Fan Favourite Alex White Returns With New Novel, Alien: Into Charybdis!

[Russ840]

About two-thirds of the way through and people are spot on saying it's a very different beast to Cold Forge. In every way that felt like something of a revelation in this series, in a lot of ways this recalls the oldschool Alien books... but combined with the excellent prose and character work of White's previous book. It's great.

This is very spoiler but for anyone who's past the halfway point:

Spoiler

HOLY SHIT I DID NOT SEE SHY'S DEATH COMING!

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Lol. Man.

Spoiler

How good is it not knowing who is going to survive.

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[HuDaFuK]

Spoiler

Right? I got a bit of that from Kamran's mate gong into the maelstrom in chapter two, but f**k me I didn't see Shy going out like that!

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[Engineer]

About two-thirds of the way through and people are spot on saying it's a very different beast to Cold Forge. In every way that felt like something of a revelation in this series, in a lot of ways this recalls the oldschool Alien books... but combined with the excellent prose and character work of White's previous book. It's great.

This is very spoiler but for anyone who's past the halfway point:

Spoiler

HOLY SHIT I DID NOT SEE SHY'S DEATH COMING!

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Spoiler

I know! That shit hit me hard too!

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[Vrastal]

No spoiler thread yet so ill just throw in my thoughts here.

To start i didn't like cold forge very much. It was well written butni didnt like any of the main characters. None of the characters gave me a reason to like them in cold forge.

This carries on in Into Charybdis. Most of the characters are just terrible people or slightly worse than the average person. I dont want or expect perfect people but the negative traits in the characters overshadows any good they might have.

I didnt find myself rooting for any of the main "good" characters very much. I felt a bit disappointed with a few characters resolutions but didnt get excited or hopeful for any of the main cast

[BlueMarsalis79]

Alex White's just honest. I found myself rooting for Blue Marsalis in spite of their selfish motivation. I hope I find someone to gravitate towards in this.

[Local Trouble]

When can we expect your comprehensive review?

[BlueMarsalis79]

Real life stuff being invasive right now but I hope.

[Vrastal]

Alex White's just honest. I found myself rooting for Blue Marsalis in spite of their selfish motivation. I hope I find someone to gravitate towards in this.

I can get that but a lot of the characters didnt have many if any positive qualities, between being delusionally narcissistic, vile, greedy, or just repulsive. i could understand the characters but i didnt care what happened to most of them. And

Spoiler

Dorians death wasnt even satisfying

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However i will say i enjoyed this one much more than cold forge. it had some interesting developments and had characters i had more interest in

[Immortan Jonesy]

Real life stuff being invasive right now but I hope.

Sounds like my life. With the difference that I don't have the book   

[BlueMarsalis79]

Highly recommended.

https://youtu.be/rovgPMcqxRI
https://youtu.be/0aDelmvw_ac
https://youtu.be/xVqIOZxtAfs

[AnthaiHero]

Just finished the audiobook. Wish I had the map as things got a little confusing. May give it another listen. Overall, much different than TCF, but still very enjoyable. As some mentioned, not the strongest characters. Each character seemed to be on equal footing in regards to depth.

The Easter eggs and throwbacks were a nice touch, not too excessive.

[HuDaFuK]

The Easter eggs and throwbacks were a nice touch, not too excessive.

A couple of the reused lines of dialogue have been a little on-the-nose, but generally all the little references are fantastic. I especially got a kick out of Balaji Imperial cigarettes (apparently we have our own Hicks to thank for that one, the big nerd).

Also, super stoked that

Spoiler

Blue is back! I was hoping she'd get a cameo, even if just a mention in passing, but she's a far more important player than that.

I'm also unduly thrilled by the return of the scientist from Alien 3, even if they spelt his name wrong (although I guess technically he was never named in the film, just one of the script drafts, so I'll give them a pass )

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[Corporal Hicks]

Spoiler

Blue is back! I was hoping she'd get a cameo, even if just a mention in passing, but she's a far more important player than that.

I'm also unduly thrilled by the return of the scientist from Alien 3, even if they spelt his name wrong (although I guess technically he was never named in the film, just one of the script drafts, so I'll give them a pass )

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That was actually a source of some discussion. It was a deliberate change because it was spelt wrong originally.

Spoiler

That wasn't an actual Japanese name, it was corrected for the book.

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[HuDaFuK]

That was actually a source of some discussion. It was a deliberate change because it was spelt wrong originally.

Spoiler

That wasn't an actual Japanese name, it was corrected for the book.

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That thought had occurred to me, actually. Thanks for confirming.

[Russ840]

The Easter eggs and throwbacks were a nice touch, not too excessive.

A couple of the reused lines of dialogue have been a little on-the-nose, but generally all the little references are fantastic. I especially got a kick out of Balaji Imperial cigarettes (apparently we have our own Hicks to thank for that one, the big nerd).

Also, super stoked that

Spoiler

Blue is back! I was hoping she'd get a cameo, even if just a mention in passing, but she's a far more important player than that.

I'm also unduly thrilled by the return of the scientist from Alien 3, even if they spelt his name wrong (although I guess technically he was never named in the film, just one of the script drafts, so I'll give them a pass )

[close]

Spoiler

There so much lore/continuity porn in it. In a good way.  I love it.

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