‘Alien: Enemy of My Enemy’ – Mary SanGiovanni (Titan Books)


Just a quick one today as it’s my first day back, after a week’s leave (which was really nice thanks, I’ll have to do it again sometime), and I’ve got a horrible feeling that my inbox is going to be heaving. Fingers crossed that it isn’t but… Wish me luck?

Anyway, a few ‘Predator’ novels have featured here, over the last few weeks, so I thought it was only fair that I balanced this out with at least one ‘Alien’ novel and that novel ended up being ‘Enemy of My Enemy’; a book that Amazon ‘helpfully’ reminded me has been on my bookshelf for far too long. I’ll be honest, the state of my head at the moment, if I’m not reading exactly the right book at exactly the right time… Well, I wouldn’t finish anything. Anyway… The stars aligned and I’m very glad that they did. ‘Enemy of My Enemy’ was exactly the book I needed.

HYGIEIA―AN OUTER RIM COLONY―IS DOOMED

The moon on which it was built hurtles toward an inevitable collision with the dead planet Hephaestus. The clock is ticking, yet when a distress signal arrives from a Weyland-Yutani biowarfare outpost, a desperate plan is launched to evacuate the trapped scientists. Meanwhile, across the galaxy a mysterious black substance rains down on Earth settlements, creating hideous monsters from indigenous creatures... and from human beings. Terran governments point the accusingfinger at one another. Thus on LV-846―a United Americas colony―high-level talks convene to address the galaxy-wide hostilities, but there’s a plot brewing among the participants. One which could plunge the colonies into all-out war. The only hope for peace may lie with the deadliest ally imaginable...

I had a lot of fun reading ‘Enemy of My Enemy’ and I’ve got all my fingers crossed that this isn’t the last we see of Mary SanGiovanni’s writing in this setting (please?) I’m going to hazard a guess and say that Sangiovanni is a big fan of the ‘Alien’ franchise and clearly knows what it takes to make a story work in this setting. The ingredients are simple, marines (and a few civilians) facing off against xenomorphs with the shadow of a galaxy wide conspiracy looming over everything. What really makes it all work is SanGiovanni’s clear passion for the franchise, she just gets it on a fundamental level. Those ‘simple ingredients’ become so much more then… I really felt the fear in our players as they realise that a familiar landscape suddenly has the possibility of lethal danger in every shadow (which becomes a lot more than just possibility). If that wasn’t enough, that fear suddenly becomes a shot of pure adrenalin as xenomorphs explode into action and everything becomes about survival. It’s what I keep going back to the ‘Alien’ movies for (yes, even ‘Resurrection’) so I found it great to see the tradition carried on here. I definitely got hints of ‘Aliens’ and ‘Alien 3’ (my personal favourites) but I think there is something here for any fan to enjoy.

If this was all that ‘Enemy of My Enemy’ was, that would be more than enough but there is plenty more to chew on. I couldn’t help but wonder if the conspiracy stuff would make a little more sense to someone who has read more of the books (I haven’t, that’s on me though, not the book) but SanGiovanni makes sure to keep this relevant to what’s happening right in front of us, instead of painting too broad a picture. And I loved the twist in the title. I won’t say too much about that, I don’t want to spoil it, other than that it made for a finale that was well worth the price of entry.

Me being me, I normally just assume that I’m late to the party but if you’re an ‘Alien’ fan and you haven’t read ‘Enemy of My Enemy’, you should really do something about that, while you wait for ‘Romulus’ to arrive. And even if you’re not a fan, there is still enough here to make ‘Enemy of My Enemy’ a tasty slice of sci-fi horror that is well worth a look. Trust me.

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