Aliens: Phalanx by Scott Siegler is way better than it has any right to be

I am unashamedly a massive fan of the Alien franchise both in film and book form. But generally I stuck to books either directly film related or close to.

Aliens: Phalanx is a wild departure from the usual fair, taking place on a bronze age planet about 70 years after Xenomorphs appeared and basically took over. The remaining humans are in a post-apocalyptic medieval survival mode. The concept is so far from the norm I never took to it but I am so glad I eventually did (after finding it on sale hooray)

Scott Siegler manages to do the almost impossible in an Alien piece of media. Make you truly care about the humans and get upset when they die. Especially the main trio we follow who are a wonderful mix of well realised personalities that clash and bond throughout like any ragtag team would.

The Xenomorphs are a bit lessened in deadliness in order not to be indestructible which is okay. The eventual fight back against the aliens is excellent with thrilling action scenes and moments of real horror while keeping a note of hope to stop things getting too bleak.

And there manages to be some deeper messages at play like any good fantasy story.

I do take umbrage at a story reveal toward the end – >!Finding out the planet was effectively seeded by a crashed colony ship containing humans and a Xenomorph 300 years ago. Somehow about 100 children over the course of 300 years create a population of hundreds of thousands of people across the planet, developing a network of cities and castles and underground settlements. Then some people also moving to a northern continent and waging war on the southern one with a navy. Never mind the genetic implications of such a small starter population.!<

I can’t fathom that actually being possible and it is a shame that many of my thoughts after finishing have been thinking about this crazy reveal, and the more I think about it the more implausible it becomes.

That aside I loved my time with this story and I’d be very happy to spend more time in this world.

My favourite Alien novel is still The Cold Forge which is something seriously brilliant, but Phalanx is a close second.

by dorgoth12