Alien: Enemy of My Enemy by Mary SanGiovanni

Started by Corporal Hicks, Mar 10, 2022, 03:18:38 PM

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Alien: Enemy of My Enemy by Mary SanGiovanni (Read 39,211 times)

Ashen89

Picked this up from Waterstones a couple of days before release, weirdly. Quite enjoyed it, it's a nice read, well paced and entertaining enough. I liked the setting and thought the author had a good sense of how to use the Alien to good effect.

Have to agree with someone above who said that the intermingling of the RPG and these novels is dragging the series down a little - both the 'product placement' of every weapon and vehicle being referred to by its full name and model number and the obsession with the political machinations of UA/UPP/ICSC which I personally don't find compelling in any way. Seems like they want to create a cheap knock off of the Expanse but it doesn't work for me,sadly.

Spoiler
Not sure about the biodrones, thought they were a bit silly/video-gamey. And the gangs decision to head into the infested conference centre instead of just bugging the hell out, resulting in almost everyone dying, had me scratching my head too. Surprisingly, I didn't mind the Queen thing, although it did remind me of that rubbish bit in Jurassic World where the TRex shows up and saves the day.
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Would rate this as better than Colony War and on par with Infernos Fall. 7/10

Xenomorphine

So, for those who've read this and others, where 'border bombings' and more are all being referenced as happening through this and other books:

Does it somehow still make sense for Ripley's blood sample to be the only viable source of Alien-related genetic data to be recovered, by the fourth film's events? It always seemed like a convoluted way of getting it, forced by circumstances, but if we're having countless examples of Alien DNA exploding all over the place... Or is everything always being purged with self-contained nuclear explosions and such?

I'm still trying to get through 'The Cold Forge' (keep having to restart it) and have no idea where things have gone, so far.

BlueMarsalis79

It makes no sense.

VN1X

Quote from: HuDaFuK on Aug 17, 2022, 12:00:56 PMIt's undeniably one of the better video game photoshops, but it's still a video game photoshop.
I'm curious how some of you are able to tell (so fast)? What gives it away hah.

Wweyland

Quote from: Xenomorphine on Mar 02, 2023, 06:10:00 PMSo, for those who've read this and others, where 'border bombings' and more are all being referenced as happening through this and other books:

Does it somehow still make sense for Ripley's blood sample to be the only viable source of Alien-related genetic data to be recovered, by the fourth film's events? It always seemed like a convoluted way of getting it, forced by circumstances, but if we're having countless examples of Alien DNA exploding all over the place... Or is everything always being purged with self-contained nuclear explosions and such?

I'm still trying to get through 'The Cold Forge' (keep having to restart it) and have no idea where things have gone, so far.
I thought that the old EU (Earth War, Berserker squads, etc.) was ignored because of this exact problem.
The "new" EU was having self-contained stories that would be in line with Alien: Resurrection.

TheBATMAN

Quote from: Xenomorphine on Mar 02, 2023, 06:10:00 PMSo, for those who've read this and others, where 'border bombings' and more are all being referenced as happening through this and other books:

Does it somehow still make sense for Ripley's blood sample to be the only viable source of Alien-related genetic data to be recovered, by the fourth film's events? It always seemed like a convoluted way of getting it, forced by circumstances, but if we're having countless examples of Alien DNA exploding all over the place... Or is everything always being purged with self-contained nuclear explosions and such?

I'm still trying to get through 'The Cold Forge' (keep having to restart it) and have no idea where things have gone, so far.

Not really. Enemy of my Enemy is set in 2186 I believe and by this point there are numerous black ops projects and factions experimenting on xenomorphs.

Alien Res doesnt have a place in this continuity. Sea of Sorrows also falls foul as it at least was written with Resurrection in mind. From memory there is even a passage in that book that says Wey Yu have been trying to obtain a xeno specimen for 300-odd years which completely goes against the dozens of books and comics released since.


Xenomorphine

Bah...

See, even if they're not dealing with actual live Aliens, it sounds like there are sitll lots of samples of related DNA which could have been very useable.

VeteranSergeant

VeteranSergeant

#37
There's never been a real Alien "canon," as far as Fox/Disney were concerned. I know that Gaska likes to overhype his involvement with the franchise, but in reality the license has always been tossed around with very little concern for what is "canonical." Fox's licensing reps literally signed off on the Colonial Marines video game's story, which undoes Resurrection and significant elements of 3. Why? Because the Alien never mattered to them as anything other than a movie monster that could be licensed out for money.  Childrens' toys? Why not? Lightgun arcade shooters? Why not?  Crossover with Predator? Why not?  Crossover with Superman? Why not?

Resurrection introduced a scenario which kills the timeline for 200 years past Alien 3, but that's where all the fun things like Colonial Marines and pulse rifles sit, so Resurrection has been ignored by virtually everything ever done in the  franchise since then,

QuoteThe tie ins with the RPG is harming what has been a fairly solid catalogue of Titan novels.
The RPG is pretty poorly written, just to be frank. I go back to what I've said before, it's a setting for a game searching for a reason to exist, rather than the extrapolation of a setting so interesting it demands to be a game. The Alien universe, other than the Alien itself, is a boring place. Marines complain about never getting sent to any stand up fights and extraterrestrial creatures are so harmless that the Marines don't believe Ripley could have encountered something that was a threat to them. Space is so boring that bean counters quibble over the market value of a ship that disappeared 57 years ago. But the players of the RPG can't be bored, so the game has a back story with more opportunity for action.

Inevitably, novels trying to tie into the events of the RPG are going to be hamstrung by the fact that the RPG kinda sucks. Honestly, Destroyer of Worlds may be one of the dumbest RPG adventures I've ever read, and that's where the whole Colony Wars storyline started.

BlueMarsalis79

The only thing I do not like in The RPG's the Arcturians, it's probably as well as can be done if they must be a sapient race of near humans being that using the context of the Engineers makes that already a thing in a sense, yes I wish it just got presented as a gender queer populace beside a military depot but the nature of the RPG means you decide what counts anyway.

Andrew Gaska has said as much, just like the suggestions of surviving Alien Eggs on Acheron and Fury, it flies in the face of both films centred on said locations but it is not to be take one hundred percent seriously, just something you might not have thought of or considered that might spring another idea newly to life.

I think it is pretty well written overall and most critically gets the franchise tone right but back on topic...

This not resolving any of the threads in Inferno's Fall (such as Clara Carija saying the Pathogen had been altered by someone) really makes me bitter towards that narrative now, it's truly like Prometheus where I have been duped into thinking I would get intelligent answers, but in reality things just arbitrarily happened for the sake of it.

This novel's just mediocre, but not in the sense it has some really good stuff and some really bad stuff like the aforementioned novel, but just serviceable the whole way.

Interested in your thoughts on this and The Alien RPG? @Still Collating...

Corporal Hicks

*closes his eyes as he walks into the thread to say*

I got a notification that the audiobook is now available on Audible.

DavidIsDaddy

I ordered this book, but I didn't know it was part of a "trilogy"? Or ongoing storyline? I'm fairly new to the greater Alien media landscape, can someone break this down?

SiL

I don't think it's strictly connected, just three stories that expand on ideas in the RPG.

xShadowFoxX

xShadowFoxX

#42
It's in my library now, finally. And... I'm not really liking what I'm hearing.

(It's not exactly grabbing my attention.)

xShadowFoxX

I also just realized that
Spoiler
Alec Brand is in the book,
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so now I'm kind of annoyed, particularly in the context of Resistance and Rescue which were poorly done comics.

Kradan


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