Rambo: First Blood Part II

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The book is soooo much better than the movie. Seriously. It was amazing--and annoying because there were great back stories and tensions that could've been put in the movie to make it better.First, the writing was great, which is to be expected of Mr. Morrell, who has a Ph.D in Literature. Secondly, the back stories and character arcs made the book so riveting.In the movie, Rambo and Co's relationship wasn't gone into much depth. You could see they liked each other, did a little flirting, but that's it. Rambo was pretty emotionless otherwise. When he went to the camp to get evidence of the POWs, I thought it was just some random camp with random soldiers he was fighting. The whole movie is like that--if you watch it, you'll see what I mean. Everything about it is skimpy: not much emotion, not much character arc, no back stories. Just a shoot 'em movie. Very annoying, considering how wonderful it's predecessor was. I don't know what the screenwriters and directors were thinking when they did that film.In the book, you get the characters' back stories and desires, including the villians'. You learn that Rambo has a history in that camp he's been sent to and that one of those soldiers really hates his guts. Rambo and Co fall in love with each other, and she elicits a feeling he never thought he'd feel again: love. Rambo and Trautman's relationship is gone into depth more, how Rambo sees him as a father figure, and Trautman sees him as a son.For a novelization, this book is really good. You must read it!

Great read.. this book was slightly better than the film it was great to see the differences unfold. If anyone out on the world is a fan of Rambo the definitely give this book a try.

Usually the follow up of a great book is rather pedistian, not this book

(Spoilers) Rambo being brought back from the dead kinda Meade up the amazing first book for me. In the first he and chief of police Tealse are in a fight between against each other, it was really cool because in the end they couldn't beet each other and both died and the Teasle character was amazing. In this book though they talk about it as if Teasle was just another guy rambo kills when really it was the guy who rambo couldn't beat without being beat. The rest was classic "beast mode" Rambo. The book itself was really good and everything and made me accidentally finish it in three days. Just not as good as the first

I read this book when I was in high school. Love it! I even did an outside-reading book report on it during my Senior year. My English teacher had outside reading as part of his class, where we could read anything we wanted (except, of course & understandably so, pornographic material) and, when we were finished with whatever book we were reading, we would give him a one-on-one book report. One thing my teacher and I had in common (which was really cool & he was a really cool teacher) was that he and I are both huge fans of David Morrell. Morrell's writing style is just amazing! First book of his I read was "First Blood". I've been a huge fan, ever since.

Continuing the gritty nature that is Rambo and the war veterans of that era. Would recommend this book to anyone.

The Rambo books got me hooked on David Morrell's writing and I've been a fan ever since. Sly Stallone as Rambo was not how I pictured our story's anti-hero but he surely did fit some of the lively fight scenes from the novel. This was not a bad follow up to the original Rambo. Fans of John Rambo will want to have this novel to round out your collection for sure.

Quick note. I saw Rambo II a couple of times and I purposefully re-watched it before reading this book. My review contains a lot of spoilers about the movie because I assume that you too have seen it at some point. In case you have not and you do not want to be spoiled, it might be better for you to skip this review. I suggest you watch the movie first, and if you like it, the go read the book.The story of Rambo books is a little bit confusing. Most people believe that the three Rambo books are nothing more than novelizations of the movies. In part yes, in part no. The first book in the series, First Blood, was a novel that was made into a movie. In that book Rambo dies at the end and that is the end of his story. In the movie Rambo was also supposed to die at the end, but the test audience didn’t like it, so the movie ending was changed so that Rambo lives at the end and goes to jail.And then someone got the idea that since the first movie was popular (i.e. it made lots of money), then maybe it would be a good idea to make a sequel (to get even more money). The producers were planning to commission a novelization of the movie, but it just so happened that when the author had handled the rights to his book for the movie, a clause was left in the contract stipulating that any future written sequels to First Blood must be done by him and him alone. Since at the time nobody was not planning any sequels, no one cared about the clause. But when the Hollywood moguls decided to make Rambo II, they had no choice but to go back to the original author and beg him to write the novelization of the second move. (The third one too, by the way.)I strongly suggest that you read the author’s introduction to the book. It will show you how greedy Hollywood is and how they use every trick in the book to get your money.But in any case, I think that it is a good thing that they got the original writer because he is so familiar with Rambo’s character. (He did create him, after all.) As the author says himself, the book is one-third the script that was made into a movie, one-third the original script that was written by James Cameron (before he became famous) and rejected, and one-third his own ideas.Overall, the plot of the book follows that of the movie. Rambo is in prison when colonel Trautman comes to visit him and offers to get him out if he agrees to go on a mission in Vietnam. They want him to infiltrate an old prison camp to verify if there are any American prisoners held there. Rambo agrees and after a series of events and mishaps (some of them unnecessarily dramatized, in my opinion) he gets to his destination where he meets his Vietnamese contact. Together they make their way to the prison camp where Rambo finds, much to everyone’s surprise, some POWs. He rescues one and calls for a helicopter. A helicopter is sent, but the CIA agent in charge of the mission calls back the helicopter for reasons that are rather murky. Rambo gets captured, but escapes and finds himself hunted through the Vietnamese countryside by Vietnamese and Russian troops. How it ends, I assume that you already know because you have seen the movie. But just in case you haven’t or don’t remember, I will not say and let you discover for yourself.As I have already said, the plot of the book follows faithfully the plot of the movie. If you have seen the movie, the book will hold very few surprises. Some of the scenes are different and the book has a little bit more material. The few changes that the book does make are for the better in my opinion.But what I like the most about the book is not the changes to the plot (which are not that many and not that important) but character development. The author goes deep inside Rambo’s head and the character of his Vietnamese contact is fleshed out. In the movie it was not clear who she was and what her motives were. She was just a pretty sidekick. In the book we get her back story and we learn her motives. I even grew attached to her and I felt sad when she died. In the movie she was just a pretty face and nothing more.The Russians and Vietnamese are also fleshed out. In the movie they are villains. In the book they are still villains, but at least they are more realistic. In the movie they are so villainous that they are almost silly. (Maybe not when you watch them on screen, but they are a little bit laughable later when you think about it.) In the book they are written as people who can exist for real, and that actually makes them scarier because you feel that they are not cartoonish but the kind of bad people you might actually meet one day. (Let’s hope that you never will.)I only wished that the CIA agent was also better developed. In the movie he is your typical sleazy, shady spy stereotype. In the book he is the same. And that is a pity; I was curious about his backstory and motives.But the biggest improvement is of course Rambo. In the movie Rambo does little except run around the jungle and kill enemy soldiers. From what I remember, the only time he reveals his inner feelings is that brief scene when he is talking on a boat with that Vietnamese woman and explains why he is expendable. One advantage that books have over the movies is that they allow the writer to go inside the head of a character. In the book we see the inside of Rambo. I must say that he has a very rich inner philosophical and spiritual life. Yes, her butchers people by the dozens, but there is more to him than just being an action hero. I couldn’t help but compare him to the Rambo we get in the first book. I must say that the author did excellent work on further exposing his main character. The Rambo in the first and second book is both the same and different. In the first book Rambo was stubborn, angry and confused. In the second book he had the time to calm down and rethink his life. He is more mature and wiser and more at peace with himself, and yet part of that old rage still resides in his soul.I wonder why. Obviously he had the time to think things over while he was in prison, but maybe also because this time he is sent on a noble mission (rescue fellow soldiers) into familiar territory (Vietnam) where he knows who is friend and enemy and where he gets to slaughter America’s enemies (communist Vietnamese and Russians) and be called a hero afterwards. In the first book he had no clear mission or goal, he was in unfamiliar territory, he was killing American cops and nobody called him a hero afterwards.But ask yourself what exactly is the difference between what Rambo does in the first and second book. In the first book he is killing American cops and therefore he is a villain. In the second book he does exactly the same to Vietnamese and Russian soldiers and therefore he is a hero.Does it mean that what makes a man a hero and a villain is not so much what he does, but to whom he does it?

Very Quickly Finished Reading Rambo Part 2 - A fast and furious sequel to Rambo First Blood - this time Rambo goes back to Vietnam to rescue American POWs and bring them home to the U.S.A

It was as good as watching the movie and a little more

Schon die ausführliche Einleitung erklärt, wie es dazu kam, dass es zu diesem Teil 2 kam.Der Verlauf der Geschichte wird einfühlsam, detailgetreu beschrieben. Immer wieder wird begründet, wie es dazu kommt, dass Rambo seine Handlungen so durchführt. Der Sprecher, Eric Dove, leistet einen tollen Beitrag und rundet das ganze ab.Als Ergänzung zum Film oder als Lektüre eines spannenden Buches zu empfehlern.

Durch David Morrells Vorwort neugierig geworden, habe ich mir "Rambo" kurzentschlossen zugelegt und innerhalb von zwei Tagen gelesen. Was ich dabei komplett vergessen hatte: Ich kannte das Buch bereits in der deutschen Übersetzung.Wer mag, kann daraus bereits einen ersten Schluss ziehen.Mich hat der anspruchslos verfasste Roman enttäuscht - ich hatte mir mehr erhofft als ein bloßes "Buch zum Film". Und so sehr Morell auch beschwört, "Rambo" sei keine der üblichen "novelizations", so wenig Unterschied zum Film kann ich feststellen. Besonders die innere Handlung wirkt auf mich reichlich aufgesetzt; ich hatte mnir da etwas mehr Tiefgang erwartet.Fazit: Für meinen Geschmack merkt man dem Buch die schnell heruntergeschriebene Auftragsarbeit einfach zu sehr an. Wer auf der Such nach "taut writing" und einem anspruchslosen Haufdruff-Thriller für einen verregneten Sonntagnachmittag ist, darf zugreifen.