He kept up those trends in this book.

This book is about a single attack on Skynet in LA by John Connor's band of resistance fighters. Even so, the book is mostly from the point of view of a former US Marine named Justo Orozco who helps protect some of the survivors in that city. Then Zahn goes on to describe the strange association between a 16-year-old Kyle Reese (John's father) and some mute 10 year-old girl named Star who accompanies Kyle everywhere. They also speak to eachother in some unspoken code that only they know.

True to form for a Zahn novel you have about 2/3 to 3/4 of the book dedicated to character development then the book rushes into it's happy ending. True to form, that's how this book. A major face-off took place between humans against machines. That was where Zahn threw me off. It seemed like a fairly bleak ending. it IS the terminator, humans get killed in masses. Somehow there are a bunch of survivors, John Connor gets kudos for his handling of the mission, and Kyle and Star are left running for their lives. It was a completely unsatisfying ending.

This book didn't really lend any new understanding of the story of the characters. You don't to bother reading this to follow what will happen in the forthcoming film. In fact, I recommend that you pass on this.

If you choose to, you can buy it now on Amazon.