Aliens: Phalanx - a new novel by Scott Sigler

It's not a 'fantasy medieval kingdom'.

The novel is set on planet Ataegina, below.

"Ataegina was an isolated world of medieval castles, varied cultures, and conquests, vibrant until the demons rose and spread relentless destruction. Swarms of lethal creatures with black husks, murderous claws, barbed tails and dreaded "tooth-tongues" raged through the lowlands, killing ninety percent of the planet's population.

Terrified survivors fled to hidden mountain keeps where they eke out a meager existence. When a trio of young warriors discovers a new weapon, they see a chance to end this curse. To save humanity, the trio must fight their way to the tunnels of Black Smoke Mountain--the lair of the mythical Demon Mother."

This is great news, thank you for posting daliens.

Any Prometheus vibes?

P.S. Sounds like the Beowulf legend.

Well maybe it could be Interesting.....

But seems all they have is the ONE TRICK PONY!

By that Classic Xenomorphs!

A Plot about another World inhabited by Humanoids that are Close or are Humans, that are only as Advanced as a Medieval Kingdom within the ALIEN Franchise could worked still if this World was another the Engineers had Seeded/Visited and attempted to DESTROY and the Humanoids Uncover something that is a Result of a Ancient Black Goo Bombard.... like the Neomorph Spores.  I think the Prequels opened up many avenues for Various Alien Forms that are related but are NOT just Carbon Copy ALIENS BUGS ;)

"Black Smoke Mountain--the lair of the mythical Demon Mother."

Wonder if this Demon/Dragon is Guarding some Treasure?

Will we see some kind of George Slaying the Dragon? or more a Joan of Arc..... AKA Paladin Ripley ;)

The demon mother from the Black Smoke Mountain must be the alien queen.

I suppose Disney would like the idea of a medieval world and some youngsters fighting the xenomorph. They could even bring it back to Disneyland. 

"They could even bring it back to Disneyland"

But on a Serious Note it does seem a Vast Majority of Novels, Comics and Games all cover the same BEAST.

As in they Discover Xenomorph Eggs or a Queen, regardless of what World we go to, or where these Eggs Appear/Discovered we always seem to come across either Eggs or a Queen and as far as the Normal Xenomorphs they seem to appear as the ALIENS Variety like 60-70% of the Time, the ALIEN variant about 15-20% leaving about 15-20% to cover Versions like the Alien 3, or Slight Variant on the ALIENS Xenomorphs. (inc Different Colors).

It seems that 90% of any Games/Comics and Novels are afraid to give us something more Varied as far as WHAT we Discover and WHAT they look like.

If this TREND Continues for another 5 Years i think we can SAFELY assume that Disney are ONLY interested in Camerons Xenomorphs and we would have a Repetitive Plot for Games, Comics and Novels and likely MOVIES too :(

Really? REALLY?! REALLY?!!

This goes beyond the reasonable! Aliens: Phalanx is one of the best books about Aliens. And you whine about the queen and the lack of anything new? Weak to say this personally to the author of the book?

Something like: "uh, oh, why your book about Aliens... well... actually about Aliens! How dare you! Why not about philosophical androids?! Why not about Engineers?! How dare you not to consult with Ridley Scott about the difference between species and civilizations!

P.S. Don't forget about Disney! They wants Cameron's xenomorphs! And dare not tell me that people love Aliens! No - every new book is Disney’s desire to see just Aliens! Not philosophy!"

LMAO. I said it earlier, I will say it again - this is the Alien universe. And if you are looking for something fresh - it is already here. Very organic, very logical and very tasty!

I dont think you got my point ;)

I will admit maybe its a little unfair to JUDGE when i hardly read the Novels, my point is NOT suggesting it should be about Androids and Engineers.  But that it seems a Majority of the Time all we seem to do is cover the Traditional Formula of Queen and Eggs.

I think the Prequels opened up other Avenues to Explore as far as Variants of the Xenomorph or similar.  But then so did Alien Resurrection and some of the Project Work on what i think had to be Blomkamps Alien 5 also showed a LITTLE variation. 

I understand the LARGER Market of the Franchise is to cater for Queens and Eggs and ALIENS morphs, and its BIG Money.

But i think RS made some Good Points when he said there was only so much Snarling and Face Pulling that you could do.  He made a Good Point regarding the Beast in that you can go back to it, but you have to Evolve it and Explore Alternatives ways of Procreation.

Yeah the MONSTERS should only be a PART of the Story, but i dont think by Exploring different Variants would make a ALIEN Franchise any less ALIEN ;)

This applies to the Franchise in General and NOT to just this Novel, it seems this Novel could be approaching a WHAT IF kind of Scenario about Xenomorphs being Discovered by a Civilization who are NOT as Advanced as that we see in the ALIEN Franchise.

So i think this BOOK does give a different perspective as certainly it would be more Horrific to be Facing such a THREAT if we had the Technology from Hundreds of Years ago or more.  

So my comments are not mainly about this Novel in Particular but just that we see Game after Game, Comic after Comic and Novel after Novel that rarely touches on anything different than Finding Eggs, getting KILLED by Xenomorphs and then meeting a Queen.

And all with the ALIENS kind of Aesthetic.

I think we can try something a bit different and by that i dont think a case of having Xenomorph Queens attached/linked up to Weapons Platforms would be the only way to try something Different... but some Fans would love that ;)

>>>Yeah the MONSTERS should only be a PART of the Story, but i dont think by Exploring different Variants would make a ALIEN Franchise any less ALIEN ;)

>>>And all with the ALIENS kind of Aesthetic.

I don't want to look rude, but  - what variants? What kind of aesthetic?

Giant spiders?

Or some creature what we can see in any another horror film?

Where is the Alien here?

The franchise called Alien. Alien is a title person. Not an Alien, but the Alien. If anyone in the world said "Alien", you will think about this:

Alien is not another monster, which you can leave on the sidelines. Even Prometheus led to the Alien, not to the ~1000 "interesting" worlds with humanoids.

The one question what you should ask. Really one question - if Ridley can't play with the Alien, maybe he just doesn't know - how?

Im quite familiar with Scott Sigler's works. He's novels are.... dynamic to say the least, with more than a little melodrama from eccentric characters and wild plots. 

I can't say im surprised he's finally done an Alien novel. 'Infected' is probably his closest to an Alien novel, tackling endo-parasitic sentient aliens with plans of galactic domination. Despite its eccentric-ness it was a page-turner, full of surprise, dark twists, and body horror. 

This novel could be a wild ride on an express elevator to hell! 

"I don't want to look rude, but  - what variants? What kind of aesthetic?"

Certainly we can have Variations but i am not suggesting we have something that is TOTALLY different,  The Neomorph and Deacon are designs that you can see a Connection, it may NOT be so clear to some.  There have been a lot of designs and concepts for ALIEN Movies which include the Prequels and some are more CLOSER to the Traditional Aesthetic (by that i mean what we see in ALIEN, ALIENS and AVP Movies).  Some are different and i think its a case of NOT being too close but also to NOT give something that any ALIEN Fans would be Unfamiliar with as far as a Connection.

Prior to the Prequels the MAIN design that people are Familiar with is the ALIENS design.  What we saw with ALIEN 3 is that a Different Host can Slightly Alter the Aesthetic of the Xenomorph.

With Alien Resurrection what we saw was some Hybrids due to there being some Human DNA in the Process but the Xenomorphs still had a HIGH % of the Traditional Look.

The Newborn offered something Different, and i know some Fans was displeased with the Outcome, i saw the Potential but it did look at bit too Comical.

If we are to IGNORE the Prequels then what we pretty much have is Eggs and Face Huggers and where the Differences mainly would be Host Dependent but if the Hosts are the same then the Differences are NOT that varied.

So the above could be what is expected if a T-Rex was infected.

With Alien Resurrection it opened the Door to looking at what a Hybrid of DNA could create, we can see some variation in the Failed Clones.   But essentially the Xenomorph does create a Hybrid anyway, in that the Face Hugger would take on some Traits of the Host in the Final Product thats Gestated.

For some Fans this is as FAR as it should be taken.

But as far as a so called Perfect Organism then i think its interesting to see some Self-Evolution to change things about and give us Variations, such as to adapt to different Environments.

What the Prequels seemed to indicate is that the Xenomorph is a Engineered Creation and so when your trying to Design/Engineer such a thing then its likely you would have had Variations prior, and also would be looking to see how you can Create more Variations.

Alien Engineers/Genesis seemed to touch upon this going as far as to suggest the Engineers had created 8 different Variants of the Xenomorph.  I think this is something Interesting that it would be NICE to see explored.

Rather than just discovering the Same Old Eggs over and over with as much difference in Variation as we have seen in Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and AVP Movies.

I found the Pred-Alien to be interesting and also how it attempted to explore a different kind of Procreation.

I understand some Purest much prefer to sticking to the Formula of Queen => Eggs = Face Hugger = Alien Quadrilogy Xenomorphs.

And under certain Circumstances you can get a Queen Embryo that is Gestating inside a Host.

I think when we are looking at any Humans wishing to obtain and USE the Xenomorph its interesting to wonder for WHAT reason..  Because to USE just a case of Dropping Eggs off to a Place you want to Infect or you Obtain Xenomorphs (AR) and then you Contain them and Ship them out to Worlds you wish to Destroy is something that can be Limiting if this Agenda is Done over and over to Constant Failure.

I think its interesting to explore experiments on the Organism and what Horrors this would Reveal/Create.

But most of the Comics, Games and Novels just revolve around Discovering or Attempting to obtain a Queen or Eggs.

I am not saying that you have to DITCH that idea/formula but that it would be nice for a Change once in a while... But you get some ALIENS purest who view the Xenomorph in a Certain way.

Few Alien Fans i personally know are more in the ALIENS Fanbase and they Personally see the Xenomorph as a Ancient Parasitic Organism they are not Creations or Bio-Weapons or Engineered...  And that they Originated from some World that would have had Thousands, Millions of Eggs and the SPACE JOCKEY is a Race that had came across these Eggs on their Homeworld and they attempted to Carry them off on that Ship which DID-NOT work out well for them.

Just as the W-Y Company Discovers trying to do the same in the Franchise.

These people i know were not a Fan of the Deacon and Neomorph they felt they was just NOT ALIEN.  They did however like the Pred-Alien and LOVE the KING.

So some Fans are Protective over how much to Change the Xenomorph where as i think after seeing a Repetition of same Aesthetic then having something a bit Different is interesting.

I think especially if we ask HOW MUCH could the Xenomorph Evolve/Change itself, and more so in Context to Experiments on it, be this by Humans, Predators or Engineers.

I think the Black Goo and LV-223 Experiments open the door to changing the Xenomorph a little too.

But some people prefer that things should stay how they are as that is what the ALIEN is after all, and its a case of each to their own ;)