Aliens Bishop

[TheDerelict]

For the most part I've generally found Titan's novels to be solid & entertaining - things I'd rate 7 or 8 out of 10. The original trilogy was far better than it had any right to be. Cold Forge, Charybdis and Phalanx have been genuinely phenomenal, and not just fantastic tie-ins but brilliant reads all around.

I found all Titan's video game tie-ins (Isolation, Infiltrator & Predator: Stalking Shadow) to be quite mid, but nothing bad. For me, it's been the more recent (last 2 or 3 years specifically) where they've really faltered and been more bad and mid then usual. Colony War was just awful. Genuinely terrible. The kind of quality of DH Press at its worse. I can't even make it past the first 20 pages of AvP Rift War. Vasquez was quite mid, as was Enemy of My Enemy.

The only Titan books I've enjoyed recently have been Inferno's Fall (which has some of the EU's best character building and development) and this, Aliens: Bishop. I also really enjoyed both anthologies: Ultimate Prey and Eyes of the Demon, though I acknowledge that I am a little biased there as I worked on them. But I also think the quality of the shorts in them wasn't as consistently good as If It Bleeds.

But more to the point of the thread, I really did enjoy Bishop. I went into it very hesitant based on the synopsis but I was pleasantly surprised at how well written. Don't get me wrong, I'm a nerd, so I had nitpicks with it, but over all I thought it was a fantastic return to that solid form.

Question for you mate, where are all the eggs coming from. Everyone seems to have them, from secret government facilities, Chinese military and even an infected one hidden in a secret floor compartment. All of it with zero explanation.
Why are there aliens everywhere?
Why does almost every planet have an engineer temple and an abandoned WY facility at it.
I feel like I'm missing something.

[Corporal Hicks]

It's not being addressed currently. I believe Alex said the ones in Cold Forge had been obtained from LV-426.

[SM]

Which never made much sense.

[TheDerelict]

I thought Alex said it was left ambiguous, he referenced his time working on government projects where no one knew what the other department was doing for security reasons.
Having worked for the military and U.K./U.S government myself in the past, I can buy that.
And I let it slide with cold forge.

But it's every single bloody novel.

Bishop revolves around Bishop human effectively coercing/torturing Bishop android for information about Xenos. Whilst on a ship full of Alien eggs.

Where did they come from?

Who knows.
Who cares.

Hey nerds, don't worry about actual plot, look, it's Apones brother. Time to get your special sock out. We know how you all love the film Aliens. And the question that everyone has on their mind with this franchise of "what's the deal with Australia." Well fans, questions will be answered.

Don't even get me started on uncivil war.

[Local Trouble]

Colony War was just awful. Genuinely terrible. The kind of quality of DH Press at its worse.

 

[Corporal Hicks]

I thought Alex said it was left ambiguous, he referenced his time working on government projects where no one knew what the other department was doing for security reasons.

They did. But when we spoke to them for our podcast, they said if push came to shove they thought the eggs came from the Derelict.

[Kimarhi]

There is still David out there with a whole spaceship of people with little Aliens in it. 

He could be seeding places himself.  DAVID MASTERMIND VILLIAN OF THE EU. 

But this has always been the way it was in the EU.  The Aliens are just places.  Even AvP2 which has a pretty big lore taking places over multiple years on lv1201 never chiefly tells you where the Aliens come from, they are just there.  You don't know if the Preds brought them, if the Jockey's brought them, or if this is supposed to be the Alien homeworld.  It is never explicitly explained.  At least that I can remember.  The Galaxy is a 180,000 light years across.  It really doesn't bother me that they find a highly adaptable alien species on other worlds without having to explain it every time. 

I know back in the fanfiction days when I wrote in the Alien verse it was an idea I never gave much credence to because the Aliens are just everywhere.  Granted I always wrote from an EU perspective vs a movie one.  I WOULD want it more explained in the movie verse just because we have an established narrative of why the Aliens are so hard to come by thanks to Res but in the EU, never bothered me.   




   

[SiL]

The Dark Horse run built off the movies and had people discovering / creating other sources later. The Nostromo was still given as the original meeting of humans and Aliens for the most part.

The current Titan run is trying to fit into movie continuity but ends up with Alien stockpiles being researched concurrently with the movies with no explanation.

[SM]

I thought Alex said it was left ambiguous, he referenced his time working on government projects where no one knew what the other department was doing for security reasons.
Having worked for the military and U.K./U.S government myself in the past, I can buy that.
And I let it slide with cold forge.

But it's every single bloody novel.

Bishop revolves around Bishop human effectively coercing/torturing Bishop android for information about Xenos. Whilst on a ship full of Alien eggs.

Where did they come from?

Who knows.
Who cares.

Hey nerds, don't worry about actual plot, look, it's Apones brother. Time to get your special sock out. We know how you all love the film Aliens. And the question that everyone has on their mind with this franchise of "what's the deal with Australia." Well fans, questions will be answered.

Don't even get me started on uncivil war.

The book did leave the eggs coming from an unknown source.  Just White has said outside the book as Hicks said he thought they came from LV-426.  Which is silly.

[TheDerelict]

The Dark Horse run built off the movies and had people discovering / creating other sources later. The Nostromo was still given as the original meeting of humans and Aliens for the most part.

The current Titan run is trying to fit into movie continuity but ends up with Alien stockpiles being researched concurrently with the movies with no explanation.

Exactly.
They keep saying these books are canon. But that makes no sense, allow me to explain.
So you have Cold Forge set just after Aliens, a secret WY facility, studying the aliens that apparently came from LV 426.
And in Bishop, also set just after Aliens, you have a guy who I'm going to guess is quite a high up official within WY, running around 161 trying to get Ripley, defecting to the Chinese and torturing his own robot design to find out information about the Alien.
Why not just reroute the Patna to the cold forge?
Oh no wait, your on a Chinese battleship, built by WY that has a purpose built cargo hold for Aliens that it just so happens is currently in possession of...f**king what?

WY deserved to be bought out by Walmart.
 

I thought Alex said it was left ambiguous, he referenced his time working on government projects where no one knew what the other department was doing for security reasons.
Having worked for the military and U.K./U.S government myself in the past, I can buy that.
And I let it slide with cold forge.

But it's every single bloody novel.

Bishop revolves around Bishop human effectively coercing/torturing Bishop android for information about Xenos. Whilst on a ship full of Alien eggs.

Where did they come from?

Who knows.
Who cares.

Hey nerds, don't worry about actual plot, look, it's Apones brother. Time to get your special sock out. We know how you all love the film Aliens. And the question that everyone has on their mind with this franchise of "what's the deal with Australia." Well fans, questions will be answered.

Don't even get me started on uncivil war.

The book did leave the eggs coming from an unknown source.  Just White has said outside the book as Hicks said he thought they came from LV-426.  Which is silly.

It's all starting to get silly. The more they do and the more characters friends/lovers/siblings keep showing up the worse it's getting.
Even when it's great, like Alien: Isolation, the inclusion of Amanda was clutching at straws at best.
WY was concerned about her and authorised her to go show she could get closure...f**k off.
But that's the least egregious example, these books are becoming a joke.

[SM]

I was concerned when they brought Amanda back for the Resistance and Rescue comics - as enticing as it was to have both her and Zula in the same story.  Started out okay; ended pretty limp.  Then I saw Zula's coming back for the new video game and I thought 'Let her just rest for Christ's sake'. Then the trailer got me a bit more onside.

[2525]

As always I appreciate the plot synopsis. I read it a while ago and I need the refresher to keep up.

[Xenomrph]

Which never made much sense.

Well, I mean, unless the derelict survived the AP blast, per the CMTM.

[Vazquez]

Straight out of Apocalypse Now 😂

" "Horror has a face in this universe, and you must  make an ally of horror," he said. "For if you do not it will become an  enemy to be feared. The Xenomorph embodies horror and moral  terror, and therefore I will make the Xenomorph my friend. I will  bend it to my will."

[Xiggz456]

https://www.avpgalaxy.net/2024/07/27/not-bad-for-a-human-reviewing-aliens-bishop-avp-galaxy-podcast-186/

Podcast review it up!

Another great podcast and glad to hear Sarah again! Hicks had me cracking up when he roasted himself for mistakenly calling praetorians patreons lol! But loved the discussion, made me want to give it another read!