First Blood
By David Morrell
- Release Date: 2011-10-07
- Genre: Action & Adventure
Description
From New York Times bestselling author, David Morrell, comes a classic thriller that introduced the character of Rambo, one of the most iconic action heroes of the twentieth century.
Called “the father of the modern action novel,” FIRST BLOOD changed the genre. Although the book and the film adaptation have similarities, they are very different, especially its unexpected ending and its greater intensity. If you’ve only experienced the film, you’re in for a surprise.
Once they were soldiers. Rambo, the ragged kid whose presence in town is considered a threat. And Teasle, the Chief of Police of Madison, Kentucky. Both have been trained to kill: Rambo in Vietnam, Teasle in Korea. They learned different military tactics, different ways of death and survival in two different wars.
Now, without warning, they are enemies in a civilian combat that becomes a chase through the woods and mountains and caves above the town. As we follow them, we understand that once a man has been trained as a killer, perhaps he is changed forever.
Award-winning FIRST BLOOD was published in 1972, was translated into 26 languages, and has never been out of print. It was one of the first novels to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder.
David’s novelizations for RAMBO (FIRST BLOOD PART II) and RAMBO III are available as e-books. They’re quite different from the films and include revealing introductions. See also David’s RAMBO AND ME: THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY.
Critical reactions:
“A fine novel. . . . When Johnny comes marching home this time, watch out.”
—The New York Times Sunday Book Review
“A first-rate thriller.”
—Newsweek
“One of the finest chase novels you will ever read.”
—Minneapolis Tribune
“A terrific thriller.”
—Saturday Review
“One hell of a hard, fast novel.”
—John D. MacDonald
Reviews
Jack Carr recommended this.
5By Kway00Carr in his last book, Only The Dead, recommends this book. Glad he did. This book is excellent.Don’t read the Introduction before the book
3By jnnyvrscIf you have only ever seen the movie and it’s your first time reading the book. DONT READ THE INTRODUCTION. Read it after you finish the book. The Introduction has great information about how the book became the movie but it also contains many spoilers including how the book ends. This is a great book and a recommended read.Wow
5By Steve King (not the author)Storyline and characters are about the same as the movie, But the story is MUCH MUCH BETTER!Surprise ending
4By Blackhart7.62Fun read. The cave was so unnerving I had to put the book down for a while to stop an anxiety attack.Frankensteins Monster
5By Gas MacaroniThis book is written with real urgency. It pushes deeper, past the standard 2 dimensional pulp characters I was expecting. Stallone once said he thought of Rambo as a Zen Frankenstein. The cause and effect of PTSD are on full display here. Monster and creator.Great
5By UBoiiWillaceJust GeratUnexpected and better than any thought
4By tdean27I saw the movie first. However, I wanted to read the book just to see the differences between the move and the original novel. The book was very different and almost to different stories. I have to say I like the book better.Great writing, lousy table of contents
4By dyhoudstjI would have given 5 stars for the excellent writing in this book. But I took away a star because of the table of contents, which caused me a lot of frustration. First, there are chapters missing. Chapter 14 appears as the first chapter of part 2, and chapter 18 appears as the first chapter of part 3 in the table of contents. However, upon reading, you find that the chapter numbering in reality is not continuous from part to part. That is, each part starts with a chapter 1 and does not simply add 1 to the last chapter of the previous part. Therefore, the table of contents is missing chapters 1-13 (and 14, which I will explain below) of part 2 and chapters 1-17 of part 3. Second, chapter 14 is shown as being in part 2 in the table of contents. But it is really chapter 14 of part 3. Third, the problems listed above cause the wrong number of pages remaining in a chapter to be shown, starting in part 2. All this causes some frustration when trying to go to a certain chapter that is not shown (or is shown incorrectly) in the table of contents. It also makes it hard to pace your reading, when you want to know how many pages are left in a chapter but need to swipe through the chapter to get an accurate page count.Amazing
5By jats98A great story that truly tells the story of the way America was during the Vietnam war.Md
5By Marki D.Great work of fiction and depiction of the clashing cultures in America at the time. Movie does not do it justice.
