Afbeelding van de auteur.

Roderick Thorp (1936–1999)

Auteur van Die Hard: Niets is eeuwigdurend

14+ Werken 558 Leden 22 Besprekingen

Over de Auteur

Fotografie: Roderick Thorp

Reeksen

Werken van Roderick Thorp

Die Hard: Niets is eeuwigdurend (1983) 262 exemplaren
The Detective (1656) 119 exemplaren
Rainbow Drive (1986) 65 exemplaren
River (1995) 62 exemplaren
Westfield (1977) 15 exemplaren
Devlin (1992) 9 exemplaren
La Traque (2014) 6 exemplaren
Dionysus (1969) 5 exemplaren
The circle of love (1974) 3 exemplaren
The Music of Their Laughter (1970) 2 exemplaren
Hot pursuit (2014) 2 exemplaren
Wives (1972) 2 exemplaren
L.A. puerta del infierno (1986) 1 exemplaar

Gerelateerde werken

Die Hard Trilogy (1996) — Writer, sommige edities129 exemplaren
Orbit 6 (1970) — Medewerker — 56 exemplaren
Hardcore (1900) — Introductie, sommige edities55 exemplaren

Tagged

Algemene kennis

Geboortedatum
1936-09-01
Overlijdensdatum
1999-04-28
Geslacht
male
Nationaliteit
USA
Geboorteplaats
New York, New York, USA (Bronx)
Plaats van overlijden
Oxnard, California, USA
Woonplaatsen
Oxnard, California, USA (death)
Beroepen
detective
teacher

Leden

Besprekingen

This was a very refreshing and interesting novel. I have to say that Die Hard screenwriters did a magnificent job of removing all non-PC elements and making a very good action movie (which again was not difficult considering the very vivid scenes from the novel that are very easily transferable to the screen, big or small).

In my opinion Leland is much more interesting character than McLean and one with much nore at stake here. He is anti-terrorist operative, running his own private PI agency and helping make standards for security services. A war veteran, very handy with infantry weapons and tactics he comes in conflict with international terrorist group after they seize his daughter's oil company HQ jn LA during Christmas party.

Story more or less goes the way moviegoers are familiar with. What is missing is Leland's disgust with politics and connection with large corporations, more negative actions by LAPD bureaucrats and attempt to bury Leland as a vigilante at the very end.

Leland on the other hand does not hesitate, and here story is more realistic than majority of Hollywood action movies - when in doubt nobody has long conversations with armed group intent on killing. Only response is violence, no matter how hard it may fall to the party fighting the good fight (and here, in the novel, there is lots of gray area).

Action scenes are just fantastic, reader can feel the pain and dirt of fighting in skyscraper using explosives, missiles and machine guns, trembling with exhaustion at every elevator buzz and stepping on glass in vast office areas through which strong winds blow due to destroyed walls and windows.

Excellent action novel, highly recommended.
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
Zare | 18 andere besprekingen | Jan 23, 2024 |
It was quite a discovery to find Die Hard was based on a book, although one with muted excitement given how it’s not well known and book-film relationships are historically uneven. Does it live up to the cleverness of the film? Are the characters the same flippant, wise cracking personalities we have grown up with? Does it even follow the same basic premise? The answer to all these is… sort of.

Nothing Lives Forever is mostly a pretty decent thriller standing on its own terms. Joe Leland is our protagonist (cast suitably as Frank Sinatra in the adaptation of the previous book, The Detective), a retired police consultant with military and special forces experience and takes the place of the younger John McClane. Age, experience and back story differences aside, they both share an indefatigable doggedness in the face of adversity and that is what elevates the core of the story. The only other character that is familiar is Gruber himself, although it’s clear that quite a few of the characters survive in some comparable way to the film - even down to the cop on the radio he chats to between the action scenes.

The story itself is recognisable even if the details are different. And a lot of the beloved action scenes can be seen given birth here in some form: the ventilation crawling (which is more claustrophobic here); the bare foot on glass; the “now I have a machine gun”; the elevator explosion; Klaus and his brother (who also dies from a broken neck); the cocky negotiator; swinging through a window on a hosepipe - they’re all here. And it’s these “Die Hard” moments which are where the book shines and gripped me to the point I couldn't stop reading throughout the night. And it’s all accompanied by the narration of Leland’s intelligent tactical thinking as he tries to outthink his equally smart adversaries.

There are some issues with the story though. Sometimes things unfold two steps ahead of the details and as the reader I felt too far behind what Leland was planning. The early third of the book is also a struggle to get through, focusing on Leland's backstory, moralising and social commentary. The reward for getting through the early sections are that when the dirty work starts, it made Leland seem more human, countering his blunt brutality when he became pushed to his limits and turning it into the story of the ageing hero forced to fight one last time. Whilst some of his kills were shocking, I found myself wincing at his pain, laughing at his banter and willing for him to win the day. And fundamentally it feels like the spirit of John McClane was born here, even if McClane is more the “down on your luck” good guy versus Leland who is the well trained, but brutally cold killing tactician.

It’s not a perfect thriller. It’s messily written at times, the social commentary contrasts with other more jarring reminders of the time and Leland’s constant running between floors will become repetitive for some readers, but it shines when it hits its stride throughout the second half of the book when the action comes thick and fast and the author shows their great skill in holding tension across a chapter. It’s also very effective in driving the story of an ageing hero (a favourite trope of mine). And it does have a twist which I wont spoil here.
Its biggest problem these days is that Die Hard as a film does everything better and has the more sympathetic hero, but as a book in its own right this was still a fun read and it deserves a more recognised place in the genre beyond just being the blueprint for one of the greatest (Christmas) films of all time
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
KevDS | 18 andere besprekingen | Dec 29, 2023 |
Read more crime and thriller reviews on CriminOlly.wordpress.com

As good as it is (and it is good), ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ is one of those books that would probably have vanished from the shelves completely if it hadn’t been made into a blockbuster movie. It was written in 1979 and is the sequel to a 1966 book called ‘The Detective’ (which itself was filmed with Frank Sinatra). In 1988 it was filmed as ‘Die Hard’. Yep, that’s right, ‘Die Hard’ is based on a book. I first came across a copy in my local library in the late 80s/early 90s, thought I’d give it a try because I liked the movie (who doesn’t?) and was surprised to find something which is very similar to the film in many ways but also quite different.
Rereading it with a few more years under my belt I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as I did first time around, but it’s still a gripping read. If you’ve seen the movie you know the plot (and if you haven’t, go watch the movie!). A New York cop travels to LA to visit his ex-wife at the Christmas party in the office where she works. The office is taken over by terrorists and the cop fights back, taking them down one by one. The plot in the book is pretty much identical for the first three quarters at least, and many of the incidents are exactly the same. We get the desperate lift shaft climb, the bloody feet, the dead terrorist with the “now I have a machine gun” sign around his neck, and a whole a load more.
Some key details are different though. The hero is Joe Leland not John McClane and he’s a lot older, a veteran of WW2 who is visiting his daughter rather than his ex-wife. He’s also a security consultant rather than a cop, and therefore has inside knowledge on the terrorists. The main difference though is the tone. ‘Die Hard’ the movie, as gripping and violent as it is, is also light-hearded and fun. Bruce Willis famously cracks wise as he takes down the bad guys. By contrast, Joe Leland is an angry man and the 'Nothing Lasts Forever’ is an angry book.
The age of the character plays a large part in this, as does the 70s origins of the book. Leland harks back to his glory days as a pilot in the war and it feels like the world has got away from him in the decades that has passed since then. Like Clint Eastwood in ‘Dirty Harry’ or the hero of Brian Garfield’s ‘Death Wish’ he is a man who is bitter that the world isn’t what he expected it would be. The terrorists in the book are all Europeans, as in the film, but here they are repeatedly described as naïve youngsters trying to make a better world without having a clue about how the world actually works. Leland feels like a man who is trying to save his way of life, not just his nearest and dearest, and that desperation comes across again and again as he ruthlessly dispatched the baby-faced villains.
That reactionary anger gives the book an entirely different feel to the movie. It’s just as tense and action-packed, but it’s far darker and ultimately quite depressing. Thorp is an accomplished thriller writer and the book moves at lightning speed, with sparse prose to match. That makes for a gripping quick read, but don’t go into it expecting anything life affirming. It is, in fact, just as bleak as the title suggests.
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
whatmeworry | 18 andere besprekingen | Apr 9, 2022 |
For a modern audience conditioned to fast-paced crime thrillers, The Detective is slow going. It’s almost 600 pages but the “main” story only takes up a relatively small part of that. Most of the novel takes place in flashbacks, telling the life story of the main character.

So... fast-paced, it ain’t.

Far more than a crime thriller, though, the heart of this novel is a character study. Like the terse title tells us - this is simply a book about a detective. And he proves to be a fascinating man!

It took some time for me to get into this novel. The first six chapters plod. And there’s a style to the writing that makes it difficult for me to follow at times. I find it quite frustrating.

Then, starting with Chapter 7, something clicks. The pace picks up, the characters start to reveal themselves in interesting ways, and I develop enough familiarity with the writing style that it stops tripping me up. After Chapter 7, I couldn’t stop reading it and I finished the whole thing in two sittings.

The one complaint that I have about this book is the writing style. While it ceases to be a major impediment to me, I never really get the hang of it. I constantly feel like I’m missing something. When characters have conversations, I frequently feel like there are important things being implied (but left unsaid) that go right over my head. Characters react to each other in ways that make no sense to me; they come to resolutions or stalemates and I can’t see how they get there. It's apparent that there are certain understandings that are perfectly obvious to the characters (and, therefore, left unsaid) that I just don't see.

The characters communicate more through implication and subtext than anything overt – and their meaning isn't at all clear to me much of the time.

This may have something to do with the writing conventions of the mid-60s. That was a time when subtext in popular entertainment was huge, whereas my experience with popular entertainment hasn’t trained me to pick up on it.

Or it may just be that the author tried way too hard to be clever.

I should offer one word of warning:

While implication and subtext play a huge role in this book, there are some ways in which it’s shockingly explicit, even by today’s standards.

All in all, and despite my inability to get the hang of the writing style, I really like The Detective.
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
johnthelibrarian | 1 andere bespreking | Aug 11, 2020 |

Lijsten

Prijzen

Misschien vindt je deze ook leuk

Gerelateerde auteurs

Statistieken

Werken
14
Ook door
3
Leden
558
Populariteit
#44,766
Waardering
½ 3.4
Besprekingen
22
ISBNs
59
Talen
6

Tabellen & Grafieken