‘Aliens: Earth Hive’ – Steve Perry (Titan Books)

 

Page Count: 277 Pages

Sorry about the ‘blog silence’ yesterday… Blame it on a mixture of work and a ‘long lunch break’ involving a trip to my GP and then on to the hospital for more blood tests. Yay. It did give me a bit more free time, for reading, though so I’m not complaining too much. Work continues to be demanding so I was pretty glad to escape into a book. Anyway…

I’ve had ‘The Complete Aliens Omnibus: Volume 1’ on my shelf for a couple of years now but have somehow never quite got round to picking it up; it’s a thick old book and I think that’s put me off a little. Until yesterday that is… Instead of taking on the whole book at once, I thought I’d tackle it ‘one book at a time’ instead and, here I am. ‘Earth Hive’ was up first and…

They come in silence like death in the night. They are perfect killing machines. They are the Aliens and some people value them above all else. But the attempt to weaponize a creature of such tremendous power is a very dangerous game for the inhabitants of Earth to play…

It’s funny what stays in your memory… I’m pretty sure there that are things that I really should remember but can’t now. What I can remember though is reading the original Dark Horse Comics ‘Earth Hive’ story, in my mid to late teens, and wondering just what was going on. Had I missed an issue, or two, somewhere? Or was I just not paying enough attention to what I was reading? Either way, something had felt ‘off’ to me and so reading the novel felt like a chance to try and get my head round the plot again and see if ‘past me’ should have paid closer attention back then.

I’ll be honest, I felt exactly the same as I did back then. There is a lot to recommend the concept that drives ‘Earth Hive’ but the execution didn’t quite work for me.

The title of the book pretty much gives the game away here so I’m not going to worry too much about spoilers. ‘Earth Hive’ is a very effective ‘next step’ exploration of the logical ‘end-game’ that would play out if the mega-corporations got their way and brought an Alien, or two, back to Earth for study but more importantly, to turn a profit. It turns out, of course, that there is a lot we don’t know about the Xenomorphs and their ability to adapt and thrive wherever they end up. The thing is, there is also a lot about humanity itself that various scientists should have taken into account before putting an Alien Queen anywhere on Earth. Oh well, you’d hope that they learn their lesson this time :o)

It’s fascinating to watch the unfolding events play out, seeing how grossly the Aliens are underestimated by governments and corporations that see the potential of the species, but clearly haven’t followed it through to the ultimate conclusion. And Steve Perry is clearly brilliant at capturing what the Aliens are all about, devastating killing machines who can always be relied upon to deliver a decent jump-scare at the very least.

Where things fell short, for me, was a lack of cohesion between the individual strands of the plot. It felt like a bunch of events playing out at the same time but with no connection between them. And if you’re telling a tale of an Alien infestation on Earth, why is the main strand of the plot (or at least, the strand with the two leads) being played out off planet? That didn’t feel right to me at all, sorry. The thing is, I’m not blaming Steve Perry for this, he was clearly given the task of novelising the events of the comic and that’s what he has done here. Could he have made things a little more cohesive though? And were there events that looked awesome in the comic (the guy escaping from the lab to get home to his family before ‘his’ Alien hatched…) that didn’t need so much time here? I’d have to say ‘yes’ to both questions.

Like I said, there is a lot to enjoy in ‘Earth Hive’ but the execution just didn’t stick for me and that was a shame. It hasn’t put me off the next book though, I’m just hoping for better things...