The T2 Trilogy

[ggctuk]

Has anybody read the T2 series by S. M. Stirling? It consists of three books: Infiltrator, Rising Storm and Future War.

I'll give a brief synopsis to those who have not:

"Taking place from six years after the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Sarah and John Connor now live in Paraguay, away from those who still hunt them for the destruction of Cyberdyne and the death of Miles Bennet Dyson. They believe they have stopped Skynet, but little do they know that they are wrong: Skynet is very much alive, and events, while postponed, will still unfold as planned. Skynet sends back an I-950, a genetically-modified human with machine enhancements (sound familiar?), with the goal of killing the Connors and ensuring Skynet's birth.

Aided by Dieter von Rossbach, a former sector agent, and exact likeness for the T-101, John and Sarah attempt to prevent the future they know will happen from happening."

It is much more satisfying a turn of events than the films, I must admit, although at the time of this post, I have not yet finished reading the final book in the trilogy, Future War.

[DannyLilithborne]

Predestination is not my cup of tea.

[ggctuk]

It goes about explaining that too - in one of Skynet's monologues, it notes that there is a timeline in its databanks that lacks temporal interference from both the Resistance and Skynet itself. So John was born by somebody else and Cyberdyne created Skynet without the Terminator chip.

[BryyMiller]

Was this book series really needed?

[ggctuk]

Well, so many people demanded a T3 at the time (as it was written shortly before work on T3). It does not consider T3, Salvation, or the Sarah Connor Chronicles.

In a way, it rounds out some questions in the films that lingered (such as the Kyle Reese timeloop). It certainly ties things up better, I think, than T3 and Salvation.

[DannyLilithborne]

But does it tie things up better than fucking just ending it at T2?

[ggctuk]

Well, think of it this way: At the end of T2, when Cyberdyne is destroyed and the T-800 is melted, John Connor cannot actually exist any more, and neither can the Terminators sent back to protect him. He does continue to exist in that film, however, and Sarah is still fully aware of all the events that happened/were supposed to happen.

The books sort of bring it back round - the books end where T1 and T2 begin (and, also where the first novel begins). More than anything, it deals with the origins of the characters too (The model 101, Kyle Reese's family etc). There was always going to be something after T2. After all, did James Cameron not make T2:3D (with the express intention of, at the time, making a third film)?

[DannyLilithborne]

Um...

The point of T2 is that we write out our own fates.

At the end of T2, when Cyberdyne is destroyed and the T-800 is melted, John Connor cannot actually exist any more, and neither can the Terminators sent back to protect him.

But they do exist, and that is the entire Goddamn point.

[ggctuk]

I'm not good at explaining it anyways, and I don't wish to turn this into an argument. The book contains several monologues dealing with the timeline issues.

Skynet notes that its continued existence, as well as John Connor's, is possibly attributed to 'fate', and that, while they have some measure of control over fate, the timeline 'wants' to move in a certain way.

This here is Skynet's monologue, from the second book:

Originally Posted by Skynet

The Serena Burns I-950 unit was unsuccessful.
Core memory also records that I became self-aware years before the date to which I transported the I-950. There is a set of records in which I arose without transtemporal Interference from Cyberdyne's original research; another in which the second Cyberdyne facility produced me after Sarah Connor destroyed the first; a third has now arisen in which she destroyed both facilities...Temporal travel has introduced an element of fundamental uncertainty to the very fabric of existence. Different world lines, different sequences of events, coexist in my records-and therefore presumably in reality, in a state of quantum superimposition. Yet the timeline loops cannot remain closed. The snake cannot devour its tail forever. At some point only one set of timelines will remain.
Yet the course of events contains favorable elements. My best efforts to destroy the Connors have failed, despite stochastic calculation indicating a very high probability of success. I can only assume that the space-time continuum itself is 'attempting' to force events back to the original timeline, one in which I was created, succeeded in destroying the human civilization, and then defeated in my attempts to eliminate the surviving humans by John Connor's Resistance army. It seems there is a certain elasticity to history; time travel can bend the fabric, but it seeks to spring back. There is no fate save that we make.