Review - Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp

Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Kindle, 245 pages

Published December 17th 2012 by Graymalkin Media (first published January 1st 1979)

Source: Netgalley

Synopis:
'This bestseller was the basis for the blockbuster film "Die Hard" starring Bruce Willis.

High atop a Los Angeles skyscraper, an office Christmas party turns into a deadly cage-match between a lone New York City cop and a gang of international terrorists. Every action fan knows it could only be the explosive big-screen blockbuster Die Hard. But before Bruce Willis blew away audiences as unstoppable hero John McClane, author Roderick Thorp knocked out thriller readers with the bestseller that started it all.

A dozen heavily armed terrorists have taken hostages, issued demands, and promised bloodshed all according to plan. But they haven't counted on a death-defying, one-man cavalry with no shoes, no backup, and no intention of going down easily. As hot-headed cops swarm outside, and cold-blooded killers wield machine guns and rocket launchers inside, the stage is set for the ultimate showdown between anti-hero and uber-villains. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good fight to the death. Ho ho ho! '

My Thoughts:
My main reason for reading Nothing Lasts Forever was pretty simple. I am a total Die Hard tragic and have seen all of the movies in the franchise more times than I could count. As soon as I discovered that this book was the basis for the first Die Hard movie, I just couldn't resist reading it to see how it compared.

All in all I absolutely loved this book and got to a certain point around three quarters of the way through where I had to be bribed to put it down. You can just so vividly see the majority of the movie playing out in your mind as you read. Aside from a few major differences in character names and plot developments that I think make both the book and movie great individual works in their own right, the two are extremely similar and I was just as out of breath and eager to find out what was going to happen next while reading as I was when I first watched the movie many, many years ago.

The main character, Joe Leland, is definitely a lot more darker than Bruce Willis made John McClane, but that seemed to add to his overall plight a lot more and explain why he felt he had to become a one-man army and save the day.

I am very glad to have read Nothing Lasts Forever now, especially to see where my favourite movie franchise of all time first got its roots. If you are after a play-by-play re-enactment of the film then you may be a little disappointed after reading this book, but if you have an open mind and don't mind seeing this as a story in its own right, then you may be as pleasantly surprised as I was.