Learning that there was a book before the movie, I of course had to read it. And it easily surpassed the movie (which I had to see again after the book), being that much darker and deeper (although not a very deep story in itself). ( )

In the days of WW1 and WW2 it was called what it is - shell-shock. Then came more "understanding" era and this clear and pretty self-explanatory psychological state became convoluted to unimaginable levels. Because, hey, how can you say that in your society you have shell-shocked people, you can only have traumatized people. And while this might have started by bureaucrats unfortunately it was picked up by a medicinal profession that just had to classify every superficial facial or body tick as a separate trauma. And thus main substance got lost.

This book, truly a very rare book on the subject because there is no surplus of drama, no over-emotional layer to it, although a critique of a war and what it does to the person (no matter the era, be it Korean or Vietnam war, and I think it was same with WW1 and WW2) it is first and foremost critique of the way society greets its soldiers after the conflict they are sent to fight [by that very society]. Because they are embarrassment and it would be much more convenient if nobody returned from the war at all - as they say "far from sight, far from heart".

Book has a much stronger effect than the first movie in the series. To describe it in a single sentence it would be unfortunate-turn-of-events. When man returning from hell in Southeast Asia, John Rambo, comes across a veteran from earlier days who is having his own personal problems, Teasle, both proud and stubborn, time-bomb starts to tick last seconds to destruction. What starts as war of wills soon escalates in a full scale conflict in the country where John Rambo manages to tie full force of law enforcement and National Guard until he gets cornered while raising hell trying to escape.

Excellent novel on how misunderstanding and unwillingness to understand and know the other can have devastating effects. When pushed to the limits and to wall only way remaining is forward because there is nothing to lose. Only other novel that made same impact on me is novel Testament by the same author.

As is case with all Morrell's novels highly recommended to fans of action thriller. It is a sad and tragic story and as all tragedies truly worth reading. ( )

It wasn’t really the Rambo I was expecting...but I guess I was expecting more like the movie. The novel read very well, but I had a hard time seeing Rambo as a protagonist here. Maybe I could have used a bit more “prequel” style stuff, outlining more about how he was persecuted town to town and finally had enough here where he wasn’t too be pushed anymore. But without that he came off kind of dickish. And of course the ending was a bit different....
( )

Three things about 'First Blood' surprised me. It's a little over fifty years old but it doesn't feel dated or old-fashioned. It feels more modern than a few 1980s horror classics I've read. It doesn't read like a debut novel. It's written with confidence, it takes a few risks with form and the people in it feel real. It is very different from the movie. I know this shouldn't be much of a surprise - movie adaptations are like that - but the differences are extreme and profound. Almost nothing that pulled me into the book found its way into the movie. On the other hand, I think the ending of the book wasn't its strongest point and wouldn't have satisfied a cinema audience.

I came to the book with memories of a bored, redneck Police Chief, so wrapped up in his own authority that he pushes a drifter too far and a shirtless Sylvester Stallone, with a strip of fabric tied around his head and an automatic rifle in his hands, blowing up the town, killing dozens of people and then complaining that his country doesn't love him as much as he loves it. At the time, I thought it was a clever action movie with a lead actor who was great at the action sequences but who was out of his depth whenever he had to speak in full sentences.

I had to push those memories aside almost from the first page. The sheriff, it turned out, was a reasonable, mostly polite, mostly patient man who made every effort to de-escalate the blossoming conflict with John Rambo, right up to the point where Rambo bugs out and kills a police officer by slicing a straight razor through his guts. John Rambo wasn't just a Vietnam Vet, tramping through America, minding his own business and coping with his PTSD. John Rambo was what the US military had trained him to be: an efficient killer who enjoys his work and never backs down once he's engaged with the enemy.

David Morrell lets the reader spend a lot of time inside the heads of Wilfred Teasle, the Chief Of Police in the small town of Madison, Kentucky and John Rambo, a bearded long-haired drifter with nothing to his name but a buckskin jacket, some ratty jeans, a stained sweatshirt and an old sleeping bag. Morrell shows the reader how both men think, how each of them tries to pull back from a conflict that's likely to go bad and how each of them fails. He lets the reader see how similar the two men are, although they're a generation apart. Teasle's war was Korea, Rambo's war was Vietnam. Both men won medals. Both did things that they'd rather not remember. Both of them are capable of extreme violence.

One of the things that surprised me was that I felt more sympathy with Teasle than Rambo. Teasle had built a life for himself. Maybe not a completely successful one, his marriage is crumbling and he has no friends, but one committed to trying to prevent and hold back violence. Rambo is still working through what his war taught him about himself: that he's a ruthless man who will do whatever it takes to survive; that he's a killer who kills neither from anger nor fear but because it's necessary; that deep down he knows that he enjoys killing and is looking for an excuse to lose himself in the joy of doing it well.

'First Blood' is structured as a conflict between these two worldviews. The conflict itself is dramatic and filled with violence but those things punctuate the story, they are not the point of it.

The book has a very strong start and most of the time I found it very engaging. The shifts in point of view and the flashbacks to reveal the backstories of Teasle and Rambo worked well. The action scenes were compelling. It lost me a little towards the end. The ending is very different from the film. I think it's both more appropriate and more believable but it's a difficult story to tell and at points, I felt it went on too long. I also felt the almost telepathic connection that Teasle and Rambo seem to have towards the end was a slightly heavy-handed way of making their shared backgrounds visible.

I listened to the audiobook version, narrated by Eric G. Dove. His delivery felt pitch-perfect to me and carried me effortlessly through the book. ( )

I had two books last week from publishers that were at polar opposite ends of the spectrum of "gendered" literature. They both sucked.

First Blood is the novel that the movie Rambo was based and is total dick lit. Basically, a war vet with PTSD meets a cop with control issues and they spend the rest of the book trying to kill each other for no adequately explored reason. Head Over Heels on the other hand is quintessential chick lit: fluffy romance with no real conflict, just misunderstanding and miscommunication, but then everybody talks and lives happily ever after. Neither book was badly written, both had consistent pacing and both are reprints which were originally published decades ago. And my hatred for both of them is mostly predicated on lack of balance. There is hardly any conversation in First Blood (entire chapters pass with nobody taking to another human being!) and the majority of the characters only exist to be killed off (I was disoriented by how high the body count was). Head over Heels is all talk and no action and by the end of it I was really wishing somebody would be killed (or, even better, several people), because there are far too many characters who only exist to be a romantic interest.

In a perfect world, Rambo and Sheriff Teasdale are magically transported to Upper Sibley and blow the place to smithereens. Everybody dies, except for Teasdale and Jessie (the main protagonist from Head Over Heels whose relationship with her long-lost love was so inane I nearly puked) who fall in love and build a perfect literary world where people occasionally get killed but everybody talks about it first.

Thank you to the publisher who sent me a copy of this book for review. ( )