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Aliens Omnibus #5
The Complete Aliens Omnibus: Volume Five
Contains Original Sin by Michael Jan Friedman and DNA War by Diane Carey.
608 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published December 26, 2017
About the author
Michael Jan Friedman
375 books209 followersMichael Jan Friedman is an author of more than seventy books of fiction and nonfiction, half of which are in the Star Trek universe. Eleven of his titles have appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list. Friedman has also written for network and cable television and radio, and scripted nearly 200 comic books, including his original DC superhero series, the Darkstars.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
February 10, 2022
4.5 stars
I've stated before that these omnibus collections are hit-or-miss due to the varying quality of their stories, but vol. 5 is easily one of the better ones.
"Original Sin" is a solid 4 star read. I wasn't a fan of Alien: Resurrection (seriously, who was?), however, Friedman does a decent job trying to make what happened in that crap film actually make sense or at least have some sense of closure. Clone-Ripley is bad ass and the ubiquitous run in with the xenomorphs follows the isolation tropes almost perfectly.
I will say that "DNA War" was easily a 5 star story. Carey's take on an overrun planet made for tense action and some of the best moments I've seen in the films or the stories. A sarcastic cop for the main protagonist and the story being told from his POV was a nice touch I haven't seen in the franchise. Unlike others, this felt far more original and fun(?).
Books like this constantly make me bemoan the fall from grace of the Aliens franchise...at least when it comes to the films.
I've stated before that these omnibus collections are hit-or-miss due to the varying quality of their stories, but vol. 5 is easily one of the better ones.
"Original Sin" is a solid 4 star read. I wasn't a fan of Alien: Resurrection (seriously, who was?), however, Friedman does a decent job trying to make what happened in that crap film actually make sense or at least have some sense of closure. Clone-Ripley is bad ass and the ubiquitous run in with the xenomorphs follows the isolation tropes almost perfectly.
I will say that "DNA War" was easily a 5 star story. Carey's take on an overrun planet made for tense action and some of the best moments I've seen in the films or the stories. A sarcastic cop for the main protagonist and the story being told from his POV was a nice touch I haven't seen in the franchise. Unlike others, this felt far more original and fun(?).
Books like this constantly make me bemoan the fall from grace of the Aliens franchise...at least when it comes to the films.
January 15, 2018
3.5 stars.
September 22, 2024
Mixed bag in this volume.
The first book, Original Sin, seems to toss out the history of the previous nine books and fills in as a continuation from the fourth movie. A lot of the book feels like a rehash of scenes from the first movie. The lore that this book builds, while interesting, is negated by the films that came later, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant.
The second book, DNA War, falls back in with the other books timeline, in that Earth and everyone knows about the Aliens and they must be eradicated. This book is more of a classic detective novel with a bunch of mysteries going on and the detective trying to discover the truth. Meanwhile, Aliens and face huggers are always out to get the group.
The first book, Original Sin, seems to toss out the history of the previous nine books and fills in as a continuation from the fourth movie. A lot of the book feels like a rehash of scenes from the first movie. The lore that this book builds, while interesting, is negated by the films that came later, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant.
The second book, DNA War, falls back in with the other books timeline, in that Earth and everyone knows about the Aliens and they must be eradicated. This book is more of a classic detective novel with a bunch of mysteries going on and the detective trying to discover the truth. Meanwhile, Aliens and face huggers are always out to get the group.
January 22, 2018
A good few stories but sadly not without their issues.
Original Sin is a continuation from Alien : Resurrection and what it does it does very well. The voices of the characters are written exactly as I got from the movies so it was easy to pick up and read without having to work out who was who from the film. The story although a bit basic tried to expand on the Aliens beginnings and links to the space Jockey race. Sadly this has now been spoilt a little with Prometheus and Covenants stories and I don't think it was done in that great a way.
The second story DNA War was a bit weird in many ways. With rolling Aliens, flying Face huggers and very odd Alien behaviour. The root plot was OK but the oddball Alien behaviour ruined it a little for me, plus having seen a better representation of a DNA war in Aliens: Genocide this version seemed very scaled back and tame and again the behaviour of the Aliens just didn't fit for the most part.
Read it for Original Sin and if you can get past the strangeness then DNA war is worthwhile.
Original Sin is a continuation from Alien : Resurrection and what it does it does very well. The voices of the characters are written exactly as I got from the movies so it was easy to pick up and read without having to work out who was who from the film. The story although a bit basic tried to expand on the Aliens beginnings and links to the space Jockey race. Sadly this has now been spoilt a little with Prometheus and Covenants stories and I don't think it was done in that great a way.
The second story DNA War was a bit weird in many ways. With rolling Aliens, flying Face huggers and very odd Alien behaviour. The root plot was OK but the oddball Alien behaviour ruined it a little for me, plus having seen a better representation of a DNA war in Aliens: Genocide this version seemed very scaled back and tame and again the behaviour of the Aliens just didn't fit for the most part.
Read it for Original Sin and if you can get past the strangeness then DNA war is worthwhile.
January 6, 2021
Original Sin
This was one of the easier and quickest to read, not sure if that’s a good thing.
I really didn’t mind the story, I’ve personally come to like A:R over the years, flaws and all so it was nice to see the returning characters.
I didn’t mind the whole secret Loki group and the Malaka species either. It made more sense to me then what happened with David creating the aliens.
Nothing inspiring about the characters, though. I wished the author would’ve focused more on Call, Johner and Vriess.
Plus it ends in a way where it seems it was supposed to set up more continuation but I’ve found no other novels do, so that’s kinda lame.
I think the book could’ve fleshed out more pages, easily another 100. I also liked the setting in the botanical base. Overall this would be the only reason of getting this volume of the omnibuses.
DNA War
....Wtf did I just read!? Hands down this was the worst alien book I’ve read so far. The characters are beyond horrible (Rory and Bonnies conversations were quite cringe worthy) from how they acted to talking was just plain hard to read.
I don’t mind that the author tried something different with the aliens and facehuggers, but I can’t stand behind the rolling or flying aspect.
The PPs were interesting until they weren’t. Ok, so they hunt and kill anything on the planet that isn’t native. So, in order to get by two of these machines from killing his group, the main character throws alien body parts at the PPs in order for them to start firing at each other, ultimately destroying them!? The things cost millions of dollars and are supposed to be top of the line, yet they get a little alien dna on them and they go stupid? You’d think with the amount of traveling and destruction, there’d be some dna spray that’d hit the machine at some point...
The big reveal wasn’t that all surprising and I’m not sure why the scientists just told them the real reason why the aliens are acting different, it wasn’t top secret material or anything.
Plus there’s a random bat type creature named buttercup who belongs to the most annoying character I’ve read for this series named Bonnie.
The scene where they find the huts in the beginning and the stealth suits they wore, were the only cool things about it.
This was one of the easier and quickest to read, not sure if that’s a good thing.
I really didn’t mind the story, I’ve personally come to like A:R over the years, flaws and all so it was nice to see the returning characters.
I didn’t mind the whole secret Loki group and the Malaka species either. It made more sense to me then what happened with David creating the aliens.
Nothing inspiring about the characters, though. I wished the author would’ve focused more on Call, Johner and Vriess.
Plus it ends in a way where it seems it was supposed to set up more continuation but I’ve found no other novels do, so that’s kinda lame.
I think the book could’ve fleshed out more pages, easily another 100. I also liked the setting in the botanical base. Overall this would be the only reason of getting this volume of the omnibuses.
DNA War
....Wtf did I just read!? Hands down this was the worst alien book I’ve read so far. The characters are beyond horrible (Rory and Bonnies conversations were quite cringe worthy) from how they acted to talking was just plain hard to read.
I don’t mind that the author tried something different with the aliens and facehuggers, but I can’t stand behind the rolling or flying aspect.
The PPs were interesting until they weren’t. Ok, so they hunt and kill anything on the planet that isn’t native. So, in order to get by two of these machines from killing his group, the main character throws alien body parts at the PPs in order for them to start firing at each other, ultimately destroying them!? The things cost millions of dollars and are supposed to be top of the line, yet they get a little alien dna on them and they go stupid? You’d think with the amount of traveling and destruction, there’d be some dna spray that’d hit the machine at some point...
The big reveal wasn’t that all surprising and I’m not sure why the scientists just told them the real reason why the aliens are acting different, it wasn’t top secret material or anything.
Plus there’s a random bat type creature named buttercup who belongs to the most annoying character I’ve read for this series named Bonnie.
The scene where they find the huts in the beginning and the stealth suits they wore, were the only cool things about it.
May 3, 2020
Pátý Vetřelčí omnibus tentokrát nepřichází s novelizacemi komiksů, nýbrž originálními příběhy, jejich unifikujícím motivem by se daly nazvat novinky v biologii xenomorfů. Prvotní hřích navazuje na Alien: Ressurrection, a odkazuje i na dění v prvních třech dílech filmové série, a chválím, že to činí smysluplně, účelně pro svůj vlastní dějový oblouk, a nespokojí se jen s efektem "jé, hele, tady máte easter egg!". Válka DNA je oproti tomu svébytnější, s novými postavami, jen mírně kyne směrem k devadesátkové Genocidě, jejíž pointu si zčásti vypůjčuje. Obě novely velmi dobře budují atmosféru tajemna a neodkrývají karty hned ze začátku, mají solidně postavené charaktery (v čemž to, uznávám, Diane Carey měla díky návaznosti na film poněkud snazší), a rozhodně se nebojí násilí a gore. A především jsou o Vetřelcích, dějově se točí okolo nich a nepoužívají je pouze jako pozadí ústředních konfliktů. Vlastně bych byl v pokušení dát pět hvězd, ale to by kniha nesměla trpět chabým překladem, jehož křečovitá doslovnost místy fakt mlátí do očí.
June 30, 2024
Both novellas — not sure what else to call these things — were fun reads; and both kind of come off as decently written fan fiction. Lots of typos, errors, and a general lack of copy editing. As far as the actual stories are concerned, if you’re one of those people desperate for more Alien movies and can’t rewatch the unwatchable Prometheus (ok, it’s watchable but terrible) or Alien Covenant again, then you’ll enjoy these. Can’t help but feel like writing a story based off the world of Alien Resurrection is a huge waste, and DNA War feels a little random and not totally true to the Alien universe.
May 24, 2020
The first story felt like it simply rehashed the same issues and situations as were covered in the movies. I found it readable, but not particularly interesting.
I enjoyed the second story much more. The main character is a police detective, and he brings a different POV from the more typical spacers and/or military folks populating the Alien landscape. Plus I always enjoy a bit of world building and this story provided an interesting look at the planet on which it takes place.
Neither was great art, but not the worst way to spend a weekend.
I enjoyed the second story much more. The main character is a police detective, and he brings a different POV from the more typical spacers and/or military folks populating the Alien landscape. Plus I always enjoy a bit of world building and this story provided an interesting look at the planet on which it takes place.
Neither was great art, but not the worst way to spend a weekend.
August 22, 2023
Original Sin was mediocre, though still enjoyable. DNA War is probably the most unique Aliens story I've read, both in content and writing style. I really liked this one, and would rate the whole volume higher based on that one's merit, if I wasn't so annoyed by the formatting mistakes littered throughout, as well as the poor editing. (For example, character names will be one thing for pages, then become something else, and it takes a moment to realize its the same character. Like Bonnie's pet bat, which gets called Butterball and Buttercup.)
June 17, 2020
Different but good take on the Alien Universe
I very much enjoyed both stories in the Omnibus volume 5 series they were well written. Though the second story by Diane Carey had an error. On page 7166 Corporal Edney, she is killed by the Aliens by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But on page 7189 her commander is holding her hand and they are running together up an incline. Oops!
I very much enjoyed both stories in the Omnibus volume 5 series they were well written. Though the second story by Diane Carey had an error. On page 7166 Corporal Edney, she is killed by the Aliens by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But on page 7189 her commander is holding her hand and they are running together up an incline. Oops!
January 2, 2018
The first book here is one of the best Alien novels ever, pure fun with Ripley and crew in a heist that leads to alien encounters. The second epitomizes my dislike for many Alien books-- too many stupid humans doing stupid things. Hard to care about such idiots. Buy it for the first one. Worth the money. The second is meh.
April 12, 2023
This fifth volume of the Titan’s Aliens Omnibus series continues to show the versatility (within a specific framework) of this franchise. Original Sin is essentially a direct sequel to the movie Aliens Resurrection and works with the same characters as they try to unravel the mystery of the origin of the Xenomorphs. It is solidly written and well-paced. The plot is ridiculously simple, but meeting Ellen 8 and Call again was worth the price of admission. Furthermore towards the end, the mythology around the Space Jockey/Engineers is somewhat explored: Interestingly, this representation of the Engineers seems inconsistent with Ridley Scott’s work on Prometheus and Covenant. DNA War is definitely the better work. It plays with the Mad Scientist trope, but reworks it in some interesting ways. Also, the story unfolds in a way that makes sense with characters that are believable.
December 29, 2017
NASTY BUGS THEY ARE....
Hello, these were two really good stories. Both of them were well written and very entertaining to read. Who doesn't like to sit down with a good Alien book. Good stuff. Thanks.
Hello, these were two really good stories. Both of them were well written and very entertaining to read. Who doesn't like to sit down with a good Alien book. Good stuff. Thanks.
July 27, 2018
A few questions about key characters are answered, and others are created. The editing is lacking like the other Alien novels, but the stories are very good with deep characters.
April 13, 2020
The first one "original sin" is clearly better than dna war, but all in all, okay for these series.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews