Review: Aliens: Bishop

Aliens: Bishop by T.R. Napper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

T.R. Napper gets invited to play in the world of Aliens. Here we learn that Colonial Marines Master Sergeant Apone has a brother. His brother is a Captain in the Colonial Marines who is charged with tracking down Michael Bishop. Bishop is the progenitor of the Bishop series of androids. He also has a desire to investigate and exploit the xenomorphs.

The mission to track down Michael Bishop reveals an opportunity to recover the physical remnants of the Bishop android from the Aliens movie. (That is the one with Newt.) Eventually, it becomes clear that Michael Bishop has grown more xenomorphs. Captain Apone wants some payback for the death of his brother.

The events of the book take place after the Aliens: 3 movie as one of the survivors of the prison planet eventually becomes part of the story.

Napper does an outstanding job of filling out each character with unique motivations and history. There are many events where characters are faced with choices that pit a desire to settle past grievances with the desire to survive in the face of low chances of survival. Collectively and individually, they demonstrate the grit needed to rise to the most lethal of challenges.

The book provides us with a raft of new characters and events without breaking the lore of the Aliens fictional world.

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Review: System Collapse

System Collapse by Martha Wells
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

While I have thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the books in The Murderbot Diaries, I found this installment to be a bit pointless. We don't learn anything new or interesting about Murderbot.

Read the rest of the series. It's very well written. If there ends up being an eighth installment, then be sure to read this book. But if this is the end of the line, then you can stop at the sixth installment and not have missed much.

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