Hey there, Readers. I’ve got something of a treat for you today thanks to the folks at Titan Books! A review of Aliens Phalanx, authored by Scott Sigler.
Growing up in the 80s and 90s, Alien and its sequels were a genuine cultural phenomenon. As a kid, there was almost nothing scarier than seeing that first chest burst on screen, and (At least in part thanks to Eric Cartman) the phrase “They mostly come out at night. Mostly.” is never far from any conversation related to nocturnal… well. Anything.
So when offered the chance to review a new, all original, Aliens book, it’s fair to say I was pretty excited.
Without further preamble, let’s get to talking about this fantastic story.
Book Stats
- Author: Scott Sigler.
Formats: Kindle, Audiobook, Hardcover and Paperback.
Price: $7.99 for the Kindle, $13.99 for the audiobook, $19.85 for the Hardcover and $11.95 for the paperback.
Length: 509 pages.
Number of books in the series: The Alien franchise has many, many notable entries, but this is the only one thus far set in this exact place and time.
Basic Premise
Humanity is a dwindling, hidden species on the world of Atagina and runners are one of their most valuable resources. As a member of Lemeth hold, you have to perform a minimum of five runs to another hold to prove that you’re of use to the community. If you refuse? You’re put to death.
Some people, though, rise to this challenge admirably. Ahiliyah Cooper is one such runner. That is to say, she runs supplies and conducts trade for Lemeth hold. Medicine, spices, food, whatever one hold has that hers needs, she’ll run to and perform a trade. (Nog, the Ferengi Starfleet officer from Deep Space 9 would say that this is a perfect illustration of The Great Material Continuum. But then again, he’s a much nicer alien than the ones in this book.) She and her crew, the acerbic genius Creen and the big, strong Brandun do these runs to keep Lemeth hold supplied with the necessities.
Why has Humanity been brought so low, you ask? Take a guess. Xenomorphs, known on this world simply as demons, mercilessly stalk the night (Mostly) and kill or capture whatever humans they can. The unlucky ones are carted off to Black Smoke Mountain where the legends say they themselves are transformed into demons. Runners have a range of tactics for avoiding this grisly fate – never take the exact same route twice, cover yourself in a type of camouflage known as a hidey suit, stuff like that. And if these tactics fail, you’re given a little friend to help you out of the stickiest of sticky situations.
It’s a knife. Better to slit your own throat than be taken alive to become a demon.
During the course of her most recent run, Ahiliyah notices something downright disturbing. Demons hunting by day. This is a fairly major shift in the established paradigm and one that deserves her concern as she is very, very sure that it signifies something much worse on the way. Lemeth hold has warriors, but considering how elite a club the Demon Killers are? It’s safe to say that any skirmishes between warriors and demons generally favor humans only after massive losses. She has a mind for tactics and a natural aptitude for battle… but the warriors of Lemeth hold are a strictly No Girls Allowed type club. The power structure of her hold, from politicians to religious officials, deems that it must be this way, much to her chagrin.
Even after she and her crew discover a new weapon in humanity’s war against the demons, the dogmatic manner in which things are run threatens to render even this small, new advantage moot. Can Ahiliyah, Creen and Brandun turn the tide against, not only the demons but their own leadership in time to save what remains of the human race on Atagina?
My take
This was the Aliens based story I never knew I needed till I read it. The existing canon is very industrial, H.R. Giger inspired wires and tubes and slick curves mixed with a grimy, dark utilitarian vision of our future as a space-faring species. Even the wild planets we see in Prometheus and Covenant are bleak and dead seeming despite the vegetation we see there. And while I love this aesthetic dearly, Atagina is none of these things. It’s a rugged landscape comprised of mountains and red shrubs and alien creatures that create an ecosystem that’s one part unfamiliar, one part analogous to Earth’s wild spaces and very, very lively. Medieval castles and holds with accompanying legends surround the mostly miserable lives of people huddled underground and in-place. The xenomorphs are a force of nature, here. Not just hunters and killers but wild things in their own right. They crawl and jump through the mountains like Jurassic Park’s velociraptors, but on steroids. Each and every one of them is a very real threat and there are hundreds of them out there. Thousands. The ultimate invasive species.
Ahiliyah continues Alien’s tradition of rough and ready female protagonists who have little compulsion to take crap from unqualified higher-ups. She puts up with expectation and tradition up to a point but we get a clear insight into the mental hoops she has to jump through to do so, and it’s refreshing. I feel like Ripley would approve.
The supporting cast run the gamut from hilarious (Creen made me laugh out loud on several occasions.) to tragic. One of my favorite characters, Spider, especially. I don’t want to give anything away, but when you meet him, you’ll find a beautiful portrait of the guy who tried with everything he had to be what this world needed but couldn’t quite make the cut and through absolutely no fault of his own.
The book starts at a slower pace, but considering how different this is to established Alien stories, this is relatively essential. You’re dropped into this place knowing nothing about it and so there’s a journey of discovery that needs to happen for the rest of it to work.
All in all, I loved it and highly, highly recommend you check it out if you have even a passing interest in the Alien universe.
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