Book Review: Aliens: Phalanx
Review by Casey Douglass
One of the things that
drives me to stories that feature xenomorphs is that they often mix
science fiction and horror. When I read the blurb for Scott Sigler’s
Aliens: Phalanx, I was almost put off by the word “medieval”
in the description. My first reaction was that it didn’t sound like
it was for me. My love for anything starring a xenomorph eventually
burst through that initial resistance, and I purchased the book. Were
my own personal misgivings proven correct, or was I blown away like a
face-hugger disintegrating in pulse-rifle fire? Read on to find out.
The events in Aliens:
Phalanx take place on Ataegina, a rugged continent of mountains
and ravines. The inhabitants have been slaughtered by black-husked
‘demons’, the survivors driven to living in subterranean mountain
keeps. People don’t venture above ground often, but the ones that
do, the Runners, race between the various holds to trade goods. These
mainly take the form of various essential medicines, but this doesn't
stop them bringing a variety of luxury items too.
The book follows
Ahiliyah, a young woman who is one such runner, as she serves Lemeth
Hold and tries to earn her keep. She also wants to become a warrior, but in Lemeth Hold, women aren't warriors. She runs with two others, the large
framed warrior-in-training Brandun, and a weaselly little gobshite
called Creen. Brandun is a warrior-in-training and is already blessed
with a larger frame than is expected for someone of his age. He is
also a little slow at times, which Creen loves to point out to him by
calling him “dumbdun”. Creen is actually the comic-relief in many
ways, coming out with many cruel words but also displaying vulgar
humour in almost equal measure. It is this trio that the reader gets
to know during the course of the book, how their already limited
world becomes yet more dangerous, as the demons start to eradicate
the last traces of humanity in Ataegina.
The societal landscape,
the relationships between the various holds, plays an integral part
in the pressures that fall on the dwindling people. Due to the nature
of the threat from the demons outside, what doesn’t naturally grow
in one hold often ends up being an urgent item for another. There are
a number of illnesses that can afflict people. Imbid flowers grow
abundantly in Lemeth Hold, and Imbid Soup is the cure for something
called Weakling Disease. If another hold is suffering from such a
disease, runners from Lemeth will trade Imbid flowers for something
that they might need to treat their own hold’s different outbreak of illness. Add into
this the usual way that humans become greedy, paranoid and even
religious zealots, and the politics between holds becomes a true
driving force, and often hindrance, to them actually working
together.
When the humans clash
with the demons, the weapons they have at hand are knives, spears and
shields. On my first thoughts about this notion, I think I was guilty
of thinking “How the hell are they going to fight them with
spears?” in a “Pfft” kind attitude. It didn’t take too long
to think the exact same question with a more curious “How will
they?” frame of mind. Having finished the book, I didn’t realise
that the answer could be so exhilarating. Just as in the films, if
you go from the pulse-rifles of Aliens to the cleavers and
machetes of Alien3, there’s an exhilaration to be found in
that.
The holds themselves
are also aptly suited to this kind of horror. The humans are trying
to shut out the danger, but by doing so, they have to live
claustrophobic and grim lives. They use strangely glowing water in
glow-pipe plumbing to light their dark corridors, harvest plants and
make use of anything that sits within their “safe” realm. When
things take a turn for the worst - as you’d expect they would in a
tale like this – these corridors turn from claustrophobic
passageways into tunnels of death. I’m not sure what is more scary,
meeting a xenomorph on open ground and seeing it dart at you from
hundreds of yards away, or hearing one coming towards you along a dark tunnel.
Probably the latter...
Aliens: Phalanx
is a very satisfying tale. We get to see all three of the runners
rise-up in their hold, fighting against prejudice, fear and politics,
even sometimes against each other. They all become nicely fleshed out
characters with more about them than their more obvious traits. They
all grow as people too, and their relationship changes and
strengthens as events unfold. It was nice to see a society that
viewed the xenomorphs in a different way, as demons and
semi-supernatural rather than naïve humans stumbling across them on
a spaceship-based jaunt across the galaxy. The story itself escalates
in a way that any xenomorph fan will enjoy, and the culmination at
the end is the kind that sets the previous events in a slightly
different frame, which I thoroughly appreciated. Aliens: Phalanx
is a brilliant story, and I’m very glad that I decided to give it a
try.
Book Title:
Aliens: Phalanx
Book Author:
Scott Sigler
Publisher: Titan
Books
Released: 25 Feb
2020
Price: £7.99
paperback / £4.74 Kindle (currently)
ISBN:
9781789094015
