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The Complete Aliens Collection: Living Nightmares (Phalanx, Infiltrator, Vasquez)
Collected together for the first time, this omnibus brings new authors to the Alien universe. Across three epic novels, discover the origins of fan-favorite character PFC Jenette Vasquez and her family, fight extinction at the hands of Xenomorphs, and find the researchers of Pala Station courting disaster of... the Xenomorph kind.The official prequel to Fire Team Elite from Cold Iron Studios. Dr. Timothy Hoenikker arrives on Pala Station, a Weyland-Yutani facility. Lured there by the promise of alien artifacts, instead he finds a warped bureaucracy and staff of misfits testing the effects of Xenomorph bio-materials on living creatures. Unbeknownst to the personnel, however, there is an infiltrator among them whose actions could spell disaster.Also on staff is Victor Rawlings, a former marine who gathers together other veterans to prepare for the worst. As Pala Station receives a delivery of alien eggs, the experiments spin out of control, and only the former Colonial Marines stand between the humans and certain death. Ataegina was an isolated world of medieval castles and rich cultures—vibrant until the demons rose and slaughtered ninety percent of the planet’s population. Swarms of lethal creatures with black husks, murderous claws, barbed tails and dreaded “tooth-tongues” rage across the land. Terrified survivors hide in ruined mountain keeps, where they eke out a meager existence. Skilled runners travel the treacherous paths between keeps, maintaining trade and sharing information. If caught, they die screaming. Ahiliyah of Lemeth Hold is an exceptional runner, constantly risking her life for her people. When she and her closest companions discover a new weapon, it may offer the one last chance to end the demon plague. But to save humanity, the trio must fight their way to the tunnels of Black Smoke Mountain—the lair of the mythical Demon Mother. Even before the doomed mission to Hadley's Hope, Jenette Vasquez had to fight to survive. Born to an immigrant family with a long military tradition she looked up to the stars, but life pulled her back down to Earth—first into a street gang, then prison. The Colonial Marines proved to be Vasquez's way out—a way that forced her to give up her twin children.Raised by Jenette's sister Roseanna, those children—Leticia and Ramón—have been forced to discover their own ways to survive. Leticia by following her mother's path into the military, Ramón by embracing the corporate hierarchy of Weyland-Yutani. Their paths converge on an unnamed world, which some see as a potential utopia, while others would use it for highly secretive research.Regardless of what humans might have planned for it, however, Xenomorphs will turn the planet into a living hell. Sarcastic, sexy, and action-packed, Vasquez brings generational heritage into the Alien universe in an explosive way.
- GenresScience Fiction
880 pages, Paperback
Published November 5, 2024
14 people are currently reading
49 people want to read
About the author
Scott Sigler
132 books4,337 followersTHE CRYPT: SHAKEDOWN is Book I of a new five-book series. It’s out October 3, 2023 in hardcover, eBook, and audiobook narrated by Ray Porter.
iTunes by subscribing to his podcast.
#1 New York Times best-selling author Scott Sigler is the creator of fifteen novels, six novellas and dozens of short stories. He gives away his stories as weekly, serialized, audiobooks, with over 40 million episodes downloaded.
Scott launched his career by releasing his novels as author-read podcasts. His rabid fans were so hungry for each week’s episode that they dubbed themselves the “Junkies.” The first hit is always free …
He is also is a co-founder of Empty Set Entertainment, which publishes his Galactic Football League series. He lives in San Diego, CA, with his wife and wee little Dogs of Døøm.
iTunes by subscribing to his podcast. #1 New York Times best-selling author Scott Sigler is the creator of fifteen novels, six novellas and dozens of short stories. He gives away his stories as weekly, serialized, audiobooks, with over 40 million episodes downloaded.
Scott launched his career by releasing his novels as author-read podcasts. His rabid fans were so hungry for each week’s episode that they dubbed themselves the “Junkies.” The first hit is always free …
He is also is a co-founder of Empty Set Entertainment, which publishes his Galactic Football League series. He lives in San Diego, CA, with his wife and wee little Dogs of Døøm.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 4, 2025
Phalanx 3/5
I enjoyed the storyline of Phalanx. I thought that the unique setting gave a fresh new perspective to such an extensive franchise. Ataegina is a pre-industrial society that are fighting back against a xenomorph invasion using bows and spears - forming the titular phalanx.
The storyline was interesting, but did feel strangely paced. Much of the book is slow discovery and scraping-the-surface politics. It feels a lot more YA than I expected from an Alien story - which while again is a unique feature of this story - I personally don't enjoy more YA fiction. The main characters range from around 15-19.
Sigler's writing is well done and suspenseful. However, I do wish some of the concepts were explored more in depth for example the politics or religion of Lemeth Hold. My biggest gripe was the faux 'girlboss' feminism portrayed by this story. Ahiliyah is our 19 year old main character, and in the beginning of the book, she is certain about two things: she doesn't want a family or children (as is expected of her in her society), and she wants to be a warrior (which women are not allowed to be). However, as soon as the leadership of Lemeth Hold are sent into chaos, she steps in to be a leader, and only two people raise this as (what they percieve as) a problem. These people eventually relent and allow her to sit on the council for essentially as long as she is useful to them. Later, ater a near death experience, Ahiliyah suddenly decides she actually loves her boyfriend and wants to have a baby with him, which feels at odds with her characterisation thus far.
SPOILER BELOW:
At the end of the book, she leads the army of Lemeth Hold with a baby in her arms. A win for feminism? She can really have it all, I guess.
Infiltrator - 4/5
Weston Ochse specialised in military horror novels, and that is obvious through this entire story. This was an excellent book from start to finish.
The storyline is great - it Ochse does a brilliant job at lining up dominoes and watching them fall - a similar feeling I had throughout Micheal Crichton's Jurassic Park. The characters, while they aren't necessarily deep, each have unique background stories that lend themselves to the narrative. My only issue would be that the ending feels slightly rushed. I loved the distinct xenomorphs Ochse introduced, though - and the idea of a smarter leader like Seven gave me the heebie jeebies. Excellent!
Vasquez - 1/5
Unfortunately, I really did not enjoy this book. 4/5ths of the pages are taken up by borderline meaningless family day-to-day life. Roseanna was easily my favourite character out of all the characters included. Being honest, I skim-read 2/5ths of this because while it was a very comprehensive backstory for these characters, I kept wondering when it would finally become an Alien story. When it did, it didn't add anything new to the classic 'whoopsie, the Xenomorphs have broken containment' unlike the other two Alien stories. It was ultimately, 50 pages of an alien story.
I enjoyed the storyline of Phalanx. I thought that the unique setting gave a fresh new perspective to such an extensive franchise. Ataegina is a pre-industrial society that are fighting back against a xenomorph invasion using bows and spears - forming the titular phalanx.
The storyline was interesting, but did feel strangely paced. Much of the book is slow discovery and scraping-the-surface politics. It feels a lot more YA than I expected from an Alien story - which while again is a unique feature of this story - I personally don't enjoy more YA fiction. The main characters range from around 15-19.
Sigler's writing is well done and suspenseful. However, I do wish some of the concepts were explored more in depth for example the politics or religion of Lemeth Hold. My biggest gripe was the faux 'girlboss' feminism portrayed by this story. Ahiliyah is our 19 year old main character, and in the beginning of the book, she is certain about two things: she doesn't want a family or children (as is expected of her in her society), and she wants to be a warrior (which women are not allowed to be). However, as soon as the leadership of Lemeth Hold are sent into chaos, she steps in to be a leader, and only two people raise this as (what they percieve as) a problem. These people eventually relent and allow her to sit on the council for essentially as long as she is useful to them. Later, ater a near death experience, Ahiliyah suddenly decides she actually loves her boyfriend and wants to have a baby with him, which feels at odds with her characterisation thus far.
SPOILER BELOW:
At the end of the book, she leads the army of Lemeth Hold with a baby in her arms. A win for feminism? She can really have it all, I guess.
Infiltrator - 4/5
Weston Ochse specialised in military horror novels, and that is obvious through this entire story. This was an excellent book from start to finish.
The storyline is great - it Ochse does a brilliant job at lining up dominoes and watching them fall - a similar feeling I had throughout Micheal Crichton's Jurassic Park. The characters, while they aren't necessarily deep, each have unique background stories that lend themselves to the narrative. My only issue would be that the ending feels slightly rushed. I loved the distinct xenomorphs Ochse introduced, though - and the idea of a smarter leader like Seven gave me the heebie jeebies. Excellent!
Vasquez - 1/5
Unfortunately, I really did not enjoy this book. 4/5ths of the pages are taken up by borderline meaningless family day-to-day life. Roseanna was easily my favourite character out of all the characters included. Being honest, I skim-read 2/5ths of this because while it was a very comprehensive backstory for these characters, I kept wondering when it would finally become an Alien story. When it did, it didn't add anything new to the classic 'whoopsie, the Xenomorphs have broken containment' unlike the other two Alien stories. It was ultimately, 50 pages of an alien story.
September 18, 2025
An omnibus of three novels; 'Phalanx', 'Infiltrator' and 'Vasquez'.
'Phalanx' sees isolated communities on a pre-industrial world attempting to survive against the increasing aggression of the 'demons'. 'Infiltrator' focuses on a secret research facility where the scientists are experimenting with both the Xenomorphs and the mysterious black goo found in an ancient site. Finally, 'Vasquez' follows the early days of the titular marine from Aliens and then goes on to tell the stories of her twin children.
'Phalanx' was the story that I had the least interest in going into this book, finding the idea of a medieval planet in the Alien universe to be out-of-place and silly (the author warns readers not to spoil anything online but I really don't think anyone will be shocked to discover the twist that the Alien franchise is science fiction). However, despite my reservations, the story that Scott Sigler tells of a young scout trying to survive a dangerous role, overcome the inherent misogyny in her society and save the people of her community is genuinely really compelling.
Had I read this story in isolation (no pun intended) then the book would've rated 4 out of 5.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.
'Infiltrator' initially follows a fairly familiar pattern for anyone familiar with Alien stories, with scientific hubris inevitably leading to disaster, but it rapidly begins introducing concepts that I found harder and harder to understand the presence of.
Why is every third person a former Colonial Marine? Why do new monsters keep getting added to the fray, as if the Xenomorphs weren't enough? What do all the oblique references to the black goo mean? Why are concepts like the archaeological dig, the secret sublevels and the forest hunting lodge introduced but never actually appear?
These questions were answered when I discovered that this story is actually a tie-in to the computer game 'Aliens: Fireteam Elite', which I haven't played but which, presumably, fills in all the massive plot holes throughout this story. Sadly, without knowledge of the game, this story is just a mess.
The book saves the worst for last in the form of V. Castro's 'Vasquez'.
Here we're taken more than a century into our future, where everyone is still listening to Bruce Springsteen and the Rolling Stones, as well as wearing Wranglers and Patagonia t-shirts (and, apparently, referencing 'Fifty Shades of Grey'). We then learn basically nothing of any interest about one of the secondary characters from Aliens, completely skip over her actual time as a Colonial Marine and just barely touch on her role in the movie.
With half of the story still left after her death, we're forced to follow the stories of Vasquez's twin children; a girl who is just exactly her all over again and a boy who is a slimy corporate schill. The two of them then proceed to be as breathtakingly boring as they can be. Even once the Xenomorph breakout on a distant world kicks-in the book barely gets any more interesting and I was immensely glad when I was finally done with it.
Overall, one really enjoyable novel and two turds.
* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *
'Phalanx' sees isolated communities on a pre-industrial world attempting to survive against the increasing aggression of the 'demons'. 'Infiltrator' focuses on a secret research facility where the scientists are experimenting with both the Xenomorphs and the mysterious black goo found in an ancient site. Finally, 'Vasquez' follows the early days of the titular marine from Aliens and then goes on to tell the stories of her twin children.
'Phalanx' was the story that I had the least interest in going into this book, finding the idea of a medieval planet in the Alien universe to be out-of-place and silly (the author warns readers not to spoil anything online but I really don't think anyone will be shocked to discover the twist that the Alien franchise is science fiction). However, despite my reservations, the story that Scott Sigler tells of a young scout trying to survive a dangerous role, overcome the inherent misogyny in her society and save the people of her community is genuinely really compelling.
Had I read this story in isolation (no pun intended) then the book would've rated 4 out of 5.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.
'Infiltrator' initially follows a fairly familiar pattern for anyone familiar with Alien stories, with scientific hubris inevitably leading to disaster, but it rapidly begins introducing concepts that I found harder and harder to understand the presence of.
Why is every third person a former Colonial Marine? Why do new monsters keep getting added to the fray, as if the Xenomorphs weren't enough? What do all the oblique references to the black goo mean? Why are concepts like the archaeological dig, the secret sublevels and the forest hunting lodge introduced but never actually appear?
These questions were answered when I discovered that this story is actually a tie-in to the computer game 'Aliens: Fireteam Elite', which I haven't played but which, presumably, fills in all the massive plot holes throughout this story. Sadly, without knowledge of the game, this story is just a mess.
The book saves the worst for last in the form of V. Castro's 'Vasquez'.
Here we're taken more than a century into our future, where everyone is still listening to Bruce Springsteen and the Rolling Stones, as well as wearing Wranglers and Patagonia t-shirts (and, apparently, referencing 'Fifty Shades of Grey'). We then learn basically nothing of any interest about one of the secondary characters from Aliens, completely skip over her actual time as a Colonial Marine and just barely touch on her role in the movie.
With half of the story still left after her death, we're forced to follow the stories of Vasquez's twin children; a girl who is just exactly her all over again and a boy who is a slimy corporate schill. The two of them then proceed to be as breathtakingly boring as they can be. Even once the Xenomorph breakout on a distant world kicks-in the book barely gets any more interesting and I was immensely glad when I was finally done with it.
Overall, one really enjoyable novel and two turds.
* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *
July 18, 2025
First two books, okay. Last one, oof, it's bad.
Phalanx:
Think Greek military tactics and different mountain villages trying to survive against Xenomorphs. The story is so so overall, but the twists at the end really open up your imagination to what this world really is. Leaves you wanting to know more about the world and the people, which remedies some of the slower storytelling in the beginning.
Infiltrator:
This one was pretty interesting will all the different experiments going on on different types of aliens/xenomorphs being combined with Xenomorphs. I enjoyed it.
Vasquez:
Was this even an Alien book or was it tacked on? You're telling me in ~2170-~2200 people are still listening to 90s music? The Eagles? Watching Pee-Wee Herman? and not just like a few odd people, but like it seems normal? What?
The main character it's named after is offed early on in Part 1. Then we get 3 sections about twins growing up.
Not until part 5, the end, do the Aliens really show up. There is like a page or two in each section, but nothing serious until the very end. By then it's almost a cliffs notes battle. Big letdown.
Phalanx:
Think Greek military tactics and different mountain villages trying to survive against Xenomorphs. The story is so so overall, but the twists at the end really open up your imagination to what this world really is. Leaves you wanting to know more about the world and the people, which remedies some of the slower storytelling in the beginning.
Infiltrator:
This one was pretty interesting will all the different experiments going on on different types of aliens/xenomorphs being combined with Xenomorphs. I enjoyed it.
Vasquez:
Was this even an Alien book or was it tacked on? You're telling me in ~2170-~2200 people are still listening to 90s music? The Eagles? Watching Pee-Wee Herman? and not just like a few odd people, but like it seems normal? What?
The main character it's named after is offed early on in Part 1. Then we get 3 sections about twins growing up.
Not until part 5, the end, do the Aliens really show up. There is like a page or two in each section, but nothing serious until the very end. By then it's almost a cliffs notes battle. Big letdown.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews