Quote from: Kradan on Aug 21, 2020, 05:46:05 AM
I always thought facehuggers "have permission to die" only when their job is done
This makes sense 😎
Finished Cauldron... I really hope that Diane Carey (the author of this and DNA War) never again returns to the Alien universe. I noticed she wrote a few Star Trek books and after learning that, makes a lot of sense.
Cauldron felt like a few different books, mixed together and then she realized she forgot the main ingredient, Aliens.
This book was hit and miss. I surprisingly liked the scene where the alien made the human scream, but did not like when it appeared with another human who the alien made talk...Rather confusing.
The kids were beyond annoying, though I didn't mind one or two of them. Some of them are overly smart like Leigh and Pearl...oh yes, Pearl. So she makes a comment at the end that she was supposed to be one of Aliens because her DNA is all messed up....and then that was that. And the whole Adam drugging the grownups to take over the ship was beyond ridiculous and I thought he would've given a good reason why, he doesn't, period. Plus the kids don't really even fight Adam on releasing the captain and all watch as he's made to see his family heirloom melted down to nothing...
The reasoning the aliens escaped, for chickens to be cooked, was pretty ridiculous as well and after there released, take over the ship in a matter of an hour, from what I read. Also, the ship they were originally released on (the Virginia) docked with the Umiak (the kids ship), is never mentioned again after more than half the crew of the Umiak departs. What happened to the rest of the crew and aliens, left on the Virginia?
I did like the releasing of all the animals throughout the cargo hold to mess with the aliens. That part was pretty cool and an alien going up against a saber tooth and mammoth was a neat idea. Plus I feel she described the aliens as more horror and brutal than she did in DNA War, so there's that.
The random pirates/smugglers that showed up delivers absolutely nothing to the story other than a baby getting ripped out of one of the female pirates and Robin taking care of it, which is even hardly mentioned.
It ends with the remaining kids splashing and swimming around in a container which was filled with aquatic life...yeah...
Once again, I don't mind authors taking the aliens in a different direction and trying new things, but this author misses more than hits.
Maybe because I was warned previously about the novel but I think I still hold DNA War as the worst, followed right behind this one.
Steel Egg is next...
I've also noticed after reading the last few I've found no mention of the prior novels in the omnibus after volume 4 or 5, not sure. The last three novels I've read mentioned that humans have heard of Aliens but don't have much detail on them. Are these newer books not involved in the previous storylines? Are they just there own story?