Book Review 242 //A Witch Shall be Born by Robert E. Howard

Really starting to rattle through these titles and reviews. After this one, there are only five tales left! What will I do without Conan? The fear and dread are building. Let us dive into this week's short.

Title: A Witch Shall Be Born

Author: Robert E. Howard

Blurb: Robert Ervin Howard (1906-1936) was an American pulp writer of fantasy, horror, historical adventure, boxing, western, and detective fiction. He is well known for having created the character Conan the Cimmerian, a literary icon whose pop-culture imprint can be compared to such icons as Tarzan of the Apes, Sherlock Holmes, and James Bond. Voracious reading, along with a natural talent for prose writing and the encouragement of teachers, conspired to create in Howard an interest in becoming a professional writer. One by one he discovered the authors that would influence his later Jack London and Rudyard Kipling. It's clear from Howard's earliest writings and the recollections of his friends that he suffered from severe depression from an early age. Friends recall him defending the act of suicide as a valid alternative as early as eighteen years old. At the same time, many of his stories and poems have a suicidal gloom and intensity that seem prescient in hindsight, describing such an end not as a tragedy but as a release from hell on earth.

Format: 56 pages, E-book

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Review

What a great story that was focused on something other than Conan, for a large part. The story starts with twin sisters, the first a Queen and the other a witch. The witch has ideas of grandeur and soon removes her sister from power and assumes the throne in her name. While the ousted sister is left wandering the desert, seeking aid to reclaim her throne. A simple enough sword and sorcery tale, but where is Conan?

Well, it turns out Conan is Crucified in the desert. In fact, it takes a whole chapter for him to be finally rescued. It is strange reading about him in this manner because though I know he will survive, I can't help but worry that Howard will just kill him for the sake of the story. This leads to a rather tense read early on. But now Conan is free, and we all know how it will end.

As the story unfolds, you can't help but feel for the witch. Due to a birthmark, the young child is thrown into the desert to survive on her own, ultimately leading her to hatred and magic. A self-fulfilling act, I assume. And though you can't condone deception and the overthrow of power, you can at least understand the reasons behind it. 

As long-time blog readers will know by now, I love a good villain, especially a believable one, and this story has it. I really enjoyed this adventure and highly recommend it.

Unboxing

The Final Gale Force Nine Expansion kit for ALIENS: Another Glorious Day in the Corps has arrived. Titled ALIENS: Get Away From Her, You B***h! We get some rather significant and impressive models like the Xenomorph Queen, Ripley in the Powerloader, a Ripley and Newt Combo and two Bishops. We also get enough tokens to replant a forest.

Sit back, relax and enjoy as I unbox and build these miniatures.

If you enjoyed the video, be sure to watch more and subscribe!

Links:

To buy the Game & Expansions

Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps

Aliens: Ultimate Badasses

Aliens: Get Away from Her, you Bitch

Aliens: Assets and Hazards

Equipment

Camera Sony EV10

Blue Yeti Nano Mic

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Book Review 147 //Aliens: Berserker by S.D Perry

Unfortunately, I have struggled to find the Bantam the Book series in order so I have dangerously jumped forward by four books to number nine in the series. Now I have read the comics so I know what is happening and understand that the stories are written to be stand-alone pieces so there are no real spoilers to worry about.

With this in mind let us delve into the horror of Berserker.

Title: Berserker

Author: S.D Perry

Page Count: 230

Style: Paperback

Fluff: It is called a Berserker team - reckless, desperate volunteers recruited by the Company to destroy alien infestations. Based on the spaceship Nemesis, it consists of three brutal ex-cons who do all the grunt work and the Berserker itself, code-named MAX: an armed and armoured exoskeleton powered by the living brain of what was once a human, configured into an unstoppable killing machine.

When the Nemesis is sent to a massive space station, D.S. 949, the team finds an alien hive, the largest in history, with nearly a thousand hapless humans cocooned and incubated. The team mission: to destroy the aliens while leaving the terminal intact. The mission seems like suicide to the bug hunters and their small support staff. And that is perfectly fine for the Company... which wants no witnesses left to the terrifying secret of D.S. 949.

So firstly, let us get the important stuff out the way. Yes, we have seen this story before in comic format. It was a Dark Horse comic called, Aliens: Berserker. It was written by the legendary John Wagner of Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog fame. He was assisted by Paul Mendoza and Andy Mushunsky.

The novel adaptation does the comic proud. In this story, we find out about the Berserker squad. Made up of baiters, people whose job is to be captured by the xenomorph to be taken to the nest. Some specialist weapons experts to assist, and the armoured killing machine named MAX. Once the baiter is captured his suit becomes a tracking device allowing the MAX suit the ability to rapidly find the Queen and kill her. The MAX suit is full-on future tech, anti-acid armour, flamethrowers and a giant-sized pulse rifle, all of which allow it to destroy a nest. But the real twist is the squad being made up of felons who can reduce their sentences in exchange for completing missions. Real dark shit. 

Having completed a mission the team is expecting some RnR when they are forced back into action, following the communication blackout of a research space station near their location. Following a quick detour, the team finds themselves facing a space station overrun by the Xenomorph. Needless to say soon the shit hits the fan and the mission goes awry. Leaving only three members of the team alive at the end.

Perry did a great job bringing the comic to the written page. We bounce between characters in a well-executed manner, that moves the story along in easy to understand way. This was an enjoyable entry to the series and I am so glad to have read it.

Now to get back to finding the other novels. As always I hope you enjoyed and will support my blog by using the link below.

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Audio Review 47 // Aliens: Phalanx by Scott Sigler

Will I ever move on from the Alien franchise? Who knows? What I do know is that the following audio drama was epic. So read on!

Title: Aliens: Phalanx
Author: Scott Sigler
Fluff:
Its Medieval carnage meets Alien as a pre-industrial society fights against extinction brought about by a massive infestation of Xenomorphs.

Ataegina was an isolated world of medieval castles, varied cultures, and conquests, vibrant until the demons rose and spread relentless destruction. Swarms of lethal creatures with black husks, murderous claws, barbed tails and dreaded "tooth-tongues" raged through the lowlands, killing ninety percent of the planet's population. Terrified survivors fled to hidden mountain keeps where they eke out a meagre existence. When a trio of young warriors discovers a new weapon, they see a chance to end this curse. To save humanity, the trio must fight their way to the tunnels of Black Smoke Mountain--the lair of the mythical Demon Mother.

GET A COPY via Amazon Associates link: Aliens: Phalanx 

Style: Audio Drama

Review

First, up the author, Scott Sigler requests no spoilers in the reviews given about this book. I respect that and really understand why. If you could please reframe from spoilers in the comments thank you. If you want to discuss the plot with me reach out privately through email or on social media and we can chat.

The story's biggest and most interesting feature is the setting, no Corps, no spaceships, no lasers, pulse carbines or incinerators. This is a hack and slash novel almost hitting fantasy over sci-fi. Set on a part of the world barely explored, which we know is possibly an Island, made up of mountain holds dug into the landscape and hidden away. We also know of Northern Raiders from another Island but that arc is not really explored.

The world, in general, is at a feudal/pre-medieval level in my opinion. They understand bronze working, crossbow production and basic military warfare like the phalanx. They have some medical knowledge, but most of this seems to be handed down from generation to generation. There is this overwhelming feeling that more has been forgotten than remembered, and each hold seems to have unique personalities and traits along with religions. It also seems each hold specializes in one thing, be it a certain medical crop, mineral or manufacturing process. In theory, they should work together to create a better world, but isolation and fear reign supreme instead.

Into this interesting world comes the "Black Demons" aka the xenomorph. Our poor citizens, don't have the knowledge or true understanding to know what they really are, and instead of fear them almost like a boogie monster. Expect to read terms like demons, spiders and tooth tongues throughout the book. This really brings it all to life as they are exactly those things when you look at them. 

The book's main focus is Ahiliyah, and what a great character. She is easy to relate to, be it her struggles in a male-dominated society, or her forward-thinking viewpoints. You quickly grow to love her. Also, the other two main characters are enjoyable after a while, whilst the villains/other casts all play an important role.

The story as a pre-warning is more about the humans than the aliens, it deals with their struggles which have been shaped by the alien presents on their society and as a book it contains, plenty of twists, turns and shock value. Great listen and was more than I expected. I highly recommend it!

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Comic Review 148 // Aliens/Vampirella

I got lucky last week and managed to get my hands on a digital version of Aliens/Vampirella. Got to be straight up and say I know zero about Vampirella, I know she is a vampire and wears red but that is it. So I felt completely blind going into this and was just left hoping I would enjoy it. But before we dive into the review here is the commercial fluff:

Title: Aliens/Vampirella

Author: Corinna Sara Bechko

Artist: Javier Garcia-Miranda

Fluff: Two iconic horror franchises collide, as Vampirella - the fan-favourite supernatural heroine - faces the most nightmarish creatures ever to appear in cinema: the Xenomorphs from Alien! As the first human colony on Mars digs deeper into the crimson soil, they discover the catacombs of a hibernating civilization, tens of thousands of years old. The evidence suggests that they are Nosferatu, an ancient and sinister species that Vampirella is all too familiar with. Called to the Red Planet to investigate, the monster hunter and her human allies find a chamber with hundreds of ellipsoidal, leathery eggs... and after they hatch, the true horror begins. In space, no one can hear Vampirella scream!

Page Count: 144

As I said earlier I went into this completely blind, but I found myself enjoying it. The basic plot is Vampirella (a female Vampire), is sent to Mars to aid a human research/colony team who has discovered some ancient Vampires and possibly a long-forgotten vampire base. The only problem is this base was overrun by the Xenomorphs!

Overall the story is pretty straightforward and lacks depth, but this is fine as it is full of action. Due to my lack of experience with Vampirella, I am not sure how well she came across? I can tell you she kicks ass and makes for an impressive monster hunter. I am now intrigued enough to go check out some of her line of comics. The xenomorphs come across as their classic horror villain selves. I found the Queen to be a bit lacklustre, but overall they did a great job. The artwork is clean and well-detailed, it helps portray the story well, but could have been a touch darker to add to the mood. It felt a bit too clean.

It wasn't all great. It had some missed opportunities. Firstly the other characters, were dull, pure filler. I get it, they needed some people to die, but so bland, give them some depth! The ending was weak, I am sorry to say this, but a Vampire/Queen with wings fighting a Vampire Bat just wasn't as exciting as it should have been.

Overall, I enjoy this. You need to check it out!

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Miniature Monday // Unboxing: Aliens - Another Glorious Day in the Corps

Something a little different today. No finished figures this time. Instead, I  am gracing you with an unboxing video, for weeks, I have sat on the fence about getting this game. I finally pulled the trigger and purchased it. The game in question, Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps by Gale Force Nine. Here is my Youtube unboxing (if you have a chance please do give me a follow).

So far I am in love with the contents I wish the box was in better condition but I am moving past that. I plan on making more videos in the series so expect more in-depth content to follow on here soon.

Until then enjoy some pictures of the miniatures included in the box.

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Comic Review 116 // Aliens Omnibus Volume 6.

Finishing the year on a high. The entire Aliens omnibus collection is now read, reviewed and published. This has proven to not be an easy read. Though I love the franchise, this series has suffered from a lot of poor stories. Sadly, volume six falls into this category as well, a lot of stories in this issue should have been left on the editor's floor.

With thirteen stories to get through, we will move quickly and sweep those corners.

Apocalypse - A recurring author in the talented Mark Schultz and artwork by Doug Wheatley. The artwork is beautiful in this story and it is a great opener for this book. We have a return to LV-426 with Alecto Throop a strong powerful, female lead, who is hired to find Dr. Lucien. As the body count rises, the story gets Lovecraft creepy, with once more a deranged scientist, trying to find ways to control the xenomorph. Great story, great artwork, read it!

Once in a Lifetime - Mark Schultz once more with writing assistance from Phil Amara. Artwork by Rick Leonardi. Another Geholgod themed story, these guys are as bad as Weyland Yutani! A scientist is sent to investigate a world with xenomorphs that never grew from humans and see how they differ from human born ones. She seems to think the aggressive nature of the xenomorph may come from the genes of humans. An interesting idea, but a little rushed and not overly exciting.

Xenogenesis - Written by Tom and Mary Bierbaum and drawn by David Ross. Set further into the future, xenomorphs are a well-known threat. The companies are bored of them and now have specialist kill teams for extermination jobs. To be honest this is a poorly written story even in the xenomorph franchise. Teenage me may have liked it but he had terrible taste. Just skip it and move on.

Headhunters - Written by Mike W. Barr and drawn by Gene Colan, tells the story of xenomorph hunters attempting to claim some bounties on the death of the aliens. Pretty straight forward, basically a filler piece. Nice pencil artwork.

Tourist Season - Written by Beau Smith and drawn by Gary Morrow. A what I assume is a theme park-style planet, designed to represent the Wild West is under siege from Xenomorphs. Enter stage right the town sheriff for some gunslinging action. Basically, a tale to draw some cowboys - Yawn.

Pig - Script by Chuck Nixon and drawn by Henry Flint (amazing Judge Dredd artist). The story is about a bunch of space pirates attempting to loot a crashed spacecraft. The only problem is the planet is infested by Aliens. To solve the problem they decide to nuke the nest by strapping bombs on to a pig, nothing goes to plan for our pirates but it is one hell of a fun ride. Great story, fun artwork, love it.

Borderlines - Darko Macan and Tommy Lee Edwards team up on this tale. A weird soldier's tale of why we fight the aliens, the best line is "Their hunger of today or ours of Tomorrow". A non-offensive filler piece. Nice moody black and white artwork.

45 Seconds - Darko is back this time with the B & W artwork of Frank Teran. Great artwork on this one. 45 seconds is a tale of a colonial marine who has set bombs to go and blow up the Xeno nest. With only 45 seconds to get out the fear has his control. The ending is great and this is a solid piece. Very enjoyable.

Elder Gods - Story by Nancy A. Collins and drawn by Leif Jones. A lazy merging of Lovecraft and Xeno. Had the opportunity to be good, instead fell a bit flat by leaning too heavily into the Lovecraft theme. ie. Instead of Lovecraft, we have Loveless, instead of Cthulhu we have Tuulituu. Shame.

Purge - Script by Ian Edginton and Phil Hester on the artwork. A weird tale involving a science lab located on a remote planet. The lab specializes in the effects of alien impregnation on lepers. Turns out the defective human gene affects the alien to the point that they never leave the host. And actually, enhance their host in a positive way. Into this mix throw an android with DNA of a xenomorph gene and you are asking for trouble. A weird tale that I am not sure if I enjoyed or not, I find the android angle weird and annoying but the leper angle was definitely a fun spin. I wonder if we will ever meet these characters again?

Glass Corridor - A rare one in the sense that it is written and drawn by the same person, David Lloyd. Following a hitman called Frank, we join him after he fails a hit. Frank stows away on a transport ship with the hopes of escaping, unfortunately, it turns out there is a Xeno onboard. This is a story of redemption and Frank becoming a hero. A nice story.

Stalker - Seems we have a bus scenario happening, we suddenly have a second written and drawn by the same person, David Wenzel. Basically a story of Vikings vs Xenomorphs. A fun story with beautiful artwork. The story ends with a colonial trooper armed with the blade handle of his Viking ancestor, about to board a Xeno infested colony.   

Wraith - The final tale by Jay Stephens and drawn by Eduardo Risso. What happens when your campfire story turns out to be true. This is the theme of this tale. I have to honest this was not a great ending tale it felt and read I a weak-ass Creepshow story. It tried to be scary and then when you felt everyone was saved the twist kicks in. Below average at best.

Final thoughts for this omnibus is an above-average outing. Seems weird to think I've completed the range and I feel proud that I pushed through. Overall from volume one to six, the series has been all over the place. We have had highs like the initial story arc, then we also have had super lows (some even unreadable). But the one thing that has carried us through the entire series is the xenomorphs, I just love them. I also love the continuing threat of Weyland Yuntani, I wish they actually featured more. So where now? I feel it is time to move back to Judge Dredd and 2000 ad, maybe even Strontium Dog? Let me know what to read next in the comments below.

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Comic Review 113 // Aliens Omnibus Volume 4.

I am really enjoying these Alien comics. For better or worst, these stories inspire my imagination. The cover is a thing of nightmares, just imagine opening a storage door and facehuggers pour through! This tome is massive, clocking in at 376 pages. The omnibus contains the following stories: Music of Spears, Stronghold, Frenzy, Taste, Mondo Pest and Mondo Heat. Set in the far future most of these tales involve madmen who hope to control the xenomorphs and ultimately fail! I am excited to start, so like all stories let us begin with the opener.

Music of Spears: Written by Chet Williamson and drawn by Tim Hamilton. The plot is a classic madman scenario, in this case, we follow a composer, Dean Eddington. This character is truly obnoxious and it is hard to find a valid reason to care about him. Eddington is attempting to create a new form of music by using the screams of a xenomorph. In the classic plot route, the xenomorph escapes killing a lot of people before itself is killed. The story has a weird ending, with the killing act, being recreated nightly to entertain the masses.

Ultimately a good enough story and a solid opener to the book.

Stronghold: Written by John Arcudi and drawn by Doug Mahnke. Set in a remote scientific world, this lab is not your normal research station. Inside is a full alien nest, which is maintained by a squad of Androids. Following a routine security inspection, it is discovered that the lead scientist is selling xenomorph eggs on the black market. Then the expected happens the aliens break loose and the death starts happening.

The highlight of this piece is the xenomorph android, Jeri. Designed to blend in with the xenomorphs, Jeri is constantly scaring the main characters, but when he gets a plasma gun his cool factor goes through the roof!

Frenzy: Written by the Legend John Wagner and drawn by Paul Mendoza. Now we have specialized eradicate teams (made up of ex-marine convicts), who get sent in to destroy hives. With some of the team members acting as bait, they allow themselves to be captured and taken to the Queen's lair. Once this happens MAX is released. A new hi-tech robot suit controlled by a convicted Marine this suit is a one-man army. The downside is the suit will ultimately kill the host. The story is fairly straightforward and is mainly about covering up the Companies errors. Expect robots versus robots.

Taste: Written by Edward Martin III and drawn by Mark Nelson. A rather short story focusing on an egg and the Facehugger inside. The story seems to build to the Hugger launching itself out of the egg. Then the plot twist. Turns out that in the wider universe there are bigger, scarier creatures out there, that enjoy frying Facehuggers for lunch!

Mondo Pest: Written by Henry Gilroy and drawn by Ronnie Del Carmen. Escaped psych ward marine turned merc, accepts a call for assistance from an outer rim world with seems to have an alien problem. Feels like a bad 80's film made into a comic. Lots of fighting, lots of action and a small bit of traitorous greed. A nice solid tale.

Mondo Heat: Seems like a doubleheader, Mondo our escaped psych ward turned merc is back. Still written by Henry Gilroy and Ronnie Del Carmen. I'm sorry but these Mondo tales seem like they were written by a teenage boy. But the high and low of the tale is a rich colonist who has lost his daughter and her friend, in a world infested with aliens. To make things worst it would seem the brother is jealous and was the reason the aliens are here!

With the end of Mondo, we have reached the end of this Omnibus. I enjoyed the escapism I got from this issue but just like the last omnibus, this is a huge hit and a miss. I enjoyed the Music of Spears and Taste, Stronghold and Frenzy were okay and the Mondo tales suck. So once again an average comic to help past the time.

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Comic Review 112 // Aliens Omnibus Volume 3.

A great opening image on the cover of the Queen ripping open a doorway screaming. I can hear Ripley in the background saying, " Get away from her, you bitch!". 

I'm excited to be on Volume three of these already, if you have not already, please check out Volume One and Two. Volume three has a lot of stories contained within: Rogue, Sacrifice, Labyrinth, Salvation, Advent/Terminus, Reapers and Horrorshow. With plenty of titles to review, let us dive in.

Rogue

With a script by Ian Edginton, art by Will Simpson, it feels like we have stepped back into the 1990s. The main plot of the story is based around a mad scientist who is slowly feeding his staff to the aliens. His goal, to manipulate the alien DNA and breed a King Alien. In classic Alien fashion storytelling, the shit soon hits the fan with the Rogue King Alien on the loose killing everything in its path, but it seems this new alien has a goal in mind. To face off against the Queen, but can a king beat a queen? Hell no!

A solid tale, that I am sure is better as a novel with space to explain characters better and the driving force behind the crazed doctor. But ultimately a great opener.

Sacrifice

Story two is written by Peter Milligan and the art is produced by Paul Johnson. The artwork is beautiful, I recognized the style enough to have a google and yes, Paul Johnson has drawn for 2000 AD in the past. Great start to the story already then. The tale begins with a spacecraft crash, that mysteriously has only one survivor; Ann. Took in by the local colony, Ann starts to realize something is off and soon discovers the town is offering up sacrifices to a lone xenomorph in the Jungles. In the course of not fully understanding why they sacrifice child to the xeno, Ann affects the norm and leads the colonials into a deadly fight with the xenomorph.

Strange how many times the themes of family and religion come up in stories to do with Aliens. It is a great tale with amazing artwork, well worth the read, a true highlight of this book.

Labyrinth

Story three, Labyrinth by Jim Woodring and art by Kilian Plunkett.  Once again a slightly unhinged doctor, testing out his theories on the xenomorphs. He believes that with the right mental attitude, a human can turn away a xenomorph without using a weapon! Of course not everything goes to plan, I feel this almost follows the same story arc as Rogue. The story though ultimately good, is not great. It delves deep into the aliens behavior patterns and how science can possible manipulate it. I was not a fan of the artwork, and the writing was a bit movie-style storytelling, focusing on gorey imagery rather than the fear factor. Not a great tale to be honest.

Salvation

This tale I have reviewed before, so I won't rewrite it, all I will ask is for you to go check it out here: Salvation

Advent/Terminus

Written by Anina Bennett and Paul Guinan, artwork by Paul Guinan. I would class this a mini tale. A pyramid of unknown design has been discovered and film teams and explorers are rushing to discover it secrets. Only problem is no team ever seems to leave. Not the worst story in the comic, but sadly a little throw away and filler. Nice to see as one team dies another arrives.

Reaper

Written by John Arcudi and artwork by Simon Bisley (another ex-2000 AD artist). What a weird ass tale! No written script just art, lucky it is beautiful art. We watch as a team of green humoid aliens (Of unknown origin) hunt down some xenomorph eggs to sell back  at home. Why, I hear you ask? Well this race of aliens enjoys eating Facehuggers! Wierd artwork, weird story, just plain weird.

Horror Show

Written by Sarah Byam and artwork by David Roach. Set on Luna during the still happening xenomorph takeover of Earth. Once the gleaming city of the rich it is now infested with the poor escaping Earth's demise. Once more a deranged scienciest is at the centre of the tale and is virtually downloading the dreams to train Marines in combat against the xenomorphs. To be honest a bit of a weak tale for me, I can see it working as novel but as a comic it doesn't really work for me.

And with that we come to an end. Seven stories in this collection, I would say three solid stories: Rogue, Sacrifice and Salvation. One story was just plain weird: Reaper and three stories a little dull: Labyrinth, Advent/Terminus and Horror Show.

For me this seems to leave me with no choice but to say this is an average omnibus at best. I enjoyed Sacrifice the most it had a great theme going on and made the humans seem like the true villains of the tale. Have you read this story? Let me know your thoughts below.

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Comic Review 109 // Aliens: Omnibus Volume 2

Been a while since I review volume one way back in June (Follow the LINK). With us, well into the creepy month of October, I felt it was right to have some scary comic reviews. For me the Xenomorph is the ultimate in the scare factor, it is completely uncaring, unforgiving and so cosmically horrifying that it is perfect for a good scare. Let us take a dive into the comic book stats and then we can move onto the review.

Comic Stats

Writer: John Arcudi, Jerry Prosser, Chris Warner, Kelley Puckett, Dan Jolley

Illustrator:  Damon Willis, John Nadeau, Kelley Jones, Paul Guinan, Tony Akins, Allen Nunis, Mike Richardson.

Commercial Fluff: Many humans have died horribly at the claws of the Alien. The surface of Earth has been devastated to cleanse the beasts from our world. But the commercial value of this scourge has never been in doubt, especially when the special properties of the Alien Queen's royal jelly are discovered. Will Mankind once again risk its very survival as a species in order to sleep with the Alien? Dark Horse Comics' critically acclaimed Aliens series set the bar for how the universe of a popular film could be expanded through graphic fiction. Aliens Omnibus Volume 2 collects more of these exciting series in a value-priced, quality-format omnibus, featuring over four hundred story pages in full color. Includes the complete story arcs of Genocide, Harvest and the never-before-collected, epic-length Colonial Marines.

Pages: 456

Published Date: December 25th, 2007 

Publisher: Dark Horse Book

Review

Going to break the comic down into stories and go through each one. These won't be super in-depth as I plan on doing that with the novels when I find them. Ultimately like its predecessor, this graphic novel is made up of three stories, Genocide, Harvest and Colonial Marines. I had already reviewed the book Genocide (here), so I already had a feeling of how the story arc was changing with the inclusion of Queen or Royal Jelly so I was interested to see how this is picked up in the other stories. As with most things in life let us begin at the start.

Genocide

Earth is a mess and big companies are making a killing in exchange to help clean it up. One such company is making a drug called Xeno-Zip, using trace amounts of Queen Jelly it is able to make people stronger and faster. But due to lack of supply, they attempted to make their own with unstable results, the main problem being people turning into Psychos. In steps the military to help secure a pure source in exchange for the psycho version for the marine corps. Of course, as soon as they make planetfall everything thing goes FUBAR, why are their two factions of Xenomorph? A fast-action paced story, with stereotypes straight out of an 80's action film. Fun enough read just like the book.

Harvest

A strange tale that I hope the book does more justice to. In this tale, we follow a dying scientist who is using the royal jelly to prolong his life. But in order to this, he needs more jelly. With the help of his love interest, a robotic pet ant and a robotic Xenomorph, they attempt what I can only describe as a Jewel thief. Heading to the alien homeworld to raid the nest. Once again nothing goes to plan and we end up with a plasma rifle-armed robotic Xenomorph, fighting the alien hordes. This was a weird-ass tale, but I am intrigued to read the book now.

Colonial Marines

The selling point of the graphic novel. Colonial Marines was a 10 part series that faced a ton of issues during production. It had multiple writers work on it, issue numbers were cut and it ended up being delayed. This clearly comes across in the story, it so badly disjointed and I am pretty sure a marine who died in one part is alive in the artwork later in the story (HA). What you do get is a dead beat LT. who is tasked with looking after a bunch of down and out marines. Unfortunately, no story is that simple and soon Xenomorphs are running wild. The LT. character is all over the place as writers struggled to pick a motive and hang on to it. Leaving us to not care about anyone whilst the story collapses under its own weight. The highlight of this tale was the water versions of the Xenomorphs at the Kelp farm, this was worth the price of reading such crap.

Overall Thoughts

Don't buy this graphic novel it is just a hot mess! The colonial marines story ruins an otherwise below average offering. I will move forwards onto Volume three but wow did this one leave a bad taste in my mouth.

Book Review 63 // Aliens: Female War by Steve Perry

Told you I was picking up Female War straight after Nightmare Asylum. As I mentioned in the previous review there is just something special about the Alienverse and I just want to keep exploring it.

Book Details

Title: Aliens: The Female War (Book 3)
Author: Steve Perry
Publisher: Bantam Books
Type: Paperback
Page Count: 293

Commercial Fluff: A stunning novel based on the extraordinary universe as portrayed in the Aliens movies. The Female War features Ripley as a leader of humanity's forces against a new invasion where aliens have overrun the Earth--and the human population has been abandoned to alien appetites

Review

Just like the previous title this continues the story of Billie and Wilks (ie. Newt and Hicks), sadly Bueller is now gone and has been replaced by the infamous Ripley. Without giving away to much I will give a quick run down of the novel.

The story kicks off on the lunar rescue station, with multiple people (inc. Billie and Ripley) reporting dreams of an alien queen. Ripley soon declares her plan of using these dreamers as a tracing device to locate what she believes to be the queen of queens. We are then treated to some great well thought out supporting characters who truly add to the story telling and genuinely have you concerned about them and whether they would survive. So what is the plan you ask? Well here is were I feel the storytelling goes a bit overboard. The plan has the dreamers locating the Queen of Queens and they go scoop her up before bringing her to Earth. Once her presence is felt all xenomorphs would be attracted to her and once all massed together they could be wiped out in one go.

So Ripley, Billie, Wilks and the ragtag Dreamers (new band name), hijack a military fuel ship and head off to find the Boss Queen. The Queen's homeworld is a weird planet for sure, covered in a strange liquid and home to giant sized Drones. Drones that though bigger in size, fail to be anymore able to kill a person than a normal one. Seriously these drones get shot up and don't seem to hurt anything with their acid blood. We then get a nerve wracking chase/fight scene as Ripley lures the Queen on to the ship. Before all heading to the cyro sleep chambers and heading back to earth.

Here classic problems arrive for the heroes. Bombs don't work, aliens arrive sooner than planned, one of the main characters disappears to rescue a young girl. This is properly the worst section of the book due to it being rushed through. I feel the book should have ended at the time the Queen was captured and then given themselves more time on this section. But overall this is an okay book, the plot maybe a bit far fetched and rushed but it helps to continue the Wilks, Billie adventures. I now fear to say that this seems to be the end of Wilks and Billie saga, the next book has a new author and is set a whole generation later.

Personally I will be taking a short break on xenomorph front as I have a few Discworlds to get through but please realize there are a lot more to come! As always thanks for reading and if you have the time please hit the follow button or drop and comment below.

Book Review 62 // Nightmare Aslyum

I am loving the Alien franchise at the moment, it is seriously competing with my Judge Dredd time which is great. I am finding that these tales appeal to my warhammer sci-fi needs without being grim dark, they are instead just horror dark. I feel like I am trying to say that they just more believe able. With that in mind we follow Earth Hive with the aptly named Nightmare Aslyum.

Book Details

Title: Aliens: Book 2. Nightmare Asylum

Author: Steve Perry

Publisher: Bantam Books

Type: Paperback
Page Count: 277

Commercial Fluff: Wilks, Billie, and Bueller were the last survivors of a devastating assault on the aliens' home planet. But once their return to the solar system made them refugees once more, fleeing Earth and its alien infestation in a desperate attempt to stay alive. Now, in an otherwise unmanned military transport, they hurtle through space. Destination: unknown. Little do they know that the cargo they carry with them is a legacy of death that they will ultimately have to face. Nor do they know that they head toward a remote colony and military outpost. This pocket of humanity at the very edges of space is at the mercy of a general names Spears with an agenda all his own. Now Billie, Wilks, and Bueller face a new nightmare, and it is nothing they could ever have imagined: a gift of madness from an alien world, unbalanced mind, and the experiences of a mysterious pilot named Lieutenant Ellen Ripley.

Review

When the first book ended (Earth Hive), I was left feeling - "oh shit, well I guess everyone is dead. Goodbye human race", this of course is not true as Earth has it colonies and some of these even don't have xenomorph on them (though they seem rare). But it also left me with a hunger to read more, what happens next so I had to grab this book when I saw it. I was glad to see it was still Steve Perry at the helm which meant the story would continue as planned. And it did. The tale jumps in with Wilks, Billie and Bueller (well half of him anyway) on a space transport that has seen better days, heading to some unknown destination. What could possibly go wrong!?

A lot it turns out.

Up first Billie starts suffering from Nightmares that empathetic beings suffer when they can sense a xenomorph. Which sadly can mean only one thing, their transport has a few extra passengers. A search of the ship reveals a section that had been in lock down containing the remains of four once frozen infected humans. Sadly the presence of Wilks and Billie affected the machines and the bodies unfroze allowing the xenomorphs lose on the old tiny ship.

What follows is a terrorizing ordeal to deal with these creatures with only Billie realistically able to do anything as the other two are injured. I was seriously unnerved by the whole experience and this was a great opening to the book. I am not sure I would survive in a situation similar to this. Following this ordeal our trio are happy to discover they are reaching their destination a far flung military base with an attached mining colony.

All relief quickly passes as we meet General Spears a gene grown human with a pet xenomorph Queen! Spears has a dream of training Xenomorphs to carry guns, in the hopes of returning to Earth and using them to wipe out what he calls the feral xenomorphs... This man is crazy and to make matters worst he has fed all the colonists to the aliens, along with half his troops in order to make enough drone warriors!

What I like the most about the tale is how Perry handles it all, the aliens seem real, he gives them a realistic behavior and motivation which explains why they follow Spears, they also show how quickly they can turn when given the chance. Spears is a totally ruthless psycho which is always great in the villain, you just love to hate him. Wilks is continuing his journey of self worth and Billie is becoming a bit of badass mini Ripley if I'm honest. On the topic of Ripley, she barely made it into the book, I seriously mean barely. She is there for maybe two paragraphs, so don't buy into the back cover.

Is this the best book in the world...hell no. But the story is action packed and a fun read. More for a fan of the series than a just go grab and read. I shall now move on to the third book Aliens: Female War and see how we go.

Have you read this title? What are your thoughts? Let me know below and please sign up to the blog on the left side or follow me on instagram via @beerswithpeps