Reviews

Alien: Into Charybdis by Alex White

siena_j_p's review

challenging dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This book absolutely DESTROYED me in the best way possible. It was filled with twists and turns, kept me on the edge of my seat, and ended with the sense of dawning horror that is, in my opinion, both the hardest to do well but also the absolute best part of horror as a genre. Initially, we begin with two narrators, Shy Hunt and Kamran Afghanzadeh. Shy works for an American tech company hired by Hasanova Data Solutions, an Iranian company which has built a colony on a planet over a mysterious pit known as Charybdis (dude, these people had it coming living somewhere named Charybdis. Learn your mythology). Kamran works for Hasanova, and after a workplace accident his command structure is thrown into chaos as he’s expected to take on a new set of responsibilities, including managing Shy’s team. However, things go horribly wrong, leading a member of Shy’s team to send a distress signal to the American military. Because you know. That always goes so well. It’s at about this point that the point of view begins to fragment, bringing in perspectives from members of the marine team that arrives, the Iranian civilians, and some assorted others. And everything generally begins to spiral out of control. Now, I struggled a bit to get into this at first, probably because this is only one part of a slightly convoluted extension of the Alien/Predator/Prometheus film universe and this happens to be the point that I picked up at but I honestly have no idea if it was the right place to start? But the good news is, there were definitely references I didn’t pick up on but I was still very much able to enjoy the overall plot and points of the story. Because of the nature of the genre (very much action/horror, in the vein of the original Alien), I didn’t necessarily connect to the characters either, but again, that isn’t really the point of the genre. It was more an exploration of accountability, nationalism, and pride as seen in a situation that tears people apart in part because of their own actions. In a word, it was brilliant. The ending filled me with rage but because of the horror and depressingness of it, not because of how it was written. If I was missing one thing it was probably further exploration of the synthetics – it was touched on a lot but never fully developed. I suspect other books in this series deal with it more, but there were really specific relationships that I really would have liked to see more of. I also want to make a quick observation – this book is very conscious of most cultural elements it dealt with, so it was really frustrating to see it lean into the evil East Asian scientist trope. Without getting too spoilery, there’s one Japanese character who works with the marines, is power-hungry, and a huge coward. I think this character might have been previously introduced in a different piece of the universe? But nonetheless, this trope is really tired and frustrating, and I don’t even see the value that this character added to the story. He could be cut out and it would hardly make a difference. So that was probably my biggest issue with this book. Other than that slip of judgment, though, this was a very very good critique of militarization, colonialism, and patriotism.

cres_'s review

5.0

Alex White has done it again! Their books are by far my favorites that I’ve read for this franchise so far. And I am desperately hoping they write another — the end of this is begging for what happens in the universe next!

I think I might like Into Charybdis even more than Cold Forge. This author really has a way with characters. (And plots and suspense and everything else.) I cannot tell you how pumped I was to see a certain character show up in the back half of this book! White’s books are also great for prequel film enjoyers like myself. This book and Cold Forge really felt fully connected to the whole IP. If that makes sense, lol.

Anyways, loved it, loved it, loved it. Maybe I can form a more coherent review at a later time. I definitely want to re-read, possibly next year.

spinnerdriver's review

adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

4.25

warped_board's review

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.0

jobby's review against another edition

5.0

Great read. Starts off gently and then turns into a thundering avalanche. The chaos and devastation continueing to increase ultimately leaving the reader breathless.
A suitable amount of scares and gore. I would have been happier without the spider bit, though!

faysal's review

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

This was so crazy… Alex White is so good at writing Alien books that I’m sad there won’t be another for quite a while now. 

This, I must admit, was less to my liking than The Cold Forge. But that’s probably because the cast was smaller and the infrastructure was easier to imagine then Charybdis. So it’s less of a book related issue and more of a personal one. 

I LOVEDDDDD that blue was in the book and I only feel sad that they had to die </3 but seeing her as a turned xenomorph was one of the craziest things ever.

alteradam's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

---

Content Warnings

If you are a pretty big Alien fan, I definitely recommend this. If not, it’s a decent sci fi book. I’m not sure if I lost the plot at certain parts but aspects of this book confused me. It’s strange, sometimes I felt like this author was very good at describing a sense of place and his action is very clear but in the next moment a plot point would happen and I felt like I had skipped several pages. Might be just me? Maybe I auto piloted some of this book. There is a character introduced late in this book that just comes out of nowhere. I liked the character but I was confused how they came to be. I have not read many Alien books but this was by far the best.

virago's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Whew!  This was a doozie.  The only time I wanted characters to die more was while reading Jaws!  This time it wasn't (entirely) the company that caused the whole-ass-mess.  The Colonial Maries have some very unlikeable people in their employ.  Honestly some characters' deaths should have been much worse.  Seriously,  they couldn't have been gruesome enough.

This story was full of intrigue and adventure.  Everyone was lying to everyone.  People made really bad choices and lots of other people suffered for those choices.  The usual.

I enjoyed the story and some of the characters.  There were quite a few twists and surprises in this one.  It was a very good listen.

ashlawson09's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

cwsawyer's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0