In Print: Terminator Salvation: The Official Movie Novelization

Finally. This IS the official movie novelization. It's written by Alan Dean Foster who is another well known science fiction writer.

I'll tell you that this is likely NOT the Terminator book / movie you were expecting, that is unless you expected a tale about some completely new character in the storyline named Marcus Wright.

The concept of the tale is this: the resistance learned of a shut-off code that will effectively shut down Skynet and it's devices. Based on that code the resistance coordinated a massive assault on Skynet around the world. The rest of the story is about Marcus Wright, John Connor, and Kyle Reese and their roles at that point of the war. It's a cautionary tale about the future, about how technology can get ahead of us, and out of control and how the human spirit can band us together for the common good.

The book is very good if you want to have some insight before you see the movie. Also, based on these pages the movie, which opens this week, should a lot of fun.

The book is available on mass paperback on Amazon NOW!

Go no further unless you want to read some spoilers:

• The role of Marcus Wright is never fully explained. He's executed in the beginning. He awakes from the dead in a post-apocalyptic world as a cyborg. Why was he chosen? How did Skynet do this to him? Why? How was he able to retain the memories from his previous life? A lot remains unanswered, but none are sticking points for the story.
• John Connor is shown to be one who leads from the front. He won't send anyone anyplace he wouldn't go himself. He still has all his hacking skills as first shown in T2.
• If you like machines, this is the Terminator movie for you. All sorts of previously unseen killing machines will be unveiled in this installment.
• Kyle Reese from the future is finally shown. He's a teenager and it's Connor's self-imposed mission to find him and keep him safe from Skynet.
• It seems that even in the future they still don't have too many weapons that are effective against the Terminators.
• The bulk of the film is dominated by the T-600 Terminator. The generation before the T-800 model, which is what Arnold Schwarzenegger played in the three movies.
• It's explained how Skynet learns to grow human flesh.
• The world is pretty ruined after Skynet's attack, but isn't nearly as bad as it's made to seem from the previous Terminator movies. Resistance forces have vehicles and aircraft. Humans don't have manufacturing facilities, but manage to keep some hardware running.
• The Salvation part of the title cames from Marcus Wright. While being a cyborg created by Skynet, he manages to keep his humanity. If a mechanical nightmare is able to override his basic programming and help the human race, there's hope for teh future.
• Hope for future installments seem very likely. IMDB already has Christian Bale listed for T5. We'll see if there's any truth behind that in about a month or so.