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Aliens / Predator / Prometheus Universe
Aliens: Alien Harvest
This time the humans are taking the offensive! Stan Myakovsky is a once-famous scientist fallen on hard times. Now he dodges spaceship repo men and dreams of the marketability of his cybernetic ant. Then a woman named Julie Lish walks into his life. She is beautiful, mysterious, and totally amoral. She is also skilled in the arts of thievery and Oriental self-defense. What's more, she has a plan so outrageous there might be one chance in a million to pull it off.
Together Stan and Julie become the most unlikely pair of pirates in the universe. With a hijacked spaceship and a crew of hardcase misfits, they're searching for the ultimate pot of gold at the end of a bloody intergalactic rainbow: royal jelly from an alien hive. The only problem is that the fortune lies on the universe's most godforsaken planet. And once they get their hands on it, the'll have to fight their way past the aliens to get off the planet alive.
Together Stan and Julie become the most unlikely pair of pirates in the universe. With a hijacked spaceship and a crew of hardcase misfits, they're searching for the ultimate pot of gold at the end of a bloody intergalactic rainbow: royal jelly from an alien hive. The only problem is that the fortune lies on the universe's most godforsaken planet. And once they get their hands on it, the'll have to fight their way past the aliens to get off the planet alive.
298 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
10 people are currently reading
597 people want to read
About the author
Robert Sheckley
1,394 books667 followersOne of science fiction's great humorists, Sheckley was a prolific short story writer beginning in 1952 with titles including "Specialist", "Pilgrimage to Earth", "Warm", "The Prize of Peril", and "Seventh Victim", collected in volumes from Untouched by Human Hands (1954) to Is That What People Do? (1984) and a five-volume set of Collected Stories (1991). His first novel, Immortality, Inc. (1958), was followed by The Status Civilization (1960), Journey Beyond Tomorrow (1962), Mindswap (1966), and several others. Sheckley served as fiction editor for Omni magazine from January 1980 through September 1981, and was named Author Emeritus by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2001.
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February 27, 2011
Aliens Novels: Book 5, Alien Harvest / 0-553-56441-2
The alien war is over, humanity is struggling to rebuild again, and a young entrepreneur (down on his luck and beset by debts) decides to load up some government-supplied cannon-fodder in a spaceship in search of the ultimate ticket to riches: alien royal jelly, worth millions to the pharmaceutical companies on Earth. About 200 pages of the 300 page novel are devoted to mindless plot exposition, until we finally see our first alien about two-thirds into the novel and the dying finally begins.
The first problem with "Alien Harvest" is that the above summary also applies 100% to the book preceding it in the series - "Genocide". Actually, the similarities between the two novels are so striking, that I wonder if perhaps this book was an intentional attempt to blatantly reuse the plot of the fourth (perhaps with the hopes of better writing this time) - a theory that is perhaps backed up by the non-applicable teaser on the cover ("A daring raid on the aliens' home planet!") which does not apply to this particular book at all, but does apply to "Genocide". Whoops! (Unlike "Genocide", "Alien Harvest" is a raid on a planet that is not the aliens' home world.)
Unfortunately, changing authors and keeping the plot line did nothing to improve the end result. The writing is cliched, hackneyed, and terrible. And while the cringe-inducing prose is slightly *better* than the absolute train-wreck that was "Genocide", that doesn't mean the end result is even remotely readable. To wit, here are some things that are horribly wrong with "Alien Harvest":
1. The details of a story should at least attempt to line up with the details laid down in previous books - and if they don't, discrepancies should be explained. Exhibit A, far too much is made of the token android who is a carbon-copy of Data from Star Trek. He doesn't look quite human, his movements are a little too mechanical, and he has no feelings but is endlessly fascinated by them. Except that we know from "Earth Hive" that android technology has advanced to the point that androids are completely indistinguishable from real humans. No explanation is given for this, even though it would be easy enough to do so (Earth's technology has been decimated by the war, or perhaps people didn't like the realistic androids, etc.).
Exhibit B, the aliens act completely 'off' in this book - to the point where I felt the author had perhaps never seen an alien movie or read an alien book. Royal jelly, which was a bad plot idea in the first place but apparently we're stuck with it now, can now be harvested directly from the bodies of drone aliens. Which makes zero sense, because royal jelly is produced by the queen for the baby aliens, so it's ridiculous that a drone would just tuck some jelly in their carapace before going for a walkabout outside the hive. Additionally, facehuggers are now employed *in battle*, in extremely confusing sequences where the attacking drone "released the facehugger" - are they carrying them into battle now? Is the facehugger emerging from the drone's body? Has Sheckley even *seen* one of the movies?
2. A futuristic dystopia should *feel* like a futuristic dystopia. Being reminded every 20 minutes that there's been a war recently that decimated the planet and wiped out 80% of humanity doesn't do much good when the author has done no thinking at all about what that means. Let me help you, Sheckley: You know what a species-wide Diaspora and the near-annihilation of the human race means? It means that the cultural artifacts and ancient knowledge you obsess over on every single page do not exist anymore. There is no "Saudi karate" anymore (not that Saudi gangsters use it now - that's what *guns* are for, what is this, a Jet Lee movie??), there are no rhino-horn ritual knives (and they would be far too valuable to use in actual battle), there are no Laotian machetes (and the idiot who thinks one would be worth anything in battle against an alien deserves what is coming to them), there are no ancient 'Oriental fighting arts' being taught to white orphans in between tea ceremonies. There are no tux'n'tails, no mother-of-pearl cufflinks, and no grandmother's-satin-evening-gown (which fits the female lead perfectly, of course!) hanging out in the attic upstairs. For the female lead to have spent her youth, in "Kill Bill" style, training under ancient masters of the thieving and fighting arts is stupid and feels out of place here - as though it were lifted from a particularly bad Bond novel. Characters who know their own ancestry (Iroquois, really?) should not even EXIST. After 80% of humanity has been wiped out, leaving the remaining 20% to haphazardly scatter, then slowly trickle back - everyone should be 100% mutt at this point. Authors needs to think about a world before they try to build it, because mistakes like these take the reader from the narrative. For that matter, don't emphasize that all the food is pressed soypro bars and then have the crew break out pizza after a long hypersleep. Pizza??
3. A plot should make sense, or at least try to. Here's a little detail to chew on: the crew of this particular expedition is composed largely of convicts, supplied by the government as cannon-fodder, much the same way that convicts used to work on chain-gangs. The convicts volunteer because whether they escape or serve their time, they earn their freedom. Except, halfway through the novel, suddenly they have a bleeding union, with rules (!) about which areas of the ship can't be monitored by the officers and guards because prisoners deserve privacy in order to plot mutinies and make escape plans. That's not just bad writing - that's Very Bad Writing. Any author worth their salt should be able to set up a mutiny without providing a unmonitored mess hall packed to the brim with heavily-armed and unsupervised violent convicts.
4. A book shouldn't feel like the chapters were written in random order and then pieced together at a later date. Why do certain events happen at random? Why do characters have the same conversations over multiple chapters as though the conversations had not already happened (like the captain informing the ship owner that the mutineers have taken the last escape pod, twice)? Why do the survivors decide, near the end, that the safest place for them is on top of the alien hive? Why do the characters know at the beginning of the novel that the planet is not the alien home world, but forget that later? Why is an 'ultrasonic suppressor' something that the characters have never seen or heard of before, yet in the next chapter they are able to identify the crucial equipment of one by its serial number? Why, for the love of Pete, does a planet with searing hot winds and zero vegetation suddenly have an impenetrable blanket of wet mist??
5. A plot should be compelling, and the reader should have a reason to care about the characters. Actually, in this regard, Sheckley manages slightly better than predecessor Bischoff. Whereas Bischoff tried to maintain interest by having his characters angst constantly about sex, Sheckley goes the route of 'will the main character find a cure for his illness and get with the girl he loved at first sight'. Unfortunately, the underlying 'steal royal jelly for money' plot just falls so flat that no attempt at character involvement can save it.
Having thought about this in connection with "Genocide", I think the reason these books fail so fundamentally is because the alien movies are about something very different. Whereas "Genocide" and "Alien Harvest" are motivated by greed and hatred, the actual alien movies are about closed spaces, fear, survival instincts, and the desire to protect the helpless. When Ripley and her companions face aliens, they do so because they've been trapped and can't escape - not because they were stupid enough to waltz into a hive, even knowing precisely what awaited them. We worry about Ripley and those she strives to protect because we want them to be safe and to survive. Fundamentally, we connect with them. It is much harder to connect with a bunch of yahoos who let their greed override their common sense. This is why the 'greedy character' almost always dies badly in movies, and almost always without the pity of the audience. Fill up a whole novel with that sort of character and you have a novel full of people the reader doesn't care about.
One last word about the writing in "Alien Harvest": it's awful. I can only pick a few gems to quote here (more's the pity), but these two are, I think, my favorite:
** "Trouble is my real middle name," [Badger] liked to say. "Let me show you how I spell it." And then he'd punctuate his remark for you with his fists.
** "The time for words is past. The torpedo that puts paid to your pretensions is now coming toward you at a speed well below that of light, but fast enough, I think you'll find."
"Torpedo? How dare you, sir!"
I swear I am not making those up.
Bottom line: If you *must* read either "Genocide" or "Alien Harvest", I recommend picking only one to read, not both, since they have almost identical plot lines. It's tricky to say which one to chose - "Genocide" is painfully juvenile, mind-numbingly stupid, and populated with characters so hateful that I wanted them to die. Whereas "Alien Harvest" is deathly dull, disjointed, and has enough bad cultural cliches to fill three full Bond movies. I'd say go with "Alien Harvest", but only because it didn't contain the phrase "hump like horny bunnies", unlike "Genocide".
~ Ana Mardoll
The alien war is over, humanity is struggling to rebuild again, and a young entrepreneur (down on his luck and beset by debts) decides to load up some government-supplied cannon-fodder in a spaceship in search of the ultimate ticket to riches: alien royal jelly, worth millions to the pharmaceutical companies on Earth. About 200 pages of the 300 page novel are devoted to mindless plot exposition, until we finally see our first alien about two-thirds into the novel and the dying finally begins.
The first problem with "Alien Harvest" is that the above summary also applies 100% to the book preceding it in the series - "Genocide". Actually, the similarities between the two novels are so striking, that I wonder if perhaps this book was an intentional attempt to blatantly reuse the plot of the fourth (perhaps with the hopes of better writing this time) - a theory that is perhaps backed up by the non-applicable teaser on the cover ("A daring raid on the aliens' home planet!") which does not apply to this particular book at all, but does apply to "Genocide". Whoops! (Unlike "Genocide", "Alien Harvest" is a raid on a planet that is not the aliens' home world.)
Unfortunately, changing authors and keeping the plot line did nothing to improve the end result. The writing is cliched, hackneyed, and terrible. And while the cringe-inducing prose is slightly *better* than the absolute train-wreck that was "Genocide", that doesn't mean the end result is even remotely readable. To wit, here are some things that are horribly wrong with "Alien Harvest":
1. The details of a story should at least attempt to line up with the details laid down in previous books - and if they don't, discrepancies should be explained. Exhibit A, far too much is made of the token android who is a carbon-copy of Data from Star Trek. He doesn't look quite human, his movements are a little too mechanical, and he has no feelings but is endlessly fascinated by them. Except that we know from "Earth Hive" that android technology has advanced to the point that androids are completely indistinguishable from real humans. No explanation is given for this, even though it would be easy enough to do so (Earth's technology has been decimated by the war, or perhaps people didn't like the realistic androids, etc.).
Exhibit B, the aliens act completely 'off' in this book - to the point where I felt the author had perhaps never seen an alien movie or read an alien book. Royal jelly, which was a bad plot idea in the first place but apparently we're stuck with it now, can now be harvested directly from the bodies of drone aliens. Which makes zero sense, because royal jelly is produced by the queen for the baby aliens, so it's ridiculous that a drone would just tuck some jelly in their carapace before going for a walkabout outside the hive. Additionally, facehuggers are now employed *in battle*, in extremely confusing sequences where the attacking drone "released the facehugger" - are they carrying them into battle now? Is the facehugger emerging from the drone's body? Has Sheckley even *seen* one of the movies?
2. A futuristic dystopia should *feel* like a futuristic dystopia. Being reminded every 20 minutes that there's been a war recently that decimated the planet and wiped out 80% of humanity doesn't do much good when the author has done no thinking at all about what that means. Let me help you, Sheckley: You know what a species-wide Diaspora and the near-annihilation of the human race means? It means that the cultural artifacts and ancient knowledge you obsess over on every single page do not exist anymore. There is no "Saudi karate" anymore (not that Saudi gangsters use it now - that's what *guns* are for, what is this, a Jet Lee movie??), there are no rhino-horn ritual knives (and they would be far too valuable to use in actual battle), there are no Laotian machetes (and the idiot who thinks one would be worth anything in battle against an alien deserves what is coming to them), there are no ancient 'Oriental fighting arts' being taught to white orphans in between tea ceremonies. There are no tux'n'tails, no mother-of-pearl cufflinks, and no grandmother's-satin-evening-gown (which fits the female lead perfectly, of course!) hanging out in the attic upstairs. For the female lead to have spent her youth, in "Kill Bill" style, training under ancient masters of the thieving and fighting arts is stupid and feels out of place here - as though it were lifted from a particularly bad Bond novel. Characters who know their own ancestry (Iroquois, really?) should not even EXIST. After 80% of humanity has been wiped out, leaving the remaining 20% to haphazardly scatter, then slowly trickle back - everyone should be 100% mutt at this point. Authors needs to think about a world before they try to build it, because mistakes like these take the reader from the narrative. For that matter, don't emphasize that all the food is pressed soypro bars and then have the crew break out pizza after a long hypersleep. Pizza??
3. A plot should make sense, or at least try to. Here's a little detail to chew on: the crew of this particular expedition is composed largely of convicts, supplied by the government as cannon-fodder, much the same way that convicts used to work on chain-gangs. The convicts volunteer because whether they escape or serve their time, they earn their freedom. Except, halfway through the novel, suddenly they have a bleeding union, with rules (!) about which areas of the ship can't be monitored by the officers and guards because prisoners deserve privacy in order to plot mutinies and make escape plans. That's not just bad writing - that's Very Bad Writing. Any author worth their salt should be able to set up a mutiny without providing a unmonitored mess hall packed to the brim with heavily-armed and unsupervised violent convicts.
4. A book shouldn't feel like the chapters were written in random order and then pieced together at a later date. Why do certain events happen at random? Why do characters have the same conversations over multiple chapters as though the conversations had not already happened (like the captain informing the ship owner that the mutineers have taken the last escape pod, twice)? Why do the survivors decide, near the end, that the safest place for them is on top of the alien hive? Why do the characters know at the beginning of the novel that the planet is not the alien home world, but forget that later? Why is an 'ultrasonic suppressor' something that the characters have never seen or heard of before, yet in the next chapter they are able to identify the crucial equipment of one by its serial number? Why, for the love of Pete, does a planet with searing hot winds and zero vegetation suddenly have an impenetrable blanket of wet mist??
5. A plot should be compelling, and the reader should have a reason to care about the characters. Actually, in this regard, Sheckley manages slightly better than predecessor Bischoff. Whereas Bischoff tried to maintain interest by having his characters angst constantly about sex, Sheckley goes the route of 'will the main character find a cure for his illness and get with the girl he loved at first sight'. Unfortunately, the underlying 'steal royal jelly for money' plot just falls so flat that no attempt at character involvement can save it.
Having thought about this in connection with "Genocide", I think the reason these books fail so fundamentally is because the alien movies are about something very different. Whereas "Genocide" and "Alien Harvest" are motivated by greed and hatred, the actual alien movies are about closed spaces, fear, survival instincts, and the desire to protect the helpless. When Ripley and her companions face aliens, they do so because they've been trapped and can't escape - not because they were stupid enough to waltz into a hive, even knowing precisely what awaited them. We worry about Ripley and those she strives to protect because we want them to be safe and to survive. Fundamentally, we connect with them. It is much harder to connect with a bunch of yahoos who let their greed override their common sense. This is why the 'greedy character' almost always dies badly in movies, and almost always without the pity of the audience. Fill up a whole novel with that sort of character and you have a novel full of people the reader doesn't care about.
One last word about the writing in "Alien Harvest": it's awful. I can only pick a few gems to quote here (more's the pity), but these two are, I think, my favorite:
** "Trouble is my real middle name," [Badger] liked to say. "Let me show you how I spell it." And then he'd punctuate his remark for you with his fists.
** "The time for words is past. The torpedo that puts paid to your pretensions is now coming toward you at a speed well below that of light, but fast enough, I think you'll find."
"Torpedo? How dare you, sir!"
I swear I am not making those up.
Bottom line: If you *must* read either "Genocide" or "Alien Harvest", I recommend picking only one to read, not both, since they have almost identical plot lines. It's tricky to say which one to chose - "Genocide" is painfully juvenile, mind-numbingly stupid, and populated with characters so hateful that I wanted them to die. Whereas "Alien Harvest" is deathly dull, disjointed, and has enough bad cultural cliches to fill three full Bond movies. I'd say go with "Alien Harvest", but only because it didn't contain the phrase "hump like horny bunnies", unlike "Genocide".
~ Ana Mardoll
April 21, 2020
Quando il modulo smise finalmente di muoversi, Julie si guardò attorno e disse: - Benvenuti su AR-32, tutti quanti. Il pianeta non avrà un bell'aspetto, ma è il mondo che ci farà ricchi.
- O morti - bisbigliò Stan, ma tenne la considerazione per sé.
Decente versione romanzata del fumetto Aliens: Hive pubblicato dalla Dark Horse.
Ci vogliono circa 150 pagine prima che accada qualcosa di veramente interessante ed i due comprimari sintetici e robotici, l'androide Gill ed il robot dalle sembianze di xenomorfo Norbert, sono di gran lunga più interessanti della coppia di protagonisti, ma si riprende molto bene nel finale.
Carino.
- O morti - bisbigliò Stan, ma tenne la considerazione per sé.
Decente versione romanzata del fumetto Aliens: Hive pubblicato dalla Dark Horse.
Ci vogliono circa 150 pagine prima che accada qualcosa di veramente interessante ed i due comprimari sintetici e robotici, l'androide Gill ed il robot dalle sembianze di xenomorfo Norbert, sono di gran lunga più interessanti della coppia di protagonisti, ma si riprende molto bene nel finale.
Carino.
August 21, 2021
I originally gave this story three stars from when I read it back in 2014 and after doing a more thorough re-read for the purposes of writing a review I can't fathom why. With the prior Aliens novels I knew they were related to the original comic books, but when I originally read this I must have convinced myself this was a stand alone tale, because the title didn't tie back to a comic book. But, sure enough, on the title page it says this relates back to Aliens: Hive, serves me right for not paying attention. Now, as a stand alone book as the authors own creation, this is probably in the 2.5 category, but as a novelization and fleshing out of the Aliens: Hive story written by Jerry Prosser it's an absolute travesty. So much so, that I gather the publisher Dark Horse changed the title in hopes people wouldn't recall the comic it is based on. That's seriously how different it is and how much it flat-out just ignores the source material.
In the back of the book there's a write up of how extensive a career Sheckley has in sci-fi and perhaps he was commissioned because the Dark Horse publishers were a fan of his novels and thought, "Sheckley would do an awesome job with this." And... I just feel like Sheckley wasn't into it. I can't speak to Sheckley's other books, I've never read them, but this book comes off either like he's not really a fan of the franchise or he just didn't care, it's tough to tell which.
One of the first indicators that something was really wrong was that the main character from the comic has a changed name. His name is Stanislaw Mayakovsky... in this book he is Stanley Myakovsky. In the original material he is a middle aged man diagnosed with cancer. In this book at times he seems middle aged, bet then later Sheckley declares he is 25... maybe he meant 45? the precursor to Aliens: Hive was the book Cyberantics: A Little Adventure, where we are introduced to Ari, a female ant. We journey with her into a hive and a big deal is made over the sex of the drones. This book, also written by Jerry Prosser, introduces us to Mayakovsky as well and his research, preparing us for the notion of the Alien android Norbert that shows up in Hive and this novel. One major problem here though... Sheckley keeps referring to Ari as a "he". So... it was pretty obvious Sheckley couldn't be bothered to read the source material written as a children's book in preparation of his novelization.
There are moments where I'm not sure Sheckley has actually ever scene either Alien film or read anything about this franchise. There is one moment where one of the characters are shocked there's no vegetation in the Hive, because "If plants won't grow here how are the Aliens able to sustain themselves?"(p.177) Are you for real? And before you start thinking, maybe this was in reference to what the Aliens hunted... the other paragraph says that is a wrong idea. This novel takes place after the Aliens overran Earth and they've started farming out the Royal Jelly from the Super Hive, to the point where it's been made into a drug created by large pharmaceutical companies. So yeah... pretty sure people in this time line are pretty well acquainted with Alien biology and how it works and what they "eat". Just the sheer notion that you'd look at an Alien and say "wow, this thing is possibly an Herbivore" is just mind bogglingly stupid.
In another scene there is a group of people confronting the Aliens and in that exchange the Alien drones are attacking the humans and amidst the attack they "release the face huggers" (p. 202). Yeah, no, that's not how that works, ever. Does Sheckley think the Aliens are running around carrying eggs with them? I am so confused. In another battle the Alien is described as being "raptor-headed" (p.251). And sometimes acid for blood is a factor for things and other times it's not. It's almost as if an editor at Dark Horse went through the novel and added these details in. There are moments when I think Sheckley actually knows what the Aliens are and look like, but it also feels like these details were added in after he already submitted the novel to the publisher. Most of the time it seems like Sheckley has never seen or heard of the Alien/Aliens movie and couldn't be bothered to check it out. There's another maddening scene where Mac, the dog, is taken by the Aliens and observed to be "presented to the queen as an offering". Like... that's not how this works... and then rather than impregnate the dog like in Alien 3, she "eats" the dog. Which is NOT what happened in the source material either, further making it feel like Sheckley didn't actually read Aliens: Hive
The other glaring issue was with the way Sheckley approached the android Gill. First off, he was basically Data. In the source material, he was definitely not. He was much more similar to Bishop from the film Aliens. It's just such a messed up part of the story, because he has the other character Julie acting like she had never seen an Android before. She asks him all this weird questions and tries to develop some weird love interest between the two characters. But if Sheckley had bothered to pay attention to the source material it was pretty well established that Julie and Stan were involved. But in the novel Sheckley completely ignores that and writes Stan as this geek too nervous to touch the pretty girl. Instead preferring his drug addiction to Xeno Zip. This was still over the top compared to the source material, Stan was not this much of a junky... to the point where he "needs to lay down" when journeying through an Alien hive. Just utter insanity and bad writing all around.
I can't go on... Sheckley clearly wanted to write a different novel. He didn't want to write a story in the Aliens setting, it's hard to tell if he even knew what that setting was. If he read the source comics at all, he read them, maybe once, then never referred to them again. I know not every author will have good books, and maybe his other books are quite awesome. But it's very apparent he didn't care about this franchise of Prosser's original material at all. After reading Hive I was kind of interested in reading the novelization, because some of Prosser's original script had it's own problems and definitely needed some fleshing out. Some parts were confusing, so I was looking forward to an author filling in those gaps... and that is not what we got. This is a far cry from the Steve and Stephani Perry novels prior to this. Two writers that clearly enjoy the franchise and the comics Dark Horse has been publishing. Hopefully the next novel, "Rogue" will be written with more care than this.
In the back of the book there's a write up of how extensive a career Sheckley has in sci-fi and perhaps he was commissioned because the Dark Horse publishers were a fan of his novels and thought, "Sheckley would do an awesome job with this." And... I just feel like Sheckley wasn't into it. I can't speak to Sheckley's other books, I've never read them, but this book comes off either like he's not really a fan of the franchise or he just didn't care, it's tough to tell which.
One of the first indicators that something was really wrong was that the main character from the comic has a changed name. His name is Stanislaw Mayakovsky... in this book he is Stanley Myakovsky. In the original material he is a middle aged man diagnosed with cancer. In this book at times he seems middle aged, bet then later Sheckley declares he is 25... maybe he meant 45? the precursor to Aliens: Hive was the book Cyberantics: A Little Adventure, where we are introduced to Ari, a female ant. We journey with her into a hive and a big deal is made over the sex of the drones. This book, also written by Jerry Prosser, introduces us to Mayakovsky as well and his research, preparing us for the notion of the Alien android Norbert that shows up in Hive and this novel. One major problem here though... Sheckley keeps referring to Ari as a "he". So... it was pretty obvious Sheckley couldn't be bothered to read the source material written as a children's book in preparation of his novelization.
There are moments where I'm not sure Sheckley has actually ever scene either Alien film or read anything about this franchise. There is one moment where one of the characters are shocked there's no vegetation in the Hive, because "If plants won't grow here how are the Aliens able to sustain themselves?"(p.177) Are you for real? And before you start thinking, maybe this was in reference to what the Aliens hunted... the other paragraph says that is a wrong idea. This novel takes place after the Aliens overran Earth and they've started farming out the Royal Jelly from the Super Hive, to the point where it's been made into a drug created by large pharmaceutical companies. So yeah... pretty sure people in this time line are pretty well acquainted with Alien biology and how it works and what they "eat". Just the sheer notion that you'd look at an Alien and say "wow, this thing is possibly an Herbivore" is just mind bogglingly stupid.
In another scene there is a group of people confronting the Aliens and in that exchange the Alien drones are attacking the humans and amidst the attack they "release the face huggers" (p. 202). Yeah, no, that's not how that works, ever. Does Sheckley think the Aliens are running around carrying eggs with them? I am so confused. In another battle the Alien is described as being "raptor-headed" (p.251). And sometimes acid for blood is a factor for things and other times it's not. It's almost as if an editor at Dark Horse went through the novel and added these details in. There are moments when I think Sheckley actually knows what the Aliens are and look like, but it also feels like these details were added in after he already submitted the novel to the publisher. Most of the time it seems like Sheckley has never seen or heard of the Alien/Aliens movie and couldn't be bothered to check it out. There's another maddening scene where Mac, the dog, is taken by the Aliens and observed to be "presented to the queen as an offering". Like... that's not how this works... and then rather than impregnate the dog like in Alien 3, she "eats" the dog. Which is NOT what happened in the source material either, further making it feel like Sheckley didn't actually read Aliens: Hive
The other glaring issue was with the way Sheckley approached the android Gill. First off, he was basically Data. In the source material, he was definitely not. He was much more similar to Bishop from the film Aliens. It's just such a messed up part of the story, because he has the other character Julie acting like she had never seen an Android before. She asks him all this weird questions and tries to develop some weird love interest between the two characters. But if Sheckley had bothered to pay attention to the source material it was pretty well established that Julie and Stan were involved. But in the novel Sheckley completely ignores that and writes Stan as this geek too nervous to touch the pretty girl. Instead preferring his drug addiction to Xeno Zip. This was still over the top compared to the source material, Stan was not this much of a junky... to the point where he "needs to lay down" when journeying through an Alien hive. Just utter insanity and bad writing all around.
I can't go on... Sheckley clearly wanted to write a different novel. He didn't want to write a story in the Aliens setting, it's hard to tell if he even knew what that setting was. If he read the source comics at all, he read them, maybe once, then never referred to them again. I know not every author will have good books, and maybe his other books are quite awesome. But it's very apparent he didn't care about this franchise of Prosser's original material at all. After reading Hive I was kind of interested in reading the novelization, because some of Prosser's original script had it's own problems and definitely needed some fleshing out. Some parts were confusing, so I was looking forward to an author filling in those gaps... and that is not what we got. This is a far cry from the Steve and Stephani Perry novels prior to this. Two writers that clearly enjoy the franchise and the comics Dark Horse has been publishing. Hopefully the next novel, "Rogue" will be written with more care than this.
October 21, 2023
I probably wouldn’t really recommend this to anyone. I expected a lot more of it then it could deliver
March 11, 2023
Di roba che riguarda gli Xenomorfi leggerei anche l'oroscopo, se esistesse, ma questo libro non sono proprio riuscito a mandarlo giù.
Conoscevo Sheckley di nome ma questo era il primo approccio a un suo romanzo. L'ho trovato lento, noioso, banale, con una prosa a tratti elementare. La storia segue una linearità scialba, caratterizzata da piccoli avvenimenti che iniziano e finiscono senza lasciare nulla.
La seconda parte è leggermente meglio della prima, ma neanche i nostri amati mostroni alieni riescono a tirare su un romanzo che non va da nessuna parte.
Consigliato solo ai completisti di Alien e dintorni e a chi alla fantascienza dà sempre e comunque una chance.
Conoscevo Sheckley di nome ma questo era il primo approccio a un suo romanzo. L'ho trovato lento, noioso, banale, con una prosa a tratti elementare. La storia segue una linearità scialba, caratterizzata da piccoli avvenimenti che iniziano e finiscono senza lasciare nulla.
La seconda parte è leggermente meglio della prima, ma neanche i nostri amati mostroni alieni riescono a tirare su un romanzo che non va da nessuna parte.
Consigliato solo ai completisti di Alien e dintorni e a chi alla fantascienza dà sempre e comunque una chance.
May 28, 2019
Man, oh, man. These books just keep getting worse. Aside from the stupid, stupid banter that takes place during the fights, or the cliches ("Possession is nine-tenths of the law" and "Money talks" occurred within the first 20 pages or so), some of the dialogue and narrative is just straight-up terrible. Here's my favorite example:
"The time for words is past. The torpedo that puts paid to your pretensions is now coming toward you at a speed well below that of light, but fast enough, I think you'll find."
"Torpedo? How dare you, sir!"
(Yes, honestly.)
Sheckley also uses a technique that really bugs me in fiction, where he refers to future events in the present narrative, like this:
"None of the officers was wearing sidearms. In the inquiry that later followed, Captain Hoban was faulted for this omission."
Even some of my favorite writers do this (Stephen King does this kind of thing a lot), but I don't like it any better.
The weirdest thing about this book is that it has the same premise as Genocide, which preceded this one -- go to the Hiveworld and retrieve the royal jelly to make drugs and get rich. I mean, I get that it's hard to come up with an original idea with this franchise, but come on, try to at least get some space between the books that have the same main idea.
"The time for words is past. The torpedo that puts paid to your pretensions is now coming toward you at a speed well below that of light, but fast enough, I think you'll find."
"Torpedo? How dare you, sir!"
(Yes, honestly.)
Sheckley also uses a technique that really bugs me in fiction, where he refers to future events in the present narrative, like this:
"None of the officers was wearing sidearms. In the inquiry that later followed, Captain Hoban was faulted for this omission."
Even some of my favorite writers do this (Stephen King does this kind of thing a lot), but I don't like it any better.
The weirdest thing about this book is that it has the same premise as Genocide, which preceded this one -- go to the Hiveworld and retrieve the royal jelly to make drugs and get rich. I mean, I get that it's hard to come up with an original idea with this franchise, but come on, try to at least get some space between the books that have the same main idea.
July 16, 2016
One of the worst-written books I've ever read. Sheckley is supposed to be the author of over 50 books and numerous short stories, but this one must have been a rush job for him.
There are two things wrong with this novel: 1) the writing style and structure 2) the ignorance of the source material (in this case, the comic ALIENS: HIVE by Jerry Prosser).
I don't want to spend more time than it deserves in a detailed analysis, but within the first category:
The book's 300 pages are broken down into 78 chapters. That's an average of 3-4 pages per chapter. Nothing wrong with that but the way they are broken (some are half a page, some are 10 pages) down is very random. Sometimes several chapters constitute one long narrative, sometimes one chapter includes three different parts of the story. And the way the narration switches from one character to to another is very amateurish and took me out of the story. A lot of times a few paragraphs are about one character's thoughts and feelings, then next paragraph it's suddenly the point of view of another character... *That*s what chapter breaks are for, not the random way the chapters laid out.
I also had a great feeling that this book was "beefed up" from the first draft; there are a lot of repeated sentences, sometimes told differently but with the same meaning, sometimes characters repeating the same thing twice. Also, some information contradicts itself in different places. This feels like the author might have done a first version which was deemed too short, then went back and wrote out new paragraphs within the existing ones, sometimes forgetting what he already wrote.
A few examples to illustrate:
-in one scene the robot Norbert is carrying Mac the dog in his arms to board the spaceship. Next sentence says Mac comes running out from the corridor, passes Norbert and gets inside the ship.
-another scene has 5 guys walk on the alien planet, one gets killed by an alien, then another one in more graphic details. Then the narrative says "the four remaining men."
-most of the book takes place on the planet AR-32 which is explicitely the actual planet itself. But in one chapter during a debriefing before landing on it, it says AR-32 is an O-type star, and the single planet orbiting it is named Vista. Then we never hear of that info ever again only the planet AR-32. It's like the author added that extra info in the middle after the book was written, but forgot to go edit all the other references to it.
There are many more examples. Also the dialogue is very poorly written in some places, and feels like the author thought this was a young adults novel. That and also the fact that the actual comic story starts on page 92, and no aliens appear until page 178. And there's a whole section in the middle about five members of the crew who decide to mutiny and escape the ship, which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever (there's a very thin reason to have them risk their lives fighting the crew and security, then leave the perfectly comfortable confines of the ship to take an escape shuttle and land on the planet FILLED with thousands of aliens...)
It just has to be read to be believed. Then on to the second reason the book is bad: the author ignored or choose to ignore or change aspects of the original comic.
First off, the main character's name has been changed from Stanislaw Mayakowsky to Stanley Myakowski. And his age has been changed beyond logic: Stan is a cyberneticist of huge renown, and has created advances in human androids, then cybernetic ants and bees. He has published at least three scientific books (2 in the form of children stories) in his lifetime, and is now affected by a terminal cancer. In the comic he looks at least 50 or 60, but its companion book CYBERANTICS (also by Jerry Prosser which is presented as an in-universe book of Stan's) includes a detailed biography of Stan which shows that he was around 64-65 in the comic. And how old does Sheckley think he is? TWENTY EIGHT! I almost threw the book against the wall at that point. Now I know that it's an *adaptation* and the author can take some liberties, but it is clear that Sheckley did not read CYBERANTICS, or even ask the editors or writer about any relevant info. Also, the story never refers to Stan's other works like his android Anna, and his cybernetic bee Barney, both of which he had published books and studies about.
Other changes are made, like the previously mentioned mutiny in the ship and 92 pages of prelude material, none of which would have been needed if the bio from Prosser's book had been used. And Sheckley's ignorance of the aliens physiology and habits shows when he mentioned scientists harvesting royal jelly from the surface of the skin of alien warriors. In all previous Dark Horse stories about Aliens, the ROYAL JELLY is only taken from an alien Queen. There have been whole stories written about capturing Queens or infiltrating a hive to get the valuable jelly. Also, aliens play such a minor role in the whole book.
Overall, this book has been a very frustrating read. I do not base my opinion of Sheckley on it, but clearly this was not his best work.
There are two things wrong with this novel: 1) the writing style and structure 2) the ignorance of the source material (in this case, the comic ALIENS: HIVE by Jerry Prosser).
I don't want to spend more time than it deserves in a detailed analysis, but within the first category:
The book's 300 pages are broken down into 78 chapters. That's an average of 3-4 pages per chapter. Nothing wrong with that but the way they are broken (some are half a page, some are 10 pages) down is very random. Sometimes several chapters constitute one long narrative, sometimes one chapter includes three different parts of the story. And the way the narration switches from one character to to another is very amateurish and took me out of the story. A lot of times a few paragraphs are about one character's thoughts and feelings, then next paragraph it's suddenly the point of view of another character... *That*s what chapter breaks are for, not the random way the chapters laid out.
I also had a great feeling that this book was "beefed up" from the first draft; there are a lot of repeated sentences, sometimes told differently but with the same meaning, sometimes characters repeating the same thing twice. Also, some information contradicts itself in different places. This feels like the author might have done a first version which was deemed too short, then went back and wrote out new paragraphs within the existing ones, sometimes forgetting what he already wrote.
A few examples to illustrate:
-in one scene the robot Norbert is carrying Mac the dog in his arms to board the spaceship. Next sentence says Mac comes running out from the corridor, passes Norbert and gets inside the ship.
-another scene has 5 guys walk on the alien planet, one gets killed by an alien, then another one in more graphic details. Then the narrative says "the four remaining men."
-most of the book takes place on the planet AR-32 which is explicitely the actual planet itself. But in one chapter during a debriefing before landing on it, it says AR-32 is an O-type star, and the single planet orbiting it is named Vista. Then we never hear of that info ever again only the planet AR-32. It's like the author added that extra info in the middle after the book was written, but forgot to go edit all the other references to it.
There are many more examples. Also the dialogue is very poorly written in some places, and feels like the author thought this was a young adults novel. That and also the fact that the actual comic story starts on page 92, and no aliens appear until page 178. And there's a whole section in the middle about five members of the crew who decide to mutiny and escape the ship, which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever (there's a very thin reason to have them risk their lives fighting the crew and security, then leave the perfectly comfortable confines of the ship to take an escape shuttle and land on the planet FILLED with thousands of aliens...)
It just has to be read to be believed. Then on to the second reason the book is bad: the author ignored or choose to ignore or change aspects of the original comic.
First off, the main character's name has been changed from Stanislaw Mayakowsky to Stanley Myakowski. And his age has been changed beyond logic: Stan is a cyberneticist of huge renown, and has created advances in human androids, then cybernetic ants and bees. He has published at least three scientific books (2 in the form of children stories) in his lifetime, and is now affected by a terminal cancer. In the comic he looks at least 50 or 60, but its companion book CYBERANTICS (also by Jerry Prosser which is presented as an in-universe book of Stan's) includes a detailed biography of Stan which shows that he was around 64-65 in the comic. And how old does Sheckley think he is? TWENTY EIGHT! I almost threw the book against the wall at that point. Now I know that it's an *adaptation* and the author can take some liberties, but it is clear that Sheckley did not read CYBERANTICS, or even ask the editors or writer about any relevant info. Also, the story never refers to Stan's other works like his android Anna, and his cybernetic bee Barney, both of which he had published books and studies about.
Other changes are made, like the previously mentioned mutiny in the ship and 92 pages of prelude material, none of which would have been needed if the bio from Prosser's book had been used. And Sheckley's ignorance of the aliens physiology and habits shows when he mentioned scientists harvesting royal jelly from the surface of the skin of alien warriors. In all previous Dark Horse stories about Aliens, the ROYAL JELLY is only taken from an alien Queen. There have been whole stories written about capturing Queens or infiltrating a hive to get the valuable jelly. Also, aliens play such a minor role in the whole book.
Overall, this book has been a very frustrating read. I do not base my opinion of Sheckley on it, but clearly this was not his best work.
November 15, 2018
I really enjoyed this one, although I thought it was similar to the previous book in the series. Once again we find humans (and androids, synthetics and dogs, oh my!) venturing to a dangerous planet in order to get their hands on some Alien Royal Jelly. This time we have a robotic Alien along to help out. Things go bad like they always do and we have an exciting story.
Very good, just slightly derivative. Still a good read for fans of this series.
Very good, just slightly derivative. Still a good read for fans of this series.
April 29, 2008
Another book I got for my husband. He said it was okay, a lot like the movies, but that there were a lot of editing errors. If you're a fan of the films, though, you'll probably enjoy it!
August 6, 2019
A wonderful adventure chasing down aliens.
December 7, 2022
I didn't think this Aliens series could get significantly worse than the previous entry. I was proven wrong. While Aliens: Genocide was disappointing in that it was set several years after the events of the first three books in the series and, thus, had an entire new cast of characters and different story line, it was still somewhat tangentially connected to the Aliens world built to that point. Alien Harvest, on the other hand, was built entirely off of the idea of Alien Queen jelly being used to make an enhancement drug, and that was where it pretty much ended in connection to the series. An about to be completely broke innovator in robotics who is dying of cancer is approached by an expert jewel thief with the idea of putting together and expedition to a world where xenomorphs are known to inhabit in order to beat a mega-pharma (it's the future, big pharma has evolved) corporation to siphoning off the hive jelly, making them rich and possibly prolonging the scientist's life. Sorry, but this is just Fantasy Island (or some kind of silly sci-fi/fantasy drivel) level of storytelling plunged into the Alien universe. Once again, it feels like a fairly well-known author is granted an edition in an established series and instead of constructing something within the existing parameters, they cram a story idea of their own in and call it a franchise property. I suffered through way too much of this in the original Star Wars novels, it was so annoying to see it leech into this series. Robert Sheckley may have been an established sci-fi/fantasy/humor author, but his undertaking of an Alien novel was just awful. The characters mostly spoke in a stilted dialect you would expect from a novel written in 1904, or at least the 50s or 60s (when Sheckley made a name for himself) and not the more modern way futuristic people in a book published in 1994 should have spoken. And if Sheckley was trying to add humor to make the story more sardonic or what have you, he failed, as the more humorous parts fell flatter than the more serious ones. You can tell just how disappointed and angry at this book I was by the fact that I've managed to write such a long review for it. By far the worst entry thus far in the series, and I hope it only gets better again from here.
August 8, 2019
Once upon a time Philip K Dick wrote Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, a poignant and trippy book, written in the typical style of fifties-to-sixties scifi, with all the good and bad that this period carried with it, complete with slightly caricatured personalities and (somewhat) stilted dialogues. Then Ridley Scott snapped up the framing narrative and twisted it through the lens of a grittier, darker, and definitely more real lens of early eighties cinematography, producing a visual masterpiece with characters we could actually feel.
Well, what we have here is the reverse process. The gritty, “lived in” future of the Alien / Aliens franchise has been turned over to what is, despite the actual date of writing, a fifties-to-sixties scifi writer in Sheckley, and the result is a weirdly mind-bending piece of anachronistic warping of a (relatively) modern narrative through the naiveté of an artist stuck rather firmly in the past. Yes, this series of tie-in novels is quite schlocky, but never did I expect that the almost improv-like dialogue of Alien or the solid-gold one-liner exchanges of Aliens would inspire exchanges such as the following between two ship captains:
Dunno about you, but I can straight up see the monocles popping out and the mustachios being twirled. These books always demanded a bit of mental attitude adjustment, since they inevitably slide into a “how the eighties saw the distant future” mindset, but this book has taken things to a comedic degree that I doubt was the original intent.
Well, what we have here is the reverse process. The gritty, “lived in” future of the Alien / Aliens franchise has been turned over to what is, despite the actual date of writing, a fifties-to-sixties scifi writer in Sheckley, and the result is a weirdly mind-bending piece of anachronistic warping of a (relatively) modern narrative through the naiveté of an artist stuck rather firmly in the past. Yes, this series of tie-in novels is quite schlocky, but never did I expect that the almost improv-like dialogue of Alien or the solid-gold one-liner exchanges of Aliens would inspire exchanges such as the following between two ship captains:
“Captain Kuhn, I am a man of little patience. You have already used up my entire store. You have about one second to go into retrofire and get your ship out of there.”
Kuhn replied, “I do not take kindly to peremptory orders, Captain, especially from one who has no legal right to give them. I will leave this vicinity in my own time, when I’m good and ready. And you may be sure I will file a complaint with InterBureau over your attitude.”
“You will have more to complain about than an attitude, Captain Kuhn, but I doubt you will ever file that report.”
“Do not try to intimidate me!”
“The time for words is past. The torpedo that puts paid to your pretensions is now coming toward you at a speed well below that of light, but fast enough, I think you’ll find.”
“Torpedo? How dare you, sir! Number two! Full power to the screens! Take evasive action!”
Dunno about you, but I can straight up see the monocles popping out and the mustachios being twirled. These books always demanded a bit of mental attitude adjustment, since they inevitably slide into a “how the eighties saw the distant future” mindset, but this book has taken things to a comedic degree that I doubt was the original intent.
December 19, 2023
This is easily one of the worst books I've ever read. Granted, I don't remember my first novels very well, and while I hated a lot of the books we read in school I would admit at gunpoint that they were well written, or at least well edited, but... not this.
This is the second book I've read of the Aliens expanded universe and I was expecting it to be more of the same from the first book -- generic sci-fi action with bland but likable characters. Instead, it was a bunch of shitty characters with vague motivations taking part in poorly described events. We've got an ornery, washed up scientist; a whimpering, washed up pilot; a hyper-competent, hyper-confident thief woman with a ton of baggage that only gets alluded to early on before she becomes a love interest for no reason; a tough guy con who's maybe honorable or just a shit bag?; a bunch of other cons who all have names but are just cannon fodder.
I never realized that continuity errors could be a thing in books, but the number of times I had to reread previous pages only to confirm that yes, the author did randomly change what was happening as it was happening was numerous. Two examples: a gun called a "Gauss needler" was called a "Geiss needle" at one point before going back. Another: Man A gets grabbed by an alien and Man B tries to pull him away. Man A looks around for help, but unfortunately Man B is unconscious on the other side of the room.
I dunno, fuck this book. So dumb. I might have to cut my Aliens EU adventure off right here if this is what I can expect from the rest of it.
This is the second book I've read of the Aliens expanded universe and I was expecting it to be more of the same from the first book -- generic sci-fi action with bland but likable characters. Instead, it was a bunch of shitty characters with vague motivations taking part in poorly described events. We've got an ornery, washed up scientist; a whimpering, washed up pilot; a hyper-competent, hyper-confident thief woman with a ton of baggage that only gets alluded to early on before she becomes a love interest for no reason; a tough guy con who's maybe honorable or just a shit bag?; a bunch of other cons who all have names but are just cannon fodder.
I never realized that continuity errors could be a thing in books, but the number of times I had to reread previous pages only to confirm that yes, the author did randomly change what was happening as it was happening was numerous. Two examples: a gun called a "Gauss needler" was called a "Geiss needle" at one point before going back. Another: Man A gets grabbed by an alien and Man B tries to pull him away. Man A looks around for help, but unfortunately Man B is unconscious on the other side of the room.
I dunno, fuck this book. So dumb. I might have to cut my Aliens EU adventure off right here if this is what I can expect from the rest of it.
August 1, 2010
One of the oldest books I bought, I remember getting it in middle school because I thought aliens were sweet and the cover had a robot alien on it. Years later, I decided for some reason to finally finish it, and as it turns out it was just what it looks like: a book written by some random dude who saw the movies and felt like making fan-fiction of them. Whatever.
July 10, 2014
This book is great at times, weak at others, it felt like the writer was talented but not too concerned
December 25, 2016
A change in direction for what used to be military horror/sci-fi novels.
Didn't enjoy it much at all.
Didn't enjoy it much at all.
September 11, 2024
Alien Harvest was better than I thought it would be. Like the previous novel Genocide I thought Sheckley did a good job of adding to the characters of the comic. To some what has been added might seem silly, like Julie being trained by a master thief and doing ninja moves. To me these Dark Horse era novels are pulp fiction so I expect this sort of over the top goofiness. A complaint I have for a lot of these novels is that it takes a while to introduce the aliens and the horror elements so the beginning of these books need good characters to do a lot of the heavy lifting. The characters for Alien Harvest are great. We are back to sullen, introspective, broken people. The plot of the android Gill taking on more human traits could've been better, Gill in the comic was very robotic and he continues to do so here but his conversations with Julie about the differences between synthetic life and human life should have been contained to one chapter. Gill falling in love with Julie after spending a few hours with her just felt like a way to add pages to the novel. My favorite parts were the chapters that had Mac the dog and it was a gut punch when poor Mac was killed. He didn't make it in the comic either but spending more time with him in the novel made it hurt all over again. This novel and Genocide are two sides of the same coin, a group of people try to steal the royal jelly from a hive. Genocide gives you the take of how a corporation with infinite resources would do it, and this novel is how a group of desperate pirates would do it. This novel told the story better in my opinion. Compared to Bischoff's novel Sheckley just did the characters better. Their motivations made sense and the characters were always reflecting on what they were doing. Bischoff's characters were no deeper than "RAH-RAH shoot the bug and we can f**k later". I enjoyed Genocide for what it was but this book is trying to elevate the idea. Mileage will vary depending on the reader but if you wanted to check out the old EU I'd recommend this over Genocide.
June 27, 2017
"Alien Harvest" continues the neutering of what makes xenomorphs in any shape unique. The prior book in the series, Genocide, introduced anti-acid armor, but as this book needed something of its own it added invisibility suits.
So now the Xenos are hugely suspect to human weapons and tactics, their acid blood does nothing, and now their speed isn't worth squat as you can't chase what you can't see.
The book is alright though. Fulfills the expectations of what these novelizations offer; fast, furious, and stupid amounts of action. Notable of the book is that it provides a small amount of detail of Earth post-Alien wars, offering Jersey City as an example of the desperation so a conflict delivers. Admittedly it's not really much though; but with a series like this, you just take what you get. Really, it's about gunning aliens though, no more.
This book, as others past the initial graphic novel novelizations by Steve Perry, pursues too near ridiculous and overpowering humans, and does damage the "point" of the Aliens series. Still, the book is fun, however mindless, and makes for an okay way to slay a quiet night.
So now the Xenos are hugely suspect to human weapons and tactics, their acid blood does nothing, and now their speed isn't worth squat as you can't chase what you can't see.
The book is alright though. Fulfills the expectations of what these novelizations offer; fast, furious, and stupid amounts of action. Notable of the book is that it provides a small amount of detail of Earth post-Alien wars, offering Jersey City as an example of the desperation so a conflict delivers. Admittedly it's not really much though; but with a series like this, you just take what you get. Really, it's about gunning aliens though, no more.
This book, as others past the initial graphic novel novelizations by Steve Perry, pursues too near ridiculous and overpowering humans, and does damage the "point" of the Aliens series. Still, the book is fun, however mindless, and makes for an okay way to slay a quiet night.
September 26, 2021
Most of this felt like the plot of the previous novel, Genocide. I'm not sure if both authors were told to base the story around the same loose plot, but it sure felt that way. Also, as with Genocide, we don't see any Xenomorphs until the last third of the novel. I want my Aliens novels full of the critters!
The idea may have worked better withe a different plot, or different author. There were a few things that didn't gel, and the android seemed to me a copy of Data from Star Trek - right down to the android slowly learning about human emotions and humour.
I'm all for reading all the Aliens novels at least once - but, if you're not interested in reading them all, you can probably give this one a miss.
The idea may have worked better withe a different plot, or different author. There were a few things that didn't gel, and the android seemed to me a copy of Data from Star Trek - right down to the android slowly learning about human emotions and humour.
I'm all for reading all the Aliens novels at least once - but, if you're not interested in reading them all, you can probably give this one a miss.
June 19, 2022
This seems like it was written very hastily. It's full of cliches and 2-dimensional characters. The most human and likeable characters were 3 robots and a dog. You have to slog through 180 pages before a xenomorph is ever even encountered. Those 180 pages could have been condensed into 20-40 pages easily. The climax was decent but the ending was abrupt, clichéd, just bad. There were several loose ends.
The 296 pages are also divided into 77 chapters and an afterword. I can't help but think this was done to arbitrarily beef up the page numbers, as each chapter starts with a half page and usually ends on a half page.
That said, a decent screenwriter could turn this into a pretty good Aliens movie. I wish one would. The Norbert xenomorphic robot is a pretty interesting idea.
The 296 pages are also divided into 77 chapters and an afterword. I can't help but think this was done to arbitrarily beef up the page numbers, as each chapter starts with a half page and usually ends on a half page.
That said, a decent screenwriter could turn this into a pretty good Aliens movie. I wish one would. The Norbert xenomorphic robot is a pretty interesting idea.
October 3, 2022
I had no idea my favourite author had written this book based on the film Alien. It was not altogether a great experience for me as I don’t particularly like to dip into the horror genre and let my imagination conjure horrifying monsters, as I tend to get terrified too easily. However I did recognise and appreciate the genius of the original film and RS instantly plonked me firmly back into the world of Möbius and Geiger and that magnified microscopic predator. RS’s take was almost exactly what I expected, but in addition to showcasing his versatility, it included some more signature creations such as the two robots and the cameo appearances of some other alien life forms. I far prefer his less commercial work but still found it to be a satisfying read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 13, 2023
Sehr unkreativ geschrieben, musste das Buch nach der Hälfte abbrechen. Das Team besteht aus dem üblichen mäßig attraktiven Wissenschaftler mit Krankheit (Krebs), der Gelee royale der Aliens benötigt, um zu überleben und der schönen und in sämtlichen Kampfstilen ausgebildeten mysteriösen Frau (die besagtem mäßig attraktivem Wissenschaftler natürlich verfällt), die ihm genau zum richtigen Zeitpunkt den Raub des Jahrhunderts vorschlägt sowie einem bekannten Captain, der durch sein Verhalten in einer Gefahrensituation in Ungnade gefallen ist. Es ist kurz vor beeindruckend, dass man ein Buch über ein so interessantes Franchise so langweilig schreiben kann und sich so wenig an die originalen Quellen hält. Über die grauenhaften Dialoge reden wir gar nicht erst...
October 25, 2019
I picked this title simply because it contains Giger's Alien[s]. The first good news is that it's quite short, which gives me a better chance of finishing in one Go. I'm always looking for padding and, apart from a few brief episodes, Padding scores Min.. Characters were nicely spread and didn't follow typical plot-lines. Always nice to see the Cold hand of evil corporations. Endings are a Bugbear of mine, I give this attempt 50% [which is not a bad score for this knotty subject].
March 14, 2022
I missed Sheckley's usual humour in this book. A ship with a barred captain and prisoners as crew go to a planet with ALIENS on to loot royal jelly, which is worth a fortune back on Earth. There is a mutiny as they find another ship is after the same jelly, a ship which blew up another competitor.
Things go from bad to worse as they try to get the jelly from the alien hive and are attacked. Almost all die.
Things go from bad to worse as they try to get the jelly from the alien hive and are attacked. Almost all die.
September 24, 2025
This book had no business being in this series. The plot had nothing to do with the rest of the books. It was more about a bizarre love story between the characters. The mission was pointless and there wasn’t really any mention of the xenomorphs. The plot was all over the place and went nowhere. This should have been a stand alone novel. The only thing that made it an Aliens book was that it took place in their universe.
December 22, 2024
A very well written book with a story you dive into. It was maybe too quick to dive into the story and not develop characters " Stan was ill, royal jelly saves him, Julie approaches to steal some, etc, etc" Get the idea! I loved having to imagine a robotic alien. That made the storing superb compared to simple hunt for royal jelly. A good read for Alien franchise fans.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 16, 2019
Poorly written. Full of spelling mistakes. Large parts make no sense. Contradicts itself from one paragraph to the next. There's a good story in there somewhere, just hidden underneath terrible writing.
November 23, 2021
.... I remember liking this as a teenager.... But.... wow... its just... its all over the place. Sub plots put in, and dropped. Weird interactions. Characters doing things that make ZERO sense. Its not the worst book I've read... but yea.. as an "Aliens" book, its no where near the best either.
January 23, 2022
Better than the comic, though that’s not difficult when you have far more pages and words to develop the premise and the characters. It’s still not a great story. And it really can’t be overstated how awful and simplistic a lot of the writing is, particularly in the first half.
June 17, 2024
Another Alien book with sketchy continuity to the previous ones.
The first third could have easily been a science fiction novel with no relation to the franchise and I quite liked that.
Overall I think it's the best since the first one (Earth Hive) if taken on its own merits.
The first third could have easily been a science fiction novel with no relation to the franchise and I quite liked that.
Overall I think it's the best since the first one (Earth Hive) if taken on its own merits.
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