Aliens Bishop

[jacobo1122]

I preferred Vasquez. And Vasquez was not terribly great.

Bishop is just an absolute mess and undermines Alien 3 completely.

Well, You can say that about every EU story that takes place after Alien 3

[Still Collating...]

How did it compare to Vasquez?

It is much better. I would say Vasquez had more interesting and less basic idea, but it didn't work because of weak, disjointed construction, where it had first part about Vasquez, second about her children, and weak finale that wasn't well connected to the rest and every character's appear in it feel artifical and forced. Bishop Has much better construction, where its several plotlines nicely overlap each other and they all conclude in nice finale that feels much more natural and cohesive.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much time was spent on secondary characters and superfluous plotlines; plus, the inclusion of the Xenomorphs redefines the phrase "shoehorned in".

Quite frankly, I'd have preferred it if the Xenomorph hadn't featured in the book at all. Alien: Covenant - Origins proved that an Alien novel can exist without having to have actual... Aliens in it.

I precaisly felt that Aliens were shoehorned in Vasquez. In Bishop, yeah, their inclusion wasn't the best, but also nothing offensive, and they were at least nicely represented. As for secondary characters and plots, I had similiar feeling in the middle of the book, but as I mentioned, I felt that finale nicely put them all together and made it work.
But I agree, there should be a place for stories without Xenomorphs in them. I can't say anything about Origins, I haven't read it, But Inferno's Fall proved for me that we don't need classic XX121s to tell a good story.

Inferno's Fall for me was great until the Alien wannabes showed up. Had every opportunity to use the Neomorphs to their full potential. They chickened out and just used Alien knockoffs instead that completely undermines how the Pathogen works. Plus not using the Davids they setup so well, poorly written action, 3 consecutive fakeout deaths for the main character in the span of just a few pages and the very bad portrayal of the synth daughter. The first half was almost perfect. The family and the first Neomorph attack was great. Everything after that was so disappointing IMO.   

[BlueMarsalis79]

Could not have said it better myself frankly.

[SM]

I preferred Vasquez. And Vasquez was not terribly great.

Bishop is just an absolute mess and undermines Alien 3 completely.

Well, You can say that about every EU story that takes place after Alien 3

This was always an issue for me, and I said as much working with Fox.  Any encounters need to be as small and as isolated as possible.  As much as you can, Ripley's sacrifice needs to be honoured. Ultimately you end up with a million small and isolated stories, which means the Aliens are everywhere anyway.  And they were planning something that was the antithesis of small and isolated too. 

[Kimarhi]

Go full Cameroaliens.  Let them take the universe!

[jacobo1122]

I like bleakness of Ripley sacrifice being meaningless. It shows how big and uncaring space is, and how small people are. I also like that Aliens are basicly everywhere, making them this cosmic force slowly infecting everything. But because of how big space is and how poorly communication and traveling works, nobody sees it. So I never have that problem.

[SM]

Even if you render it meaningless, there's still the fact they need her to get an Alien other than the dozens of other apparent sources.

[jacobo1122]

Inferno's Fall for me was great until the Alien wannabes showed up. Had every opportunity to use the Neomorphs to their full potential. They chickened out and just used Alien knockoffs instead that completely undermines how the Pathogen works. Plus not using the Davids they setup so well, poorly written action, 3 consecutive fakeout deaths for the main character in the span of just a few pages and the very bad portrayal of the synth daughter. The first half was almost perfect. The family and the first Neomorph attack was great. Everything after that was so disappointing IMO. 

It Has its problems, Black goo working differently, somewhat poor finale with shoehorned Engineers turning into Xenos, but overall I think it's still a great book, trying something new, having great set of characters and managing to handle such a vast cast very well, bringing back known characters into plot nicely and having great worldbuilding.

Even if you render it meaningless, there's still the fact they need her to get an Alien other than the dozens of other apparent sources.

Yeah, that's the bigger problem and harder to justify. It can still work if you think how much time it takes to communicate or travel in this Universe and that there can be many branches of company, that don't know of each other schemes, but the more incidents and secret labs in EU we get, the less probable it becomes. I mean, at this points WY should have gathered all the knowledge of Xenomorphs, or recognize it not worth it, considering how much costs they sink into so much failed experiments But what the hell, I need my constant dosage of Alien content, do I can turn a blind eye to it.

[BlueMarsalis79]

Great for the first third, one of my favourites and... totally falls apart after that.

[SM]

Inferno's Fall for me was great until the Alien wannabes showed up. Had every opportunity to use the Neomorphs to their full potential. They chickened out and just used Alien knockoffs instead that completely undermines how the Pathogen works. Plus not using the Davids they setup so well, poorly written action, 3 consecutive fakeout deaths for the main character in the span of just a few pages and the very bad portrayal of the synth daughter. The first half was almost perfect. The family and the first Neomorph attack was great. Everything after that was so disappointing IMO. 

It Has its problems, Black goo working differently, somewhat poor finale with shoehorned Engineers turning into Xenos, but overall I think it's still a great book, trying something new, having great set of characters and managing to handle such a vast cast very well, bringing back known characters into plot nicely and having great worldbuilding.

Even if you render it meaningless, there's still the fact they need her to get an Alien other than the dozens of other apparent sources.

Yeah, that's the bigger problem and harder to justify. It can still work if you think how much time it takes to communicate or travel in this Universe and that there can be many branches of company, that don't know of each other schemes, but the more incidents and secret labs in EU we get, the less probable it becomes. I mean, at this points WY should have gathered all the knowledge of Xenomorphs, or recognize it not worth it, considering how much costs they sink into so much failed experiments But what the hell, I need my constant dosage of Alien content, do I can turn a blind eye to it.

lol

We originally had plans for everything about the Aliens to be memory holed a century prior to Resurrection too allow everything to fit.

[xShadowFoxX]

I'm curious. I've been purposely avoiding these books since the Colony War trilogy, but.. maybe I'll pick it up.

[Local Trouble]

I'm curious. I've been purposely avoiding these books since the Colony War trilogy, but.. maybe I'll pick it up.

True, it's hard to top Colony War.

[Wweyland]

Was there even a war?

[Slutty Badger]

Was there even a war?

In the RPG, yes.

[xShadowFoxX]

Was there even a war?

In the RPG, yes.

What about in the books?