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A review by readwithanna
Aliens: Phalanx by Scott Sigler
4.0
I loved this book. This felt like such a fresh perspective on the alien franchise. The only reason I'm not giving this more than 4 stars is because of the audiobook narrator.
I don't understand the reason behind having a man in his sixties narrate the perspective of a nineteen year old woman. We never leave her perspective. It's told in third person but it's very limited to what she's experiencing.
There's also a way in which he narrates the other characters that kept taking me out of the story. One of the boys running with our MC (her name isn't spelled anywhere so I don't know how to spell it so she'll be MC), the narration is very choppy with him. The best way I can describe it is like the voice you make when you really have to pee but you need to ask a question and get an answer because you can hurry away. It's that strained, whiny sound. I don't know if that makes sense.
Besides that, I did think the pacing suffered a little. There was a point where I thought we were slowly gearing up towards the end and then I looked at my phone and realised there were over two and a half hours left of the audiobook. A little bit could have been trimmed, I think.
But the atmosphere. The horror in this is so well realised. I love how this is a new perspective on the xenomorphs themselves. They're very much seen as animals in this, which I don't think always is the case since they're often overpowered.
I did think it was unsatisfying when in the prologue it's established that the Mc got together with the guy she'd been sleeping with and now have a kid together. I don't remember his name but the comments he made about the MC and women in general was gross and even the MC recognised that. But then he doesn't grow in his views. Or if he does then we don't really get to see that. I don't know, it left a bad taste in my mouth. Also, the MC mentions several times that she doesn't want kids so to have her end up with a misogynistic man and a kid just feels like an insult.
I don't understand the reason behind having a man in his sixties narrate the perspective of a nineteen year old woman. We never leave her perspective. It's told in third person but it's very limited to what she's experiencing.
There's also a way in which he narrates the other characters that kept taking me out of the story. One of the boys running with our MC (her name isn't spelled anywhere so I don't know how to spell it so she'll be MC), the narration is very choppy with him. The best way I can describe it is like the voice you make when you really have to pee but you need to ask a question and get an answer because you can hurry away. It's that strained, whiny sound. I don't know if that makes sense.
Besides that, I did think the pacing suffered a little. There was a point where I thought we were slowly gearing up towards the end and then I looked at my phone and realised there were over two and a half hours left of the audiobook. A little bit could have been trimmed, I think.
But the atmosphere. The horror in this is so well realised. I love how this is a new perspective on the xenomorphs themselves. They're very much seen as animals in this, which I don't think always is the case since they're often overpowered.