T2: Infiltrator Book

Some favourite details about this book, in no particular order:

- i borrowed this from my local library and the rental history for my copy was:
february 2002, june 2002, september 2002, april 2003, and then me in january 2019

- there's a company called Aadvanced Security that deliberately put a typo in its name to be at the front of the phonebook

- the chapters have headers setting where and when the scene is (eg. "Cincinnati, 2021: Post-Judgment Day") but after a while most of them are just called "Present Day," which is just a remarkable lack of foresight considering present day for s.m. stirling (2001) and present day for me (2019) are very different times

- there are about four background gays in the first 50 pages and then none for the rest but y'know that's four more than i expected!

- it's canon to this book that skynet was in part designed by a neo-nazi and both are irrefutably evil and should be killed, loves it

- there's a paraguyan teen detective who's a dishwasher by day and a private investigator for hire by night, and when he's on the job as a P.I. he takes on the affectations of a movie detective, like he deliberately tries to be like he's in the movies. he's like a wes anderson character. and he's just in this terminator book. i love you P.I. marco cassetti

- most if not all of the background cast are similarly baffling yet fully realized characters and it's absolutely delightful, it's like stephen king levels of overwriting, but it makes the book feel so alive and personal to s.m. stirling's vision of terminator rather than just aping the existing movies

- there's a 4.5 page scene of an arnold schwarzenegger lookalike freeing a cow from a bog that never comes up again

real rating is probably leaning 4.5* because there was a handful of 'coincidences' in the plot that pushed credibility a little, and i'm actually not totally sure what one of the main subplots had to do with the rest of the book (ron labane? ron labane? what's your deal ron labane?). but the former i'll forgive because of the fate themes and for the latter i'll wait and see is that resolved in the rest of the trilogy.

aside from that: totally satisfying and engaging the whole time, both as a sequel to terminator 2 and a sci-fi book in its own rights!! sometimes i wished it was just original fiction so i could recommend it to people more easily.

returning characters were written so recognizably to their film counterparts yet balanced with new personal developments, and every new character i felt rounded off the cast perfectly - especially jordan dyson, i'm almost sad i won't get to see him in a real film.

having half the book from the POV of a terminator was just genius. i love it. i know it's not reinventing the wheel, you always see what the baddie terminator is up to in the movies, but following serena literally from birth and writing her with incredible insight into her psyche and skynet's processes? it's so fascinating seeing a franchise i love from a brand new perspective, i just ate up her chapters.

in conclusion i need to drive home the fact that there are 4.5 inconsequential pages of this book where an arnold schwarzenegger type wrestles in a bog with a cow. he punches the cow. please adapt this book into a film big hollywood