Being a big fan and critic of all things Aliens (the second movie was my favorite), I feel happy with this latest tale of Aliens putting humans and "advance" technology in their place. That being said, this wasn't a perfect fit into either of the seperate canons of the Aliens films or the comics/novels, but that's easy to overlook for the good entertainment value here. Well-written, the story flows smoothly and unfolds in a way consistent with the genre. I enjoyed the book and was happy to add it to my Aliens collection. That being said, there were a few things I noted as being a little, well, "off" for those who are as picky as me.
The author acknowledges in his intro that he tries to add some new elements to the Aliens, such as detailing their eating and growth cycle a little more. Generally, making changes or additions is difficult to do without harming what originally made these "monsters" so scary, but Shirley does an admirable job of it. While these variations don't destroy what makes the creatures as great as they are, I kind of like some things not being so explained so that these terrifying killers actually remain "alien". The new things the author adds are often not portayed as definite, but could just be the perception of the characters, which is a great way to do such things.
The politics and social messages of the time of the story seem to reflect the predictable trends we see now, which is as goos sci-fi should be, and I felt drawn into the reality created by the book. Attempts at "future slang" and characters speaking with "quaint" old slang terms don't seem to go over well, but it's not over-used so that doesn't matter much.
My only real complaint is one that is common with prequels, the technology often seems better in the "past" than it does in the "future". Most notably, the control consoles on the humans' ship float around and are described as being pretty advanced. That kind of fanciness certainly wasn't on the Nostromo in the first Alien film. I think one of the things that made the first films so great was their gritty "real-ness" of the surroundings. This tale was less of a "truckers in space" and more of a fantastic sci-fi telling with "amazing" new alien technology. The only error I noticed is that the spelling of one of the Chinese characters names changed mid-page and stayed that way until their explosive death.
Overall, though, a great read and welcome addition to the genre. I look forward to more Aliens books by John Shirley.
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