First Blood

I've never seen any of the Rambo movies, except bits and pieces of First Blood when it was on TV, but of course, I grew up with Rambo as part of pop culture, as much as Conan, Rocky, Terminator, Batman, and so on. So I went into this book fresh, knowing only that Rambo is a muscular Vietnam vet who kills a bunch of people and blows stuff up.

This book is a quick read, and is quite thrilling. Honestly, I was bored at first, and didn't quite see what the story was going to be (I thought Rambo must be heading to a series of towns instead of directly confronting Teasle). But then it ramps into high gear and is very hard to put down.

It's a very simple story: a guy goes on a rampage. He and the local sheriff hunt each other. But behind that, it's a very detailed character study of two men who are simply doing their best, trying to fulfill their objectives. What's amazing is how well Morrell maintains point of view through shifting voices, i.e. in third, second, and first person. It's never confusing. The other technical piece is how Morrell maintains reader interest even though his two main characters are a mass murderer and a questionable police officer.

It would be easy to get lost in cliches with both of these characters, but Morrell simply doesn't bother. He questions life and death with these characters: what is the value of life? What do we expect to get out of it? Way deeper of a character analysis than I expected from the reputation of the Rambo movies. Especially post-2020, I wouldn't trust any author handling characters like this to render them so well. They'd sink directly into characterizing Rambo as PTSD instead of a human being, and Teasle as power-mad instead of sensitive, caring, and doing his best for his town.