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Aliens / Predator / Prometheus Universe
Aliens: Berserker
It is called a Berserker team - reckless, desperate volunteers recruited by the Company to destroy alien infestations. Based on the spaceship Nemesis, it consists of three brutal ex-cons who do all the grunt work and the Berserker itself, code-named MAX: an armed and armored exoskeleton powered by the living brain of what was once a human, configured into an unstoppable killing machine.
When the Nemesis is sent to a massive space station, D.S. 949, the team finds an alien hive, the largest in history, with nearly a thousand hapless humans cocooned and incubated. The team mission: to destroy the aliens while leaving the terminal intact. The mission seems like suicide to the bug hunters and their small support staff. And that is perfectly fine for the Company... which wants no witnesses left to the terrifying secret of D.S. 949.
When the Nemesis is sent to a massive space station, D.S. 949, the team finds an alien hive, the largest in history, with nearly a thousand hapless humans cocooned and incubated. The team mission: to destroy the aliens while leaving the terminal intact. The mission seems like suicide to the bug hunters and their small support staff. And that is perfectly fine for the Company... which wants no witnesses left to the terrifying secret of D.S. 949.
230 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1998
7 people are currently reading
419 people want to read
About the author
S.D. Perry
98 books820 followersSD Perry (Stephani Danelle, by the way, though she prefers SD or Danelle) has been writing novelizations and tie-ins for most of her adult life. Best known for her work in the shared multiverses of Resident Evil, Star Trek, and Aliens, SD is a horror nerd and an introvert. Her father is acclaimed science fiction author Steve Perry. SD lives with her family in Portland, Oregon.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
August 24, 2024
A “suicide squad” of felons is tasked with patrolling against alien incursions. It took me about half the book to really get into the plot and the characters but then the second half really paid off in true Aliens style. Adventure, terror, bloodshed and vicious alien violence.
February 28, 2011
Aliens Novels: Book 9, Berserker / 0-553-57731-X
At some point during "Berserker", I realized that I've now read nine aliens novels as well as the four film novelizations, and I've still yet to read an account involving an isolated colony or ship having to suddenly deal with an unexpected infestation in their midst (indeed, this was really my only complaint with "Aliens", that we weren't treated to knowing what, exactly, had happened to the colony during those missing days).
This seemingly small point is, in my opinion, an insight into the deep flaws in the aliens novel series as a whole. Nearly every single novel so far has followed one of two plot lines: (1) a mad scientist is experimenting on aliens when things go inevitably sour and all the janitors and lower-level scientists have to clear out in a hurry, or (2) a group of fighters heads into an alien nest or infestation to exterminate them or retrieve a MacGuffin. While these are by no means bad plot lines, what this means from a practical reader's perspective is that when the blood inevitably starts flying, it's hard to feel too sorry for the blokes getting slaughtered because, really, they should have known better than to muck around with aliens. In other words, we have no true victims, undeserving of their fate.
The other problem with these limited two plot lines, of course, is that the authors have to increasingly stretch for new reasons as to why anyone would keep going into these nests to be slaughtered after it has been proven, time and again, how deadly this species is (and this problem also feeds into the "had it coming" issue because, really, any other species would have learned its lesson by now).
Perry has attempted to handle this problem by constructing a reality in which the occasional alien infestation is just a matter of life and the W/Y company has put together crack pest control teams that can be dispatched to clean out infestations as they pop up. So it's sort of like working for Orkin, except the on-the-job fatality is pretty darned high. You'd have to be pretty stupid or pretty desperate to take a job like this, so the crack teams are composed of convicts and felons who are motivated by a one-to-one ratio of nests cleaned to years left to serve.
This doesn't really solve the problem, though. Ignoring the fact that an outraged public probably wouldn't be too happy with Charles Manson exchanging 40 years for 40 alien raids, and skimming over the fact that this isn't exactly social rehabilitation, we are still left with the issue of why the team doesn't just quit when a routine situation rapidly turns suicidal for shady Company reasons. And even assuming they can't quit (which Perry stresses that they can), they're convicts on a freighter with a crew of six and no guards or guns. So the characters come off as particularly thick when they know that they're headed into a highly unusual suicide mission and they have no motivation to continue, and yet they continue anyway.
Having said all that, this isn't a bad aliens book. The plot premise is thin, but less thin than many of its predecessors. The middle of the book is, in fact, quite solid - it's just the beginning and ending that bother me. Perry seems to have trouble characterizing the people in her stories and spends the first few chapters rushing over uninteresting character details. She seems aware of this, but her solution is to just hurry through and get it over with as fast as possible. Once everyone is properly fleshed out into two-dimensional cardboard cut-outs, the story settles down and things go relatively smoothly. The Beserker team is an interesting idea, particularly the part with the "bait", but the whole man-in-the-suit premise doesn't work well in a world with synthetics and seems like a gimmick to just make the Company as evil as possible for no real reason. This is the major problem, in fact, with the ending - resolution is tossed away in favor of an anti-industrial subtext that just comes off cheaply.
All in all, if you're planning to read all the aliens novels, this is by no means one of the worst. It's an interesting read and a good take on the aliens universe, even if I continue to be disappointed in my search for a plot line where the aliens come to the humans, instead of the ham-handed vice versa. But if you're getting tired of the series, or planning to start new with this installation, your socks probably won't be blown off.
~ Ana Mardoll
At some point during "Berserker", I realized that I've now read nine aliens novels as well as the four film novelizations, and I've still yet to read an account involving an isolated colony or ship having to suddenly deal with an unexpected infestation in their midst (indeed, this was really my only complaint with "Aliens", that we weren't treated to knowing what, exactly, had happened to the colony during those missing days).
This seemingly small point is, in my opinion, an insight into the deep flaws in the aliens novel series as a whole. Nearly every single novel so far has followed one of two plot lines: (1) a mad scientist is experimenting on aliens when things go inevitably sour and all the janitors and lower-level scientists have to clear out in a hurry, or (2) a group of fighters heads into an alien nest or infestation to exterminate them or retrieve a MacGuffin. While these are by no means bad plot lines, what this means from a practical reader's perspective is that when the blood inevitably starts flying, it's hard to feel too sorry for the blokes getting slaughtered because, really, they should have known better than to muck around with aliens. In other words, we have no true victims, undeserving of their fate.
The other problem with these limited two plot lines, of course, is that the authors have to increasingly stretch for new reasons as to why anyone would keep going into these nests to be slaughtered after it has been proven, time and again, how deadly this species is (and this problem also feeds into the "had it coming" issue because, really, any other species would have learned its lesson by now).
Perry has attempted to handle this problem by constructing a reality in which the occasional alien infestation is just a matter of life and the W/Y company has put together crack pest control teams that can be dispatched to clean out infestations as they pop up. So it's sort of like working for Orkin, except the on-the-job fatality is pretty darned high. You'd have to be pretty stupid or pretty desperate to take a job like this, so the crack teams are composed of convicts and felons who are motivated by a one-to-one ratio of nests cleaned to years left to serve.
This doesn't really solve the problem, though. Ignoring the fact that an outraged public probably wouldn't be too happy with Charles Manson exchanging 40 years for 40 alien raids, and skimming over the fact that this isn't exactly social rehabilitation, we are still left with the issue of why the team doesn't just quit when a routine situation rapidly turns suicidal for shady Company reasons. And even assuming they can't quit (which Perry stresses that they can), they're convicts on a freighter with a crew of six and no guards or guns. So the characters come off as particularly thick when they know that they're headed into a highly unusual suicide mission and they have no motivation to continue, and yet they continue anyway.
Having said all that, this isn't a bad aliens book. The plot premise is thin, but less thin than many of its predecessors. The middle of the book is, in fact, quite solid - it's just the beginning and ending that bother me. Perry seems to have trouble characterizing the people in her stories and spends the first few chapters rushing over uninteresting character details. She seems aware of this, but her solution is to just hurry through and get it over with as fast as possible. Once everyone is properly fleshed out into two-dimensional cardboard cut-outs, the story settles down and things go relatively smoothly. The Beserker team is an interesting idea, particularly the part with the "bait", but the whole man-in-the-suit premise doesn't work well in a world with synthetics and seems like a gimmick to just make the Company as evil as possible for no real reason. This is the major problem, in fact, with the ending - resolution is tossed away in favor of an anti-industrial subtext that just comes off cheaply.
All in all, if you're planning to read all the aliens novels, this is by no means one of the worst. It's an interesting read and a good take on the aliens universe, even if I continue to be disappointed in my search for a plot line where the aliens come to the humans, instead of the ham-handed vice versa. But if you're getting tired of the series, or planning to start new with this installation, your socks probably won't be blown off.
~ Ana Mardoll
April 29, 2019
This was basically the same plotline most of the Aliens novels take: military crew in space, sent to stop an alien infestation, rinse and repeat. However, this one did seem to do a little more with the concept and I can't quite put my finger on why. The Berserker is a battle suit that is controlled by a human controlled by a computer (the human is basically just wetware.) With the Berserker entire nests of Aliens can be cleared with a minimal risk of human life, and when the humans are convicts working off their sentences, the risk becomes even less. Until something goes wrong with the Berserker...
In any event this was a good old fashioned Aliens tale with plenty of scares, gore, action and more. If you like any of the other Aliens novels or movies, you'll probably enjoy this one.
In any event this was a good old fashioned Aliens tale with plenty of scares, gore, action and more. If you like any of the other Aliens novels or movies, you'll probably enjoy this one.
January 22, 2018
To me this was the perfect Aliens story in many ways, gun's and grunts and company dodgy dealings a plenty but with a nice human story woven in too. The Aliens were presented well with face huggers and drones a plenty causing fear and death.
If you like Aliens the movie you'll love this.
If you like Aliens the movie you'll love this.
January 29, 2025
Not bad for a book
December 18, 2019
The title page says "Based on... the Dark Horse graphic novel Aliens : Berserker by John Wagner, Paul Mendoza, Andy Mushynsky" but sadly, the 4-issue mini-series was never collected as a graphic novel. the comic came after the 8 "main" series, following Aliens: Stronghold and serving as a prequel to Aliens vs. Predator: War (itself also a sequel to the original Aliens vs. Predator). The comic was also the first one to mention Weyland-Yutani outside of the movies, whereas previous series had their own main "bad companies" overseeing the bad things happening: names like BioNational, Chigusa Corp., Grant Corp. and Z.C.T.
Since I can't review the Graphic Novel, I'll review it here and the novel adaptation by S.D. Perry (her second solo Aliens novel.) the story by Judge Dredd creator/writer Wagner is very frantic and intense in places, and there is no mercy for the main characters. He takes the main element of the story directly from Steve Bissette's Aliens: Tribes , the concept of a Berskerker squad of bug-killers who consists of a ground leader, a "baiter" (guy who willingly gets taken by the aliens to be brought to the Queen to reveal her location from his tracer), a heavy-weapons specialist "Drake"-type, and an unseen guy imprisoned inside a two-ton, invincible, heavily-armed and -armored killing machine named a MAX. (Note: in Tribes it was named a MOX: Mobile Offensive ExoWarrior.) In this story, the squad is made up of convicted felons who volunteered for the post in order to get their sentences reduced.
They are led by Commander Eric "Pop" Izzard who never takes part in the infiltration missions, and helped remotely by 2nd Lt. Katherine Lara who is more on the team's side. There is also a recent member of the team, a young techie named Brian Ellis who is in charge of "controlling" MAX by checking its life-signs and cutting off the sedatives and injecting adrenaline whenever the killer man-inside-machine is needed.
Perry handles the story expertly, and the story is told from alternating point-of-views of all the main characters, except the MAX and Pop (for reasons that become clear towards the end.) There are few changes from the original comic, one of which is the less horrible way one of the characters dies (which makes one feel like Perry had perhaps grown attached to and had pity on.) Her most interesting contribution is the psychology she created for the characters: Lara's deteriorating relationship with Pop, Ellis' rise from being ridiculed as a kid and trying to become a brave man, Teape's experiences as a prisoner in the hives slowly driving him insane, Jess' struggle to keep his team together and Pulaski's love of candybars and heavy workouts.
Needless to say, some of the characters escape the whole mess of a crazy mission gone wrong, since their story continues in AvP: War. A recommended book, and also the comic is recommended first if you can get your hands on it. It is included in one of the Aliens Omnibuses under the title "Aliens: Frenzy" for some reason.
NOTE: The previous graphic novel Aliens: Stronghold in the Dark Horse comics was not adapted into a novel, and Berserker was chosen instead most likely because Perry was adaptating AvP: War, which is the sequel to Berserker as well as to AvP: Prey that she also wrote the adaptation for.
Since I can't review the Graphic Novel, I'll review it here and the novel adaptation by S.D. Perry (her second solo Aliens novel.) the story by Judge Dredd creator/writer Wagner is very frantic and intense in places, and there is no mercy for the main characters. He takes the main element of the story directly from Steve Bissette's Aliens: Tribes , the concept of a Berskerker squad of bug-killers who consists of a ground leader, a "baiter" (guy who willingly gets taken by the aliens to be brought to the Queen to reveal her location from his tracer), a heavy-weapons specialist "Drake"-type, and an unseen guy imprisoned inside a two-ton, invincible, heavily-armed and -armored killing machine named a MAX. (Note: in Tribes it was named a MOX: Mobile Offensive ExoWarrior.) In this story, the squad is made up of convicted felons who volunteered for the post in order to get their sentences reduced.
They are led by Commander Eric "Pop" Izzard who never takes part in the infiltration missions, and helped remotely by 2nd Lt. Katherine Lara who is more on the team's side. There is also a recent member of the team, a young techie named Brian Ellis who is in charge of "controlling" MAX by checking its life-signs and cutting off the sedatives and injecting adrenaline whenever the killer man-inside-machine is needed.
Perry handles the story expertly, and the story is told from alternating point-of-views of all the main characters, except the MAX and Pop (for reasons that become clear towards the end.) There are few changes from the original comic, one of which is the less horrible way one of the characters dies (which makes one feel like Perry had perhaps grown attached to and had pity on.) Her most interesting contribution is the psychology she created for the characters: Lara's deteriorating relationship with Pop, Ellis' rise from being ridiculed as a kid and trying to become a brave man, Teape's experiences as a prisoner in the hives slowly driving him insane, Jess' struggle to keep his team together and Pulaski's love of candybars and heavy workouts.
Needless to say, some of the characters escape the whole mess of a crazy mission gone wrong, since their story continues in AvP: War. A recommended book, and also the comic is recommended first if you can get your hands on it. It is included in one of the Aliens Omnibuses under the title "Aliens: Frenzy" for some reason.
NOTE: The previous graphic novel Aliens: Stronghold in the Dark Horse comics was not adapted into a novel, and Berserker was chosen instead most likely because Perry was adaptating AvP: War, which is the sequel to Berserker as well as to AvP: Prey that she also wrote the adaptation for.
February 10, 2026
Woo! Mostri a pacchi! Tradimenti! Cameratismo! Machismo & Testosterone! AVVENTURA!
Tutti gli ingredienti di una tipica scampagnata con i mostruosi xenomorfi sono qui, in tutta la vivida descrizione dell'horror/sci-fi che caratterizza questa saga. Grande approfondimento dei personaggi, ben contestualizzati gli sviluppi e ritmo adrenalinico fino alla fine -che potrebbe o non potrebbe essere la fine dei nostri eroi.
Pur come parte di una saga, è perfettamente leggibile autonomamente e meriterebbe un bell'adattamento da cinemone.
I nostri eroi sono stavolta una squadra di 'volontari' sacrificabilissimi che ad ogni missione riuscita ricevono uno sconto di pena, per grazia dell'onnipotente compagnia Weyland. Solo che stavolta, reduci da una missione di disinfestazione, si ritrovano subito a doverne gestire un'altra ancora più pericolosa. E non c'è neanche da chiederlo: siamo nell'universo di Aliens -CERTO che andrà tutto in vacca!
Tutti gli ingredienti di una tipica scampagnata con i mostruosi xenomorfi sono qui, in tutta la vivida descrizione dell'horror/sci-fi che caratterizza questa saga. Grande approfondimento dei personaggi, ben contestualizzati gli sviluppi e ritmo adrenalinico fino alla fine -che potrebbe o non potrebbe essere la fine dei nostri eroi.
Pur come parte di una saga, è perfettamente leggibile autonomamente e meriterebbe un bell'adattamento da cinemone.
I nostri eroi sono stavolta una squadra di 'volontari' sacrificabilissimi che ad ogni missione riuscita ricevono uno sconto di pena, per grazia dell'onnipotente compagnia Weyland. Solo che stavolta, reduci da una missione di disinfestazione, si ritrovano subito a doverne gestire un'altra ancora più pericolosa. E non c'è neanche da chiederlo: siamo nell'universo di Aliens -CERTO che andrà tutto in vacca!
September 3, 2025
Maybe my favorite book in the Aliens series so far. THIS is exactly what I’m looking for in the Aliens universe. Aliens from start to finish and a ragtag group of protagonists (all of whom have distinct personalities, go through their own arcs, and make you genuinely care about their well-being).
The trio of Pulaski, Jess, and Teape could’ve worked just as well on the big screen, and it was nice seeing Ellis become the hero in the end. The whole suicide squad angle also lends itself perfectly to this universe.
It’s a straightforward premise, but executed beautifully.
Plus, NO mention of royal jelly!!
SD Perry is at the top of my power rankings when it comes to writing in this series.
The trio of Pulaski, Jess, and Teape could’ve worked just as well on the big screen, and it was nice seeing Ellis become the hero in the end. The whole suicide squad angle also lends itself perfectly to this universe.
It’s a straightforward premise, but executed beautifully.
Plus, NO mention of royal jelly!!
SD Perry is at the top of my power rankings when it comes to writing in this series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 2, 2020
This is about what you should expect an Aliens book to be: xenomorphs; a distress call; a retrieval team; and a tense showdown between humans and aliens. There are a few elements that make this distinct (the titular berserker the most prominent of them), but for the most part, it's not trying to do anything too original with the franchise. This might be a good thing, though, since when authors DO try to do something original, it comes across as ludicrous and unbelievable (Music of the Spears, I'm looking in your direction).
This is another adaptation of a comic book, and I understand it's the last of those in this series of Aliens books. I'm looking forward to reading some original original stories, and seeing what different authors can do with it. Since the newer Aliens books are pretty good, I'm holding out hope that the next six will be better than the first nine.
This is another adaptation of a comic book, and I understand it's the last of those in this series of Aliens books. I'm looking forward to reading some original original stories, and seeing what different authors can do with it. Since the newer Aliens books are pretty good, I'm holding out hope that the next six will be better than the first nine.
September 5, 2023
Either SD Perry suddenly got much better, or my standards have dropped sharply after the last few books in this series, but this one was actually enjoyable. Yes, it is a bit by-the-numbers – infested ship/station, small squad of cardboard characters entering to investigate and clear up the infestation, corporate greed and screwing over the little guy aplenty, but within the confines of that formula, it entertains in exactly the way a formulaic tie-in novel is supposed to.
May 22, 2022
This one was a lot of fun! I expected the usual guns-and-bugs action, and this definitely has that, but I was surprised at how much character detail Perry includes. I began the book thinking everyone was bare-bones alien fodder, but by the end I found myself pretty engaged in who lived and who died. It’s no Cold Forge, but overall, this is good stuff!
September 11, 2019
Enjoyable read, but fairly average and generic Aliens story. Many of the scenes seem to have been lifted straight out of the Aliens movie, with little changed, making the story fairly predictable. A couple of interesting twists, but overall nothing amazing.
August 3, 2017
The ending was ambiguous and that drives me crazy.
February 13, 2019
Great novel. Very thematic of the Aliens universe and the characters were well developed and made you care about them. A page turner that kept me up to finish it.
December 16, 2020
I am surprised by how much I am enjoying these books.
franchise book #18
first novel series #9
franchise book #18
first novel series #9
January 18, 2024
Edge of my seat the entire time
February 1, 2024
Legitimately one of the best ALIENS books I've ever read. Thoroughly enjoyable.
June 9, 2024
Really liked the characters in this one.
May 6, 2025
Mecha armour in this one. Pretty awesome!
July 17, 2012
For some reason this book is hovering around $20 on Amazon. This fact is probably due to scarcity from the printers rather than being one of the better written books of the Aliens series. I am in the process of downsizing my library, and one of the booksets that I've decided to toss out is this one. However, these books hold a sentimental spot in my heart, so I decided to review and read through at least one once more. Aliens Berserker was the book that I decided to revisit.
The plot is very simple, even a bit simplistic when overanalyzed. A group of convicts (in the process of being rehabilitated I suppose) sign up for bug extermination duty in exchange for shortened prison times. Along with these three hardened "bad guys" are a Marine spaceship captain, a female communications officer, and a tech geek running the company's specialized bug destroyer MAX -- another convict surgically inserted into a hyped up exoskeleton made to rain death down upon the xenomorphs. Fortunately this last guy is kept doped up until required to go into action and then pumped up with adrenaline shots.
Several questions come up at this point. Why would the company entrust such potent firepower and expensive machinery in the hands of convicted criminals. To be sure, the author paints them as nice enough people, but there is no logic in giving thieves and murderers weapons like this. The natural consequence would be rogue ships going berserker -- ha -- and becoming spacefaring pirates, which actually may have been an interesting story in its own right. However these prisoner soldiers are loyal, if not to the Company, then to themselves, and enter into a potentially fatally inescapable situation with not much more than depressed sighs and a swallowing of their fears. This whole fact strained my suspension of disbelief.
Here is another big question. Why is there a human inside MAX? This is a big one. Seemingly the Company has developed a weapon that is capable of taking down entire nests of aliens -- the only other viable option is to nuke 'em from orbit -- but the whole thing is controlled by a flesh and blood -- read: weak-link -- operator. There are no androids in this book. But, and this is a big but, synthetic humans are an established institution in the Aliens series. They are ultimately loyal to their programing, and unlike these humans, probably not likely to rebel against the Company. Why is their no android intelligence controlling MAX? From the Company's POV this should be better than another convict in a suit. From a storytelling POV this works better too -- as the familiar trope is the android turning on the humans. This would greatly be ramped up in a situation where the humans are stuck between a killer robot running amok and the mindless and ruthless killing machines that are the xenomorphs.
These two questions constantly distracted me from this novel. It was a good enough book, but I couldn't stop thinking about how it could have been better. As it is, the characterization is good. I was rather taken aback when some of them died. It happens late in the book, but I kind of got it into my head that, even though this is a juvenile spacemarine sci-fi horror thriller, maybe it would break the mold somehow and let all of the cannon fodder survive. This doesn't happen, though the deaths are treated with much more tenderness than one would consider possible. There is plenty of blood and gut -- mostly acidic -- but the alien carnage doesn't affect the reader as much when the already small group (only six humans, plus MAX) starts to diminish.
If you are like me and have a bunch of these Aliens books saved up that you haven't read in quite while, then you could do a lot worse than reading this one.
October 6, 2023
This is the last of the Dark Horse novelizations based on previously released comics. The original comic Aliens - Berserker by John Wagner was really quite excellent. I was really looking forward to S.D. Perry's fleshing out of this particular story. Her prior works have been really enjoyable so, naturally, I was excited to see her commissioned for this as well.
For those unfamiliar with the comic book, this is the story of a company sanctioned clean up crew. Basically, rather than call in the colonial marines for mundane clean-up at this point in the Aliens time line, you call in these exterminators to clear out the Alien infestation, wherever it may be. As with all good dystopia settings, the crew on the ship doing the dangerous work is made up of convicts being offered a way to commute their life sentences. The big difference with them is the Berserker unit. Which is basically just a guy in a sort of mech suit. This particular crew has been very successful, until they get a new called to check out an infestation on a large space station. Have they finally been told to clean out a hive that is too big for them to handle?
Unfortunately, I don't know if she was overworked for commissions, but I felt like this novelization was a bit more lackluster. It's kind of a shame, because Wagner's core story idea is actually really good. He also did a great job presenting us with an excellent motley crew of characters. Perry did an excellent job with most of the characters, but a couple of them felt a little off at times. Taepe was only okay to me, for some reason. Part of me felt like she never really captured him off the pages. Candyman was spot on though, and I liked him a lot. Jess and Pop were also good. I think I just have some serious hang-ups with Lara. In the original comic, it's true that Pop had gone after her, but in the book Lara had slept with him before our story even starts. I felt like this was out of character for her, because in the comic she felt more like a no-nonsense professional type in a lot of ways. I don't know, the Pop plus Lara combo, just felt forced, like there wasn't another way to flesh out Lara's character.
In the end, if you want to experience the story, I think the best way is by comic book for this one. I still think Perry's rendition was good, but as I mentioned, I think it just didn't have the same impact.
For those unfamiliar with the comic book, this is the story of a company sanctioned clean up crew. Basically, rather than call in the colonial marines for mundane clean-up at this point in the Aliens time line, you call in these exterminators to clear out the Alien infestation, wherever it may be. As with all good dystopia settings, the crew on the ship doing the dangerous work is made up of convicts being offered a way to commute their life sentences. The big difference with them is the Berserker unit. Which is basically just a guy in a sort of mech suit. This particular crew has been very successful, until they get a new called to check out an infestation on a large space station. Have they finally been told to clean out a hive that is too big for them to handle?
Unfortunately, I don't know if she was overworked for commissions, but I felt like this novelization was a bit more lackluster. It's kind of a shame, because Wagner's core story idea is actually really good. He also did a great job presenting us with an excellent motley crew of characters. Perry did an excellent job with most of the characters, but a couple of them felt a little off at times. Taepe was only okay to me, for some reason. Part of me felt like she never really captured him off the pages. Candyman was spot on though, and I liked him a lot. Jess and Pop were also good. I think I just have some serious hang-ups with Lara. In the original comic, it's true that Pop had gone after her, but in the book Lara had slept with him before our story even starts. I felt like this was out of character for her, because in the comic she felt more like a no-nonsense professional type in a lot of ways. I don't know, the Pop plus Lara combo, just felt forced, like there wasn't another way to flesh out Lara's character.
In the end, if you want to experience the story, I think the best way is by comic book for this one. I still think Perry's rendition was good, but as I mentioned, I think it just didn't have the same impact.
July 26, 2025
While it was still the usual case of xenos being portrayed as complete and utter pussies (much to my dismay) the story was otherwise really entertaining,
I loved the characters, the setting and overall vibe of the story. Max was a really interesting addition (along with the mysterious "volunteer" inside)
It also gave me a new appreciation for AVP: War... seeing as I read that first, reading this book felt like an interesting 'prequel' so to speak.
I just felt that Max was really overused, the protagonists should have struggled more... but instead it felt about as dangerous as pest control clearing up a mouse infestation.
If there had only been a few more humans getting butchered by xenos then it would have easily been a 5-star from me
I loved the characters, the setting and overall vibe of the story. Max was a really interesting addition (along with the mysterious "volunteer" inside)
It also gave me a new appreciation for AVP: War... seeing as I read that first, reading this book felt like an interesting 'prequel' so to speak.
I just felt that Max was really overused, the protagonists should have struggled more... but instead it felt about as dangerous as pest control clearing up a mouse infestation.
If there had only been a few more humans getting butchered by xenos then it would have easily been a 5-star from me
August 18, 2015
Fairly good story. Great art - liked this more than most I've read thus far.
Probably the art was one of the main reasons I've decided to give this one 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Probably the art was one of the main reasons I've decided to give this one 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews