Got through another three last night, and enjoyed them all. This book's definitely picked up noticeably in the second half, despite the fact the back end contains unquestionably the worst story of the lot so far (Darkness Falls).
Maberry's Deep Black was excellent (despite a few goofs, like constantly referring to Weyland-Yutani as "W-T", or calling Double-Y syndrome "Double-X", which would simply make anyone suffering from it a woman
). Another story with lots of references that make it feel like the author actually cared enough to do some research on the series before writing it.
Spoiler
Loved the return to Fury. Wasn't so hot on the theory as to how the Chinese actually got hold of Aliens there, but at least it was presented as just that - a theory. The fact it wasn't definitively stated exactly what happened means you're free to come up with your own, perhaps less continuity-muddling explanation.
Above all, I just thought the writing style in this was fantastic. Even the mistakes I mentioned couldn't really dampen it for me. Would love to see Maberry write more for this franchise.
Distressed was
Spoiler
another good not-actually Aliens story. A bit like Reaper, it sets you up into thinking you'll be facing the good ol' Xeno, but then pulls a 180 and throws a completely different (and pretty cool) alien at you. If anything the switch was a tad unclear - for instance, he calls his new alien a Xenomorph, which - while linguistically fine (and a neat touch) - did confuse me for a bit, and I had to re-read a few lines before I twigged that what I'd just read wasn't supposed to be another vague description of the traditional Alien... But once I was over that I loved the story through to the end.
Dangerous Prey, a bit like Episode 22, was another story that pleasantly surprised with how different it was in tone and style.
Spoiler
Seeing things entirely from the Alien perspective didn't always work but at least made for an interesting and memorable read. It reminded me of some of the good Alien-perspective sections in Crispin's Resurrection novelisation.
Probably the one of the three I enjoyed least but still a worthwhile addition.
Only have Lebbon's Spite to go now.