Customer Reviews

Music of the Spears: Aliens Series

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I can't believe that no one's reviewed this yet. This was my third favorite ALIENS novel (first being "Female War" and second being "Labyrinth"). I think this book stands out in the series for several reasons, the biggest being that there is absolutely no action whatsoever, but the most important being that I'd actually consider this a "real" novel. Don't get me wrong - there are some other great books in this series (I've already mentioned two), but for the most part they usually consist of no more than graphic violence, killing, and sex. This book was different in that it had done of that stuff and actually had a plot! Imagine that!

I think most ALIENS fans will understand me when I say that the books and comics in this series follow a pretty predictable storyline: all alone in space, no one can hear you scream, etc. This had a beautifully crafted plot; was dark and stirred deep emotions; and, I felt, captured the atmosphere of the movie that started it all, ALIEN. I also love the way the future is portrayed; just what things would be like after an entire world massacre by a hostile species if you ask me.

Another plus is the way she handles the music. It's kind of hard to write a book about music because (obviously) you can't actually 'hear' the music she's describing, but she did such a great job that there were times when I almost thought I did hear it...

All in all, I'd consider this the most mature of the series, which is probably why a lot of peolpe won't like it. They'll think it's too slow and won't bother finishing it and will end up missing out on a great book. I can only hope that Yvonne Navarro is up for a second novel is this series which could very much use a facelift!

Aliens Novels: Book 8, Music of the Spears / 0-553-57492-2

As I'm going through reading all the aliens books in order (although all of them have been non-sequential, self-contained stories after the third book, The Female War), I have found that few things irritate me so much as an author who felt no need to do any research whatsoever into the aliens universe. The only thing more irritating that this might perhaps be a science fiction author who doesn't understand the concept of science fiction. In "Music of the Spears", author Navarro manages to handily fit both categories.

Navarro has apparently never seen a single aliens movie nor read a single aliens book, a fact demonstrated by her not knowing the first thing about aliens, period. She has decided that the "derelict space craft" she keeps hearing about from that first movie Alien was built *by* the aliens, demonstrating a level of sentience and intelligence that the aliens have since "lost" - a puzzle the author solves by having the aliens de-evolving in captivity on Earth.

Now, forget fanboy facts like aliens not being advanced enough to create their own space crafts, as outlined in every book and movie on the subject. Forget that the movie clearly emphasized that the aliens on the derelict ship were not pilots (Navarro hasn't, apparently, seen the famous scene with the desiccated, chest-bursted pilot fossilized to the helm). Forgetting all of that, just consider the implications of the alien species EVER having the ability to build spaceships and navigate the stars: that would make them completely unstoppable. The only weak point in the aliens is that they are 'trappable' on planets and ships, and the human victims have a chance at getting away from the planet/ship they've been trapped on. If the aliens could just up and take off to wherever they pleased, why wouldn't they have conquered the universe at this point, or at least the better part of our galaxy?

Similarly, a new "fact" we're treated to is that the aliens "see" by sonar (similar to bats) and the sound waves they use to "see" their surroundings is a constant, audible hiss. Not only does this contradict all other alien sources, it doesn't make sense: aliens are scary because they can creep silently up behind you and grab you before you even knew they were there, but it's impossible to be sneaky when you sound like a perpetual leaky tire.

Navarro is apparently dimly aware, probably via her franchise contact, that the previous books in the series have featured an alien-human war on Earth that resulted in (a) something like 70% of all humans dead, with the remaining 30% scattered randomly through space in a panicked species-wide Diaspora, and (b) the Earth being physically ravaged by war, alien occupation, and by massive, planet-wide nuclear bombs. A science fiction universe operating under those rules would look just a tiny bit different from our own. Racial lines would almost certainly be completely blurred by the massively reduced population and the mixed genetic content of the hastily-boarded escape pods, a reality that Piers Anthony predicted long ago in his Race Against Time. Major cities would be completely decimated by war and would have to be rebuilt from the ground up, if they were even built at all - "New York" would literally become "New New York", as Futurama satirically notes. Technology would be more advanced for this space-faring race resettling a decimated planet, an obvious fact since before Star Trek aired a single series.

In Navarro's Manhattan, however, right across the street from the World Trade Center (unmarred by aliens or nuclear war), lies the music company Synsound which is owned and run by a Japanese man (who has maintained his Japanese language, customs, and genetics despite the Diaspora), and of course he's also an ex-member of the Yakuza (it's nice to see a violent gang maintain cohesion through a crisis). He naturally has at his disposal a group of ninjas who are hand-picked Japanese-American immigrants (the futuristic world government of the previous books having apparently fractured at some point back into the twentieth century governments that Navarro is more familiar with) who, as a prerequisite for joining, don't speak a lick of English (because a species hovering on the verge of extinction has the luxury of avoiding a common language). The ninjas carry ancient family-heirloom Samurai swords (thank god there was room to load the heirlooms on the escape pods, although it's a shame that there wasn't room for Grandma after the swords had been packed). This particular group of ninjas is "perfect" for fighting aliens because, as Navarro patiently explains, Samurai swords cleanly take off the aliens' limbs.

Um...what? Not to sound like a raging fanboy, but taking off a limb should result in a spray of deadly acid. Speaking of which, not only should those heirloom swords *not* be able to pierce an alien carapace, they should not even exist after the first cut. Apparently when they make ancient Samurai swords, they make them acid-proof against alien acids that otherwise melt all compounds! It's just too bad they didn't share that ancient secret with all the ship-makers and armory departments outfitting the marines or that whole Diaspora thing possibly could have been averted.

Anyway, the ninjas come in handy because a rival pharmaceutical company (the music industry absolutely HATES the medical industry) has a secret alien lab and the ninjas are able to duck under security cameras (they can afford an alien lab, but they didn't want to go overboard on security cameras), kill the aliens in a one-on-one battle, and kidnap an egg. All this trouble because Synsound is humoring a musician who wants to re-record Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain", but with alien screams mixed in, which isn't anywhere near as creative as what Fantasia did with the same piece five decades before Navarro put pen to paper. The alien cage is constructed according to specifications drawn up from the lead ninja's "instincts" and the alien is monitored by two low-level scientists armed with clipboards and dot matrix printers, apparently still the fashion in the 2100s. It's never clear why the company is willing to break so many laws and spend so much money on this project that they know will be hugely unprofitable, but we get past that by not talking about it.

The rest of the novel is spent moralizing for many, many pages about the immorality of feeding people to an alien for a crappy music re-mix. Oh, yeah, and those people are old college friends of the musician, hand-picked by the company apparently for no other reason than to mess with him. Oh, snap!

Other offensively stupid things about this novel include the tame, muzzled alien named "Old Blue" that the company keeps on hand as a tracker "dog". There's the investigators handling acid-soaked alien corpses with nothing more than gloves on their hands (on reflection, perhaps it's not that Navarro didn't read the books, perhaps it's that she just doesn't understand the concept of 'acid'). There's the return to the god-awful royal jelly plot, with royal jelly being a drug that is magically both a stimulant AND a soporific, and literally impossible to overdose on. There's also the underlying racism that every minority in the novel has to justify their existence by being a stereotypical "angry black man" or "oriental ninja".

Do yourself a favor and skip this novel entirely. The whole thing is a tepid, moralizing screed, more whiny than introspective, and with enough inaccuracies and blatant stupidity to choke a horse. Since the series stopped being sequential many books ago, I can assure you, you won't be missing anything at all.

~ Ana Mardoll

This novel, because of its unique perspective and oddly toned outlook on the Alien influence on human behavior, is a must read for anyone who finds the alien appealing. Here, we are introduced to a type of obsessive that differs from any of the previous people encountered (in the reasoning behind his actions, that is), while still touching on that all-too-understood corporate manipulation approach. (Personally, I like this left in the storylines because it stays true to the original movie and makes an interesting social observation) Here, we find ourselves immersed in the "modern" music industry, where bands are produced, cloned, and so on, with our main character wanting something different. He wants to make music Alien style. So, with the help of Mozart and a bit of Xeno-Zip, he voyages into realms that are ultra yummy in a dark, foreboding sense.
This book, because of the author's style and the approach that the book takes, truly stands on its own. Everyone should check it out.

Dark Horse seems pretty driven to novelize all their Aliens comics. I'm a pretty big Aliens fan, so I'm pretty motivated to read through all these books at some point as well as all the comics. Like the comics, after the first three books they sort of turn into a stand alone series that have self contained stories. "Music of the Spears" is just one of those stories and strangely I didn't think the comic was all that outstanding. It was definitely a very unique idea and it was fun to read, but there was just something about it that was merely okay rather than outstanding. Yvonne Navarro adapts Chet Williamson's comic script two years after the issues were published. I have to say that Yvonne did an excellent job. Honestly the comics didn't engage in this much depth of character and I think that's why I felt this wasn't a very outstanding series initially.

The story centers around a musician named Damon Eddington. He's signed to a fairly large record label named SynSound, but his music isn't exactly breaking the charts. You could say he's sort of the low man on SynSound's list of artists. Eddington feels very disenchanted by the music industry because the top artists are these android rock bands that aren't even human. He can't stand this hypocrisy in the degenerated future. His magnum opus is going to break into different musical boundaries and capture the pure essence in his "Symphony of Hate". There's one key element to his master piece, he needs an Alien so he can record it in the studio. SynSound is quite intrigued at this proposition and tries to figure out a way to provide Damon with his request. All this is introduced in the first couple of chapters and from there a very interesting tale is weaved. A lot of problems occur when Damon can't just get what he wants and getting the beast to cooperate is a much more daunting task than he perceived.

It certainly seems like a strange concept, and not all that exciting. Honestly, the comic really wasn't, but for some reason Navarro makes it work very well. Williamson's script wasn't terrible, by any means, but I just think it lacked the depth Navarro brought us into with the characters. She explains a bit more about the music industry and the fans. We also get a deeper look into Damon's psyche and I think that's what really drove the intrigue for me in this novel. Another element that I think is vastly interesting that shows up in other Aliens tales is the use of the Queen's jelly to create a sort of hallucinogenic drug called "Royal Jelly". After the Aliens existence is well known by society it becomes a huge problem in society. I don't know why, but I just found that alternate story element very interesting and how it's used in a climactic way.

Overall it's a very interesting story. There isn't very much action in this tale and it's more suspenseful than anything else. It's more true to form of the original Alien movie rather than Aliens. The way it integrates into the future Earth society is more of the norm from Aliens and it combines the Alien aspect of suspense very well. It's a strange concept and I'm not sure a large amount of people will really embrace this story or its novel adaptation, but I felt the novel added a lot more than the comic series. If you liked the comic series you will likely love the novel a lot more.

I am refusing to even give this book a second try based on the few very important facts I've picked up. I looked at a passage or two and was immediately disappointed. Swords? Really? You dont fight aliens hand to hand unless youre a yautja, and an blooded one at that. There was a character in Nightmare Asylum who used an officer's sword on a drone and the thing melted right away. But samurai/ninjas clearly have Hitori Hanzo powers so of course they can take down anything.

Wait a minute, since when do ninjas use samurai swords? Quick bit of history, samurai swords, the wakazashi and katana, are meant for combat and not sneaking around. Ninja swords, or ninjato, are short straight blades meant for quick strikes. So my point is, if the yakuza dude in the story is sooooo traditional then why are these two clear cut philosophies frankenstiened together?

Oh and i can deal with the rehashed idea of a mad scientist who wants to control aliens in some form or another cause thats just how humans are, capitalize on everything, but why would anyone give a damn about alien music?

One last thing, the hissing. They have sonar now? How do they see in space? In all the other books, movies, and games, these things are built to survive in hard vacuum. One book stated that the acid in their blood superheats when they are in hard vacuum to keep them mobile and their organs working. If they have that natural ability, doesnt hiss-o-vision take a step in the wrong direction? They are built to survive anywhere.

But no its cool. Not like the alien franchise has a really big following and most of the fans grew up watching the movies or anything. No need to do research.

And no wonder. This book is probably to blame for the lack of anymore Aliens novels to be written. Out of all of the Aliens vs. Predator & Aliens novels this one was the worst.
Music of the Spears has the concept of a composer on the brink of insanity that needs the screams of a live alien to complete his latest masterpiece, however,It by far goes into too much detail in areas that have no impact on the story. The characters are bland and uninteresting with too many paragraphs, if not chapters, being devoted to bringing us into the minds of these characters.
Stay away from this stinker unless you have a case of insomnia as I've found myself falling asleep while reading it.