What do you think?
Rate this book
Aliens (Dark Horse Books)
Aliens: DNA War
In an inhospitable galaxy, the planet Rosamond 6 is a rare find. With a moon, an atmosphere, and a thriving bio-system the world has all the keys necessary for human habitation. But while Rosamond 6 may look like an oasis among the stars, it harbors a fatal secret...
...Rosamond 6 is infested with the murderous xenomorphic aliens that have wiped out every life form in their path. Eager to prove her theory that the aliens can be reasoned with, anthropologist Jocasta Malvaux has set up an observation post on Rosamond 6. But when the monsters become aware of Malvaux and her expedition, something unexpected happens: the aliens don't attack.
When Jocasta's son Rory races to the planet to save her, she won't leave. What is the secret behind the aliens' seeming lack of concern for the humans? Are the monsters evolving? Or is it simply a matter of time before every person on the planet is in a fight for their lives? The war is about to begin.
...Rosamond 6 is infested with the murderous xenomorphic aliens that have wiped out every life form in their path. Eager to prove her theory that the aliens can be reasoned with, anthropologist Jocasta Malvaux has set up an observation post on Rosamond 6. But when the monsters become aware of Malvaux and her expedition, something unexpected happens: the aliens don't attack.
When Jocasta's son Rory races to the planet to save her, she won't leave. What is the secret behind the aliens' seeming lack of concern for the humans? Are the monsters evolving? Or is it simply a matter of time before every person on the planet is in a fight for their lives? The war is about to begin.
276 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 17, 2006
6 people are currently reading
337 people want to read
About the author
Diane Carey
80 books125 followersDiane Carey also wrote the Distress Call 911 young adult series under the name D.L. Carey.
Diane Carey is primarily a science fiction author best known for her work in the Star Trek franchise. She has been the lead-off writer for two Star Trek spin-off book series: Star Trek The Next Generation with Star Trek: Ghost Ship, and the novelization of the Star Trek: Enterprise pilot, Broken Bow.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Carey
Diane Carey is primarily a science fiction author best known for her work in the Star Trek franchise. She has been the lead-off writer for two Star Trek spin-off book series: Star Trek The Next Generation with Star Trek: Ghost Ship, and the novelization of the Star Trek: Enterprise pilot, Broken Bow.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Carey
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
February 28, 2011
Aliens Novels: Book 11, DNA War / 978-1-59582-032-7
In my review for "Original Sin", I noted that all its predecessors in the aliens series have relied on one of two overused plots points to drive the story - either (1) mad scientist experiment gone wrong or (2) military cannon fodder stomping into a nest to retrieve a MacGuffin - and I congratulated "Original Sin" for being a bright and shining exception to this rule by providing an original plot line. Unfortunately, "DNA War" falls back on old habits, returning us to a tired mad scientist plot line for something like the eight time now, with the only 'innovative' additions being a complete disregard for established alien canon and a narrative style that seems better suited to a B-movie hard luck detective.
The complete disregard for the previous aliens books is disconcerting - aliens are now a mysterious and largely unknown threat, as opposed to those-buggers-who-nearly-wiped-out-humanity for which every schoolchild has at least a passing knowledge and a healthy respect. Possibly the author-imposed cluelessness is supposed to forestall the inevitable "why are the protagonists being such idiots?" question as the moronic crew stumble about blindly getting into danger, but author Carey can't figure out how much she wants to commit to the widespread amnesia. For example, the crew seem vaguely aware of the chest-bursting aspect of alien births, and they are also aware of the existence of aliens on the planet, but when confronted with a large number of human corpses with exploded rib cages, they wonder loudly and at great length whether the scientists 'went crazy' and murdered each other. So if the break from canon was done to forestall the crew from looking like idiots, we're looking at a pretty epic failure in that regard.
While we're on the subject of non-canon, now is really not the time in the series to introduce flying face-huggers, let alone to claim that alien warriors travel by curling into a ball and rolling about the countryside like a particularly deadly cheese wheel. The point at which hordes of aliens combined into a giant 'death ball' to roll over the countryside was the point at which I felt that we had not merely abandoned realism, but had actively tied it up and tossed it over a cliff. Carey has also heard just enough chemistry to be dangerous and has decided that the incredibly dangerous alien acid can be instantly neutralized by any old "can of base" that might be lying around. (This isn't the only soft-science to be had - the marine ship also carries a crew of genocidal robots programmed to wipe a planet clean of any creature whose DNA isn't native to the planet, a weak plot device to construe the robots as being just as much a danger to the humans as to the aliens.)
While I'm not ignorant of the fact that with a novel franchise, the author du jour may not have a massive amount of control over, say, the fact that the cookie-cutter plot has been massively overdone already or the alien details are incredibly stupid, the one thing the author does have control over is the quality of writing. Here is where "DNA War" really disappoints - fundamentally, Carey just does not seem able to write well, even to the point of basic sentence construction. Her subjects and verbs don't merely fail to agree, they're actively locked into a vicious custody dispute over the objects and prepositions. And while it's not uncommon for the characters in an aliens novel to be pulled from the science fiction horror stereotypes bag, Carey's characters are so over-stereotyped that I'd suspect a clever and subversive parody if the rest of the writing was good enough to support such a charitable interpretation.
To wit, the plot revolves around a tough, rugged, manly, wiry, B-movie detective stereotype heading to a planet infested with aliens in order to retrieve his mother who is oh-so-subtly-named 'Jocasta'. But it's okay, because he doesn't *really* have an Oedipus complex - his obsession with his mother is one of love AND hate rather than just love. Author Carey subscribes to what I call the "Jim Butcher school of writing", and thus protagonist Rory can't help but break the narrative constantly to look directly at the reader and remind us how tough, awesome, scrappy, and unbelievably cool he is. He's a man's man, who doesn't play by the rules, and he isn't above such 'clever' narration as "The idea was to bring him to justice. Instead, I cut his arms off and let him bleed to death. Oops."
Anyway, Jocasta and her gang of scrappy scientists have come out to this planet to observe the aliens. They've been here for awhile, although Carey can't decide quite how long - for instance, she says that the aliens were discovered on the planet three years ago and that's when Jocasta's team was dispatched. However, it takes about a year and a half to travel to the planet, so apparently Jocasta was sent off and about the time she ARRIVED at the planet, the mission was declared overdue and a rescue team was sent off the next day. Whatever, the point is: son Rory has a court order telling the scientists to stop their research and clear out and, faced with a court order and several marines with very large guns, the scientists naturally decide to sit down and have incredibly long-winded discussions about the morality of exterminating aliens. It's all riveting stuff, particularly with Jocasta strutting around cackling loudly and wearing a shirt saying "I am an evil, murdering psychopath". Before stuff can hit the fan, a local alien war breaks out, the practical upshot of which is that the aliens won't kill or impregnate the humans until after the alien war is settled and to the victor will go the spoils, allowing the humans to walk unmolested amongst the aliens at critical points in the storyline. And if that little twist strikes you as so remarkably coincidental as to put the most blatant Deus Ex Machina to shame, you're not the only one.
Despite the incredibly bad plot and cringe worthy writing, "DNA War" does manage to be slightly entertaining at times, at least more so than the snore-fest "Music of the Spears", which I still consider to be the worst of the aliens series so far. But I simply don't recommend "DNA War" - only the most die-hard fans will be willing to wade through the terrible writing, but the die-hard fans are the ones who will be most offended by the exchange of alien canon for silly gimmicks.
~ Ana Mardoll
In my review for "Original Sin", I noted that all its predecessors in the aliens series have relied on one of two overused plots points to drive the story - either (1) mad scientist experiment gone wrong or (2) military cannon fodder stomping into a nest to retrieve a MacGuffin - and I congratulated "Original Sin" for being a bright and shining exception to this rule by providing an original plot line. Unfortunately, "DNA War" falls back on old habits, returning us to a tired mad scientist plot line for something like the eight time now, with the only 'innovative' additions being a complete disregard for established alien canon and a narrative style that seems better suited to a B-movie hard luck detective.
The complete disregard for the previous aliens books is disconcerting - aliens are now a mysterious and largely unknown threat, as opposed to those-buggers-who-nearly-wiped-out-humanity for which every schoolchild has at least a passing knowledge and a healthy respect. Possibly the author-imposed cluelessness is supposed to forestall the inevitable "why are the protagonists being such idiots?" question as the moronic crew stumble about blindly getting into danger, but author Carey can't figure out how much she wants to commit to the widespread amnesia. For example, the crew seem vaguely aware of the chest-bursting aspect of alien births, and they are also aware of the existence of aliens on the planet, but when confronted with a large number of human corpses with exploded rib cages, they wonder loudly and at great length whether the scientists 'went crazy' and murdered each other. So if the break from canon was done to forestall the crew from looking like idiots, we're looking at a pretty epic failure in that regard.
While we're on the subject of non-canon, now is really not the time in the series to introduce flying face-huggers, let alone to claim that alien warriors travel by curling into a ball and rolling about the countryside like a particularly deadly cheese wheel. The point at which hordes of aliens combined into a giant 'death ball' to roll over the countryside was the point at which I felt that we had not merely abandoned realism, but had actively tied it up and tossed it over a cliff. Carey has also heard just enough chemistry to be dangerous and has decided that the incredibly dangerous alien acid can be instantly neutralized by any old "can of base" that might be lying around. (This isn't the only soft-science to be had - the marine ship also carries a crew of genocidal robots programmed to wipe a planet clean of any creature whose DNA isn't native to the planet, a weak plot device to construe the robots as being just as much a danger to the humans as to the aliens.)
While I'm not ignorant of the fact that with a novel franchise, the author du jour may not have a massive amount of control over, say, the fact that the cookie-cutter plot has been massively overdone already or the alien details are incredibly stupid, the one thing the author does have control over is the quality of writing. Here is where "DNA War" really disappoints - fundamentally, Carey just does not seem able to write well, even to the point of basic sentence construction. Her subjects and verbs don't merely fail to agree, they're actively locked into a vicious custody dispute over the objects and prepositions. And while it's not uncommon for the characters in an aliens novel to be pulled from the science fiction horror stereotypes bag, Carey's characters are so over-stereotyped that I'd suspect a clever and subversive parody if the rest of the writing was good enough to support such a charitable interpretation.
To wit, the plot revolves around a tough, rugged, manly, wiry, B-movie detective stereotype heading to a planet infested with aliens in order to retrieve his mother who is oh-so-subtly-named 'Jocasta'. But it's okay, because he doesn't *really* have an Oedipus complex - his obsession with his mother is one of love AND hate rather than just love. Author Carey subscribes to what I call the "Jim Butcher school of writing", and thus protagonist Rory can't help but break the narrative constantly to look directly at the reader and remind us how tough, awesome, scrappy, and unbelievably cool he is. He's a man's man, who doesn't play by the rules, and he isn't above such 'clever' narration as "The idea was to bring him to justice. Instead, I cut his arms off and let him bleed to death. Oops."
Anyway, Jocasta and her gang of scrappy scientists have come out to this planet to observe the aliens. They've been here for awhile, although Carey can't decide quite how long - for instance, she says that the aliens were discovered on the planet three years ago and that's when Jocasta's team was dispatched. However, it takes about a year and a half to travel to the planet, so apparently Jocasta was sent off and about the time she ARRIVED at the planet, the mission was declared overdue and a rescue team was sent off the next day. Whatever, the point is: son Rory has a court order telling the scientists to stop their research and clear out and, faced with a court order and several marines with very large guns, the scientists naturally decide to sit down and have incredibly long-winded discussions about the morality of exterminating aliens. It's all riveting stuff, particularly with Jocasta strutting around cackling loudly and wearing a shirt saying "I am an evil, murdering psychopath". Before stuff can hit the fan, a local alien war breaks out, the practical upshot of which is that the aliens won't kill or impregnate the humans until after the alien war is settled and to the victor will go the spoils, allowing the humans to walk unmolested amongst the aliens at critical points in the storyline. And if that little twist strikes you as so remarkably coincidental as to put the most blatant Deus Ex Machina to shame, you're not the only one.
Despite the incredibly bad plot and cringe worthy writing, "DNA War" does manage to be slightly entertaining at times, at least more so than the snore-fest "Music of the Spears", which I still consider to be the worst of the aliens series so far. But I simply don't recommend "DNA War" - only the most die-hard fans will be willing to wade through the terrible writing, but the die-hard fans are the ones who will be most offended by the exchange of alien canon for silly gimmicks.
~ Ana Mardoll
July 21, 2023
Opinions vary widely on this novel, but I found it one of the better of all the Aliens novels. It did deal with come concepts that had been explored before, but it didn't feel like a rehash.
A group of explorers is on a planet infested with Aliens, and a group is sent to evacuate them before dropping down killer robots to wipe out the Aliens. But then we find out the researchers are more of a cult than a group of scientists, and, as always, mayhem ensues.
The first novel of this line was a direct sequel to the film Alien Resurrection, so I thought this novel may continue that storyline, but it looks like this is something totally new. I found it to be a great read for Aliens fans.
A group of explorers is on a planet infested with Aliens, and a group is sent to evacuate them before dropping down killer robots to wipe out the Aliens. But then we find out the researchers are more of a cult than a group of scientists, and, as always, mayhem ensues.
The first novel of this line was a direct sequel to the film Alien Resurrection, so I thought this novel may continue that storyline, but it looks like this is something totally new. I found it to be a great read for Aliens fans.
March 26, 2016
The eye-catching cover art for ALIENS: DNA WAR is easily the high-point of the novel. Trust me, it all goes downhill from there.
DNA WAR opens with a giant transport ship nearly crashing because someone's pet bat is flying around loose in the main control room. What a great way to kick off an ALIENS novel, right? Unfortunately, the bat continues to show up from time to time as one of numerous DEUS EX MACHINAs author Diane Carey employs during the course of the story.
The story line of this novel is very basic: a crew of Colonial Marines lands on an Alien-infested planet. With them is our intrepid narrator, a 28-year-old homicide detective brought along as the chief legal representative for PLANCOM, the company that sponsored the trip. As first-person narrators go, this "detective" blazes new ground in terms of being obnoxious. He is constantly striking a pose and reminding readers how cool he is, all the while bumbling around and nearly getting everybody killed. Half the time he tries to tough-talk like a character in SIN CITY, and the other half you'd swear he was gay.
There are a couple of things I liked about this story. 1) I like the idea of wacko-environmentalists trying to protect the Aliens and stand up for their rights as an evolutionarily advanced species. 2) I like the idea of the killer robots sent out by PLANCOM to wipe out the Alien infestation. Unfortunately, the book doesn't capitalize on this aspect of the story at all.
The writing in ALIENS: DNA WAR is, at times, unbelievably (and hilariously) bad. It's darn near unforgivable when you consider that Diane Carey is a NEW YORK TIMES best-selling author of more than 45 novels.
"Rory," she began. "Are you well, dear?"
"M'am," I greeted flatly. "Why didn't you answer our hails when we first arrived?"
She tipped her head. "Anger at first sight."
This is the kind of dialog that passes for clever in DNA WAR. It feels like reading a first draft that never got revisited or revised. And the numerous typos certainly do nothing to alleviate this impression. At one point, Carey describes the narrator as "lost in a crowd of two." A couple paragraphs later, she describes him as "lost in a crowd of three." Such descriptions manage to be both repetitive and careless. In any event, our narrator may not be handsome, but that doesn't stop him from getting the girl right away. And who could be surprised?
(S)he laughed a little... "I can even stop the scar."
"Hey, I kinda like having the scar. Makes me surly. Gorilla-like. Attractive to ladies of ill-repute."
She blushed and wiggled her shoulders.
I nudged her shoulder with mine. "So how's your reputation?"
Mighty smooth, eh? Doesn't get much more romantic than that... Carey also has a problem with using the same words over again in close proximity, as in this example:
Tad closed his eyes in misery. Gracie just stared at me.
They stared at me. It was like a party, only without the cheer. I guess that would be a funeral.
Yikes! Now do you see what I mean about the writing? Lastly, Carey has a problem with the word "said." She goes out of her way to use any other word for her dialog tags. Including the word "lubricated," which I've NEVER seen used to describe speech before. There are myriad instances in this book where Carey uses strange diction and inappropriate wording. Where the heck was her editor in all of this?
Ultimately, had DNA WAR been well written, it would have gone down as another generic, mediocre ALIENS novel--of which there are many. As it stands, however, Carey's prose makes DNA WAR a literary eyesore, a painful experience for both casual readers and die-hard fans of the ALIENS franchise.
DNA WAR opens with a giant transport ship nearly crashing because someone's pet bat is flying around loose in the main control room. What a great way to kick off an ALIENS novel, right? Unfortunately, the bat continues to show up from time to time as one of numerous DEUS EX MACHINAs author Diane Carey employs during the course of the story.
The story line of this novel is very basic: a crew of Colonial Marines lands on an Alien-infested planet. With them is our intrepid narrator, a 28-year-old homicide detective brought along as the chief legal representative for PLANCOM, the company that sponsored the trip. As first-person narrators go, this "detective" blazes new ground in terms of being obnoxious. He is constantly striking a pose and reminding readers how cool he is, all the while bumbling around and nearly getting everybody killed. Half the time he tries to tough-talk like a character in SIN CITY, and the other half you'd swear he was gay.
There are a couple of things I liked about this story. 1) I like the idea of wacko-environmentalists trying to protect the Aliens and stand up for their rights as an evolutionarily advanced species. 2) I like the idea of the killer robots sent out by PLANCOM to wipe out the Alien infestation. Unfortunately, the book doesn't capitalize on this aspect of the story at all.
The writing in ALIENS: DNA WAR is, at times, unbelievably (and hilariously) bad. It's darn near unforgivable when you consider that Diane Carey is a NEW YORK TIMES best-selling author of more than 45 novels.
"Rory," she began. "Are you well, dear?"
"M'am," I greeted flatly. "Why didn't you answer our hails when we first arrived?"
She tipped her head. "Anger at first sight."
This is the kind of dialog that passes for clever in DNA WAR. It feels like reading a first draft that never got revisited or revised. And the numerous typos certainly do nothing to alleviate this impression. At one point, Carey describes the narrator as "lost in a crowd of two." A couple paragraphs later, she describes him as "lost in a crowd of three." Such descriptions manage to be both repetitive and careless. In any event, our narrator may not be handsome, but that doesn't stop him from getting the girl right away. And who could be surprised?
(S)he laughed a little... "I can even stop the scar."
"Hey, I kinda like having the scar. Makes me surly. Gorilla-like. Attractive to ladies of ill-repute."
She blushed and wiggled her shoulders.
I nudged her shoulder with mine. "So how's your reputation?"
Mighty smooth, eh? Doesn't get much more romantic than that... Carey also has a problem with using the same words over again in close proximity, as in this example:
Tad closed his eyes in misery. Gracie just stared at me.
They stared at me. It was like a party, only without the cheer. I guess that would be a funeral.
Yikes! Now do you see what I mean about the writing? Lastly, Carey has a problem with the word "said." She goes out of her way to use any other word for her dialog tags. Including the word "lubricated," which I've NEVER seen used to describe speech before. There are myriad instances in this book where Carey uses strange diction and inappropriate wording. Where the heck was her editor in all of this?
Ultimately, had DNA WAR been well written, it would have gone down as another generic, mediocre ALIENS novel--of which there are many. As it stands, however, Carey's prose makes DNA WAR a literary eyesore, a painful experience for both casual readers and die-hard fans of the ALIENS franchise.
February 21, 2011
I was very interested in the setting, a change in the aliens behavior which I wished to learn the reason for, but the first person narrative and abrupt style worked against the story for me. About a quarter of the way through, I was very tired of the main character's perspective and "his" way of expression, description and the questions he internally asked himself, yet the book is action packed with the typical scenes fans of the film and various books would expect. There are plenty of gun battles, gruesome killings, desperate retreats and serious attitude when confronting the insidious species in a bid to keep your life "unburst".
I had been drawn to this book because I've liked Diane Carey's other film or television series novelizations or stories, especially some the Star Trek: The Next Generation books, but I felt this one wasn't one of their better books. I think it interesting that original works by Diane Carey are higher ranked than her others, but perhaps fans expecting certain features are harder critics. Aliens: DNA War is a good book with enough exciting ideas that it did keep me reading until the very end.
I had been drawn to this book because I've liked Diane Carey's other film or television series novelizations or stories, especially some the Star Trek: The Next Generation books, but I felt this one wasn't one of their better books. I think it interesting that original works by Diane Carey are higher ranked than her others, but perhaps fans expecting certain features are harder critics. Aliens: DNA War is a good book with enough exciting ideas that it did keep me reading until the very end.
June 3, 2021
So I loved this! It's done so well with the balance between aliens and humans. It plays on aliens being more animal like, but I actually like that. Their smart but in an animal way, like raptures from Jurrassic park movie. Super smart but ruled by instincts.
I also loved the whole cult feel to the human group. The use of psychology and paranoia was perfect, creating a mystery within their group. Than on top of that , having the Aliens acting weird, dials thing up so much.
I don't want to reveal to much but this is an awesome book!
I also loved the whole cult feel to the human group. The use of psychology and paranoia was perfect, creating a mystery within their group. Than on top of that , having the Aliens acting weird, dials thing up so much.
I don't want to reveal to much but this is an awesome book!
February 29, 2024
1.5 at times
This book isn't quite as bad as Aliens: Alien Harvest, but wow, it hits that level once in a while. There's just some serious nonsense that shows up along the way with how Aliens act that is just outright a disregard for anything established by these creatures... anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. As usual, full disclosure, I don't usually like first person novels and this really wasn't any different. Being first person, while not my favorite, wasn't even close to why I didn't like this novel. It had a lot more to do with the fact that the story was incoherent (possibly due to poor editing) and the Aliens did some weird things that they would literally never do, nor is it even suggested anywhere they can do this stuff.
This book starts off with an attempt to make the crew seem like a plucky band of misfits. Someone's escaped pet is wreaking havoc on the space ship as it is coming in to land on a planet. This is somewhat used as a vehicle to introduce the main characters, which is fine, but the real problem is with how long these chapters are. It took an extremely long time to get through this introduction and this "too long" chapters persists throughout the whole novel. We don't need forty page chapters in a 250 page book, it's daunting and doesn't break up the story often enough.
The main character we encounter in first person is basically a cop named Rory sent to make sure certain things are done correctly for the ships mission onto a planet that is slotted for terraforming. An advance team had been sent to the planet which included Rory's mother, whom he is quite estranged from. She's a scientist that is obsessed with the Aliens, so you guessed it, this will fall into the mad scientist tried and true story trope. Now, I am not super bothered by tropy stories, I can get behind a solid mad scientist story if it's well written. As far as the scientist and mystery surrounding the motives of the advance team, that was, honestly, the best part of the book. Carey could have built that into quite a compelling arc, but it just sort of slogged on and never really went much of anywhere. Too much time was spent describing the characters walking around various areas when lots of that stuff could have just been skipped in favor of a good mad scientist mystery.
The first red flag I encountered was when the team from the ship was exploring and trying to find the advance people, they were, at some point, attacked by a swarm of face huggers? It was so confusing and this is where things got really weird. First off, they were sent to the planet to eradicate any non-native species on the planet with these special poison machine things, so it sounded like they knew there were Aliens present on this planet. But then when they got there, they didn't even know what to call the face huggers? So, does this book ignore all the Aliens data from the prior books/movies? Or do they know what these things are, because it sure sounds like Rory's mother is very well aware of what the Aliens are and wants to study them. In any event, the idea that the face huggers hatch from the eggs and then run around a planet looking for people or animals to impregnate makes the whole need for Aliens to capture people moot. It's just nonsense and far afield of what is discussed in pretty much all the prior Aliens literature written by those people paying any attention to the franchise.
Another part of this that was madenning to read, was how the ship itself had a protective field that had a specific radius. So the crew could wander around safely. However, when the Aliens showed up, they found out that they weren't sure if the Aliens could be stopped by the ship... like what? Why would you send people to cleanse a planet of Aliens with technology you just aren't sure works against them???
Eventually, the crew from the ship track down the original team sent to the planet and they are in this giant hide away that the Aliens can't see or sense. However, the team of researchers have been diligently collecting data on the Aliens and everything. Rory's mother has grown a sort of cult following for her cause. A portion of the original team has, unfortunately died, often due to the Aliens, which makes sense, but Rory senses there is more to the foul play. This is the thread of the story that Carey should have played up more and talked to more of the remaining scientists. It would have made for a far more fascinating tale, but instead she focused on writing about Rory, his mother, and his sister more than anything else. Then throwing in some tidbits about Aliens in general for good measure.
So, some other stuff happens, that I won't spoil in case someone actually wants to read this thing, and towards the end the Aliens start fighting against themselves. It turns out there are two hives? Out of nowhere that no one knew about... seems weird. Anyway, this felt like an excuse from one of the other comic series, I believe it was Genocide which brought up the idea of two hives. Carey just leans into that as the reasons the Aliens stop attacking the people. But the the attacks begin when some weird sound is given off and end when another weird sound is made. There is literally no explanation for this and it just makes zero sense in the context of Alien creatures anyway.
Since the Aliens aren't attacking the people Rory and the others from the ship decide to make a run for it. This is where things get really dumb. While they are running for the ship, the Aliens are fighting each other and apparently that means they roll around like tumbleweeds? Seriously? These things aren't wheels... to make matters worse, they roll over one of the marines, Edney, and she is killed. Like they tear her arm off and rip out her eye and everything. Then in the next few paragraphs she is totally fine and being helped up a rock face with everyone else and they're pulling her up by the arms that got torn off? Anyway, later on it seems Carey remembered that Edney was actually dead and then she stops existing in the book after that. (This is what I meant by poor editing.)
Along with this mad dash the face huggers attack again! But, and get this, this time they fly. I was actually willing to give the story almost three stars until I hit this particular feature. This was just incredibly dumb. This made absolutely zero sense for anything and I am so glad no one else has tried to include such utter nonsense in any of the other novels.
Meanwhile, the poison robot things have been unleashed and the people need to make it to the ship safely. While they were nearing the ship they saw that the Aliens had destroyed some of the robots by dying on top of the robot and melting them with acid blood. So... that makes it seem like people didn't know what Aliens were? So, what was the point of sending this ship to cleanse the planet of Alien DNA??? This story just makes no sense at all towards the end.
I need to rant about one final thing... remember the pet that escaped at the beginning? Well, this creature is not from the planet they are on and it escaped the ship at one point. Simultaneously they realized the poison robots that will kill anything non-native to the planet had been let out too. So, the pets owner, Bonnie, wanted to leave the hide they were to go save it and Rory, our plucky hero won't let her leave saying all this stuff about how it could survive just fine on the new planet. There would be lots for it to eat etc. THE POISON ROBOTS WILL KILL ANYTHING NOT FROM THIS PLANET!!!! I wanted to scream, it's like this dude was gas lighting this girl into thinking the pet would be perfectly safe while they brought the means to kill anything with them. AND the robots were already loose, so that pet was in real danger at this point, so yeah, Bonnie was right. She needed to get her pet out of danger, because it really could have been killed at any moment!
In the end, this book felt like a chore to read. I am pretty concerned that the next Aliens book is also written by Diane Carey, but I don't think I'll be starting this any time soon. Who knows, maybe this book got such bad feedback when it was first released, the next book is better? I don't know, I need to read something else in the meantime. Hopefully something better. If you are an Aliens fan, I highly recommend skipping out on this book. Some parts are okay, but it is not nearly enough to make it worth your time. What could have been a decent mad scientist story falls pretty flat as this tale continues.
This book isn't quite as bad as Aliens: Alien Harvest, but wow, it hits that level once in a while. There's just some serious nonsense that shows up along the way with how Aliens act that is just outright a disregard for anything established by these creatures... anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. As usual, full disclosure, I don't usually like first person novels and this really wasn't any different. Being first person, while not my favorite, wasn't even close to why I didn't like this novel. It had a lot more to do with the fact that the story was incoherent (possibly due to poor editing) and the Aliens did some weird things that they would literally never do, nor is it even suggested anywhere they can do this stuff.
This book starts off with an attempt to make the crew seem like a plucky band of misfits. Someone's escaped pet is wreaking havoc on the space ship as it is coming in to land on a planet. This is somewhat used as a vehicle to introduce the main characters, which is fine, but the real problem is with how long these chapters are. It took an extremely long time to get through this introduction and this "too long" chapters persists throughout the whole novel. We don't need forty page chapters in a 250 page book, it's daunting and doesn't break up the story often enough.
The main character we encounter in first person is basically a cop named Rory sent to make sure certain things are done correctly for the ships mission onto a planet that is slotted for terraforming. An advance team had been sent to the planet which included Rory's mother, whom he is quite estranged from. She's a scientist that is obsessed with the Aliens, so you guessed it, this will fall into the mad scientist tried and true story trope. Now, I am not super bothered by tropy stories, I can get behind a solid mad scientist story if it's well written. As far as the scientist and mystery surrounding the motives of the advance team, that was, honestly, the best part of the book. Carey could have built that into quite a compelling arc, but it just sort of slogged on and never really went much of anywhere. Too much time was spent describing the characters walking around various areas when lots of that stuff could have just been skipped in favor of a good mad scientist mystery.
The first red flag I encountered was when the team from the ship was exploring and trying to find the advance people, they were, at some point, attacked by a swarm of face huggers? It was so confusing and this is where things got really weird. First off, they were sent to the planet to eradicate any non-native species on the planet with these special poison machine things, so it sounded like they knew there were Aliens present on this planet. But then when they got there, they didn't even know what to call the face huggers? So, does this book ignore all the Aliens data from the prior books/movies? Or do they know what these things are, because it sure sounds like Rory's mother is very well aware of what the Aliens are and wants to study them. In any event, the idea that the face huggers hatch from the eggs and then run around a planet looking for people or animals to impregnate makes the whole need for Aliens to capture people moot. It's just nonsense and far afield of what is discussed in pretty much all the prior Aliens literature written by those people paying any attention to the franchise.
Another part of this that was madenning to read, was how the ship itself had a protective field that had a specific radius. So the crew could wander around safely. However, when the Aliens showed up, they found out that they weren't sure if the Aliens could be stopped by the ship... like what? Why would you send people to cleanse a planet of Aliens with technology you just aren't sure works against them???
Eventually, the crew from the ship track down the original team sent to the planet and they are in this giant hide away that the Aliens can't see or sense. However, the team of researchers have been diligently collecting data on the Aliens and everything. Rory's mother has grown a sort of cult following for her cause. A portion of the original team has, unfortunately died, often due to the Aliens, which makes sense, but Rory senses there is more to the foul play. This is the thread of the story that Carey should have played up more and talked to more of the remaining scientists. It would have made for a far more fascinating tale, but instead she focused on writing about Rory, his mother, and his sister more than anything else. Then throwing in some tidbits about Aliens in general for good measure.
So, some other stuff happens, that I won't spoil in case someone actually wants to read this thing, and towards the end the Aliens start fighting against themselves. It turns out there are two hives? Out of nowhere that no one knew about... seems weird. Anyway, this felt like an excuse from one of the other comic series, I believe it was Genocide which brought up the idea of two hives. Carey just leans into that as the reasons the Aliens stop attacking the people. But the the attacks begin when some weird sound is given off and end when another weird sound is made. There is literally no explanation for this and it just makes zero sense in the context of Alien creatures anyway.
Since the Aliens aren't attacking the people Rory and the others from the ship decide to make a run for it. This is where things get really dumb. While they are running for the ship, the Aliens are fighting each other and apparently that means they roll around like tumbleweeds? Seriously? These things aren't wheels... to make matters worse, they roll over one of the marines, Edney, and she is killed. Like they tear her arm off and rip out her eye and everything. Then in the next few paragraphs she is totally fine and being helped up a rock face with everyone else and they're pulling her up by the arms that got torn off? Anyway, later on it seems Carey remembered that Edney was actually dead and then she stops existing in the book after that. (This is what I meant by poor editing.)
Along with this mad dash the face huggers attack again! But, and get this, this time they fly. I was actually willing to give the story almost three stars until I hit this particular feature. This was just incredibly dumb. This made absolutely zero sense for anything and I am so glad no one else has tried to include such utter nonsense in any of the other novels.
Meanwhile, the poison robot things have been unleashed and the people need to make it to the ship safely. While they were nearing the ship they saw that the Aliens had destroyed some of the robots by dying on top of the robot and melting them with acid blood. So... that makes it seem like people didn't know what Aliens were? So, what was the point of sending this ship to cleanse the planet of Alien DNA??? This story just makes no sense at all towards the end.
I need to rant about one final thing... remember the pet that escaped at the beginning? Well, this creature is not from the planet they are on and it escaped the ship at one point. Simultaneously they realized the poison robots that will kill anything non-native to the planet had been let out too. So, the pets owner, Bonnie, wanted to leave the hide they were to go save it and Rory, our plucky hero won't let her leave saying all this stuff about how it could survive just fine on the new planet. There would be lots for it to eat etc. THE POISON ROBOTS WILL KILL ANYTHING NOT FROM THIS PLANET!!!! I wanted to scream, it's like this dude was gas lighting this girl into thinking the pet would be perfectly safe while they brought the means to kill anything with them. AND the robots were already loose, so that pet was in real danger at this point, so yeah, Bonnie was right. She needed to get her pet out of danger, because it really could have been killed at any moment!
In the end, this book felt like a chore to read. I am pretty concerned that the next Aliens book is also written by Diane Carey, but I don't think I'll be starting this any time soon. Who knows, maybe this book got such bad feedback when it was first released, the next book is better? I don't know, I need to read something else in the meantime. Hopefully something better. If you are an Aliens fan, I highly recommend skipping out on this book. Some parts are okay, but it is not nearly enough to make it worth your time. What could have been a decent mad scientist story falls pretty flat as this tale continues.
June 10, 2018
I really enjoyed the story in this one. No spoilers but there's always some nut job that thinks they can control the xenomorphs......
If you're a fan of the series this is a good read.
If you're a fan of the series this is a good read.
October 26, 2023
I enjoyed this a fair amount
July 4, 2022
This was a quick and breezy read. I was expecting to rate this a little higher until about three thirds through the book where the plot inconsistences and what the writer was trying to say got a bit muddled. The two opposing sides don't make much sense when you consider that it is clearly stated that the Xenomorphs are clearly invasive species, meaning that the eco-focused group should be all for preserving the original environment. This is kind of explained by the end, but not very well.
The other issues are small but add up. First our main character is too quirky for how terrible he is, it is established he did a HUGE, VIOLENT revenge murder early on (like ripping a dudes arms off), and since you are in his head the whole time those actions never really line up with the person you're following. The other issues whilst small are notable if you are a big Alien universe fan, the world/universe does not feel like it lines up with Alien AT ALL. A lot of laser pistols and other bizarre additions.
ALL of that being said a big portion of this book plays out like a Sci-Fi murder mystery that was very fun to read. It felt a bit more like a Star Trek novel overall (turns out Carey was a Star Trek book writer) but the mystery element was very fun to read. As long as you are prepared for a book where you don't agree with the worldview of ANY of the characters this is a fun little read.
The other issues are small but add up. First our main character is too quirky for how terrible he is, it is established he did a HUGE, VIOLENT revenge murder early on (like ripping a dudes arms off), and since you are in his head the whole time those actions never really line up with the person you're following. The other issues whilst small are notable if you are a big Alien universe fan, the world/universe does not feel like it lines up with Alien AT ALL. A lot of laser pistols and other bizarre additions.
ALL of that being said a big portion of this book plays out like a Sci-Fi murder mystery that was very fun to read. It felt a bit more like a Star Trek novel overall (turns out Carey was a Star Trek book writer) but the mystery element was very fun to read. As long as you are prepared for a book where you don't agree with the worldview of ANY of the characters this is a fun little read.
August 21, 2020
Oh my gods, this book is TERRIBLE. Not only does it rely on the "mad scientist" trope (I think it's either that, the "rescue team", or the "let's try to capture one for Weyland-Yutani" tropes that make up the bulk of the Aliens plots), but the characters are uninspired, the plot is hackneyed, and the prose and dialogue are just awful. Here's a sample:
"The huggers moved with breathtaking speed, sensing that several of them could fulfill their genetic goal today, to impregnate a creature with their seeds of doom down some poor guy's throat."
I get that the Aliens franchise isn't exactly high cinema or literature, but it doesn't need to be relegated to the D-levels right from the start.
Carey wrote the next book in the series. I told myself I would read all these books.
That's almost as horrifying as having to be impregnated by one of those "seeds of doom".
"The huggers moved with breathtaking speed, sensing that several of them could fulfill their genetic goal today, to impregnate a creature with their seeds of doom down some poor guy's throat."
I get that the Aliens franchise isn't exactly high cinema or literature, but it doesn't need to be relegated to the D-levels right from the start.
Carey wrote the next book in the series. I told myself I would read all these books.
That's almost as horrifying as having to be impregnated by one of those "seeds of doom".
May 23, 2023
It is painfully obvious that the male protagonist was written by a woman, he acts nothing like a man.
There’s a cringy scene where the main protagonist is dubbing one of the MARINES (who is 22) with a new name and is just giddy about it. However if you change the protagonist to a woman and the marine to a child the scenario starts to make sense. I don’t know anything about the author, I don’t know how far in her career she was or what her previous projects consisted of but the feeling I get is this is her first attempt at writing a male character or that the protagonist was originally written as female but, for whatever reason, was last minute re-tooled to be a man. This is merely speculation, of course, I really have no idea. I also find it interesting that the cover art features a woman who doesn’t match any of the female characters in the book. Maybe his sister? But if so why? She’s barely in it.
Protagonist is very self-conscious and admittedly incompetent at their job—borderline unlikable.
The love interest is introduced as a “short, round girl with shoulder length blonde hair, and manly features.” This not exactly flattering description coupled with their lack of interaction and chemistry, makes their romance seem to come out of nowhere or worse, gives the idea the protagonist is in for an easy score because he knows he’s out of her league.
When you write in third person you’ve got the omniscient viewpoint that can clearly state one’s emotional state and intentions. However the protagonist is written in first person. The problem with that is he’s constantly inferring what his mother is thinking or feeling because it’s coming from his perspective which, as the reader, I don’t really know if that’s true or simply his impression of her motives.
There’s several other problems that might seem as nitpicks but after awhile starts to add up:
The dialogue is increasingly clunky to the point I’m not even sure two characters are having the same conversation.
“I’d never worn blue in my life. And it wasn’t just “blue.” This was bleeooooo.” Quote from male protagonist.
Also compares monitor size to an “evening bag.”
“Pp’s” is a horrible acronym. Just call them Poison Packers.
Spelling errors such as “doot” door and “rolling” rolled pages 180 & 181
What I can positively say is the ending was pretty decent with a pretty good turn (though I believe they already used the idea of multiple hives in previous novels) and a surprising death scene that I kind of cared about. It’s for these points I’m giving it three stars rather than two. But I’ll be honest I’m not looking forward to her next book in the series.
There’s a cringy scene where the main protagonist is dubbing one of the MARINES (who is 22) with a new name and is just giddy about it. However if you change the protagonist to a woman and the marine to a child the scenario starts to make sense. I don’t know anything about the author, I don’t know how far in her career she was or what her previous projects consisted of but the feeling I get is this is her first attempt at writing a male character or that the protagonist was originally written as female but, for whatever reason, was last minute re-tooled to be a man. This is merely speculation, of course, I really have no idea. I also find it interesting that the cover art features a woman who doesn’t match any of the female characters in the book. Maybe his sister? But if so why? She’s barely in it.
Protagonist is very self-conscious and admittedly incompetent at their job—borderline unlikable.
The love interest is introduced as a “short, round girl with shoulder length blonde hair, and manly features.” This not exactly flattering description coupled with their lack of interaction and chemistry, makes their romance seem to come out of nowhere or worse, gives the idea the protagonist is in for an easy score because he knows he’s out of her league.
When you write in third person you’ve got the omniscient viewpoint that can clearly state one’s emotional state and intentions. However the protagonist is written in first person. The problem with that is he’s constantly inferring what his mother is thinking or feeling because it’s coming from his perspective which, as the reader, I don’t really know if that’s true or simply his impression of her motives.
There’s several other problems that might seem as nitpicks but after awhile starts to add up:
The dialogue is increasingly clunky to the point I’m not even sure two characters are having the same conversation.
“I’d never worn blue in my life. And it wasn’t just “blue.” This was bleeooooo.” Quote from male protagonist.
Also compares monitor size to an “evening bag.”
“Pp’s” is a horrible acronym. Just call them Poison Packers.
Spelling errors such as “doot” door and “rolling” rolled pages 180 & 181
What I can positively say is the ending was pretty decent with a pretty good turn (though I believe they already used the idea of multiple hives in previous novels) and a surprising death scene that I kind of cared about. It’s for these points I’m giving it three stars rather than two. But I’ll be honest I’m not looking forward to her next book in the series.
September 10, 2025
LAWD this book was brutal.
I’m not sure if the author has ever actually read or watched any Aliens material, but there’s just so much stuff that makes no sense.
First of all, the face huggers FLY NOW? What??? It felt like the scene with Finn in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Second, the face huggers just get deployed by the hundreds with no eggs or queens in sight? Third, the idea of aliens curling into balls and rolling around Droideka style is ridiculous. Fourth, we’ve seen the premise of aliens fighting other breeds, but never to the point where they’ll give up mid hunt and literally let a human smack their face with no repercussions.
Onto the human characters. We follow Rory, a detective who originally seems like a cool idea for a protagonist (I.e, the idea of watching him piece together what’s going on within a cult and what happened to the planet’s former residents), but the idea gets really old really fast. He constantly goes back and forth on his intuition and makes for an awful detective.
Next, if his sister Gracie was really being held hostage by the mother (who was CLEARLY the big baddie the entire book), why’d she have to be such an asshole to her brother when he was trying to get her off the planet the whole time? Instead, we wait until the very last two pages of the book, MID XENO ASSAULT, for her to uncloak with her boyfriend and say “you were actually right all along, take us with you.”
The only reason this gets two stars is because Butterball the bat makes it out alive and Clark and Rory have the common sense to not let a planet of Xenos just exist unchecked.
I’m not sure if the author has ever actually read or watched any Aliens material, but there’s just so much stuff that makes no sense.
First of all, the face huggers FLY NOW? What??? It felt like the scene with Finn in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Second, the face huggers just get deployed by the hundreds with no eggs or queens in sight? Third, the idea of aliens curling into balls and rolling around Droideka style is ridiculous. Fourth, we’ve seen the premise of aliens fighting other breeds, but never to the point where they’ll give up mid hunt and literally let a human smack their face with no repercussions.
Onto the human characters. We follow Rory, a detective who originally seems like a cool idea for a protagonist (I.e, the idea of watching him piece together what’s going on within a cult and what happened to the planet’s former residents), but the idea gets really old really fast. He constantly goes back and forth on his intuition and makes for an awful detective.
Next, if his sister Gracie was really being held hostage by the mother (who was CLEARLY the big baddie the entire book), why’d she have to be such an asshole to her brother when he was trying to get her off the planet the whole time? Instead, we wait until the very last two pages of the book, MID XENO ASSAULT, for her to uncloak with her boyfriend and say “you were actually right all along, take us with you.”
The only reason this gets two stars is because Butterball the bat makes it out alive and Clark and Rory have the common sense to not let a planet of Xenos just exist unchecked.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 17, 2018
Very solid 3 stars for this - 3.5 maybe...?
Of all the Aliens books I've read (and I've read a fair few of them), this is probably the one that I found the most tense, the most constantly-close-to-disaster, of them all. And that's something I'm looking for in an Aliens book!
Some of the writing doesn't work so well for me, and I found myself skipping forward a few pages here and there near the end, as I just very much wanted to know what happened.
SPOILERS:
.
.
.
.
.
So, we get another "egomanical scientist with the Aliens gets almost everyone killed" story here. I have the feeling that's around half of the Aliens books. But, hey, it's very tense. In particular:
.
The way we get the overview of the Poison Packers at the start - the palpable fear people feel around them, the almost-certain-knowledge that they're going to be a problem for our characters at some point.
The first scene with the flying fox loose in the ship - this is also full of doom.
The feeling of there only being a sheen of light between the scientists hide and the xenomorphs - a single twitch could kill everyone.
The scenes where the characters are walking around the xenomorphs, seemingly safe, while we wait for things to change in an instant.
All these things put this book in the upper half (easily) of the Aliens novels I read. Recommended
Of all the Aliens books I've read (and I've read a fair few of them), this is probably the one that I found the most tense, the most constantly-close-to-disaster, of them all. And that's something I'm looking for in an Aliens book!
Some of the writing doesn't work so well for me, and I found myself skipping forward a few pages here and there near the end, as I just very much wanted to know what happened.
SPOILERS:
.
.
.
.
.
So, we get another "egomanical scientist with the Aliens gets almost everyone killed" story here. I have the feeling that's around half of the Aliens books. But, hey, it's very tense. In particular:
.
The way we get the overview of the Poison Packers at the start - the palpable fear people feel around them, the almost-certain-knowledge that they're going to be a problem for our characters at some point.
The first scene with the flying fox loose in the ship - this is also full of doom.
The feeling of there only being a sheen of light between the scientists hide and the xenomorphs - a single twitch could kill everyone.
The scenes where the characters are walking around the xenomorphs, seemingly safe, while we wait for things to change in an instant.
All these things put this book in the upper half (easily) of the Aliens novels I read. Recommended
March 17, 2024
This one is only okay. Although Carey is a skilled, proven writer of science fiction-fiction, including other Alien novels, thesis story falls short of adding anything new to the greater universe of this franchise. The first half starts of strong, and there is real suspense as the characters and situation are set up, and I felt invested as the aliens start to appear and the bodies begin to pile up.
Once the “rescue” expedition finds the missing researchers, though, things lose momentum and things start to jump the shark. Despite what fans know and appreciate, we are asked to believe in this story that the formidable xenomorphs can now be thwarted by projections on screens, people only eating local plants, and being very quiet. It seems like a different kind of alien than what I wanted to enjoy.
If I recall correctly, this book was written during a time when Dark Horse was still throwing all sorts of different things at the Alien standard to see if anything would stick. This story tries a bit of “new” science to study the aliens, civil war between xenomorph hives, and just a little bit of military action.
It’s worth reading for any dedicated Alien fan, but don’t expect any revelations or significant contribution to the lore.
Once the “rescue” expedition finds the missing researchers, though, things lose momentum and things start to jump the shark. Despite what fans know and appreciate, we are asked to believe in this story that the formidable xenomorphs can now be thwarted by projections on screens, people only eating local plants, and being very quiet. It seems like a different kind of alien than what I wanted to enjoy.
If I recall correctly, this book was written during a time when Dark Horse was still throwing all sorts of different things at the Alien standard to see if anything would stick. This story tries a bit of “new” science to study the aliens, civil war between xenomorph hives, and just a little bit of military action.
It’s worth reading for any dedicated Alien fan, but don’t expect any revelations or significant contribution to the lore.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 20, 2023
Much better than the previous entry in the series, this one builds all sorts of good characters, suspense and makes you feel real anger towards a chunk of the cast.
We have an alien planet with a research colony on a like-earth world, but a population of Xenos has been produced, and a military operation is being sent in with new robotic weapons to deal with the problem. However, the colony is lead by a cultist leader and they won't be rescued quietly.
It also brings a new ingredient into the franchise by way of tribes/hives that will fight each other.
Easily 4 stars as I wanted some of these characters to flat out shoot some others in the head but the author never gives that release of tension.
Well done.
We have an alien planet with a research colony on a like-earth world, but a population of Xenos has been produced, and a military operation is being sent in with new robotic weapons to deal with the problem. However, the colony is lead by a cultist leader and they won't be rescued quietly.
It also brings a new ingredient into the franchise by way of tribes/hives that will fight each other.
Easily 4 stars as I wanted some of these characters to flat out shoot some others in the head but the author never gives that release of tension.
Well done.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 29, 2018
I've read several of the Alien series books over the years... I have to say this one was one of the better I've read. Diane Carey is an author I've read since I was a kid when I would read her Star Trek novels. What I like is the books are "clean"... no swearing, etc.. which seems like it wouldn't work in an "Alien world" setting, but it does... Diane makes it work. The story is well done with enough suspense to match any of the Alien movies and a true sense of danger throughout. You really never feel safe while reading this novel... I saw Diane wrote another Alien book in the series and I probably will read that one as well.
December 28, 2019
I cannot recommend this book. I love anything Aliens universe and though there are some semi interesting developments with the Xenomorphs but not enough to make this slog worthwhile. The same ish happens in the comics which are more readable.
Book opens with a long ass scene of a bat impeding a landing on a foreign planet so everyone is incompetent from jump. The plot kind of almost takes off 3/4 of the way through the book but not in a way that actually makes reading it worthwhile.
No spoilers but nothing happens in this.
Book opens with a long ass scene of a bat impeding a landing on a foreign planet so everyone is incompetent from jump. The plot kind of almost takes off 3/4 of the way through the book but not in a way that actually makes reading it worthwhile.
No spoilers but nothing happens in this.
July 28, 2020
I love the idea of modified, freaky alien hybrids (i.e. mostly from toys, comics, and games). This novel has that aspect, but with no explanation as to why they evolve this way takes you out of story. Interesting enough story to keep reading, just disappointing in execution of creature's new evolutions.
November 20, 2022
Solid story about a group of scientists-slash-cult members who are studying Xenos on another planet. The ending was a bit disappointing, but overall this was a nice departure from the usual sorts of plotlines these books follow.
September 17, 2018
Terrible beginning, but got more interesting as it went. Not great, but ok for a movie novel. Ridiculous main character backstory that made me roll my eyes...
February 21, 2022
Almost 3.5. It was a an interesting story and I enjoyed reading it, but didn't feel that it matched other Aliens stories as far as the details of the aliens biology or behavior. Doesn't fit canon.
November 17, 2022
The lead character read like a woman which was hard to get past.
May 16, 2024
I think this one was a bit goofy... Instead of having me on the edge of my seat it just sort of had me rolling my eyes .. no spoilers, just a little venting
January 3, 2021
I didn't enjoy this as much as I did the others.
franchise #20
second novel series #2
franchise #20
second novel series #2
December 28, 2021
DNA War felt like a solid 4 stars to me until the last few pages of chapter 9 (of 13) where it moved completely into 5-star territory.
The story is told from one person's perspective (Rory's) and in spots had a hard-boiled detective feel to it. It's a proven way to tell a story and there were a good number of quips (which are a must if you're telling the story from the detective's point of view). The opening of the story is frantic but settles down in a clever way and from then on the pacing of the story was excellent.
I can clearly see Rosamond 6 in my mind and, if it weren't for one species of fauna in particular, I think I'd like to visit.
I would put this more into the Mystery/Thriller category because of the twists and turns in the story.
There were a couple of minor plot errors I noticed: a person misidentified in the wrong job and a person who was killed only to be described a page or two later as "scrambling" up a hill (a thing dead folks are not known to do).
Disclaimer: I'm a gentle reviewer when it comes to the Alien Franchise novels because I love the universe they are set in so much. So probably deduct one star from any of my Alien reviews (except for Cold Forge and Into Charybdis, both by Alex White--these are true 5 star books).
The story is told from one person's perspective (Rory's) and in spots had a hard-boiled detective feel to it. It's a proven way to tell a story and there were a good number of quips (which are a must if you're telling the story from the detective's point of view). The opening of the story is frantic but settles down in a clever way and from then on the pacing of the story was excellent.
I can clearly see Rosamond 6 in my mind and, if it weren't for one species of fauna in particular, I think I'd like to visit.
I would put this more into the Mystery/Thriller category because of the twists and turns in the story.
There were a couple of minor plot errors I noticed: a person misidentified in the wrong job and a person who was killed only to be described a page or two later as "scrambling" up a hill (a thing dead folks are not known to do).
Disclaimer: I'm a gentle reviewer when it comes to the Alien Franchise novels because I love the universe they are set in so much. So probably deduct one star from any of my Alien reviews (except for Cold Forge and Into Charybdis, both by Alex White--these are true 5 star books).
December 28, 2013
DNA War is a good read for Alien fans, IF you don't mind the author taking liberties with Alien lore. Nothing too extreme until the introduction of flying Facehuggers. Over all, it's an original storyline with an original spin on a classic movie monster.
June 30, 2025
Story is good. Writing's not the best. Someone should tell this author it's ok to say "he said, she said".
January 4, 2012
An interesting spin on the Aliens mythology.
January 26, 2018
An excellent story from an author who clearly understands what the Aliens series is supposed to be about.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews