Titan Books Alien - Alien: Into Charybdis

I’ve read almost all Aliens novels at this point, and I’m always surprised to find out how good they are! I have trouble choosing just one favorite, but objectively, “Into Charybdis” has to be up there. The story is great, I enjoy the length of the book (around 550 pgs) and the storytelling through various characters works fantastically. So I’ll stop there as to not spoil it too much, but if you’re a fan of the Alien universe, this is a must read!

Alex White is the rarest of rare.... a science fiction writer which expands a known ethos intelligently (and in this case, at an adrenaline paced Sprint), adding depth, both to Canon as well as Characters whilst holding true to both the feel and origins of the chosen fandom/universe. This novel is a Must Own for any fans of the Alien franchise.... and a Masterclass on character development, world building etc.... and is a Must Read for anyone with a military, information technology, politics or monster fetish! I fell in love with Mx. White's writing style as they delivered an in depth treatise on narcissism and sociopathy wrapped in dapper, intelligent package named Dorian Sudler. This novel, THE COLD FORGE, and character would have been brilliant in almost any conceivable genre (from 20's film noir thriller to futuristic mega-villain biopic) ... but we get to meet him beside the universe's Other greatest killing machines... the Xenomorphs (Aliens)! Their other novels (of which there are many, including my 2nd favorite group, A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe, A Bad Deal for the Whole Galaxy and finally The Worst of All Possible Worlds) have garnered them some notoriety and well deserved kudos.... You seriously Can't go wrong, here! Buy the book(s). . . And YOU will be writing the Next stellar review! ❤

Read this after Cold Forge and was pleasantly surprised. Hope the writer does more in this series. Both books should be movies. Real game changers.

decent story

I started off the year with Cold Forge, and author Alex White's previous Alien novel was so surprisingly excellent it transcended its boundaries of franchise genre fiction to just be a great damn book. This followup is also a great read, but a few elements not fully coming together caused it to slip for me ever so slightly. Alex White clearly understands that the cool scary aliens represent a framework to examine the limits of people, what they will do to themselves and others when the chips are truly down. Once again White delivers surprising, interesting characters in a story that is more about how they treat each other than how they deal with the aliens. I give credit to how he incorporates with a major character from his previous novel, woth major points for creativity, though ultimately the execution of lynworked about halfway for me. My only other gripe is that the setting of the story, the Hasanova Charybdis complex, was a fascinating setpiece and gets high marks for creativity, but even with the effort he put into describing the geometry and even providing a plan view map at the front, I still couldn't quite picture what I was supposed to seeing or how it functioned, and at what scale. Those quibbles aside, I still wholeheartedly recognize this excellent piece of writing as top-tier Alien fiction. I hope his next novel takes place within the UPP!