Just Finished Reading: Aliens – Earth Hive by Steve Perry (FP: 1992) [277pp] 

Corporal Wilks had faced them before and lived. He was the closest thing they had to an expert on the Xenomorph. They knew how dangerous they were and, after the loss of another colony something had to be done about their menace – permanently. With their apparent home-world now discovered it was time for payback. Together with hand-picked teams of marines, they were doing to find out as much as they could about the species then nuke them from orbit – it was the only way to make sure. If only things were that simple. Unknown to the marines their commanding officer had other, additional, instructions. He was being paid – handsomely – to bring a xenomorph back, alive, by any means possible. Meanwhile a rival corporation had sent a kill-team to ensure that no one or nothing came back alive. Meanwhile, on Earth itself, a xenomorph queen was under investigation in a Top Security installation, isolated, secure, and in total secrecy... Until it wasn’t.... 

I’ve been meaning to read this set of books for some years now. I managed to pick up a few omnibus editions, and they’ve been sitting in a pile of books slowly turning into coal. As a HUGE fan of the sometimes-questionable franchise I knew that this would, or at least should, push most/all of my buttons. Unfortunately, it didn’t. Potentially it was going to be a good story – a slam dunk even. Colonial marines in full badass mode, LOTS of aliens on their (apparent) home world, BIG fight scenes etc... But some pretty poor writing and a questionable plot got in the way almost immediately. First there was ‘Wilks’ who was obviously a cut/paste Hicks from the Aliens movie – complete with young girl he had rescued from the destroyed colony they had been sent to... Then there was the ridiculous ‘love story’ element between Billie (the now grown-up girl survivor Wilks had rescued) and one of the marines... The fight scenes on the planet had their moments but never really got above average and there were FAR too many ‘callbacks’ to Aliens again. 

I think what made it worse for me (apart from the xenomorphs ‘psychic’ abilities) was the fact that there was a decent – indeed more than decent – story embedded in the barely average one! Whilst Wilks & Co where fighting on an alien world Earth was (slowly and then speedily) being overrun by Xenos. Even the brief bits we get of Terran forces trying to come to terms with that was MUCH better than the main ‘story’. Why the author couldn’t have focused on THAT aspect – especially considering the books bloody TITLE is beyond me. Not really recommended for Aliens or SF fans unless you are a completist. But as I already own the next few books (as well as being an eternal optimist) I will be reading more in the series. Oh, and I’m going to try to read more 21st century SF... Eventually...