Alien: Enemy of My Enemy

An Original Novel Based on the Films from 20th Century Studios

By: Mary SanGiovanni

Narrated by: Shiromi Arserio

Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

While a moon hurtles toward certain destruction, taking with it a Weyland-Yutani bioweapons lab, talks on a nearby colony could lead to all-out war among the colonies.

Hygeia, an outer rim colony, is doomed as the moon on which it was built hurtles toward an inevitable collision with the dead planet Hephaestus. When a distress signal arrives from a Weyland-Yutani biowarfare outpost near the colony, a desperate plan is launched to evacuate the trapped scientists and colonists. Their destination: LV-846, a key United Americas colony where high-level talks are scheduled to address the galaxy-wide hostilities between the colonies. Once there, the evacuees, including a contingent of Colonial Marines, discover a plot that could plunge the colonies into all-out war. Their only hope may be an alliance with the deadliest ally imaginable.

©2023 Mary SanGiovanni (P)2023 Blackstone Publishing

Enjoyable and worthy addition to the universe.

Mary has a solid way of using noticeable and fully-encompassing Acts in her work. in a good way, this book left me wanting more well before it ended. I was hoping for a Trilogy along this line befote even reaching the conclusion. I am glad for how it ends, therefore.

Entertaining Alien Story

This entry into the recent Alien franchise stories was pretty entertaining and well paced. Unfortunately it continues to fall into the tropes in the franchise: people making braindead decisions that literally no one would make. This is compounded by the fact that many of the events of the story just kind of happen for no reason simply to forward the plot. without spoilers, things go wrong and the explanations are very flimsy. The last minute of the book left a bad taste as well, again due to lazy writing where a huge plot point happens with no buildup or reason. The story implies there is a reason why it happens, but that reason makes no sense since the same thing could be accomplished in 1000 other ways that would make more sense to the characters doing it.

An excellent story

This a refreshing story that immediately jumps into the horror of the aliens instead of spending half the book on politics or characters. The aliens are terrifying and brutal in their kills. The ending felt kind rushed and honestly left me wishing it was either a bit longer or would continue in a sequel novel. but overall, it was worth listening to on audiobook and would rate it in top 5 favorite alien novels

Loved the female protagonist

This wonderful addition to the Alien universe centers on an unstable moon. It has its own native wildlife. There are at least 2 laboratory units where completely different areas are being studied. One is, if I remember correctly, centered on a botanical study and led by Dr. Shivanne McCormick. The good doctor and her co-horts m, which include a synthetic named Camilla. The other post is funded by Weyland-Yutani, and readers can probably guess what is being studied at that site. There are also a group of the good guys - Marines! led by a man named Alec. (I’m so bad with names, please forgive me!). There is another Marine who lives with his wife and granddaughter (orphaned, I believe, by you-know-what.)

As the situation on the planet destabilizes, a disaster occurs at the Weyland site. A Dr. Faulkner (?) is the head of the project. The only 2 survivors are Dr. F and a test subject named Cora. She’s been treated with a serum which is designed to retard the growth of the little bundle of joy growing inside her.

Soon havoc breaks out at Dr. Shivanne’s unit, but through one plot device and another the group of survivors (by this time Grandpa has bit the dust) end up in a ship hijacked to reach another world. Of course, problems keep popping up, including a disaster at the world they land on.

This world was the site of a huge peace treaty meeting. But something’s wrong there - and it includes a new little addition to the universe, designed by W-Y. As the remaining scientists and Marines work to survive and escape, they meet a ship’s captain (I think) who gives Dr. Shivanne a digital file which details a new political entity which has devised another bio-weapon designed to make everyone’s lives better and brighter. There’s another synth who’s been secretly working with this group, but by the time our friends arrive she’s not on the scene anymore.

I don’t like to give too many plot details because I can end up ruining the whole experience for other listeners. But this is a great, thrilling addition to the Alien canon.

A final note - the narrator has a beautiful voice. But at times I found her melodious reading a bit soporific. I know I missed some important details due to this, which is why I gave her 4 stars.

A solid Aliens story

This story had all of the classic Alien tropes - hard sci-fi, body horror, corporate greed and a capable female protagonist in the form of Siobahn. Narration was good, Shiromi Arserio has a wonderful voice. A worthy addition to Alien lore.

pretty good.

plot holes in this. still pretty solid entry. the last two who die are the ones I wanted to die. did care for either of them. also don't like romance between a female scientist and soldier. it's not realistic at all. couple times in the book the scientist goes along. on parts she had bo business going on. it was simply done to further the romantic angle of the story. i was in the military. i would have never brought a civilian anything along that served no purpose to the mission. she was just in the way.

the black goo

really loved the incorporation of the engineers and the black goo pathogen, and how it makes xenomorphs even more deadly than they usually are

Good Predictable Story

Basic Alien story, isolated colony, colonial marines, horde of xenomorphs and evil corporate bureaucrats. Fun story, plenty of action and gruesome deaths, but nothing new to say about the Aliens.

Thoroughly enjoyed.

Hit the ground running. Enjoyed the tie-in to the Alien RPG lore. Some small but enticing twists and turns building on the Alien universe 8 years after the Haleys Hope 'incident'.

Nothing but awesome

100 % awesomeness. From the first word until the last.
I highly recommend it