Aliens: Berserker 3/5This wasn't as great as I was expecting, but I appreciated S.D. Perry's writing. The characters in the novel range from being interesting (Teape) to caricatures (Pulaski), but generally they're all entertaining presences in the story and she's able to move the plot along with momentum and enough immediate and overarching tension. I had a bit of trouble with the beginning of this though, because we work our way into the story a bit awkwardly by beginning with Sturges (minor character) focalizing the opening, and then begin transitioning to the relevant characters. I was drowning in name soup, even though there aren't that many people. I would much rather have had the opening here focus on one person, perhaps Jess or Lara, and then slowly introduce the others. The ending didn't really jump out at me because the descriptions of large battles with Aliens aren't really that interesting in prose form, as opposed to the visuals of the graphic novel (Berserkey, by the way, was not one of the Aliens comics that I grew up reading, so it's less familiar to me overall). Something that intrigued me in the novel was the consideration of sexual harassment/sexual assault in the workplace, revolving around Lara's interactions with Pop Izzard. I felt these passages reflected a nuanced maturity in the writing and added some very authentic and engaging motivation for Lara's character. Also, that Perry handles these issues as a woman writing science fiction is probably something she wasn't praised or even acknowledged for in 1998, but certainly would be now.
While I generally really do enjoy Berserker, my biggest problem is the tension of the Aliens themselves. This is an 'advanced' narrative in the EU Alien mythos, meaning the Xenomorphs are nothing special at this point. There's no mystery to them, and the only fear our characters have towards them is really a result of the fact that there are so many which appear in this story. The weight of the Alien menace as an immediate threat feels diminished to me every time I experience a story where the characters are familiar with them. For instance, in AvP Prey, I feel a lot more tension surrounding the Aliens. And to use another S.D. Perry example, not a lot of tension stemming from the Aliens in Criminal Enterprise either, as once again, the characters are familiar with Xenomorphs as a ubiquitous threat across the galaxy. Other than the sometimes boring 'action' passages, the kind of meh opening and the lack of a payoff regarding a villain who's not really built up enough for me to feel enough satisfaction at their demise, this book was a fun read and what I would call one of the better Aliens novels I've experienced thus far. It should be one of the later books read by a fan though, probably at least after the Earth Hive trilogy.
Generally, this book hits all the notes: Colonial Marines (at least their technology), spaceships, loads of Aliens, and a Weyland Yutani conspiracy. I think all we're missing are synthetic humans.
Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Feb 23, 2018, 08:13:13 AM
I would love that. I really would! I think the newer series would be ripe for adaptations too. Don't get me wrong, I've loved having original novels but the idea of novel of the comics is just something I so associate with Alien and Predator that I've always got this little desire for more.
There's also a lot of opportunity in the novelization of a graphic novel feeling bolstered and revised. Some of the pacing in the comics is awkward and characterization gets muddled, but the writer adapting it into prose gets a chance to clarify everything and give us a closer, more definitive version of the narrative after the first pass has been made. With the original novels (thinking of No Exit here), the writer gets one shot to create everything in a short amount of time, without the opportunity to spend enough effort really polishing it.
