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 96,562 times)

SiL

If you want acid deaths in visual format, Labyrinth has plenty and they are gnarly.

Voodoo Magic

I also found that acid scene in Requiem a bit gnarly too.

Kradan

That shit was hilarious, yeah  :D

Stitch

OK, so I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for this, since I wanted a paperback version. Audible has just put a load of audio books up for free, and so I listened to it instead of actually getting it into my hands (which would have been my preferred way).

I now don't think I'll be picking up the paperback. Having read through this whole thread it feels like I'm one of the only people who didn't actually like this book.

Some of the concepts were great, and some of the death scenes were awesome, but by that point I'd stopped caring about the characters that were dying.
The shock deaths of main characters came out of nowhere and really surprised me, but when that same trick was reused multiple times it just drew me out of the story.

Some of the writing was also just bad. I realise that it was adapted to the characters that were being written, but when I got to a point where someone was saying 'it's like playing a guitar solo with a gun', I literally burst out laughing. There's also another part where Kamran refers to the aliens as 'snatchers', which he has no reason to because that terminology isn't his. It's an editing miss, but, again, something that stood out.

It's a shame, because The Cold Forge was pretty good (though I don't put it on a pedestal, like some). I was really looking forward to this, but it just didn't work for me. I guess it wasn't helped by the monotonous narrator, and the present tense writing (neither of which I liked, but was able to get over), but by the time I got about 2/3 through I realised I just wasn't enjoying the book on the whole. I kept going because I was intrigued by the continuing story of
Spoiler
Blue
[close]
, but it wasn't enough for me. It's like a movie where I buy into the hype, but come away feeling like l've missed something that everyone else seems to get.


BlueMarsalis79

Sometimes expectations can colour one's experience.

[cancerblack]

Quote from: Stitch on Aug 09, 2021, 10:12:44 AM
OK, so I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for this, since I wanted a paperback version. Audible has just put a load of audio books up for free, and so I listened to it instead of actually getting it into my hands (which would have been my preferred way).

I now don't think I'll be picking up the paperback. Having read through this whole thread it feels like I'm one of the only people who didn't actually like this book.

Some of the concepts were great, and some of the death scenes were awesome, but by that point I'd stopped caring about the characters that were dying.
The shock deaths of main characters came out of nowhere and really surprised me, but when that same trick was reused multiple times it just drew me out of the story.

Some of the writing was also just bad. I realise that it was adapted to the characters that were being written, but when I got to a point where someone was saying 'it's like playing a guitar solo with a gun', I literally burst out laughing. There's also another part where Kamran refers to the aliens as 'snatchers', which he has no reason to because that terminology isn't his. It's an editing miss, but, again, something that stood out.

It's a shame, because The Cold Forge was pretty good (though I don't put it on a pedestal, like some). I was really looking forward to this, but it just didn't work for me. I guess it wasn't helped by the monotonous narrator, and the present tense writing (neither of which I liked, but was able to get over), but by the time I got about 2/3 through I realised I just wasn't enjoying the book on the whole. I kept going because I was intrigued by the continuing story of
Spoiler
Blue
[close]
, but it wasn't enough for me. It's like a movie where I buy into the hype, but come away feeling like l've missed something that everyone else seems to get.



Do you know if it's the same narrator who did the Cold Forge audible?

He's terrible.

BlueMarsalis79


Kimarhi

I think there was a substantial world building improvement between the first and second book and you could see how White took steps in expanding the overarching story between the first and second.  I think my main draw was that Charybdis just felt much more expansive.


Everybody has their own taste though, I think everybody gets too hung up on what everybody else likes.  Sometimes its ok to be the tall rock in rushing water.

The one thing I would actively disagree with you is: Of course the main characters are going to die in the book.  It's an Alien movie related story. 



I think the last chance every character had to make it out of an Alien story was when me and a bro came up with a story in our backyard when I was a preteen where we didn't want to kill off any our our people. 


   

BlueMarsalis79

I like them both in distinct ways honestly.

Stitch

Quote from: Kimarhi on Aug 10, 2021, 01:06:28 AM
The one thing I would actively disagree with you is: Of course the main characters are going to die in the book.  It's an Alien movie related story.
I don't mind characters dying. As you said, it's an alien related story. The problem is when
Spoiler
your main character dies, and then you're in someone else's shoes, and then your new main character dies, and you're in someone else's shoes, and then your main character dies, and you're in someone else shoes
[close]
, it's kinda jarring. It throws me out of the narrative, and stops me really caring what happens to anyone.
Spoiler
Why get attached to someone if they're just going to die?
It's different with side characters, or with a narrative which shares the viewpoints between all characters, because you're not tied to them as a perspective. They're not the person who's head you're inside.
When you're reading something, and you're inside the head of the main character, and the writing style is very immediate, then when they die, it's shocking! When you do it again and again, it loses its potency, because they're all just fodder and it doesn't matter.
[close]

Nukiemorph

Nukiemorph

#565
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]

BlueMarsalis79

Yeah I don't agree at all Stitch.

skhellter

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.

BlueMarsalis79


Stitch

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.
Not at all the point I was making. But thanks for misunderstanding and making a sarcastic comment anyway. I'll make sure I stick to Biff and Chip from now on.

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