“An Evil Hour” (2003), the second book of Russell Blackford’s “New John Connor Chronicles” young-adult trilogy, is even more overwritten than the first novel. A remarkable amount of the 368-page paperback consists of logistical arrangements between the Colorado-based Skynet employees and their government liaisons in Washington.
Like the first book, though, Blackford’s time travel ideas are good and logical as we continue to follow a Skynet versus Resistance battle across time on two fronts. In “The Evil Hour,” he introduces the most high-tech time-displacement equipment (TDE), a.k.a. “time vault,” so far, setting this story apart from all other “Terminator” sagas.
CHARACTERS
John Connor: 17-year-old John meets 44-year-old John when the former goes forward in time and across dimensions, from 2001 John’s World to 2029 Skynet’s World. It’s the first instance in the saga of John meeting himself. Kyle meets himself “Genisys.”
Sarah Connor: She’s not given much characterization here, although she fights by John’s side in John’s World. Her Skynet World counterpart is killed in 2012 in the first book.
Kyle Reese: He’s 25 years old (and thus born in 2004) at the time of the traditional 2029 TDE sequence. This contradicts the original timeline, where he is born in 2009, but it’s consistent with his age in “Genisys.”
Juanita Salceda: Basically, she’s the girlfriend of John in Skynet’s World, although they don’t have time to explore their relationship due to the war.
Jade and Anton: These are the two surviving Specialists (nanobot-enhanced humans) from “Dark Futures,” where they had traveled back from Jade’s World, which is a future branch of John’s World. After helping the Resistance in John’s World and Skynet’s World, they aim to return to Jade’s World in the next book and continue the fight. John has an unrequited crush on Jade.
Rosanna: This brilliant scientist completes construction and programming of Cyberdyne’s time vault in 2001. She had been partially reprogrammed by the T-XA in the first book, but she ultimately fights off the brainwashing.
Charles Layton and Oscar Cruz: They aren’t technically Terminators, but – having had their minds rewritten by the T-XA in “Dark Futures” – these reprogrammed humans at Cyberdyne oversee the rise of Skynet in John’s World. They are themselves capable of reprogramming others, and they convert a lot of government employees to Skynet’s cause in this fashion. They also can have brief bursts of superhuman strength, although it’s not permanent as with the Specialists.
Silberman: Sarah’s doctor at the psych ward in “T2” has nothing to do with this story, but it’s interesting to note that “he quit his profession and disappeared from Los Angeles” (p. 31). In the Malibu comics, he is in a psych ward himself, and in the S.M. Stirling novels, he is downgraded in his profession and an ally to Sarah.
Smaug: John’s dog (John is a “Lord of the Rings” fan in this timeline) doesn’t feature heavily in the narrative, but John notes that the dog had saved his life many times (p. 199). Considering the value of canines in hunting Terminators, it’s remarkable how dogs aren’t given much attention in the saga. This is the first dog with a name other than Max in “T2.”
TERMINATORS
Eve (the T-799 unit): The first prototype of the T-800 model is John’s ally in John’s World, having been reprogrammed by John and sent back through time. Meanwhile, we follow the evil Eve in Skynet’s World. Eve can operate for 120 years on her power cell. She is a copy of a Canadian Resistance soldier. The Arnold T-800 and “The Sarah Connor Chronicles’ “ Cameron are also based on actual humans.
Skynet: While Skynet is not a physical entity here, it does have the ability to move its core essence through space, like in “Genisys.” After the traditional “smashing the defense grid” sequence in Colorado, Skynet jumps to Madrid, Spain. But that’s the only jump it makes in this book: In Spain, the Resistance defeats Skynet once and for all in Skynet’s World. In John’s World, Skynet’s progress is stalled in 2001, although I have a feeling we might get back to that in the third book.
“Uncle Bob” T-800: He is killed in 2012 Skynet’s World in the previous book, but “An Evil Hour” gives us some 2006 scenes where John quizzes the robot and learns important things such as the reprogramming process.
T-1000s: These liquid-metal models, only at the prototype stage in 2029, are deployed primarily in the European war zone.
T-600s: Some of these rubber-skinned Infiltrators are deployed, too, as Skynet throws all its resources at the Resistance in 2029.
Endoskeletons: And obviously, you gotta pepper a lot of these buggers on the battlefield, too.
CONTINUITY AND CONTRADICTIONS
As with Blackford’s first book, “Dark Futures,” we follow a story in John’s World (post-“T2”) at the turn of the century, and another in Skynet’s World (which branched off when Sarah chose not to raid Cyberdyne, thus leading to a 1997 J-Day in the first book) leading up to the 2029 events.
In 2006 Skynet’s World, John says “In 23 years, I’m going to have to learn to reprogram a Terminator. I might as well learn how” (p. 108). He practices with the Uncle Bob T-800. In 2029, he does indeed reprogram the Terminator with Danny by his side (p. 235). Danny was the reprogrammer in “Cybernetic Dawn.”
Blackford combines two traditional 2029 “Terminator” sequences into one in this novel: The Resistance’s raid on Skynet’s Colorado mountain headquarters (home of the “defense grid”) and the Los Angeles Skynet building where the TDE is housed. In “The Evil Hour,” both the defense grid and the TDE are located at the Colorado facility (p. 203).
In Skynet’s World, the war continues beyond July 2029, although not much longer (p. 304). We also saw this in the Now Comics, where the war went on for decades more, and Malibu Comics’ “Nuclear Twilight,” which ended on a cliffhanger.
TIMELINES AND TIME TRAVEL
“An Evil Hour” features branching timelines. Danny prefers a tree-branch metaphor (p. 98) while Rosanna likes a river metaphor (p. 150). Rosanna also speaks of how God’s view of the timestreams is different from the human view (p. 301). To humans, timestreams are in flux; to God (existing outside of time), every timeline is as it should be. Every timeline is as real as any other, so Skynet’s goal is to succeed in as many timelines as possible and the Resistance’s goal is to stop Skynet in as many timelines as possible.
The time vault in “An Evil Hour” – perfected by Rosanna in 2001 in John’s World — is much more advanced than on any other “Terminator” timeline. To wit:
- It can transport people not only through time, but also space, and even across timelines (a.k.a. “dimensions”).
- It can track other time displacements (for example, if Skynet is using a different time vault) (p. 284). “We can create a space-time map, looking for nodal points in time,” Rosanna says (p. 300).
- It can pull people back through time, although only as part of the original process; Rosanna sends a laboratory mouse through time, then immediately brings it back (p. 302). A similar thing happens to Superman in “Superman versus The Terminator,” although in his case he is accidentally pulled forward through time when a Terminator’s time bubble happens to emerge on top of him.
The good Eve goes back from 2029 Skynet’s World to 1984 John’s World (p. 316). Although timeline jumping will later be made possible in 2001 John’s World, it’s not necessary in this case because Eve goes back to a time before the timelines diverged (p. 151) into two worlds. She waits patiently until she is needed, then meets John in 2001.
We get the traditional sequences of John sending Kyle back from 2029 to 1984 (p. 227), and sending the Uncle Bob T-800 to 1994 (p. 235), but it’s a little different here. In this timeline, the TDE is in Colorado, not Los Angeles. But as noted, time vaults in this trilogy are capable of not only moving people through time, but also through space. As such, Kyle goes from 2029 Colorado to 1984 Los Angeles, and the good T-800 goes to 1994 L.A. Earlier, on the same TDE platform, we see the traditional sending back of the bad T-800 and T-1000, with Eve operating the controls for Skynet (p. 210). John wisely asks Danny, who is running the TDE controls: “Can you vary it slightly in space? We don’t want our protectors turning up right alongside Skynet’s Terminators” (p. 232).
Taking advantage of the inter-timeline travel afforded by the Colorado time vault, the good guys travel from 2001 John’s World to 2029 Skynet’s World (p. 314).
Then the good guys use the time vault simply for space displacement, traveling from Colorado to Madrid in pursuit of Skynet (p. 332).
On the final page, John and Sarah resolve to go with Jade and Anton to Jade’s World (p. 368), setting up the trilogy’s concluding novel, “Times of Trouble.”