Fan Favourite Alex White Returns With New Novel, Alien: Into Charybdis!

Started by Corporal Hicks, Feb 03, 2020, 03:53:38 PM

Author
Fan Favourite Alex White Returns With New Novel, Alien: Into Charybdis! (Read 96,742 times)

Voodoo Magic

Quote from: skhellter on Aug 10, 2021, 11:36:27 AM
Quote from: Stitch on Aug 10, 2021, 03:36:56 AM
Why get attached to someone if they're just going to die?

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

This happens a lot in this thing called LIFE.
If you don't want it happening in adult books then maybe stick with kid literature.

Let's respect everyone's opinion and avoid being condescending please.

SiL

I actually agree with Stitch. Setting up the expectation that everyone is going to die does just as much to drain the tension as setting up that people are always going to live.

It's hard to get invested when the outcome feels like a forgone conclusion, whatever that conclusion may be.

Kimarhi

Kimarhi

#572
Quote from: Nukiemorph on Aug 10, 2021, 04:15:05 AM
I really only felt like
Spoiler
there were two main characters and one of them died...

Shy felt like the main character of the American crew. She died for shock.

Kamran was the main Iranian. He survived.

Then Becker felt like the main marine, but the marines arrived too late in the story for him to feel like an overall main character, and his death was heroic and with purpose.
[close]

This is pretty much how I thought it was supposed to read.


I felt this was a direct throwback to how the first Alien was made, where everybody thought looking at the cast that Sigourney Weaver was going to be the first to go because she was an unknown, and somebody like Tom Skerrit was going to lead,  but Weaver ended up being the series lead.

Spoiler
Obviously we aren't looking at a cast for a movie and seeing that Shy is going to make it, but there was definitively a narrative lead into thinking that would be the case for the book where so much perspective is told from her familiar viewpoint that we think it is a given that she will make it and continue on.
[close]

  It was definately a GOT gotcha moment, but I felt it was executed pretty flawlessly. 






Spoiler
Blue will probably be the most important character in the long run if the series with White continues. 
[close]

SiL

Please use spoiler tags for f**k's sake...

Kradan

Quote from: skhellter on Aug 10, 2021, 11:36:27 AM
Quote from: Stitch on Aug 10, 2021, 03:36:56 AM
Why get attached to someone if they're just going to die?

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

This happens a lot in this thing called LIFE.
If you don't want it happening in adult books then maybe stick with kid literature.

You must've loved Rogue One

Corporal Hicks

Quote from: SiL on Aug 11, 2021, 12:54:31 AM
I actually agree with Stitch. Setting up the expectation that everyone is going to die does just as much to drain the tension as setting up that people are always going to live.

It's hard to get invested when the outcome feels like a forgone conclusion, whatever that conclusion may be.

I wouldn't say it's setup as everyone is going to die. It's just an uncertainty. You don't expect the big moment. It's a big gut punch. And I can't say I expected who made it out to make it out. But there's always two focal characters, so if one does die, the other may not and we keep moving. It's all part of the charm of the novel for me. That uncertainty.

Xiggz456

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Aug 11, 2021, 07:23:27 AM
Quote from: SiL on Aug 11, 2021, 12:54:31 AM
I actually agree with Stitch. Setting up the expectation that everyone is going to die does just as much to drain the tension as setting up that people are always going to live.

It's hard to get invested when the outcome feels like a forgone conclusion, whatever that conclusion may be.

I wouldn't say it's setup as everyone is going to die. It's just an uncertainty. You don't expect the big moment. It's a big gut punch. And I can't say I expected who made it out to make it out. But there's always two focal characters, so if one does die, the other may not and we keep moving. It's all part of the charm of the novel for me. That uncertainty.

Exactly, in no way does it "set up the expectation that everyone is going to die" it merely shows us that no one is safe which actually enhanced the tension on my end. The uncertainty and the subverting of expectations is part of what makes this novel so strong.

Voodoo Magic

Voodoo Magic

#577
Speaking as someone who truly loved reading this novel, I could see this perhaps dulling the impact of the next Alex White novel I read, in the terms of just waiting for the main characters to bite it.  :laugh:


Corporal Hicks

The thing about Alex is they're very self-aware. They'll be unlikely to do the do it again in another novel if they know folk are expecting it.

Voodoo Magic

Alex has all the characters survive in the next one....

That crafty White!

Stitch

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Aug 11, 2021, 07:23:27 AM
Quote from: SiL on Aug 11, 2021, 12:54:31 AM
I actually agree with Stitch. Setting up the expectation that everyone is going to die does just as much to drain the tension as setting up that people are always going to live.

It's hard to get invested when the outcome feels like a forgone conclusion, whatever that conclusion may be.

I wouldn't say it's setup as everyone is going to die. It's just an uncertainty. You don't expect the big moment. It's a big gut punch. And I can't say I expected who made it out to make it out. But there's always two focal characters, so if one does die, the other may not and we keep moving. It's all part of the charm of the novel for me. That uncertainty.
To me, it felt less like charming uncertainty, and more like overuse of a literary trick. The way the perspective shifts, in conjunction with the immediacy of the writing style, felt jarring to me, as I said. Instead of drawing me in with intrigue, it did the opposite and broke my engagement. Instead of Oh my god, what's going to happen next?, my reaction was more Really? Again?

I can understand that others would enjoy it, but it just didn't work for me, which was disappointing.

SiL

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Aug 11, 2021, 07:23:27 AM
I wouldn't say it's setup as everyone is going to die. It's just an uncertainty.
The key point is a pattern's a pattern. I haven't read the book, and can't comment on the specifics, but I know that I've grown incredibly bored with a lot of modern TV series that regularly kill off seemingly-major characters. After a point it stops giving the impression that nobody's safe and starts establishing a pattern of "if someone's getting any decent character development, they're next."

Maybe White does it better, I can't comment. But on the face of it I agree with Stitch's sentiment.

Kimarhi

Quote from: SiL on Aug 11, 2021, 01:42:03 AM
Please use spoiler tags for f**k's sake...

C'mon man.  We're almost 40 pages deep in this mess, 6 months after the release date.  Eventually it stops being our responsibility to cover for yalls lazy asses if you don't want to read the book. 

Stitch

Quote from: Kimarhi on Aug 12, 2021, 03:55:27 AM
Quote from: SiL on Aug 11, 2021, 01:42:03 AM
Please use spoiler tags for f**k's sake...

C'mon man.  We're almost 40 pages deep in this mess, 6 months after the release date.  Eventually it stops being our responsibility to cover for yalls lazy asses if you don't want to read the book.
In all fairness, the only reason I got it was because it was made free on Audible. I was waiting for a paperback, and they're not released until February. So, yeah, there are still spoilers.

SiL

SiL

#584
Quote from: Kimarhi on Aug 12, 2021, 03:55:27 AM
C'mon man.  We're almost 40 pages deep in this mess, 6 months after the release date.  Eventually it stops being our responsibility to cover for yalls lazy asses if you don't want to read the book.
Or some of us have been hit by work shortages following a global f**king pandemic and don't have the disposable income for books at the moment? f**k aaaall the way off man.

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