#ReadAllTheBooks’s Reviews > Alien: Inferno's Fall: An Original Novel Based on the Films from 20th Century Studios > Status Update
#ReadAllTheBooks
is 80% done
They're now in the Engineers' underground facility. Some interesting notions, but as a whole a lot of this just feels like a shorter story stretched very thin. This feels like it could have easily been a novella or short story as opposed to a full length novel, and delivered more of a punch. I don't necessarily fault the author for this since she likely had a ton of limitations put on her about what could be added.
— Jan 23, 2023 04:22AM
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#ReadAllTheBooks’s Previous Updates
#ReadAllTheBooks
is 85% done
I do kind of like where this is going for the most part, but I'm also a bit apprehensive. I don't really want the Engineers to be a visible part of the Aliens universe. I like them being an enigmatic, menacing ghost in the machine. I'm aware that the writers are given details of what should be in the book and general gists of where the universe is going, but still...
— Jan 23, 2023 11:36AM
#ReadAllTheBooks
is 50% done
OK. Halfway in, stuff is finally picking up. Xenos (of a sort) are rampaging. This reminds me of something others have complained about: the black goo. They say it doesn't act like this and I have to say... yes and no. Explanations (and slight spoilers) in comments.
— Jan 18, 2023 04:01AM
#ReadAllTheBooks
is 40% done
So far this is OK. I know there are some out there upset with the representation in the book. I don't really see it, but I will say that there is far more representation here than you'd normally see in a book in this series. I really only have two gripes. One is that this is moving pretty slowly and the other is the audiobook narrator. I'll elaborate more in comments.
— Jan 17, 2023 06:14AM
There are basically two stories being told her, which overlap more towards the end of the book:
Mae is literally the first of her kind, as far as we know. She was created by Davis to be a "daughter" for him and Zula. HOWEVER, he only allowed her to exist (ie, her programming to start up) once he himself was dead. A form of Davis exists as a bit of Jiminy Cricket type conscience, but it's not really the full him. He intended her to protect Zula but also become human. Zula isn't able to really embrace her existence for multiple reasons (grief, Xeno battles, etc) and what's more, the ship AI and its synth counterpart essentially want Mae dead. They aren't going out of their way to kill her, but when an opportunity strikes they take it. So her story is about her kind of trying to become herself as well as question what her place is in this world. I think there may come a time where she may even question why she needs to remain next to Zula - or what will happen when Zula dies.
The other story is about a group of miners who are stuck on a planet that has been carpet bombed with black goo. All of the wildlife and people on the surface have either been transformed or killed. The remaining survivors are trying to make it to a meetup point with Zula's team so they can make it off planet. Predominant among the miners is Toru and her family. TBH, most of them are kind of just cannon fodder, played up just enough to justify eliciting some some sort of reaction from Toru. The best interactions with her are Toru and her synth partner Carter, to be honest. There are a lot of hints so far that he may be kind of like Davis in some ways, in that his programming has gone beyond that of a normal synth, as some of his reactions are very human-like. At least that's what I'm hoping.