Question about newer novels

Started by guymelfe, Aug 28, 2020, 05:31:14 AM

Author
Question about newer novels (Read 4,602 times)

SM

SM

#15
Yeah I worked with Izzo for a little while after the books and Fire & Stone.

And McClaren was my idea.

Corporal Hicks

Corporal Hicks

#16
Quote from: SM on Sep 03, 2020, 09:31:15 AM
Yeah I worked with Izzo for a little while after the books and Fire & Stone.

So we can't blame you for not talking him out of Colonial Marines in River of Pain?

QuoteAnd McClaren was my idea.

I think it'd depend on who ended up tackling that one, because while I think it made sense to visit him (why wouldn't it?) I still think that one had a pretty big potential to go down poorly if done poorly, especially with who he was buddied up with. That would have been 2 big points in one book.

SM

SM

#17
Yeah I would've advocated for marshalls over marines, but RoP was a pet project for him I think.

SpaceKase

SpaceKase

#18
Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Sep 03, 2020, 08:28:25 AM
Quote from: SM on Sep 03, 2020, 12:07:39 AM
Josh drove the OotS, RoP and SoS stuff - particularly RoP.  But he'd left by the time of Read/ Watch/ Play.  That was Steve Tzirlin who was previously at Lucasfilm and Read/ Watch/ Play was indeed inspired by SotE.  There was going to be more to it as well, but other events took over.

SotE? Shadows of the Empire?

From what I know of the roadmap that was planned under Tzir, it would have certainly been interesting! Some potential for things to have gone rather wrong (*cough* McClaren) but some genuinely interesting stuff in there.

What was the roadmap planned under Tzir? Potentially genuine, potentially evil romantic interest for Amanda?



Corporal Hicks

Corporal Hicks

#19
That's all I'll admit to knowing for now.  :P

SpaceKase

SpaceKase

#20
Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Sep 04, 2020, 08:08:42 AM
That's all I'll admit to knowing for now.  :P

So, on the real, ignoring the current Greg Land shenanigans and any foreboding omens that might bring, do you think there's a likelihood of any of these individuals who've historically manned the various helms of these franchises and licenses ever being brought back into the fold under the new regime, or will all of this just be tossed away like yesterday's jam?

guymelfe

guymelfe

#21
Started reading some aliens stuff again. Spoilers ahead for anyone who wants to avoid....

Spoiler
So after finishing Female Wars I gave Genocide a shot; a bit better written but felt like an utterly soulless story with some genuinely awful characters and absolutely no one to cheer for. I mean, our "hero" is a generically evil businessman who's out to make uncontrollable super-soldiers with Alien based drugs and everyone gets hauled off to the The Alien Homeworld ™ to scoop up the sludge and dies in the process. And when it's all said and done he has just enough of a change of heart to feel bad about his business endeavors but to still profit from them.

When I saw that Alien Harvest was yet another trip to The Alien Homeworld™ I had to take a break and spent the next couple months reading some Lovecraft, Robert Bloch, Arthur Conan Doyle, some of Robert E. Howard's original Conan stories (which are awesome), a bunch of vintage horror (Carmilla, The King in Yellow, some Shelley, etc), a ton of Burroughs, and a few Amelia Peabody Mysteries. Finally decided to give the aliens novels another go. Jumped to Rogue which started with the same formula we see right at the start of most of the others—a detachment of alien hunters are swiftly introduced, author is sure to let you know that certain member "hump like bunnies" (groan), and then they all swiftly die. Yawn. Didn't even finish first chapter and decided to move to the new chronology with Out of the Shadows.

OOTS definite starts well and unlike the other stories everyone doesn't die right at the start. I find it incredibly annoying as a reader when authors throw a bunch of names at you that you're trying to remember and then immediately remove them from the story, so I appreciated that only 2 of the Marion's crew were offed at the start (obviously the reader knows that no one on the incoming ships was anything more than alien fodder, or at least I hope they realized...). Not a great book by any measure and literally a hundred pages of filler in the middle but it started well and the ending was interesting, even if the characters were not nearly as well used as I expected from the start. I will say the Ripley delusions shifting to present tense was annoying and I stopped reading them after the third or fourth one. Still, the ending was pretty good, even though somewhat improbable since the WY medpod existing between Alien and Aliens is a major retcon, but I guess its ok since the movies did it also.

I also dug out Tribes, which was with my old comics, and absolutely loved it. Hands down the best writing I've seen in an Aliens work so far. I really enjoyed Steve Bissette's characters which were extremely well fleshed out given the short length of the story (many, many authors could take a lesson from this book). I really wish they'd kept them around for a subsequent work (though Rat did survive and could presumably turn up again). So far this short novella tops all the other Aliens content I've read. It's a real shame they didn't bring Bissette back for more.
[close]

Quote from: SM on Sep 03, 2020, 09:31:15 AM
Yeah I worked with Izzo for a little while after the books and Fire & Stone.

And McClaren was my idea.

Wanna read my manuscript? J/K....maybe... ;D

SM

SM

#22
If only I had that kind of pull.  Or any kind of pull.  :)

SpaceKase

SpaceKase

#23
Quote from: guymelfe on Jan 01, 2021, 01:22:00 AM
Started reading some aliens stuff again. Spoilers ahead for anyone who wants to avoid....

Spoiler
. Still, the ending was pretty good, even though somewhat improbable since the WY medpod existing between Alien and Aliens is a major retcon, but I guess its ok since the movies did it also.

I also dug out Tribes, which was with my old comics, and absolutely loved it. Hands down the best writing I've seen in an Aliens work so far. I really enjoyed Steve Bissette's characters which were extremely well fleshed out given the short length of the story (many, many authors could take a lesson from this book). I really wish they'd kept them around for a subsequent work (though Rat did survive and could presumably turn up again). So far this short novella tops all the other Aliens content I've read. It's a real shame they didn't bring Bissette back for more.
[close]


Totally agreed on the Bissette stuff, what an outstanding little anomaly, huh?

Spoiler
Out of curiosity, what felt weird or off putting about the med pod? Do you mean the conceit of wiping Ripley's memory between our the little adventures? Kind of a tired trope for 'mid-quels' but the method they used had all sorts of interesting and messed-up implications that probably can and should have been further explored. Selective memory erasure tech to attempt erasing the roots of PTSD in soldiers? What could go wrong? To find out, see Brad Meltzer's Identity Crisis from 2004 for DC Comics, or even better and creepier, check out Babylon 5 S01E21 from 1994, an episode called "The Quality of Mercy" starring Mark "Pvt Drake" Rolston as a convicted serial killer who is mindwiped for his crimes. Spoiler Alert, shenanigans ensue. So Wrong. So Good.
[close]

Kimarhi

Kimarhi

#24
I think part of the issue with the Bantam books has always been that these aren't unique stories (Hunters Planet snuck one in there) and it has always been other authors basically transcribing other peoples work.  They are only going to be so good.  I do have a certain fondness for Labyrinth, Berserker, and MOTS.  I feel the Perry and Navarro both did better than what the comics did. 

The random DH run that lasted a couple of years were pretty terrible.  You can tell that ONE movie in the franchise influences 95% of the work in the EU and it gets stale.  Some of the writers don't know how to play in the universe either.  Which you get alot of in that mini DH run.

The newer stuff is getting better all the time though.  Even the one where they woke up Ripley for a chapter between Alien and Aliens was better than quite a few of the old EU stories.

But none of them are high art.

BlueMarsalis79

BlueMarsalis79

#25
Definitely one's on par with the best films, I think you know it's name, it's by our first non-binary author.

Kimarhi

Kimarhi

#26
The films have always been the strongest medium of the alien verse.  And I don't feel it is particularly close. 


I actually feel like outside of the world building his Aliens feel almost exactly like the Aliens in all of the old Bantam novels. 


Spoiler
His best addition to the franchise has been Alien Marsalis.
[close]

He's doing stuff with the universe that is interesting and unique, but in terms of writing the Alien, I feel he's no better than dozens of other authors.  Maybe the beast is cook, and the Aliens will always just be instinctual space bugs. 


426Buddy

426Buddy

#27
Personally I think Alex White writes the aliens better and scarier than any other Author who's written for this series except maybe Scott Sigler.

Comparing his aliens or anything he writes to the Bantam novels is just... weird imo. I don't see the similarities at all.

Corporal Hicks

Corporal Hicks

#28
Yeah, that's not something I can agree on at all. Alex White and Scott Sigler are just phenomenal at writing for the Alien universe. They get it far more than I think we can say Sir Ridley does these days. Their entries are up there with the films and Isolation.

BlueMarsalis79

BlueMarsalis79

#29
Yeah you're crazy dude.

Perhaps not so much in Into Charybdis but in The Cold Forge the way Alex describes the Alien's the crème de la crème.

No question.

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