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RoboCop 2
In a crime-infested Detroit of the future, cybernetic law officer, Robocop, wages war on drug pushers who are running rampant in the wake of a police strike
Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 1, 2025
Some wonderfully cheesy bits mixed in with the violence and heavy handed/confused politics. The original movie is one of my all time faves but the sequel is a mess and this novelisation captures that perfectly 😂
October 3, 2015
Ed Naha does a fine job of turning the troubled “Robocop 2” screenplay into a book. It’s got to be a sort of thankless job, at least artistically, writing novelizations of movies that rely heavily on their visuals. I bet it’s rather fun, though, too. When I was a little kid I tried writing my own novelizations; I had a version of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” that was essentially a novelization OF a novelization.
Some things worth noting about the book version of “Robocop 2”:
- Robocop’s inner monologue, and occasionally dialogue, makes him appear much more human than in the movie. It isn’t a true representation of the character as we know him from the films—but then, how does one write a book in which the lead protagonist is a cyborg with limited verbal expression? Peter Weller accomplished a lot, with little dialogue. That must have been a challenge in writing the novelization.
- Cain comes across as slightly sympathetic sometimes. He actually tears up as he’s beating Robo into submission halfway through the story. Also, his identity is kept secret, whereas in the film he’s transmitting video of himself directly to news stations.
- The subplot about Murphy’s connection to his wife and son, handled so terribly in the movie, is actually spread out here, so that Robo meets with Murphy’s widow just before his final confrontation with Cain. It makes more sense this way, and since novelizations are typically based on screenplays and not finished films, I’m wondering why they shifted that scene to the beginning for the movie. The way Naha’s book is ordered makes it feel less jumbled than the film.
It would be impossible, of course, to recommend the novelization of “Robocop 2” to any but the most serious “Robocop” fans. But for those folks, there are enough differences and quirks about this version of the story, to make it worth reading.
Some things worth noting about the book version of “Robocop 2”:
- Robocop’s inner monologue, and occasionally dialogue, makes him appear much more human than in the movie. It isn’t a true representation of the character as we know him from the films—but then, how does one write a book in which the lead protagonist is a cyborg with limited verbal expression? Peter Weller accomplished a lot, with little dialogue. That must have been a challenge in writing the novelization.
- Cain comes across as slightly sympathetic sometimes. He actually tears up as he’s beating Robo into submission halfway through the story. Also, his identity is kept secret, whereas in the film he’s transmitting video of himself directly to news stations.
- The subplot about Murphy’s connection to his wife and son, handled so terribly in the movie, is actually spread out here, so that Robo meets with Murphy’s widow just before his final confrontation with Cain. It makes more sense this way, and since novelizations are typically based on screenplays and not finished films, I’m wondering why they shifted that scene to the beginning for the movie. The way Naha’s book is ordered makes it feel less jumbled than the film.
It would be impossible, of course, to recommend the novelization of “Robocop 2” to any but the most serious “Robocop” fans. But for those folks, there are enough differences and quirks about this version of the story, to make it worth reading.
June 6, 2021
Another really good novelization by Ed Naha. Like the previous movie, this one followed the movie very well, but also added some depth to the events and characters in the story. I enjoyed it very much.
October 12, 2023
Very pedestrian, many parts read like they were written by a teenager.
July 21, 2025
Low Energy!
** 2 Stars.
** 2 Stars.
August 1, 2021
Old Detroit with its burnout and bombed tenements and storefronts and caressed with rivers of garbage, pock marked by bullets, greed is abundant. A new drug on the streets is getting kids hooked. Robocop cruising in his TurboCruiser scanning for nefarious activity. Murphy questioning whether he is a machine or a man but one thing he knows strongly is that he is a Cop.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews