Titan Books Unveils Novels Aliens: Vasquez By Author V. Castro

[The Cruentus]

I have given it a quick puruse just to what I am getting in to and some parts of it do remind me of Starship Troopers

Spoiler

Namely, how the government/the law behaves. For example, Vasquez is threatened with forced sterilization and having her baby be the propery of the government. quite a dark future which I am not sure I how feel about. In starship troopers, the flaws and fascisms of the government was part of the story and background, but in the alien universe, I am not quite sure if it fits or not since none of early movies give details on how the governent is run.

[close]

[BlueMarsalis79]

I mean, that's not some potential dark future, it's places in the world today.

[The Cruentus]

True, i heard stories of such things happening in china when they had the one child rule.

[BlueMarsalis79]

I was more thinking America actually, specifically with regard to ICE facilities, or even the mother and baby homes here in the United Kingdom.

[Corporal Hicks]

My take was that it was all very clear commentary on recent America.

[Kradan]

That reminds me, back in the day I had Alien3 read by Lance Henriksen... it was the greatest cure for insomnia I've ever known.

What about Blade Runner narrated by Harrison Ford ?

[Mr. Clemens]

That reminds me, back in the day I had Alien3 read by Lance Henriksen... it was the greatest cure for insomnia I've ever known.

What about Blade Runner narrated by Harrison Ford ?

I know you're mostly joking, but I gotta say I never minded the voice-over. Probably because I read the comic (several times) before I saw the movie. When it finally came out on VHS, I was actually surprised there was so little voice-over! 

[Kradan]

IT"S DISCLAIMIN' TIME: I only watched BR like 1 or 2 times and never watched the voice-over version but I know it's quite notorious amongst movie's fans

[Corporal Hicks]

I finished this yesterday. I had to force myself to keep reading after I lost interest. The last 100 pages were a struggle. But hey, Aliens showed up, and they were on another planet.

So yeah. I still stand by enjoying the first part with Vasquez's background. But even then, it still felt very contemporary. This never really felt like an Alien book outside of

Spoiler

the names (and even the Grant and Kramer names got thrown around). There was some nice stuff with a viral weapon against the Alien, but it doesn't amount to much and instead seems to set up a sequel I'm just not interested in. Lots of recent music references without the conceit of a character being interested in oldies. The training never leaves Earth. Mobile phones and smartwatchs without even trying to give them other names. It was lots of farming without any contrast to modern cities. I know they seem like small things, but it's the world-building and scene setting.

I did like that Leticia didn't get what she set out to do, and she made other opportunities. But again, it felt heavy-handed like some of the earlier modern politic commentary.

[close]

But the over all sensation is it just didn't feel like it belonged in the Alien universe. I didn't hate the book. I'm just indifferent to it. Wouldn't recommend to Alien fans.

[Kradan]

It seems like there has been more misses than hits with Titan, eh ?

[Corporal Hicks]

I keep thinking that of this year too, but I think I'm just more focused on the negative experiences because I've found them especially frustrating.

In 2022 we've had -

Aliens vs. Predators: Ultimate Prey (enjoyed)
Alien: Colony War (loathed)
Alien: Inferno's Fall (enjoyed)
Predator: Eyes of the Demon (enjoyed)
Aliens vs. Predators: Rift War (can't even get past the first 50 or so pages)
Aliens: Vasquez (indifferent to)

So 50/50. Could have been worse, but definitely not their best year. They've managed to break the tie-in curse and just have some genuinely unenjoyable original novels too.

[Engineer]

It seems like there has been more misses than hits with Titan, eh ?

I'd agree with this. Admittedly, there's a number of newer novels I haven't gotten to yet, but so far there's only been 4 novels by Titan I've loved. The rest I thought were mediocre or just downright bad.

[Kradan]

They also seem to be cranking them up at a much faster pace. Maybe it's a case of "quantity vs quality " ?

[Engineer]

I'm just speculating here, but I think there might have been a lot of uncertainty with how things would go forward with the Disney acquisition. So for a few years, it seemed to me like they were slowing down to see how things played out. Now that there's been some time for Disney and Titan to sort of adjust to their new normal, I think they're just producing novels at their normal pace again which just seems fast to us because we aren't used to it... but again, just speculating. When Titan first got the license though, they did put out a number of novels pretty quickly.

[happypred]

I was more thinking America actually, specifically with regard to ICE facilities, or even the mother and baby homes here in the United Kingdom.

Aye and I think that hits closer to home for the authour