Nothing Lasts Forever (Die Hard, #1) in SSG: Spy/Spec-Ops Group

Mar 10, 2013 David Dalton rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, intense, isolated-location, guns-gun-and-more-guns, action, profile-shelf

As a Die-Hard junkie I just had to read this book. It featured an older hero who was visting his daughter instead of John McClane visiting his wife. Still, you got to love the basic story which inspired the movie.

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Aug 28, 2013 Samuel rated it really liked it

KNOCKING ON HEAVEN'S DOOR

Die Hard. It's an iconic action film and the greatest Christmas movie of all time. The concept was excellent. One man trapped a few hundred meters up in a skyscraper with a group of shooters who have the firepower advantage and a deadline to meet during the run up to Christmas. This film however which took the 1980's by storm was based on a novel written in the previous decade. "Nothing Lasts Forever" by noted American crime thriller writer Roderick Thorp. Set in the dec KNOCKING ON HEAVEN'S DOOR

Die Hard. It's an iconic action film and the greatest Christmas movie of all time. The concept was excellent. One man trapped a few hundred meters up in a skyscraper with a group of shooters who have the firepower advantage and a deadline to meet during the run up to Christmas. This film however which took the 1980's by storm was based on a novel written in the previous decade. "Nothing Lasts Forever" by noted American crime thriller writer Roderick Thorp. Set in the decade it was written, it was a time when international terrorism was developing into the geopolitical problem we see today and where America was sponsoring scumbags from Asia to South America in order to deny the USSR any advantage on the global stage. "Nothing Lasts Forever" is a fine thriller on its own and the source material was put to good use in Die Hard. But there are differences with the film-makers updating certain details. Now to the review. What would be the worst place to spend Christmas eve in?

The plot follows the same general pattern as the film. Our protagonist, Joe Leland, former detective turned security consultant flies to Los Angles California to see his estranged daughter (not wife). The office Christmas party for the Klaxonn oil company is in full swing. But what was supposed to be a joyous occasion gets ruined by a group of left-wing terrorists led by a former member of the German Red Army Faction who enter the building with enough ordinance to get them through the night and cut the power to the elevators. From there, over the span of 48 hours with the situation inevitably deteriorating, Leland does what he can to survive and get the only family he has left out of the mess.

In terms of plot, Nothing Lasts Forever is solid. Many parts might be dated but the general concept is down to earth. The prototype for the 21st century counter-terrorist thriller can be seen in this book. The author did a very good job at setting the mood. This is a lot more darker and brutal than Die Hard, with many of the more iconic scenes from the film, much more edgy. The book also has a pretty decent setting. Unlike the wider expanses of the Nakatomi Corporation, Klaxxon Oil's offices are a lot more claustrophobic. From violent gunfights through wood paneled executive boardrooms and maze-like cubical farms to the stark, unadorned climax in the head office, Nothing Lasts Forever has a suitably dark and cynical mood, a bit like a film noir counter-terrorist thriller.

Characters? Well, I only found two decent standouts.
First there is McClane/Leland. Leland is older and more world weary than his film counterpart. And unlike John McClane, Leland has a tougher night to get through. In Die Hard, McClane manages to snag his 15-round Beretta 92FS, plus some spare magazines when the fun starts and along the way, gets his hands on some automatic weapons to match the opposition's firepower advantage. Leland on the other hand? He only has one magazine for his Browning Hi-Power only gets his hands on two automatic weapons with limited ammo for short amounts of time. He's forced to make every singe shot count unlike his film counterpart and has to rely on evasion tactics to a greater extent. Unlike McClane however, Leland is a lot more experienced and it saves him from the younger, overconfident terrorists he goes up against.
Next, we have Anton Gruber/Hans. He's affable but a lot more serious than his film counterpart and even picks apart Leland's gaffer tape holster ruse in the climax. Hans was fun and more memorable, Alan Rickman turned him into my second favorite film villain. Anton however, defines himself with his end goal, exposing corporate corruption and collusion with the Chilean dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. It creates a small amount of moral ambiguity near the end and perhaps for a second may make you evaluate who is in the right.

The one problem with Nothing Lasts Forever? Only told from one perspective, Leland's. This makes most of the other characters less interesting than they could have been. The great thing about film is that you can pull off a multiple perspective story instantly and in that respect, Die Hard decisively beats its source material.

Overall, I recommend this book. It's an interesting period piece revolving around a concept which is still relevant. Watch Die Hard and compare it with this book. Both of them do the same thing in different ways. ...more

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May 28, 2023 Zare rated it really liked it

Shelves: thrillers, adventure, crime, criminal, thriller, action

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 ...more

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