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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I fairly enjoyed the story even though I had a good idea of how the book would end since I have the game and went through Hoenikker's story (I haven't finished it so maybe there's more that I'm missing). However, I do have some nitpicks which are spoilers so <3:
While the build-up was nice and you had an idea of what would happen, I still found myself disappointed on how Etienne and Kash died. Instead of it feeling natural, it more felt like the author knew that Hoenikker needed to wrap it up and become alone so they just killed them off to fit the perspective.
The marines are a huge part of the story and I do appreciate their mentality and how consistent it was. However, how repetitive the whole "nobody gets left behind" despite them leaving people behind bugged me? Well each character really had their annoying moments since they could've gotten off the ship a couple of pages after everything went to shit.
Lastly, my favorite character was Cruz and I enjoyed how many trials he got put through. His main goal was to improve the marines and he stood with that. However, it just seemed as if his morals were everywhere which is still valid but some of his actions didn't really have a purpose.
OVERALL I REALLY ENJOYED THIS BOOK DESPITE MY MINOR SPOILER COMPLAINTS!! You could tell the author has love for the franchise and expanded the alien universe in his own way. Would highly recommend
The marines are a huge part of the story and I do appreciate their mentality and how consistent it was. However, how repetitive the whole "nobody gets left behind" despite them leaving people behind bugged me? Well each character really had their annoying moments since they could've gotten off the ship a couple of pages after everything went to shit.
Lastly, my favorite character was Cruz and I enjoyed how many trials he got put through. His main goal was to improve the marines and he stood with that. However, it just seemed as if his morals were everywhere which is still valid but some of his actions didn't really have a purpose.
OVERALL I REALLY ENJOYED THIS BOOK DESPITE MY MINOR SPOILER COMPLAINTS!! You could tell the author has love for the franchise and expanded the alien universe in his own way. Would highly recommend
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide
Minor: Alcoholism
This book started off really slow, but when the action starts it doesn’t stop until the book is closed. I’ve always been a big fan of Aliens and really enjoyed this experience. It’s inspired me to pick back up on the game, Alien: Isolation, which has been great. I may find myself visiting the rest of the series in the future.
While Aliens: Infiltrator is a prequel to the forthcoming videogame Aliens: Fireteam, it acts rather nicely as a standalone title and lets author Weston Ochse do his own thing with the franchise. Even though this story doesn't break tremendous new ground or push Titan Books' tie-in novelizations into interesting new directions the way Alex White has done with their recently released Alien: Into Charybdis, Infiltrator is still a fun, tough-as-nails Aliens book.
Weyland-Yutani scientist Dr. Timothy Hoenikker is assigned to Pala Station, a posting sold to him under false pretenses. He thought he was going to be working on alien artifacts, but has instead found himself shanghaied into working with live specimens. The scientists of Pala Station have been researching methods to improve the responses of Colonial Marines when squaring off against Xenomorphs, and have even developed a prototype acid-resistant armor. Of course, given that they're Weyland-Yutani, they're also working on ways to make the Xenomorphs into even better killers via genetic engineering. Because what could possibly go wrong there...
The genetic experimentation angle gives Ochse a chance to fiddle around with expectations and upgrade your traditional bloodthirsty bugs into even more lethal predators. Much of Infiltrator serves to prove Jurassic Park's Ian Malcom correct in his assessment that "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should." Then again, that's practically Weyland-Yutani's corporate motto. They probably even put it on their dot matrix printed letterhead.
Needless to say, creating new species and variants of Xenomorphs doesn't exactly work out in anyone's best interests, and it doesn't take long for Hoenikker to repeatedly kick himself for listening to his best friend, who encouraged him to be bold and dangerous and take the job. On the bright side, he at least makes more useful friends along the way, some of whom are former Colonial Marines who live with the expectation that things are going to go sideways sooner rather than later.
Ochse introduces some neat new monsters, giving Infiltrator much welcomed creature feature aesthetic that I heartily approve of. Given that as I was reading this yesterday, the BBC reported on a study confirming that a team of US-China scientists have grown human cells in a monkey embryo, I can help but think, you know, maybe don't? Infiltrator is a great reminder that we're probably a lot better off not genetically tampering with nature just for shits and giggles. It's also a nice reminder that your friends are probably idiots and you really shouldn't listen to them.
Weyland-Yutani scientist Dr. Timothy Hoenikker is assigned to Pala Station, a posting sold to him under false pretenses. He thought he was going to be working on alien artifacts, but has instead found himself shanghaied into working with live specimens. The scientists of Pala Station have been researching methods to improve the responses of Colonial Marines when squaring off against Xenomorphs, and have even developed a prototype acid-resistant armor. Of course, given that they're Weyland-Yutani, they're also working on ways to make the Xenomorphs into even better killers via genetic engineering. Because what could possibly go wrong there...
The genetic experimentation angle gives Ochse a chance to fiddle around with expectations and upgrade your traditional bloodthirsty bugs into even more lethal predators. Much of Infiltrator serves to prove Jurassic Park's Ian Malcom correct in his assessment that "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should." Then again, that's practically Weyland-Yutani's corporate motto. They probably even put it on their dot matrix printed letterhead.
Needless to say, creating new species and variants of Xenomorphs doesn't exactly work out in anyone's best interests, and it doesn't take long for Hoenikker to repeatedly kick himself for listening to his best friend, who encouraged him to be bold and dangerous and take the job. On the bright side, he at least makes more useful friends along the way, some of whom are former Colonial Marines who live with the expectation that things are going to go sideways sooner rather than later.
Ochse introduces some neat new monsters, giving Infiltrator much welcomed creature feature aesthetic that I heartily approve of. Given that as I was reading this yesterday, the BBC reported on a study confirming that a team of US-China scientists have grown human cells in a monkey embryo, I can help but think, you know, maybe don't? Infiltrator is a great reminder that we're probably a lot better off not genetically tampering with nature just for shits and giggles. It's also a nice reminder that your friends are probably idiots and you really shouldn't listen to them.
I wanted to read this book because Aliens: Infiltrator is a prequel novel to the upcoming video game Aliens: Fireteam Elite and I can't wait to play this game.
Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this book as much as [b:Alien: The Cold Forge|36475917|Alien The Cold Forge|Alex White|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1517517365l/36475917._SY75_.jpg|58185417] or [b:Alien: Into Charybdis|53806056|Alien Into Charybdis|Alex White|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1608051817l/53806056._SY75_.jpg|84125066] because the story isn't nearly as complex or interesting and it suffers from too many subplots to make this an excellent read for me. I also found the rushed ending disappointing.
What I liked a lot are the new Xenomorph varieties. You know the humans at Pala Station are screwed when one of the scientists reveals that he trained a Xenomorph to become invisible.
Overall, Aliens: Infiltrator is a fun read with non-stop action and enough blood and gore to satisfy anyone, but it isn't one of my favorite books in the Alien franchise.
Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this book as much as [b:Alien: The Cold Forge|36475917|Alien The Cold Forge|Alex White|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1517517365l/36475917._SY75_.jpg|58185417] or [b:Alien: Into Charybdis|53806056|Alien Into Charybdis|Alex White|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1608051817l/53806056._SY75_.jpg|84125066] because the story isn't nearly as complex or interesting and it suffers from too many subplots to make this an excellent read for me. I also found the rushed ending disappointing.
What I liked a lot are the new Xenomorph varieties. You know the humans at Pala Station are screwed when one of the scientists reveals that he trained a Xenomorph to become invisible.
Overall, Aliens: Infiltrator is a fun read with non-stop action and enough blood and gore to satisfy anyone, but it isn't one of my favorite books in the Alien franchise.
Well written plot, interesting characters. The narration was well done. It is another good addition to the Alien collection. I recommend this book.
Enjoyed how it is merging prequel movies' revelations into classic Aliens lore. Curious to see if/how this ties-in to upcoming game. Good, fast paced story.
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book doesn't do anything particularly special with the Xenomorphs. It's your typical "scientists study Xenomorph, Xenomorph escapes" affair. It does set itself apart from other stories of its kind, though. For starters, it uses the Pathogen/Accelerant (from Prometheus/Covenant) as an actual plot element, and the scientists actually have some successes...for a time.
The main characters are interesting and varied. Each brings something different to the story and is entertaining in their own way, be they the scientist tricked into working at this base, the hapless infiltrator blackmailed into betraying his colleagues, or the ex-Colonial Marine looking to redeem himself.
Something I really enjoyed about this story was there were a number of false alarms, and they were carried out very effectively.
Once the terror did begin, it was a very tense story. There was no way of knowing who would survive or what would happen next. That's even with the knowledge that the events of this story lead into the events of Aliens: Fireteam Elite.
The book did have shortcomings. Description became somewhat repetitive, some plot points seemed to go nowhere, and some characters were rather barebones. They were little more than "corrupt coward", with nothing more interesting to them. Other characters appeared only to be removed from the narrative within a page.
This was a fine addition to the Alien franchise, in my opinion. Some elements of the Xenomorph didn't quite seem to gel with established continuity, but that may be somewhat linked to the incorporation of the black goo (Accelerant/Pathogen) in the story.
Well worth checking out, especially if you're a fan of the franchise and/or planning to play Aliens: Fireteam Elite.
The main characters are interesting and varied. Each brings something different to the story and is entertaining in their own way, be they the scientist tricked into working at this base, the hapless infiltrator blackmailed into betraying his colleagues, or the ex-Colonial Marine looking to redeem himself.
Something I really enjoyed about this story was there were a number of false alarms, and they were carried out very effectively.
Once the terror did begin, it was a very tense story. There was no way of knowing who would survive or what would happen next. That's even with the knowledge that the events of this story lead into the events of Aliens: Fireteam Elite.
The book did have shortcomings. Description became somewhat repetitive, some plot points seemed to go nowhere, and some characters were rather barebones. They were little more than "corrupt coward", with nothing more interesting to them. Other characters appeared only to be removed from the narrative within a page.
This was a fine addition to the Alien franchise, in my opinion. Some elements of the Xenomorph didn't quite seem to gel with established continuity, but that may be somewhat linked to the incorporation of the black goo (Accelerant/Pathogen) in the story.
Well worth checking out, especially if you're a fan of the franchise and/or planning to play Aliens: Fireteam Elite.