Came across this Alien book in an Oxfam Bookstore (Sitting between a History Of Presbyterianism In The North Of Ireland and The Ladybird Book of birds.) The Gigewresque cover caught my eye. Well, "Gigerewsque" might be stretching it a bit, it was in the way anything with a Giger Xenomorph could be said to be, er, Gigeresque..
Really enjoyed it, too. Some much better than I might have expected. Its a full on horror story in space with the now familiar chest busting sequences playing out at the slower pace of the first film in the series. We know whats coming for the victims of the face huggers but they do not. They think they are in a science fiction story but we know they are in a science fiction horror story.And oh boy but things get gorey! The story taking place in an ancient alien vessel adrift above saturn which is just brain candy. Yep, another ancient space craft hiding a nasty infestation. It might sound a bit of a cliche to hardened Alien franchise fans but there it is. I thought it might be worth exploring the notion that man going into space was going to result in us finding space littered with the relics of ancient extinct species. That space travel might be new to us but the rest of the universe were frequent flyers until some terrible event caused these space empires to collapse. All wiped out by xenomorphs? Who knows..
I thought that Steel Egg plays with some bigger notions than your usual space shoot em ups. Most of the stories begin with a xenomorph encounter then followed by lots of running away punctuated with gruesome deaths or monstrous birthings. And this book certainly follows this well worn if uncomfortable pathway. Introducing us to some characters only to have them meet violent ends.Where desperate positions get worse quite quickly.
Steel Egg is an Alien book well worth trying.
It gives you exactly what you would expect to recieve.
And if you know what you like about Alien then this is one for you.
p.s. I had a look around to see if this alien book is still available and it is included in one of the Alien Omnibus books; Volume #6! Just in case you are intrigued enough to seek a copy.
