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Labyrinth (Aliens)
Customer Reviews
Rating:  - One of the most disturbing book I've read . . .
I've read a fair amount of horror fiction and this left me with more a sense of dread than anything since Dan Simmon's Song of Kali. Also read the comic book, but I recommend this more.
Also read Aliens: Genocide - had some interesting ideas, but not nearly on this level.
Rating: - My take on Aliens: Labrynith...5 years on...(4.5 stars)
I read this book in 2000 when I was just 12 years old. I read my old review and found it really sketchy and childish (hey, I was 12!) but surprisingly everybody found the review helpful.
Anyway, I had a look over the book again the other day, and I must admit that S.D Perry did a great job at creating an immersive, strange story. The ending to the book is quite depressing but is an anti-climax, so although I felt pretty bad about it, it was an ending I didn't expect, which is fantastic! To write a Sci-Fi book on such a popular franchise must be extremely difficult, and I think S.D Perry has executed this book with great gusto. He clearly has a great knowledge of the series and has an ability to write extremely well, and evokes real and honest emotions through his careful technique. You certainly feel a connection with Crespi and other characters as well; and when something happens to any of them you truly feel a sense of sadness or loss. In my opinion, that is the mark of a masterful writer. Perry certainly gets 10/10 for his execution of the story.
The storyline is also complex, unique and immersing. You certainly won't get books like this very often, so it's undoubtedly worth the read, even if you just get it from your local library. I can still remember some scenes and situations from the book that have stayed with me since the 7th grade, and now I'm finishing High School! It really is just fantastic.
So "Aliens: Labrynith" gets 4.5/5 or 9/10. It isn't suitable for young readers (even though I was 12 when I read it. Ee-hee!) It's a great introduction to the books or the franchise and reveals alot about the human society and the Alien Social structure. A very good read for fans of the Alien Series and Sci-Fi fans alike...
Rating:  - Horror and Depravity beyond belief. Brace yourselves...
I have found that over time an Aliens fan becomes somewhat desensitised to the 'horrors' of the genre that first transfixed you. The novelty of the xenomorph wears off and becomes just a part of the environment of the story (read at least ten Aliens graphic novels and you'll see what I mean). The aliens inevitably become a mere vehicle for the story. So you look for plot and characterisation because the aliens themselves don't shock anymore; in a predictable arena in which xenomorphs are used as 'experiments' undertaken by crazy scientists/professors who want to use the aliens - and unfortunate human victims - for dastardly and evil ends. (The biggest cliché in Alien graphic novels, by the way.) The alien becomes familiar; and thus by definition - not an alien! They don't shock anymore! Few of the books that followed Aliens: Outbreak (the first Aliens graphic novel) shocked or gave a buzz to the reader. I was beginning to give up on the Aliens graphic novel franchise as a place to find stomach-churning horror. But with Aliens: Labyrinth my faith was restored in the 'Alien' trademark as a byword for horror and depravity beyond your darkest imaginings. Horror that is intense enough to warp your perceptions. Horror that is an excruciating blend of your deepest disturbances, worst fears and darkest nightmares!
Although the basic premise of the story is the same - mad professor experiments with aliens and humans too - the story is amplified through exceptionally good story-telling and the mechanism of a flashback sequence which explains the mad professor's background and helps you to connect with him despite his evil intentions.
In Labyrinth, the aliens promote human suffering that is pushed to the absolute limit; sexual deviances [incest, cross-breeding between alien and human]; the sickening stenches, smells, odours and organic messes of the nest; the horrifying way in which the hive is living organic tissue which assimilates the hapless human creatures trapped in it, so that they swell into vomit-inducing 'food sacs' for alien nourishment, no my brief descriptions do not do justice to the horror in this graphic novel. The plot is this: an extended family of terra-formers land next to an alien nest on an unknown planet. They are then kidnapped by the aliens, but instead of being summarily killed or strapped to chamber walls for implantation, they are tortured and abused as the normally predictable xenomorphs use the unfortunate family as guinea pigs; a twist if there ever was one. The story centres on the son of the family, a twenty year old boy who is the only survivor. He sees the members of his family get disembowelled by the xenomorphs, get their limbs removed, etc. The sadism of the aliens is numbing, but this is nothing. To survive, he manages to imitate the aliens, and they 'accept' him. He becomes one of them. He has to feed the humans trapped in the nest's walls using his own mouth - including members of his family - with alien gunge. He has to eat it himself, and drink alien bile. He swims and wallows in the xenomorphs secretions and other organical horrors. In one nest chamber, he sees his sister pregnant with a litter of alien-human hybrids, only for her to die as they all burst out of her stomach simultaneously. And at perhaps the climax of horror, he is confronted with his mother, who has had her limbs removed. The xenomorphs try to force the boy to mate with his MOTHER. My blood ran cold. The mother's eyes are beyond despair; beyond anguish...she's experienced too much. So out of love the son kills her with his own hands.
The aliens are trying to cross-breed humans and aliens, because their nest is dying. The boy comes to realise this, and manages to escape by releasing a deadly fungi which hastens the death of the nest. Only when he's escaped does the boy remember that he's human. His experiences have utterly warped him, inside and out. [It is these experiences that lead the boy to become the twisted professor later on in the story, who moulds human flesh into grotesque new forms whilst making startling new discoveries about the alien's physiology.] Whilst the boy is in the nest he gets face hugged, but the nest is so sick that the young xenomorph inside him dies before it can reach full term. So when the boy eventually gets back to the ship, he is able to use the ship's medical technology to operate on himself and cut the dead alien out of his stomach, before it's decaying body begins to kill him. Artistic licence, I know, but who cares when the story's this brutal?
Even though we understand that the nest is dying, we have no idea how this comes about, and why the aliens became prompted to behave in this manner. We do not see any queen in the nest. We do not meet any persons in positions of authority manipulating. Not everything is explained, and this is excellent. Mystery.... loose ends... things we don't know about... this 'X-Files' element is the essence of the Alien concepts that pervades the films and gives them their character and atmosphere; intensifying the horror immeasurably, so why not have this in the graphic novels too? The most alien of the Alien novels. The one that was a true nightmarish brain assault, overloading the synapses with its intertwined catalogue of sights, sounds, moans, smells,stenches, sqelches and gurgles of life being wrenched away. Rarely do I read anything so numbing or disturbing in the viciousness and callousness of its horror. It hits you very hard. It could affect you. In this tale of horror, the flag of the 'Alien' and all the themes under its banner can be flown high on the mast again. Read it. Rejoice. Then go and see a shrink.
Rating:  - A Piece of [junk]
After reading this book, I thought it was the worst Aliens novel ever written. From beggining to end it was boring. There was one pretty disgusting part in the book which made it a little more interesting, but for the most part I would not recommend this book to anyone. Oh and the ending is sooo bad. I just wanted to burn it after I finished. I highly recommend overlooking this book. If you want a good Aliens novel to read, try out Aliens: Rogue. Trust me, you won't be happy with your wasted time spent reading Aliens: Labrinth.
"DON'T READ IT"
Rating:  - Where credit is due.
Aliens Labyrinth is an outstanding tale , probably the best spin off novelization from the original movie bloodline. I don't want to give the plot away too much but as the name suggests there is a labyrinth ...the story itself, the scenarios tightly weaved , the sharp twists and turns and surprise ending . I personally found that much of the 'horror ' of the story disturbed me immensley , It captures the original desperate spirit of the original movie and expands upon it ,leaving your skin cold and blood chilled. Here is an important detail ... I'd like to commend JIM WOODRING for writing this truely outstanding story , when you buy this novel you may note in the small print a mention of his name , alternatively you could look out for the original graphic novel version of this book , beautifully illustrated by Kilian Plunkett and proper credit given to the storys true author . The SD Perry adaptation of the story is fair enough , in many ways it reminds me of Karioke but in a literary way.
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