I bought this book recently because I already had Rambo: First Blood Part II<\/i>, the novelization of the movie, and thought I should read them in order. Also, it was cheap. I knew the book differed from the film (mostly in that Rambo lives for a sequel in the movie). So I picked it up as an intermission from a longer piece of classical literature that I’m only half way through.<\/p>\n
At the onset, I loved the book. Morrell creates the situation and makes both Rambo and Teasle, the police chief who runs him out of town a couple times without true rancor and with only a dash of Respect My Authoritah! Ergo, the confrontation takes on the dimensions of a natural disaster, albeit one at which one simultaneously wants Rambo to get away (even though he snapped and killed a cop) and wants Teasle to capture him.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, about halfway through, the book stalls. Suddenly, Rambo turns back to slaughter more of the cops. Then the injuries start to accumulate, and both Teasle and Rambo get 18\/00 constitutions and great feats of holding their poor bodies to keep in the novel. Yes, I know you cannot get 18\/00 constitutions (or you couldn’t in Second Edition rules, which is when I quit shelling out money for D&D), but Morrell invents<\/i> it for the book. The climax carries on for 50 pages or so, dabbles in mysticism and the hunter and the hunted, whichever the order is, and then ends poorly.<\/p>\n
I’ll have to take another look at the film to see which I prefer; however, although I leaned toward the book at the beginning, I’ll probably end up preferring the movie.<\/p>\n