Review by C.J. Bunce
The next novel in the Alien franchise brings the story of the most infamous monsters of outer space full circle. Sort of. Xenomorphs–the creatures have haunted audiences for four decades, and more recently haunted readers as well. Alien: Perfect Organisms (available now here at Amazon) brings another crew and another battered old spacecraft into the fore. This time it’s the Chariot, helmed by Captain Cynthia Goodwin, daughter of another pilot who took her ship where nobody had gone before… once before. In a story that could have been an installment in the Firefly series (with a swap of monsters), she’s got a small ragtag crew and a ship always falling apart. She’s out of money when a too good to be true offer drops in her lap. Sound familiar?
That’s not the description of every Firefly episode and novel, but it’s close. It’s also a frequent theme of Alien novels. The best of the ambiance in writer Shaun Hamill’s novel is the makeup of this crew, exiting the cryo sleep phase and becoming human again over a meal. That’s Harris, who is a father figure for the captain, an older engineer more Scotty than Kaylee. He’s keeping the bird in the sky, so to speak. Then there’s Sam, the latest secret lover of a key Alien player–he’s loyal to the captain to the bitter end. There’s Compton the Synth, and White and Cardona rounding out the crew.
When a wealthy businessman (in the Alien-verse that means they could buy and sell planets) asks Captain Goodwin to take on a suicide mission to find his partner, she doesn’t immediately jump at the chance. But the money is more wealth than she can possibly imagine, and only crewman White is hesitant to go. It involves breaking into a planet, a planet under quarantine. The planet is not known on any star charts, the kind of disappearance from the universal record only a mega-corporation like Weyland-Yutani could accomplish. And she must get past the bigger ship blocking entry.
The goal is finding famous artist Corinth Bloch and bringing him back alive. Goodwin was already familiar with his work. His creepy, dark alien designs look a lot like the artwork of one H.R. Giger in our world, the man who designed Alien in its inception in Ridley Scott’s original film. It brings a speck of meta to the story. Goodwin is strangely drawn to the art. It turns out she has a strange relationship with her dreams, although they are more the stuff of nightmares. What inspired H.G. Giger’s monstrous designs? It surely must be different than what inspired Corinth Bloch.
Hamill writes his story from two vantages. First, everything is from Captain Goodwin’s journey. Then she is given a portable drive that, although damaged, reveals Bloch’s “dossier”–actually a long, long letter to his lover of many decades, explaining why he left and why he chose to escape to a strange world. I’m not sure this second angle makes the best use of its page count. I would rather have read a more active account of Bloch living who he is and how he got here. It’s difficult to incorporate a letter into a novel from one person to another person he knows well, without stumbling over explaining things the recipient already should know.
Hamill makes good use of holding back on showing us the creatures–a convention that worked with Jaws and works here. And his monster mash finale has the body horror elements fans of the horror side of sci-fi horror will appreciate. I’m just not sure the author is loyal enough to his heroine–her dreams, what they mean, and what they do and don’t do for her could have been so much more. Readers are left with unanswered questions: We’ve seen (and read) plenty of Alien stories and know that when a Xenomorph egg is inside you you no longer look or sound normal, yet a key player is implanted and acts like it’s just another day. So what happens next? And to double back, what’s the story behind the broken containers of bug stuff and goo on the Chariot at the beginning of the novel? Seeds are planted in the narrative but not all are played out.
Along with Firefly, don’t be surprised if you get some feints to themes from throughout sci-fi history, glimpses or vibes from The Island of Dr. Moreau, Starship Troopers, Ex Machina, Predators, and Timeline. But mostly this feels like stories from the era of Alien: Covenant and Prometheus. It even has a nod to a previous Ellen Ripley appearance.
After the exciting first season of TV’s new series Alien: Earth, it’s great to see the Alien franchise back in action, and a new novel like Alien: Perfect Organisms is welcome. It’s a worthy read that notably takes on the Alien universe without a Colonial Marines story, without a Weyland-Yutani corporate wonk, and without a story driven by Synths. It’s worth checking out. Order your copy now here at Amazon.
borg is your best source for Alien franchise news. Check out our reviews of books and tie-ins in the franchise:
Alien: Out of the Shadows by Tim Lebbon
Alien: Sea of Sorrows by James A. Moore
Alien: River of Pain by Christopher Golden
Alien: The Cold Forge by Alex White
Alien: Colony War by David Barnett
Alien: Inferno’s Fall by Philippa Ballentine
Alien: Prototype by Tim Waggoner
Alien: Into Charybdis by Alex White
Alien: Enemy of My Enemy by Mary Sangiovanni
Alien: Perfect Organisms by Shaun Hamill
Alien The Complete Collection: The Shadow Archive Collection by various
Alien The Complete Collection: Symphony of Death by various
Aliens: Infiltrator by Weston Ochse
Aliens: Bug Hunt by various
Aliens: Vasquez by V. Castro
Aliens: Bishop by T.R. Napper
Aliens vs Predator: Rift War by Weston Ochse and Yvonne Navarro
Alien3: The Unproduced First Draft Screenplay by William Gibson and Pat Cadigan
The Book of Alien: Augmented Reality Survival Manual, by Owen Williams
Alien Covenant: Origins, by Alan Dean Foster
The Making of Alien by J.W. Rinzler
The Making of Aliens by J.W. Rinzler
The Art and Making of Alien Covenant, by Simon Ward
Alien Covenant: David’s Drawings by Dane Hallett & Matt Hatton
Aliens: Bug Hunt, anthology
Alien: The Weyland-Yutani Report, by S.D. Perry
Aliens: The 30th Anniversary Edition
Cinema Alchemist: Designing Star Wars and Alien, by Roger Christian
Aliens: The Set Photography, by Simon Ward
The Movie Art of Syd Mead, Visual Futurist
Jonesy: Nine Lives on the Nostromo
Find the Xenomorph: An Aliens Search-and-Find Book
H.R. Giger: Debbie Harry Metamorphosis
Tech Noir by James Cameron
Need to resupply your collection of Alien toys? Look at all that’s available here at Entertainment Earth.
Or go directly to the source, the movies themselves, all at affordable prices on Amazon, and even less with subscriptions to various streaming platforms:
Prometheus (reviewed here)
Alien: Covenant (discussed here)
Alien: Romulus (reviewed here)
And the series:
Alien: Earth (reviewed here)
Game over? Not even close. Keep coming back for more Alien coverage at borg.
