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Aliens / Predator / Prometheus Universe #3
Aliens: the Female War
Lieutenant Ellen Ripley awoke from her long journey in space with a hole in her memory and an overwhelming drive to survive. When she meets Wikls and Billie, two battered veterans in the war against the Aliens, she realizes she's found two comrades in arms - and she's ready to take up the fight.
Only then does she discover the devastating secret that lurks behind her long sleep. When she, Wilks, and Billie prepare to meet the Aliens and their terrible queen head-on in a battle for Earth, that secret becomes her greatest weapon - and her greatest liability. Ripley must come to terms with what it means to be human - and what it means to be Alien...
Only then does she discover the devastating secret that lurks behind her long sleep. When she, Wilks, and Billie prepare to meet the Aliens and their terrible queen head-on in a battle for Earth, that secret becomes her greatest weapon - and her greatest liability. Ripley must come to terms with what it means to be human - and what it means to be Alien...
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
19 people are currently reading
798 people want to read
About the author
Steve Perry
312 books361 followersLibrarians note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Steven Carl Perry has written over fifty novels and numerous short stories, which have appeared in various magazines and anthologies. Perry is perhaps best known for the Matador series. He has written books in the Star Wars, Alien and Conan universes. He was a collaborator on all of the Tom Clancy's Net Force series, seven of which have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller list. Two of his novelizations, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire and Men in Black have also been bestsellers. Other writing credits include articles, reviews, and essays, animated teleplays, and some unproduced movie scripts. One of his scripts for Batman: The Animated Series was an Emmy Award nominee for Outstanding Writing.
Perry is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, The Animation Guild, and the Writers Guild of America, West
Steven Carl Perry has written over fifty novels and numerous short stories, which have appeared in various magazines and anthologies. Perry is perhaps best known for the Matador series. He has written books in the Star Wars, Alien and Conan universes. He was a collaborator on all of the Tom Clancy's Net Force series, seven of which have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller list. Two of his novelizations, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire and Men in Black have also been bestsellers. Other writing credits include articles, reviews, and essays, animated teleplays, and some unproduced movie scripts. One of his scripts for Batman: The Animated Series was an Emmy Award nominee for Outstanding Writing.
Perry is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, The Animation Guild, and the Writers Guild of America, West
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 79 reviews
February 23, 2025
This book is the closing chapter of the Earth Hive trilogy and I chose to read this volume simply for the role of Ellen Ripley.
Ellen Ripley, Wilks and Billie gather a group of people to Hunt for a psychic Alien Queen and drop her on the Alien infected Earth to gather the drones together and then blow everybody to kingdom come.
The story doesn't always make sense but then again I do not know how much the influence of the previous installments is on the closing chapter.
Scarier than the Queens & drones are the human fanatics who have chosen the Aliens as their god. But then again the human factor in the Alien movies and books have always been greater monsters than the Aliens.
Ridley Scott and James Cameron have created a lasting heroine with lt. Ellen Ripley, amd she remains just that. I am even a fan of Ripley in Alien 4 where she returns after her death. Once again in this book she is everything you expect and then some.
Nice book for the fans.
Ellen Ripley, Wilks and Billie gather a group of people to Hunt for a psychic Alien Queen and drop her on the Alien infected Earth to gather the drones together and then blow everybody to kingdom come.
The story doesn't always make sense but then again I do not know how much the influence of the previous installments is on the closing chapter.
Scarier than the Queens & drones are the human fanatics who have chosen the Aliens as their god. But then again the human factor in the Alien movies and books have always been greater monsters than the Aliens.
Ridley Scott and James Cameron have created a lasting heroine with lt. Ellen Ripley, amd she remains just that. I am even a fan of Ripley in Alien 4 where she returns after her death. Once again in this book she is everything you expect and then some.
Nice book for the fans.
October 29, 2024
I enjoyed this re-read. I used to read quite a lot of tie-in, expanded universe sci-fi. I fell out of love with them a while back as they can be very hit n miss. This one is a hit as it brings back an iconic character, Ripley, into the ALIEN universe and makes good use of her throughout while still developing the arcs of the 2 leads, Wilks and Billie, from the first 2 books of this series. They never get derailed as the writers swtich between 3 POVs, which is wise if you're reading this as book 3 of their arc.
And if you're wondering how and why a character whose arc was completed in the 3rd movie, ALIEN 3, is back, there is an intersting explanation :).
And if you're wondering how and why a character whose arc was completed in the 3rd movie, ALIEN 3, is back, there is an intersting explanation :).
February 27, 2011
Aliens Novels: Book 3, The Female War / 0-553-56159-6
Having thoroughly enjoyed the first two books in the Aliens series ("Earth Hive" and "Nightmare Asylum"), I have mixed feelings about this book.
We join the series almost precisely where we left off in "Nightmare Asylum" - with Wilks, Bille, and Ripley mooning about on the lunar rescue station and plotting how they can help in the grand scheme of human against alien. Ripley has come up with a daring plan that involves gathering together the Dreamers on the lunar station - those empaths who pick up the telepathic communications of the aliens in their dreams - for a mission that will ultimately doom the aliens on Earth to extinction. A great deal of attention is lavished on the supporting characters, making this motley crew of Dreamers the most fleshed-out supporting characters in the series so far, and providing me with actual concern that they might die on the mission, rather than mentally consigning them off as anonymous cannon fodder like so many before them. The plot expositions is nicely done as well, with the authors considering carefully the logistics of their plan, and how to pull off the technical details of Ripley's daring and drastic scheme.
These details are a case of 'too little, too late', though, because the actual plot of "Female War" is very thin, verging on the ridiculous. You see, empaths sense the presence of aliens, which is why Dreamers have been used in the past to pinpoint nearby alien nests. However, it turns out that the empaths have not been sensing the nearby alien nests *directly*, but have rather been picking up the ambient telepathy waves directed *at* the nearby aliens *from* the Queen of Queens (QoQ) back on their home planet (not the 'home' planet from "Earth Hive", incidentally). The QoQ knows where each of her children are in the universe and send them constant telepathic commands to come back to her. The Dreamers are able to pick up these commands and pinpoint the location of the home world, by remembering star layouts from their dreams. Ripley realizes that if the QoQ can be kidnapped from the home world and dropped on Earth, then all the aliens will flock to her in a single localized spot and it'll just be the work of a few nukes to take care of the alien infestation forever. This plot has more than a few problems associated with it, not the least of which is WHY the QoQ sends this constant signal - what's the point of having all your drones gathered to you rather than spreading out, hunting, and perpetuating the species? Some half-hearted attempts are made to suggest that the aliens might be bio-weapons, with the suggestion that the QoQ might be some kind of return beacon or something, but this never really pans out and frankly seems somewhat silly.
Anyway, Ripley decides to gather up all the Dreamers, or as many as are game, hijack a ship from the lunar station, travel to the alien home world, kidnap the QoQ, drop her off on Earth, and then set off a long-dismantled nuclear bomb to wipe out the aliens when they gather at critical mass. Easy peasy. To heighten the tension and provide motivation, the authors include a pretty implausible scenario: the military is still sending regular sorties down to Earth to engage the aliens (despite the ridiculous odds of a dozen marines against a planet-wide infestation) and to look for survivors (despite the fact that there really shouldn't be any more at this point, and despite the serious risk of contamination of the lunar station if one is infected). These sorties, however, give a useful excuse to take the stolen transport ship out on 'maneuvers', so we let it pass.
The ship of Dreamers travels to the home world in relative peace and quiet and here is where I get a little annoyed. The theme of the victim hunting the hunter via a telepathic link is a time honored tradition, used at least as far back as "Dracula". However, it is reasonable to pose, as Stoker does, several serious questions: Is the link merely one-way, or does the hunter have full knowledge of the victim's plans and is laying in wait for them? Are the actions of the victim truly their own if they are under telepathic influence? Will the telepathic victims be able to maintain their own minds in the overwhelming presence of the hunter? These are questions that can and should be posed, and the authors hint at a possible twist: Did the QoQ call them to her intentionally? Are their plans really hers? Is the QoQ aware of their plans and prepared for their arrival? All these hinted questions are then completely discarded, which really bugs me. At the very least, a few non-dreamers should have been brought along as backup, in case the dreamers lost control of themselves on the planet, but no.
Then the silly become ludicrous: the QoQ is not buried deep within a mountain, surrounded by thousands of drones, but rather is resting placidly on the planet's surface, readily available for Ripley to hover a ship over her, goad her into a rage, and trick her into scrambling up into the ship. Despite the fact that even the drones on this planet are giant-sized, the group escapes with implausibly minor casualties. Several point-blank shots to the aliens fail to slosh gallons of acid over the main characters, a serendipitous fact that they chalk up to extraordinarily good luck. The QoQ thus secure, they race back to Earth on the double. There, the plan is to drop the QoQ off near the main cluster of nukes, hope to god that she nests in that general area, and wire the nukes to go off after a six month delay allowing most all of the aliens to travel to this new nest. In the meantime, Ripley and Billie decide to rescue the last little girl on planet Earth and will do their best Rambo impersonations, fighting off waves and waves of hundreds of stampeding aliens without sustaining a single major injury.
If this weren't enough, I have to register a complaint with regard to Ripley in this book. A twist has been introduced in order to explain the one question I didn't care about (How can Ripley be here when she's 'supposed' to be dying on the prison planet in "Alien 3"?) whilst ignoring the massive amount of new questions this ridiculous twist brings up, not the least of which being Who, What, Where, When, How, and Why? This is, in my opinion, an inexcusably sloppy way to resolve a continuity problem and I would have preferred they just stick with the time-honored tradition that books don't have to match movies. Anyway, they are still stuck with a problem if they want to match the movies, because there's really no way to reconcile the problem that the cast of "Alien Resurrection" have never seen or heard of the aliens, despite the fact that (according to the books), they destroyed Earth and nearly wiped out humanity.
Really, I didn't regret reading this book. The writing was okay, even if the plot was ridiculous and sometimes rushed. It's worth a look if you just want to finish out the tale of Wilks and Billie from the first two novels. However, if you're not already a big fan, there's nothing really here for you. And even if you *are* a fan, most of the 'alien details' included here are just nonsensical and stupid, which may well leave you frustrated.
~ Ana Mardoll
Having thoroughly enjoyed the first two books in the Aliens series ("Earth Hive" and "Nightmare Asylum"), I have mixed feelings about this book.
We join the series almost precisely where we left off in "Nightmare Asylum" - with Wilks, Bille, and Ripley mooning about on the lunar rescue station and plotting how they can help in the grand scheme of human against alien. Ripley has come up with a daring plan that involves gathering together the Dreamers on the lunar station - those empaths who pick up the telepathic communications of the aliens in their dreams - for a mission that will ultimately doom the aliens on Earth to extinction. A great deal of attention is lavished on the supporting characters, making this motley crew of Dreamers the most fleshed-out supporting characters in the series so far, and providing me with actual concern that they might die on the mission, rather than mentally consigning them off as anonymous cannon fodder like so many before them. The plot expositions is nicely done as well, with the authors considering carefully the logistics of their plan, and how to pull off the technical details of Ripley's daring and drastic scheme.
These details are a case of 'too little, too late', though, because the actual plot of "Female War" is very thin, verging on the ridiculous. You see, empaths sense the presence of aliens, which is why Dreamers have been used in the past to pinpoint nearby alien nests. However, it turns out that the empaths have not been sensing the nearby alien nests *directly*, but have rather been picking up the ambient telepathy waves directed *at* the nearby aliens *from* the Queen of Queens (QoQ) back on their home planet (not the 'home' planet from "Earth Hive", incidentally). The QoQ knows where each of her children are in the universe and send them constant telepathic commands to come back to her. The Dreamers are able to pick up these commands and pinpoint the location of the home world, by remembering star layouts from their dreams. Ripley realizes that if the QoQ can be kidnapped from the home world and dropped on Earth, then all the aliens will flock to her in a single localized spot and it'll just be the work of a few nukes to take care of the alien infestation forever. This plot has more than a few problems associated with it, not the least of which is WHY the QoQ sends this constant signal - what's the point of having all your drones gathered to you rather than spreading out, hunting, and perpetuating the species? Some half-hearted attempts are made to suggest that the aliens might be bio-weapons, with the suggestion that the QoQ might be some kind of return beacon or something, but this never really pans out and frankly seems somewhat silly.
Anyway, Ripley decides to gather up all the Dreamers, or as many as are game, hijack a ship from the lunar station, travel to the alien home world, kidnap the QoQ, drop her off on Earth, and then set off a long-dismantled nuclear bomb to wipe out the aliens when they gather at critical mass. Easy peasy. To heighten the tension and provide motivation, the authors include a pretty implausible scenario: the military is still sending regular sorties down to Earth to engage the aliens (despite the ridiculous odds of a dozen marines against a planet-wide infestation) and to look for survivors (despite the fact that there really shouldn't be any more at this point, and despite the serious risk of contamination of the lunar station if one is infected). These sorties, however, give a useful excuse to take the stolen transport ship out on 'maneuvers', so we let it pass.
The ship of Dreamers travels to the home world in relative peace and quiet and here is where I get a little annoyed. The theme of the victim hunting the hunter via a telepathic link is a time honored tradition, used at least as far back as "Dracula". However, it is reasonable to pose, as Stoker does, several serious questions: Is the link merely one-way, or does the hunter have full knowledge of the victim's plans and is laying in wait for them? Are the actions of the victim truly their own if they are under telepathic influence? Will the telepathic victims be able to maintain their own minds in the overwhelming presence of the hunter? These are questions that can and should be posed, and the authors hint at a possible twist: Did the QoQ call them to her intentionally? Are their plans really hers? Is the QoQ aware of their plans and prepared for their arrival? All these hinted questions are then completely discarded, which really bugs me. At the very least, a few non-dreamers should have been brought along as backup, in case the dreamers lost control of themselves on the planet, but no.
Then the silly become ludicrous: the QoQ is not buried deep within a mountain, surrounded by thousands of drones, but rather is resting placidly on the planet's surface, readily available for Ripley to hover a ship over her, goad her into a rage, and trick her into scrambling up into the ship. Despite the fact that even the drones on this planet are giant-sized, the group escapes with implausibly minor casualties. Several point-blank shots to the aliens fail to slosh gallons of acid over the main characters, a serendipitous fact that they chalk up to extraordinarily good luck. The QoQ thus secure, they race back to Earth on the double. There, the plan is to drop the QoQ off near the main cluster of nukes, hope to god that she nests in that general area, and wire the nukes to go off after a six month delay allowing most all of the aliens to travel to this new nest. In the meantime, Ripley and Billie decide to rescue the last little girl on planet Earth and will do their best Rambo impersonations, fighting off waves and waves of hundreds of stampeding aliens without sustaining a single major injury.
If this weren't enough, I have to register a complaint with regard to Ripley in this book. A twist has been introduced in order to explain the one question I didn't care about (How can Ripley be here when she's 'supposed' to be dying on the prison planet in "Alien 3"?) whilst ignoring the massive amount of new questions this ridiculous twist brings up, not the least of which being Who, What, Where, When, How, and Why? This is, in my opinion, an inexcusably sloppy way to resolve a continuity problem and I would have preferred they just stick with the time-honored tradition that books don't have to match movies. Anyway, they are still stuck with a problem if they want to match the movies, because there's really no way to reconcile the problem that the cast of "Alien Resurrection" have never seen or heard of the aliens, despite the fact that (according to the books), they destroyed Earth and nearly wiped out humanity.
Really, I didn't regret reading this book. The writing was okay, even if the plot was ridiculous and sometimes rushed. It's worth a look if you just want to finish out the tale of Wilks and Billie from the first two novels. However, if you're not already a big fan, there's nothing really here for you. And even if you *are* a fan, most of the 'alien details' included here are just nonsensical and stupid, which may well leave you frustrated.
~ Ana Mardoll
December 30, 2022
*** 3.5 STARS ***
Aliens: The Female War is a good conclusion to a good trilogy.
The sheer amount of content that's in this trilogy is crazy. Each book is under 300 pages, and yet, there's enough going on to make two trilogies. Perhaps that's what's keeping it from greatness. A little less content, and more of a character study, would have made a greater impact in those finer moments. It would have been interesting if these books would've been made into films.
I would probably put this one just behind Aliens: Earth Hive as the best of the trilogy. The Female War feels much more of straight-forward book, when compared to the amount of content that was in Earth Hive. However, the simple fact that
Now that the dust has settled, I thoroughly enjoyed this trilogy.
Aliens: The Female War is a good conclusion to a good trilogy.
The sheer amount of content that's in this trilogy is crazy. Each book is under 300 pages, and yet, there's enough going on to make two trilogies. Perhaps that's what's keeping it from greatness. A little less content, and more of a character study, would have made a greater impact in those finer moments. It would have been interesting if these books would've been made into films.
I would probably put this one just behind Aliens: Earth Hive as the best of the trilogy. The Female War feels much more of straight-forward book, when compared to the amount of content that was in Earth Hive. However, the simple fact that
Now that the dust has settled, I thoroughly enjoyed this trilogy.
March 3, 2025
Aliens: The Female War is book 3 of the Earth Hive Trilogy, written by Steve Perry and his daughter Stephani Perry. They typically write Science Fiction, Horror, Media Tie-in stuff such as Aliens, Star Wars, Star Trek, Resident Evil, and Men in Black. Steve wrote the first two parts of the trilogy himself but collaborated with his daughter on this final part (which he has been known to do.)
As the final chapter in the trilogy, it contains numerous gripping science fiction, horror action battle scenes, which is typical of the subgenre, and particular to the franchise. However, there are some plot threads that are incongruous with Alien universe continuity especially when it comes to the Alien queen and the climax, which I will not share because I don't do spoilers. The climax did not destroy my enjoyment of the book but gave me pause and reason to lessen my rating as a consequence.
As for the rest of the novel, Wilks and Billie, survivors of the first two novels of the series, meet with Ripley and discover that she is experiencing strong and recurring nightmares about the Alien invasion of Earth. They (along with several survivors on the station) are experiencing what has been interpreted as messages from the Alien queen to her drones regarding the invasion. Ripley endeavors to form a small troop of the so-called "dreamers" to go take a queen to Earth, have her cry out for her drones, and while congregating in one location nuke the area.
The story is fun, despite my minor issues. The writing by both Perrys is svelte and clearly, they are such fans of the Alien franchise that they include tropes that homage the films, like little nods to the fans saying, "We love this too." Still, good; not great.
As the final chapter in the trilogy, it contains numerous gripping science fiction, horror action battle scenes, which is typical of the subgenre, and particular to the franchise. However, there are some plot threads that are incongruous with Alien universe continuity especially when it comes to the Alien queen and the climax, which I will not share because I don't do spoilers. The climax did not destroy my enjoyment of the book but gave me pause and reason to lessen my rating as a consequence.
As for the rest of the novel, Wilks and Billie, survivors of the first two novels of the series, meet with Ripley and discover that she is experiencing strong and recurring nightmares about the Alien invasion of Earth. They (along with several survivors on the station) are experiencing what has been interpreted as messages from the Alien queen to her drones regarding the invasion. Ripley endeavors to form a small troop of the so-called "dreamers" to go take a queen to Earth, have her cry out for her drones, and while congregating in one location nuke the area.
The story is fun, despite my minor issues. The writing by both Perrys is svelte and clearly, they are such fans of the Alien franchise that they include tropes that homage the films, like little nods to the fans saying, "We love this too." Still, good; not great.
July 16, 2016
The third in the "first" trilogy of ALIENS novels, based on a trilogy of graphic novels from Dark Horse Comics written by Mark Verheiden. In the previous two books, Perry re-worked the characters Newt and Hicks from the comics as Billie and Wilks following the release of ALIEN3. The third comic co-starred Ellen Ripley herself, so how to include her as a major part of the story? Android Ripley! The whole part when she discovers she is an Artificial Person implanted with the knowledge and memories of Ripley (along with convenient knowledge of how to set up bombs) is a nice dramatic addition as she tries to deal with what she is. Of course, she still kicks ass.
The story is basically a whole saga of Ripley, Wilks and Newt gathering a few ex-marines and support personnel to steal a freighter ship from Gateway Station in the goal of going to the Mother Queen Alien's planet, capture her/it and bring it back to Earth. the Mother Queen has been communicating telepathically across the galaxy with her "children", and some humans received the connection in their dreams. Hence, they are able to triangulate the location of the planet. Once on Earth, the Queen of Queen would attract her brood from all across the planet so they can be wiped out with one fell massive explosion.
What happens next is an epic story of triumphs and fuck-ups, with a few hundreds of thousands of aliens caught in-between. For this third book, Perry enlisted the help of his daughter Stephani Danelle Perry who, he later revealed, wrote the majority of the book. They do a great job, given that they are re-telling someone else's story. This is also the one that is most modified from the original comic. Their writing style is top-notch and perfect for this style of sci-fi/horror/action story. Personally, my favorite is the middle novel/comic Aliens: Nightmare Asylum, but "Female War" is nothing to sneeze at.
NOTE: I assume the title was changed from the comic, which was titled "Earth War", because it would be too similar to the first novelization "Earth Hive". "Female War" fits the bill, since it's about Ripley still dealin with the loss of her daughter, Billie wanting to rescue a little girl who survived on Earth for a couple of years, and of course the Mother Alien and all her drones.
The story is basically a whole saga of Ripley, Wilks and Newt gathering a few ex-marines and support personnel to steal a freighter ship from Gateway Station in the goal of going to the Mother Queen Alien's planet, capture her/it and bring it back to Earth. the Mother Queen has been communicating telepathically across the galaxy with her "children", and some humans received the connection in their dreams. Hence, they are able to triangulate the location of the planet. Once on Earth, the Queen of Queen would attract her brood from all across the planet so they can be wiped out with one fell massive explosion.
What happens next is an epic story of triumphs and fuck-ups, with a few hundreds of thousands of aliens caught in-between. For this third book, Perry enlisted the help of his daughter Stephani Danelle Perry who, he later revealed, wrote the majority of the book. They do a great job, given that they are re-telling someone else's story. This is also the one that is most modified from the original comic. Their writing style is top-notch and perfect for this style of sci-fi/horror/action story. Personally, my favorite is the middle novel/comic Aliens: Nightmare Asylum, but "Female War" is nothing to sneeze at.
NOTE: I assume the title was changed from the comic, which was titled "Earth War", because it would be too similar to the first novelization "Earth Hive". "Female War" fits the bill, since it's about Ripley still dealin with the loss of her daughter, Billie wanting to rescue a little girl who survived on Earth for a couple of years, and of course the Mother Alien and all her drones.
May 16, 2018
I enjoyed this one because it featured Ripley in a main role (sort of) and also had a pretty major even in the ending.
We see Billie and Wilks team with Ripley and a rag tag bunch of warriors in a final attempt to destroy the Aliens on Earth once and for all. They travel to the Aliens home planet and gather the Queen of All Queens in an effort to lure the aliens to their doom. It's a pretty typical Aliens story with a big action ending that we've come to expect. I thought it was good as a logical next step in the story, but it felt like it was an ending that's not an ending, so it left me slightly confused. If you read the first two novels, you may was well read this one to at least complete the trilogy. I'm not sure how closely the next books in the series tie into this one.
We see Billie and Wilks team with Ripley and a rag tag bunch of warriors in a final attempt to destroy the Aliens on Earth once and for all. They travel to the Aliens home planet and gather the Queen of All Queens in an effort to lure the aliens to their doom. It's a pretty typical Aliens story with a big action ending that we've come to expect. I thought it was good as a logical next step in the story, but it felt like it was an ending that's not an ending, so it left me slightly confused. If you read the first two novels, you may was well read this one to at least complete the trilogy. I'm not sure how closely the next books in the series tie into this one.
August 23, 2012
This is a great adaptation of the comic series Aliens: Earth War and I liked how both Steve and Stephaine wove the last chapter of the trilogy togeather as well as explained how Ripley could've survived her death on Fury 161, it is apparent that this trilogy takes place during the 200 hundred years between Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection and as far as I am conserned it should've been Alien 4 instead of Resurrection which still could've come later but that's not saying that this trilogy still couldn't be made into motion pictures and like Prometheus it would bring the Alien saga back in a big way.
August 5, 2024
Bardzo fajna książka, ale z całej trylogii - najsłabsza.
Zbyt mocno przeciągnięta pierwsza połowa i zbyt szybko zakończona druga połowa. Brakowało mi tutaj odpowiedniego tempa. Główne postaci też nieco irytują pod koniec swoimi wyborami i bohaterstwem.
To chyba wszystko, co na rodzimym rynku wydawniczym ukazało się z Obcego do tej pory.
Mam nadzieję, że wydawcy sięgną po inne książki z uniwersum, bo na zagranicznym rynku jest tego dużo.
Zbyt mocno przeciągnięta pierwsza połowa i zbyt szybko zakończona druga połowa. Brakowało mi tutaj odpowiedniego tempa. Główne postaci też nieco irytują pod koniec swoimi wyborami i bohaterstwem.
To chyba wszystko, co na rodzimym rynku wydawniczym ukazało się z Obcego do tej pory.
Mam nadzieję, że wydawcy sięgną po inne książki z uniwersum, bo na zagranicznym rynku jest tego dużo.
March 28, 2015
Having read all three Aliens books by Steve Perry, this final novel was definately the best in the trilogy.
Earth Hive was good, but it was the second book, Nightmare Asylum, which really picked up the pace and delivered a truly spectacular action packed storyline. It blew me away I don't mind confessing.
I didn't think Perry could deliver anything as good as the second book, but I was wrong. The third installment was even better. Great military gung ho action, good characters (though a bit one dimensional at times) and a big twist in the tale which I honestly did not see coming. Well written and well paced. Of course, as with the other two novels, the plotline is slightly implauasable and the book moves from one event to another without time for contemplation, but then this is based on a comic book and therefore hardly surprising. Nonetheless, fans of the alien expanded universe will not be disapointed with this instalment in the Aliens series. Definately recomended.
Earth Hive was good, but it was the second book, Nightmare Asylum, which really picked up the pace and delivered a truly spectacular action packed storyline. It blew me away I don't mind confessing.
I didn't think Perry could deliver anything as good as the second book, but I was wrong. The third installment was even better. Great military gung ho action, good characters (though a bit one dimensional at times) and a big twist in the tale which I honestly did not see coming. Well written and well paced. Of course, as with the other two novels, the plotline is slightly implauasable and the book moves from one event to another without time for contemplation, but then this is based on a comic book and therefore hardly surprising. Nonetheless, fans of the alien expanded universe will not be disapointed with this instalment in the Aliens series. Definately recomended.
September 15, 2016
An excellent conclusion, to a very good series. It was nice to see Ripley back, and she was represented well in this novel. I enjoyed it and was sorry to see it come to an end.
September 10, 2021
Decent enough ending to the trilogy. Not as good as the first two, but passable....
June 19, 2021
This is the final installment of the original Aliens trilogy first published as comic books in the late 80's early 90's. This is the novelization of Aliens: Earth War. Back in middle school, I feel like I really didn't fully understand the relationship between these novels and my comic books, so, now that I'm actual adult, I'm much more aware of how this works. In my last re-reading of the comics the real Ripley was such an integral part of the overall story that I was really curious how in the world The Female War would handle this particular aspect. Well... the answer is they basically just ran with it. There was really no changing her name in this, so it seemed like they were pretty committed. Ripley does show up at the end of Aliens: Nightmare Asylum, but I was curious how deep that would run given Alien 3 has existed since the writing of this novel.
If you've been following my journey, you'll notice I did not really like Nightmare Asylum very much. It seemed Steve Perry was at a low point in writing these stories... so enter his daughter Stephani Perry and my what a difference! The writing is much stronger this time around and just makes way more sense in general. It's such a stark contrast that I really do hope she stays involved, plus, I think it's a real strength to the Aliens series to have a woman's voice in the mix in the creative works. Too much sci-fi is written by men, especially around this time, and Aliens is exactly the type of sci-fi that benefits from more voices all around!
So, with all that in mind, this novel is pretty much the most massive re-working or retconning of the original comic book series. You can read my full review of the actual story on the original comics page linked above, but even at the end of Nightmare Asylum I really felt they were just appeasing the demands of the masses to include Ripley in the story again. It still majorly feels that way in this third novel and there really was no escaping that. Mark Verheiden, I felt, was definitely running out of steam by the time this story rolled around.
In the original comic books the entire first issue was, essentially, spent explaining why Ripley had not stayed with Newt. Because at that point it really begged the question, but since we're re-working stuff and Billie isn't Newt, the Perry's pretty much do away with that entire first issue altogether. Honestly, I thought this made the story generally better, because it got rid of some fluff, but it does create a gap in the length so they'll have to write a lot more to fill in the gaps. For the most part they added a lot more detail on finding people on Gateway to go on the journey and that whole part got fleshed out and in a better way than the comics.
Now, the overall story is still kind of silly to me, the whole idea of the "super queen" is, frankly, kind of dumb, but that is not the Perry's fault, they're being commissioned to tell the story laid out in the comics and make "some" changes to account for Alien 3, not a true overhaul of the tale. So the general goal of get the super queen back to Earth and blow her and the other Aliens up is still the essential idea going on. The one other problem that doesn't align with Alien 3 is what do do about Ripley. In retrospect, I think what they did makes the most sense within the universe, but it is still kind of silly. This Ripley isn't the real Ripley, this one is an android modelled after the real Ripley. If I remember correctly they were pretty vague on this. They sort of alluded to the fact that the Sulaco was intercepted by the company before Alien 3 happened and a copy of Ripley was made after that? So, sort of what is covered in issue 1 of Earth War... but light on details. In any event, given the requirements this was probably the best idea, but it is no less kind of stupid when you think about it. In any other situation I would say this is just bad writing, but the Perry's are kind of backed into a wall on this one, so I applaud their ingenuity in this case to work within the bounds they had to work. The other part of the story that I still think is really bad is this whole sexual tension between Wilks and Billie thing... I really wish they had killed that entire thread altogether. They're a stupid match and it reeks of those "old man with trophy wife" vibes. Just ew. I do like the fact they have many scenes with Wilks working out a lot, probably in an effort to explain why Sam Kieth drew Hicks so jacked in the comics. (Again see my review of the original comics for my rant on that.)
In any event they win the day and blow up the super queen with some of her brood. The Earth is completely destroyed, but that's the price you pay to get rid of an Alien infestation. The Ancient Engineer creature that shows up at the end of the comics is basically not even here for this issue. It seems that creature was written out of the stories at this point, even though an attempt is made in the comics to seal off that thread for continuity purposes.
Finally, if you were able to slog through Nightmare Asylum you're in for an overall better written story this time around. There are a couple parts I didn't like, sure, but for the most part it was a pretty solid Aliens adventure and I really think the Perry's did the best they could with what Verheiden had originally outlined. I think they made his story quite a bit better in the end.
If you've been following my journey, you'll notice I did not really like Nightmare Asylum very much. It seemed Steve Perry was at a low point in writing these stories... so enter his daughter Stephani Perry and my what a difference! The writing is much stronger this time around and just makes way more sense in general. It's such a stark contrast that I really do hope she stays involved, plus, I think it's a real strength to the Aliens series to have a woman's voice in the mix in the creative works. Too much sci-fi is written by men, especially around this time, and Aliens is exactly the type of sci-fi that benefits from more voices all around!
So, with all that in mind, this novel is pretty much the most massive re-working or retconning of the original comic book series. You can read my full review of the actual story on the original comics page linked above, but even at the end of Nightmare Asylum I really felt they were just appeasing the demands of the masses to include Ripley in the story again. It still majorly feels that way in this third novel and there really was no escaping that. Mark Verheiden, I felt, was definitely running out of steam by the time this story rolled around.
In the original comic books the entire first issue was, essentially, spent explaining why Ripley had not stayed with Newt. Because at that point it really begged the question, but since we're re-working stuff and Billie isn't Newt, the Perry's pretty much do away with that entire first issue altogether. Honestly, I thought this made the story generally better, because it got rid of some fluff, but it does create a gap in the length so they'll have to write a lot more to fill in the gaps. For the most part they added a lot more detail on finding people on Gateway to go on the journey and that whole part got fleshed out and in a better way than the comics.
Now, the overall story is still kind of silly to me, the whole idea of the "super queen" is, frankly, kind of dumb, but that is not the Perry's fault, they're being commissioned to tell the story laid out in the comics and make "some" changes to account for Alien 3, not a true overhaul of the tale. So the general goal of get the super queen back to Earth and blow her and the other Aliens up is still the essential idea going on. The one other problem that doesn't align with Alien 3 is what do do about Ripley. In retrospect, I think what they did makes the most sense within the universe, but it is still kind of silly. This Ripley isn't the real Ripley, this one is an android modelled after the real Ripley. If I remember correctly they were pretty vague on this. They sort of alluded to the fact that the Sulaco was intercepted by the company before Alien 3 happened and a copy of Ripley was made after that? So, sort of what is covered in issue 1 of Earth War... but light on details. In any event, given the requirements this was probably the best idea, but it is no less kind of stupid when you think about it. In any other situation I would say this is just bad writing, but the Perry's are kind of backed into a wall on this one, so I applaud their ingenuity in this case to work within the bounds they had to work. The other part of the story that I still think is really bad is this whole sexual tension between Wilks and Billie thing... I really wish they had killed that entire thread altogether. They're a stupid match and it reeks of those "old man with trophy wife" vibes. Just ew. I do like the fact they have many scenes with Wilks working out a lot, probably in an effort to explain why Sam Kieth drew Hicks so jacked in the comics. (Again see my review of the original comics for my rant on that.)
In any event they win the day and blow up the super queen with some of her brood. The Earth is completely destroyed, but that's the price you pay to get rid of an Alien infestation. The Ancient Engineer creature that shows up at the end of the comics is basically not even here for this issue. It seems that creature was written out of the stories at this point, even though an attempt is made in the comics to seal off that thread for continuity purposes.
Finally, if you were able to slog through Nightmare Asylum you're in for an overall better written story this time around. There are a couple parts I didn't like, sure, but for the most part it was a pretty solid Aliens adventure and I really think the Perry's did the best they could with what Verheiden had originally outlined. I think they made his story quite a bit better in the end.
November 11, 2015
One of the inherent problems in any narrative with installments is writers feeling like they need to up the ante every time, in order to not become boring or repetitive or have their readers/viewers be like "yawn, but this is exactly like what they solved last time". This is how you end up with ridiculous, over-the-top premises -- or just more action in general, e.g. look at the jump in action from Alien to Aliens, or First Blood to Rambo II. Look at any season of Supernatural, and how they've had to leap into the stratosphere post-S5 in order to find a Big Bad who's even more Big Bad than Lucifer himself.
(I could have sworn there's a particular psychological term for this that can be used for fiction -- needing more and more stimulation to reach the same emotional heights? -- but my hazy Psych 101 memories are too faded.)
Anyway, case in point: The Female War. One xenomorph isn't enough, but now they're dealing with THOOOOUSAAAAAANDSSSS. One queen wasn't enough, but now they have an even bigger QUEEN OF QUEENS.
(Tangent because everything in my life is Animorphs: I'm amazed that a series with 54 books in its main chronology didn't suffer from this. Despite being episodic, Animorphs' focus was on character development and long-term attrition and war; some of the most "HOLY COW!!!" books happened relatively early in the series, and I never felt like they jumped the shark, nor that books that came later were underwhelming or over-the-top.)
But! The Aliens novels, being novelisations of comic book series of a science fiction franchise, are understandably campy and actiony.
I actually kinda liked the crazy-ridiculous balls-to-the-walls premise here: Ripley & co. assembling a ragtag group of dreamers to mutiny, steal a ship, and go take on the queen o' queens to try to liberate Earth from the alien war. There's another fantastic twist:
Falk is another lil' favourite of mine, because of course I love the big scary broken mercenary.
I'm undecided about the Amy subplot:
Mostly, though, as much as I did like the main plot, there is a subplot that DROVE ME CRAZY and that I HATED and every time they talked about it, I pretty much mentally docked another star:
/ranting over.
It's an okay-written conclusion to the trilogy, and maybe you won't be personally bothered by the things that personally bothered me... but I ended up preferring the fun batshit lunacy of the first two books much more. The first one was the best book, IMO.
And from all the reviews I'm seeing on GR, apparently I shouldn't even bother with the next two non-Perry books in the series. Welp. That's such a shame. On the bright side, I do trust Steve Perry as a tie-in author now, so I'm going to check out his Star Wars writing...
(I could have sworn there's a particular psychological term for this that can be used for fiction -- needing more and more stimulation to reach the same emotional heights? -- but my hazy Psych 101 memories are too faded.)
Anyway, case in point: The Female War. One xenomorph isn't enough, but now they're dealing with THOOOOUSAAAAAANDSSSS. One queen wasn't enough, but now they have an even bigger QUEEN OF QUEENS.
(Tangent because everything in my life is Animorphs: I'm amazed that a series with 54 books in its main chronology didn't suffer from this. Despite being episodic, Animorphs' focus was on character development and long-term attrition and war; some of the most "HOLY COW!!!" books happened relatively early in the series, and I never felt like they jumped the shark, nor that books that came later were underwhelming or over-the-top.)
But! The Aliens novels, being novelisations of comic book series of a science fiction franchise, are understandably campy and actiony.
I actually kinda liked the crazy-ridiculous balls-to-the-walls premise here: Ripley & co. assembling a ragtag group of dreamers to mutiny, steal a ship, and go take on the queen o' queens to try to liberate Earth from the alien war. There's another fantastic twist:
Falk is another lil' favourite of mine, because of course I love the big scary broken mercenary.
I'm undecided about the Amy subplot:
Mostly, though, as much as I did like the main plot, there is a subplot that DROVE ME CRAZY and that I HATED and every time they talked about it, I pretty much mentally docked another star:
/ranting over.
It's an okay-written conclusion to the trilogy, and maybe you won't be personally bothered by the things that personally bothered me... but I ended up preferring the fun batshit lunacy of the first two books much more. The first one was the best book, IMO.
And from all the reviews I'm seeing on GR, apparently I shouldn't even bother with the next two non-Perry books in the series. Welp. That's such a shame. On the bright side, I do trust Steve Perry as a tie-in author now, so I'm going to check out his Star Wars writing...
November 1, 2021
Couldn't put it down, a great series of books!
November 17, 2024
Ripley 🫶🏿🫶🏿🥹
January 24, 2025
This was the first book in the dark horse novelization line that I felt was a massive improvement on the original story. The comic books for female war are not my favourites but this novel is excellent! Pure Alien goodness with dread and cosmic horror a plenty.
May 7, 2019
Man, do I have regrets. I was under the impression that the Steve Perry Aliens books were good, and bought several of the books in the series beyond theirs to see how they ranked. I like the franchise, and I was curious to see how authors could work beyond the stories in the movies. So far, the consensus seems to be "Not so well."
Like the first two books in this trilogy, The Female War is an adaptation of a comic, written by different people, so some of the ridiculous plot points should be blamed on them, not the Perrys. But the whole idea of capturing the Boss alien queen, transporting her to Earth and putting her in one place so all the other aliens would flock to her and they could bomb that one location instead of the entire planet to exterminate the aliens seems like it's pushing credibility too much. Especially since Ripley is involved.
Oh yeah, Ripley is one of the main characters of the book. You may be asking yourself why she would make an appearance, since the deaths of Hicks and Newt at the start of Alien³ forced the publisher to retcon their characters to Billie and Wilks. She's alive and well here, many years after the end of that movie, and they didn't retcon anything to get her there. What could possibly have happened to bring her back?
(If you think about it long enough -- ten seconds, maybe? -- with Alien³ in mind, you'll figure it out.)
To the Perrys' credit, they circle back to a theme raised in the first book and give the book a nice point. Still, the number of run-on sentences throughout the book make me want to take that credit back.
Also, Billie and Wilks have a weird attraction going on for each other here, which is skeevy as hell, when you consider that they started out as Newt and Hicks, and have the same backgrounds and ages as those characters. It's Heinleinesque, and it creeps me out.
Oh, oh, and I almost forgot to mention how they and the crew avoid being damaged by an EMP -- they turn off all electronics before it bursts. THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS.
To top it off, I read an e-book edition of this book, and the number of typos and OCR errors was plentiful. That's beyond acceptable to me. Hire a dang copy-reader and fix them.
I have the rest of these books to read, and I'm hoping the quality will change with some new authors. Most of them are still based on comics, but I have high hopes at least for the Yvonne Navarro title. I just have to make it that far without giving up.
Like the first two books in this trilogy, The Female War is an adaptation of a comic, written by different people, so some of the ridiculous plot points should be blamed on them, not the Perrys. But the whole idea of capturing the Boss alien queen, transporting her to Earth and putting her in one place so all the other aliens would flock to her and they could bomb that one location instead of the entire planet to exterminate the aliens seems like it's pushing credibility too much. Especially since Ripley is involved.
Oh yeah, Ripley is one of the main characters of the book. You may be asking yourself why she would make an appearance, since the deaths of Hicks and Newt at the start of Alien³ forced the publisher to retcon their characters to Billie and Wilks. She's alive and well here, many years after the end of that movie, and they didn't retcon anything to get her there. What could possibly have happened to bring her back?
(If you think about it long enough -- ten seconds, maybe? -- with Alien³ in mind, you'll figure it out.)
To the Perrys' credit, they circle back to a theme raised in the first book and give the book a nice point. Still, the number of run-on sentences throughout the book make me want to take that credit back.
Also, Billie and Wilks have a weird attraction going on for each other here, which is skeevy as hell, when you consider that they started out as Newt and Hicks, and have the same backgrounds and ages as those characters. It's Heinleinesque, and it creeps me out.
Oh, oh, and I almost forgot to mention how they and the crew avoid being damaged by an EMP -- they turn off all electronics before it bursts. THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS.
To top it off, I read an e-book edition of this book, and the number of typos and OCR errors was plentiful. That's beyond acceptable to me. Hire a dang copy-reader and fix them.
I have the rest of these books to read, and I'm hoping the quality will change with some new authors. Most of them are still based on comics, but I have high hopes at least for the Yvonne Navarro title. I just have to make it that far without giving up.
August 21, 2017
Final part of the trilogy. I enjoyed the entire trilogy. As we can read on the back of the book, Ripley comes back in this book which is nice. The character of Ripley is somewhat different than I imagined, but that maybe just me. But then again, she is different...
In this part,
The new characters in this part are described good. I could get a good overview of what the people were like. Marines amongst each other. Also the relationship between Billie and Wilks was good to read as the story went on. Of course, at the end, it is all not
I did like the trilogy a lot. Overall, it somehow resembles the Aliens movie a bit, here and there, but that was quite okay.
In this part,
The new characters in this part are described good. I could get a good overview of what the people were like. Marines amongst each other. Also the relationship between Billie and Wilks was good to read as the story went on. Of course, at the end, it is all not
I did like the trilogy a lot. Overall, it somehow resembles the Aliens movie a bit, here and there, but that was quite okay.
June 26, 2018
As I expect I've written in every review of an Aliens-related book - I love the xenomorphs for how deeply scary they are as monsters. Even in the least-scary Aliens-related media (AVP: Requiem, for example), I can enjoy it a bit just 'cause the xenomorphs are in it.
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So I did enjoy this book.
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At the same time, I found the cast too large to get to grips with, found it hard to care much about any of the characters, even the ones I knew from previous books - just didn't feel the emotional engagement I need to enjoy them.
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Basically, this story is one of the "go to an alien nest for some reason, try and get something from it" plots - of which there are many in the various Aliens novels. The variations on that theme we see here don't work, for me, to make it interestingly different from others of this kind.
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SPOILERS.
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.
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I was, however, happy to see the end and resolution of the Hicks/Wilks Newt/Billie story lines, and hope they went on to have a long happy life :)
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And I guess the books that come after this one imply that they were successful in getting rid of the aliens at the end of this book? Would have liked something about that in the book, that explains how in later books they still have a few aliens around on earth, but that the "plague" is over and they are under control...
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So I did enjoy this book.
.
At the same time, I found the cast too large to get to grips with, found it hard to care much about any of the characters, even the ones I knew from previous books - just didn't feel the emotional engagement I need to enjoy them.
.
Basically, this story is one of the "go to an alien nest for some reason, try and get something from it" plots - of which there are many in the various Aliens novels. The variations on that theme we see here don't work, for me, to make it interestingly different from others of this kind.
.
SPOILERS.
.
.
.
I was, however, happy to see the end and resolution of the Hicks/Wilks Newt/Billie story lines, and hope they went on to have a long happy life :)
.
And I guess the books that come after this one imply that they were successful in getting rid of the aliens at the end of this book? Would have liked something about that in the book, that explains how in later books they still have a few aliens around on earth, but that the "plague" is over and they are under control...
July 12, 2019
This entire series was a bit schlocky, and I knew what I was getting into when I started, I knew I would have to intentionally hang most of my disbelief out to dry, but man, the whole “plan” for solving the alien infestation problem on Earth, and especially the way it ultimately unfolded, crushed every last shred of credibility the authors managed to retain through the previous two books. Furthermore, the aliens are no longer a menacing horror presence, no longer fanatical opponents in war, they have been turned into a simple force of nature, like a flood or fire, that the right McGuffin can switch off more or less instantly. And don’t even get me started on the way , contrary to everything we know about how the xenos function as a species. I mean, there’s crappy fun, there’s funny crap, and then there is just… this.
August 1, 2025
Aliens: The Female War by Steve Perry and Stephani Perry pits two strong female characters, Ellen Ripley and Billie, against the alien queen. Aliens: The Female War wraps up a trilogy started with Earth Hive and continued in Nightmare Asylum. The book is part heist, part war, and part relationships. The basic plot is that people have had close encounters with the aliens and develop dreams about the alien queen. The dreams are about the original alien that started the alien race. Billie gets an idea to use the dreams to track her down. The plot of the story, for the most part, works. The plan to eradicate the aliens of Earth could work. The pace of the story was slow in the first part and then ramps up to a worthwhile conclusion. The first half of The Female War spends a lot of time tying up loose ends and welcomes Ellen Ripley back into the series. The second half is an all-out alien vs human war on two planets. Ripley is a fun character to have back and a total badass. These novels came out before Alien 3 but managed to cleverly keep everything in canon. The novel has one big twist that shocked me a bit. Aliens: The Female War was published on January 1, 1993.
Plot Summary: Ellen Ripley is back! The heroes of the first two books, Wilks and Billie, meet Ellen on a ship that is circling Earth, which is overrun with aliens. There are a couple of survivors on Earth who have been broadcasting their journey. Billie feels a kinship to Amy, a survivor down on Earth who reminds her of herself when she was younger and saved by Wilks. Ellen wants to liberate Earth from the aliens, but she needs a plan. Billie has the idea to use the dreams of individuals with close encounters with aliens. Billie has nightmares about the original queen who started the alien race. And she bets others do too. They form a database and use the dreams to pinpoint the queen's location. They plan to kidnap the queen from the planet, bring her to Earth, and let the aliens come to her, then nuke the whole area. The plan is rejected by the higher, so Ripley, Billie, and Wilks must do it the hard way by stealing a ship, forming a non-sanctioned mission and crew.
What I Liked: The Perrys found a clever way to have Ellen Ripley and not mess with the canon of the films. I liked that I got to read about Ellen Ripley being a badass. I liked how the dreams were used since they were a big part of the last book. The alien queen will not be taken lightly. I love that she uses the dreams to manipulate others. The heist of the Kurtz was fun to read. The second half of this book is pretty action-packed.
What I Disliked: The first half of the book spent too much time wrapping up loose threads. I wanted the cult that worships the aliens to have more of a role in the story. The setup for the action took a while to get going. The main characters don't see an alien until over half the book. I do feel like Perry did not know what to do with Wilks in this book, as he seems to be in the way most of the time, and doesn't have a whole lot to do.
Recommendations: Aliens: The Female Wars had a great ending, but the novel ultimately felt disjointed at times. The pacing in the first half was not good, but the book did have a kick butt second half. I love the character of Ellen Ripley and am a bit of an Aliens superfan. Going into this series, I would never have thought I would find one of the books without Ripley better than the books with Ripley. But Nightmare Asylum was a better book and my favorite of the series. I will barely recommend The Female Wars to my followers. It is needed to complete the trilogy, and it has Ripley being a badass.
Rating: Aliens: The Female Wars by Steve Perry and Stephani Perry. I rated 3.1 out of 5 stars.
Plot Summary: Ellen Ripley is back! The heroes of the first two books, Wilks and Billie, meet Ellen on a ship that is circling Earth, which is overrun with aliens. There are a couple of survivors on Earth who have been broadcasting their journey. Billie feels a kinship to Amy, a survivor down on Earth who reminds her of herself when she was younger and saved by Wilks. Ellen wants to liberate Earth from the aliens, but she needs a plan. Billie has the idea to use the dreams of individuals with close encounters with aliens. Billie has nightmares about the original queen who started the alien race. And she bets others do too. They form a database and use the dreams to pinpoint the queen's location. They plan to kidnap the queen from the planet, bring her to Earth, and let the aliens come to her, then nuke the whole area. The plan is rejected by the higher, so Ripley, Billie, and Wilks must do it the hard way by stealing a ship, forming a non-sanctioned mission and crew.
What I Liked: The Perrys found a clever way to have Ellen Ripley and not mess with the canon of the films. I liked that I got to read about Ellen Ripley being a badass. I liked how the dreams were used since they were a big part of the last book. The alien queen will not be taken lightly. I love that she uses the dreams to manipulate others. The heist of the Kurtz was fun to read. The second half of this book is pretty action-packed.
What I Disliked: The first half of the book spent too much time wrapping up loose threads. I wanted the cult that worships the aliens to have more of a role in the story. The setup for the action took a while to get going. The main characters don't see an alien until over half the book. I do feel like Perry did not know what to do with Wilks in this book, as he seems to be in the way most of the time, and doesn't have a whole lot to do.
Recommendations: Aliens: The Female Wars had a great ending, but the novel ultimately felt disjointed at times. The pacing in the first half was not good, but the book did have a kick butt second half. I love the character of Ellen Ripley and am a bit of an Aliens superfan. Going into this series, I would never have thought I would find one of the books without Ripley better than the books with Ripley. But Nightmare Asylum was a better book and my favorite of the series. I will barely recommend The Female Wars to my followers. It is needed to complete the trilogy, and it has Ripley being a badass.
Rating: Aliens: The Female Wars by Steve Perry and Stephani Perry. I rated 3.1 out of 5 stars.
March 18, 2024
A fun read that's a novelization of 8 issues from the Dark Horse Comic books. I'm sure I read these comics back when they were published, but I couldn't remember them. Regardless, this is worth reading.
Taking place after Aliens and before Alien 3 was announced. This book has two characters named Billie and Wilks and they were originally Newt and Hicks before the third film was announced.
Earth is infested with xenomorphs and humanity remains in an orbiting, hastily constructed, space station. Billie has been having dreams of a "super" Queen Alien calling to her, as have others on the station. Ripley believes if they can capture this Queen and bring her to Earth it will "summon" all the xenomorphs to it and then they can nuke the Queen and kill off all its spawn, cleansing the Earth. However, they have find willing soldiers and steal a ship before even trying to catch the Queen.
This book moves very quickly, with the unsurprising pace of a comic book, and I enjoyed that. There are still several solid character moments, though readers familiar with the franchise know not everyone is going to make it out alive. I also enjoyed the fantastic reveal about one of the leads which I didn't see coming but explained so much.
It's a shame that this plot didn't occur and the series has been subpar with Alien 3 and the horribly written prequels. Still, this is a fun "What If" read that I highly recommend for fans of these sci-fi nightmares.
Taking place after Aliens and before Alien 3 was announced. This book has two characters named Billie and Wilks and they were originally Newt and Hicks before the third film was announced.
Earth is infested with xenomorphs and humanity remains in an orbiting, hastily constructed, space station. Billie has been having dreams of a "super" Queen Alien calling to her, as have others on the station. Ripley believes if they can capture this Queen and bring her to Earth it will "summon" all the xenomorphs to it and then they can nuke the Queen and kill off all its spawn, cleansing the Earth. However, they have find willing soldiers and steal a ship before even trying to catch the Queen.
This book moves very quickly, with the unsurprising pace of a comic book, and I enjoyed that. There are still several solid character moments, though readers familiar with the franchise know not everyone is going to make it out alive. I also enjoyed the fantastic reveal about one of the leads which I didn't see coming but explained so much.
It's a shame that this plot didn't occur and the series has been subpar with Alien 3 and the horribly written prequels. Still, this is a fun "What If" read that I highly recommend for fans of these sci-fi nightmares.
November 22, 2021
A satisfying conclusion to an overall fun trilogy of books. If you're a fan of the Alien franchise who's only familiar with the movies and was disappointed with how the post-Aliens sequels turned out, but always wanted to see how the story of Ripley, Newt, and Hicks went on, in a different way: then I personally recommend checking out all three books in this trilogy.
The only aspect to keep in mind when reading them is that though the two main leads are "new" characters by the names Wilks and Billie, these books are novelizations of a series of comics under the titles "Aliens: Outbreak" & "Aliens: Theory of Alien Propagation" (Earth Hive), "Aliens: Nightmare Asylum" (same title), and "Aliens: Earth War" (The Female War). So in other words, Billie and Wilks are actually Newt and Hicks. But because the novelizations were released after Alien 3, Dark Horse slightly rewrote certain characters and general plot aspects so that they don't clash with the plot of that movie; they could serve as tie-ins to Alien 3.
Information used here, and all further information can be found from the following sources:
https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Aliens:_E...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl05M...
The only aspect to keep in mind when reading them is that though the two main leads are "new" characters by the names Wilks and Billie, these books are novelizations of a series of comics under the titles "Aliens: Outbreak" & "Aliens: Theory of Alien Propagation" (Earth Hive), "Aliens: Nightmare Asylum" (same title), and "Aliens: Earth War" (The Female War). So in other words, Billie and Wilks are actually Newt and Hicks. But because the novelizations were released after Alien 3, Dark Horse slightly rewrote certain characters and general plot aspects so that they don't clash with the plot of that movie; they could serve as tie-ins to Alien 3.
Information used here, and all further information can be found from the following sources:
https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Aliens:_E...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl05M...
March 4, 2022
Billie and Wilks have escaped the clutches of General Spears and have found shelter on a lunar colony. The colony is harboring Earth refugees after the infestation of aliens, and one of those refugees is Ellen Ripley. She has a plan to defeat the aliens once and for all, but it will require a few volunteers and the theft of a starship. Billie and Wilks are, of course, in. Billie has personally become obsessed with rescuing a young girl named Amy. She and her grandfather have been sending broadcasts from Earth, documenting their attempts to survive the alien hordes. Everybody is telling her that the chances of the little girl’s survival is close to nil, but Billie has to believe…
Joining author Steve Perry for this third installment, “Aliens: The Female War”, is his daughter Stephani Perry. Apparently, the ability to tell a good rip-roaring action-adventure story runs in the Perry blood.
There’s a shocking plot twist in this, too; one that guarantees continuation of the series.
Excellent series so far. I look forward to reading more, although with this book, Perry’s run as writer for the series comes to an end.
Joining author Steve Perry for this third installment, “Aliens: The Female War”, is his daughter Stephani Perry. Apparently, the ability to tell a good rip-roaring action-adventure story runs in the Perry blood.
There’s a shocking plot twist in this, too; one that guarantees continuation of the series.
Excellent series so far. I look forward to reading more, although with this book, Perry’s run as writer for the series comes to an end.
September 26, 2021
Well, the final book in the trilogy was not up to the same standard as the first two. I definitely enjoyed parts of it, however there were other areas I thought were just handled too simply or maybe not given much thought. I've not read the comic books this trilogy is based on, so can't use that as reference.
I don't want to give too much of the plot away, however a lot of things seem to come easily for our heroes this time around, and I honestly think that the Xenomorphs were made to be less sinister and dangerous in this third novel. Gone is their menacing ambition and focus - they seem to be the type of villain that gives up the ghost too soon. Also, I'm just not sure what the intention is on how Billie is characterised - by that I mean her relationships with male members of the team. Is it just a plot addition to grad the attention of the hetero male readers?
It's a shame, really, because this trilogy had certainly been doing a great job of presenting the Xenomorphs up until this third novel. I've got plenty more Aliens novels to read, so I'm hoping the next in line are an improvement.
I don't want to give too much of the plot away, however a lot of things seem to come easily for our heroes this time around, and I honestly think that the Xenomorphs were made to be less sinister and dangerous in this third novel. Gone is their menacing ambition and focus - they seem to be the type of villain that gives up the ghost too soon. Also, I'm just not sure what the intention is on how Billie is characterised - by that I mean her relationships with male members of the team. Is it just a plot addition to grad the attention of the hetero male readers?
It's a shame, really, because this trilogy had certainly been doing a great job of presenting the Xenomorphs up until this third novel. I've got plenty more Aliens novels to read, so I'm hoping the next in line are an improvement.
April 1, 2024
Female War was a middle of the road Aliens novel. As the bookend to the Earth War trilogy it leaves a lot to be desired. That's not really the fault of the Perrys as they were just adapting the story from the comic line but what new part they added in - Ripley being a synthetic - opened a door to questions that ultimately goes nowhere and is never explored in any other Aliens media. The characters are all well written and as the reader you get to spend a lot of time with them and grow close to them. By the end of the novel I was sad that this was the last time we'd ever see Billie or Wilks. But that's all the book really is, you spend half the novel getting to the planet of the Queen Mother and then the other half going back to Earth. Once the characters get back there's a little more action but it amounts to a few pages in the last couple chapters. If you have started the Earth War trilogy it is a must read to know how the Earth was saved from the xenomorphs but prepare yourself for the dip in quality compared to books one and two.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 31, 2021
Finding refuge on yet another planet? Meeting Ripley in person? Getting a well-written crew to go on what seems to be a suicide mission? Why not! Definitely an idea worth pondering! The great duo (Wilks&Billie) are once more faced with a challenge seemingly destined to end in failure so logically they will embark on yet another (understaffed and poorly equipped) mission. This time we are off to some lonely planet in order to capture the ‘mama of all mamas’: THE QUEEN with the intention to transport her back to Earth to save our home land once and for all!
This one was my least favourite part. I used to be big on Ripley, now I feel like she’s stolen Billie’s thunder. The ending was a tad too rushed, and we never find out if the plan panned out as intended. Cliffhanger right there.
Military banter was fun, and I will still say that this would make a good film. C’mon Hollywood people! Use the material, don’t be shy!
This one was my least favourite part. I used to be big on Ripley, now I feel like she’s stolen Billie’s thunder. The ending was a tad too rushed, and we never find out if the plan panned out as intended. Cliffhanger right there.
Military banter was fun, and I will still say that this would make a good film. C’mon Hollywood people! Use the material, don’t be shy!
December 5, 2025
I knew I was in for a completely elevated story when not only did the structure feel more mature but women’s underwear was now referred to as underwear and not panties repeatedly.
Whatever influence Stephani Perry has over Steve Perry is for all the better. Every issue I have previously had was improved upon in this final entry in the trilogy, not absent completely but at least a little more character relevant. From the weird level of horniness which is now restricted to Nosferatu style dream sequences to the will they won’t they with the Newt and Hicks stand ins (which I still didn’t love but is handled with far more grace and meaning that it has been dealt with previously), it all became plot related and the characters were as conflicted and confused as I previously was. The whole structure made for a far better experience.
Honestly so refreshing to end this trilogy on a really competent high. I want to see where this Ripley goes next.
Whatever influence Stephani Perry has over Steve Perry is for all the better. Every issue I have previously had was improved upon in this final entry in the trilogy, not absent completely but at least a little more character relevant. From the weird level of horniness which is now restricted to Nosferatu style dream sequences to the will they won’t they with the Newt and Hicks stand ins (which I still didn’t love but is handled with far more grace and meaning that it has been dealt with previously), it all became plot related and the characters were as conflicted and confused as I previously was. The whole structure made for a far better experience.
Honestly so refreshing to end this trilogy on a really competent high. I want to see where this Ripley goes next.
April 10, 2022
A good finish to the trilogy here really, as we resolve the multiple plot points that had arisen throughout (Except for one glaring one from the first book). Nice to get Ripley in the book, and it explains well how given the movies, whereas my understanding is that the revised comics don't really (original comics didn't have that issue :) ).
Some good tension throughout, allows us to get a deeper understanding of the xenomorphs as well, as well as opening up never really knowing their origins, just suspicions (something I would have been happier for Prometheus and Covenant to leave open as well).
Good character developments throughout, and builds to a hopeful ending, echoing the ending of the Aliens movie, which I appreciate.
Overall a good read, and nothing to detract it like Nightmare Asylum, though conversely nothing more to make it an exceptional read either.
Some good tension throughout, allows us to get a deeper understanding of the xenomorphs as well, as well as opening up never really knowing their origins, just suspicions (something I would have been happier for Prometheus and Covenant to leave open as well).
Good character developments throughout, and builds to a hopeful ending, echoing the ending of the Aliens movie, which I appreciate.
Overall a good read, and nothing to detract it like Nightmare Asylum, though conversely nothing more to make it an exceptional read either.
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