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 96,731 times)

Voodoo Magic

It's a great listen. Definitely worth your time. 👍

XenoHunter99

XenoHunter99

#526
As one who found Cold Forge disappointing given the hype around it, I will say Into Charybdis has been a very pleasant surprise - It's actually pretty good! As I am still reading, I'm avoiding the podcast until I'm done, but I'm looking forward to listening.

Kimarhi

I too liked Charybdis MUCH better.  I had to force myself to finish Cold Forge before Charybdis came out because it being a sequel and all.  Much to my surprise its probably my favorite bit of Alien lore I've gotten in the last decade.   

XenoHunter99

I agree with Kimarhi that Into Charybdis is much better than Cold Forge. I've finished reading and listening to the podcast. I guess I'll have to use some spoiler tags here as my post really will spoil things for people who haven't read. The podcast has big spoilers, too. :-X

Spoiler
I liked Blue as an upgraded alien. It was a liberating transformation for the character, and it was completely logical for Blue to die at the end. I hope Blue is truly dead - Resurrection in a new book would be sort of a cheap Marvel ploy and would rob the character of a good ending.

I think Mary was aware of what an uninhibited android can do, and she was rightly concerned that Rook might murder her and Kamran. The escape pod was a good way to resolve that. It fed nicely into the epilogue.

I also think Shy needed to die when and how she did. Her death was polyfunctional, and her arc of importance was mostly over, anyway. Kamran's return was surprising, but that worked out well, too. I agree with Voodoo. Haroun's ending would have been better if his "second child" hit the mark. As it worked out, Haroun's final thought was still sort of amusing.
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As discussed, all these characters had some duality to them. That made them more interesting.

I like the possibilities of the Black Goo. I think Alex White applied it well in Cold Forge and Into Charybdis.

Compared to other androids in the series and EU, Ash seems like sort of a weakling. :o

As usual, good work on the podcast. RidgeTop, good luck with your show.

Nightmare Asylum

You can also put me in the "Into Charybdis is the better of the two" category, and I say that as someone that loves The Cold Forge.

Kradan



Kradan

Kradan

#532


Is it in podcast form ?

Voodoo Magic


Kradan

f**k

Anyway, got a link ?


RidgeTop

RidgeTop

#536
Quote from: XenoHunter99 on Jun 22, 2021, 04:50:22 PM
As usual, good work on the podcast. RidgeTop, good luck with your show.

Thanks! Show happened earlier this month at my University but it's in a gallery on the campus for a bit.

Quote from: Kradan on Jun 22, 2021, 05:59:17 PM
f**k

Anyway, got a link ?

Yep, here are the images I went with. The project was equestrian photography from last fall to this spring, specifically contrasting domestic and wild horses out here in Utah. This was a selection for the gallery from a number of different shoots I did:

https://adamzellerphotographer.pixieset.com/adamzellerbfashow2021/

And the gallery itself:

Spoiler





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Also, appreciate the podcast feedback, everybody. I really enjoyed the book, my main issue was Duncan and how blatantly evil/incompetent/chaos-causing she was.

Book spoiler:
Spoiler
If a squad was slaughtered like that for trying to relieve command it would've likely caused an even larger rift in the chain of command with the remaining troops. But I suppose some of the war-crimes during the Iraq/Afghanistan conflict were also pretty blatant, with the most obscene being from the PMC contractors. I get Alex was going for a commentary with that, just personally thought it could've been a bit more nuanced. I was intrigued with Duncan's setup, but the more vicious she got, the more she kept sabotaging her own goals.
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XenoHunter99

Good work, RidgeTop. Thanks for sharing :)

Yes, Duncan was definitely a "bellend villain." I had to look that up. Thanks Hicks! Learning British slang here. :D

HuDaFuK

Quote from: XenoHunter99 on Jun 22, 2021, 04:50:22 PM
Spoiler
Haroun's ending would have been better if his "second child" hit the mark.
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Spoiler
I dunno, I really liked how it set up an obvious Purvis moment but then shied away from it at the last minute. I so wanted Duncan to get it, it was infuriating (in a good way) that she survived yet again.
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Corporal Hicks

Spoiler
I just don't think he deserved the kill either. Sure, everything with his kid was f**king brutal, but he'd spent the majority of the novel being one of the antagonists. He was such an arse to Kamran. And again, while I love all the duality and getting the stuff with him not being an antagonist, I just don't think I would have found it satisfying if he'd been the one to get the kill.
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