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A review by verkisto
Aliens: Nightmare Asylum by Steve Perry
2.0
There's a slight improvement to Nightmare Asylum as compared to Earth Hive, but only because there's no retconning that gets in the way of the story. Yes, yes, We still have Billie and Wilks instead of Newt and Hicks, but their backgrounds aren't as much a part of the story here as they were in the first story. It's still not much of an improvement, though, to be honest.
One thing that surprises me about the book is the empathic/psychic connection the aliens have with humans. Is this a new element to the mythology, or was that covered somewhere in the movies? It's not included with any discussion or examination, and I wondered if I had missed something, either in this book or its predecessor.
The plot here is about a crazed general who is trying to train the aliens to become soldiers. He uses threats and violence to keep them in line, with the predicted end coming late in the story, and rather anticlimactically, I might add. At least this guy wasn't trying to create some sort of super weapon out of the aliens, like nearly every other story has had happen.
Like the first book, this novel is adapted from a comic book, so a lot of the plot points can't be blamed directly on Perry. Still, the number of run-on sentences, wooden, cliched characters, and just plain bad writing ("An invisible karate expert slammed a steely fist into Wilks's lower back" is used to describe back pain) is all his. The only interesting thing about the book is seeing how closely it mirrors the plot to Day of the Dead.
One thing that surprises me about the book is the empathic/psychic connection the aliens have with humans. Is this a new element to the mythology, or was that covered somewhere in the movies? It's not included with any discussion or examination, and I wondered if I had missed something, either in this book or its predecessor.
The plot here is about a crazed general who is trying to train the aliens to become soldiers. He uses threats and violence to keep them in line, with the predicted end coming late in the story, and rather anticlimactically, I might add. At least this guy wasn't trying to create some sort of super weapon out of the aliens, like nearly every other story has had happen.
Like the first book, this novel is adapted from a comic book, so a lot of the plot points can't be blamed directly on Perry. Still, the number of run-on sentences, wooden, cliched characters, and just plain bad writing ("An invisible karate expert slammed a steely fist into Wilks's lower back" is used to describe back pain) is all his. The only interesting thing about the book is seeing how closely it mirrors the plot to Day of the Dead.