I'm not anti White or anything, just that I don't think he writes them that different. I was actually surprised at how much the Xenos felt Aliens (second movie) inspired whereas everything else was kind of turned on its head with expectations.
I'm going to have to disagree with White writing the Aliens themselves, they are portrayed exactly the same way they always are since Aliens.
I mean, he was whacking them with a powerloader. Which was a cool move by Marcus/Blue, but not so much by the Aliens. It literally means that the Alien has to sit there and be fly swatted by something that slow moving. The queen in Aliens was at least massive and would've had more trouble getting out of the way. The warriors though?
Again, I'm not talking about the world building or the actual story, those are fine, just the Aliens themselves.
White isn't BAD at writing the creatures but it's just the same stuff it always is when they encounter humans. There is no ambiguous gauge of intelligence or anything like that. Just Alien banshee scream, human munchies, much kill.
I mostly remember allowing the one member of the team to be kidnapped and taken into the bowels of the hive so the others could go find them. That's one idea that would be great for a "we know about Aliens already" movie. Berserker's novel did great with the concept as well.
I just mainly remember the exosuit to be honest but it's a time and a half since I read it.
I do remember stuff in it being excellent.
But I also remember various things bothering me although I couldn't for the life of me tell you what they all were exactly now. (Probably Xenozip or Royal Jelly I can't remember which and the escape pod ending)
I'm specifically referring to Bissette's prose in capturing the feel. He could pack a lot of information into a few terse paragraphs, and built mood like nobody's business.
Tribes rules at depicting the Alien I'll give it that, but I don't know if I'd think that fondly of it if not for the art, I think in the last ten or so pages it goes off the rails.
And don't know what to categorise it as either honestly.
Having finally got halfway through Cold Forge I still think Tribes is the pinnacle for Alien encounters themselves. In terms of worldbuilding, not so much -- the MAX suits never felt right -- but in terms of just the visceral experience of dealing with an Alien infestation that novella's got legs for days.
Yeah, that's not something I can agree on at all. Alex White and Scott Sigler are just phenomenal at writing for the Alien universe. They get it far more than I think we can say Sir Ridley does these days. Their entries are up there with the films and Isolation.