Also finished it today. As others have said, a cracking read and a lot of fun.
It's interesting that White mentioned in interviews around the release of
The Cold Forge that he envisioned two versions of that book - one in the vein of
Alien and another more in line with
Aliens. That novel ended up aping the tone of the first movie, but this one is absolutely more
Aliens in style. I'm not sure it quite captured the same feeling of supreme sophistication as
Cold Forge for me, but in its place is a far greater sense of unbridled fun (albeit still with plenty of sophisticated - and indeed dark - moments).
Setting the story on an Iranian rather than just another American colony brought a lot to the story, as well as a refreshing sense of originality; while I can't personally speak to the veracity of all the Iranian details, it certainly felt pretty genuine to me. And I also have to give mention to the colony itself - possibly the most interesting and arresting interstellar location from any
Alien story.
Now for the spoilery stuff:
Spoiler
- White certainly isn't precious about his characters As if Shy dying halfway through didn't f**k me up enough, Becker didn't make it to the end either, and Blue is seemingly dead too. All of those were shocking, although the latter admittedly leaves clear scope for her to return.
- Speaking of Blue, not only is it great to have her back, I thought what White did with her was really interesting. The stuff about her being reduced to a disembodied head and a bunch of machines was truly harrowing, while her transformation into an Alien both opened up some really interesting doors and recalled some of the Xeno-synth fun of the oldschool comics.
- Matsushita and Duncan's deaths were f**king bitchin'.
- While I'm on the villains, I liked that Duncan was a lot more straightforward than Dorian Sudler. Dorian was such a tour de force character, I doubt White could've matched him and wisely didn't even try. Duncan may be less nuanced but she's still a great foil, especially when she really goes off the rails towards the end.
- How awesome was it to finally see a Dropship tearing shit up with its nosegun?
- That epilogue was surprisingly dark. I wonder if White has any tentative ideas for a follow-up?
So yeah. At a push, I'd say I marginally preferred
Cold Forge - I honestly rank that alongside the first three movies, whereas I don't think I'd go
quite that far with this one - but it's absolutely another winner from White and I recommend it 110%.