Aliens: Vasquez

A Novel

By: V. Castro

Narrated by: Lauren Rodriguez

Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

A groundbreaking Latinx Aliens novel by a rising star Latina author, featuring the fan-favorite character PFC Jenette Vasquez from the hit movie Aliens and the family she is forced to leave behind

Even before the doomed mission to Hadley’s Hope on LV-426, Jenette Vasquez had to fight to survive. Born to an immigrant family with a long military tradition, she looked up to the stars, but life pulled her back down to Earth—first into a street gang, then prison. The Colonial Marines proved to be Vasquez’s way out—a way that forced her to give up her twin children. Raised by Jenette’s sister, those children, Leticia and Ramon, had to discover their own ways to survive. Leticia by following her mother’s path into the military, Ramon into the corporate hierarchy of Weyland-Yutani. Their paths would converge on an unnamed planet which some see as a potential utopia, while others would use it for highly secretive research. Regardless of whatever humans might have planned for it, however, Xenomorphs will turn it into a living hell.

©2022 Violet Castro (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

Not worth the hype

Story is jumping back and forth. Can’t focus on any one point. A lot of the characters have too much self pity to really relate to. Don’t have the aliens in the same plot until almost halfway through.

The narrator was boring. Little variation between character voices. Even human characters feel robotic.

Awful, Just awful.

this honestly did not seem like an Aliens novel at all. it recaps what happened in the movie and gives you somewhat of a introduction to vasquez's life and then after she dies in the alien movie The story goes completely flat. you start to not care about the character and when certain character arcs are explained it makes your eyes roll. I'm a bit disappointed because alien novels don't come out a lot and I felt like this release could have been better. I don't think this should be considered canon. if you're going to tie in a main character's children look at alien isolation for a good example.

Great book, but uninspired narration.

I loved the story of this book, but it was marred by the monotonous and boring narration. It had deserved much better!

Meh

The story was marginal at best. They tried to keep a lot of parts canon but missed many basic details. The performance read sounded like AI tried to do it. Very monotone with no inflection or variable tone movement. Painful read to listen through.

at lot of nothing.

There really isnt much going on. the strong women of the family proves their worth, but of course they are at the bottom of society, so nothing is fair. on a side note, why is all music mention already old to Day. Time goes on, so why do they all listen to Bruce Springsteen and pink Floyd?

Another long awaited alien disappointment

I do not know what it’s worse between the non-alien part of the book, or the fact that I waited four months after I pre-ordered this to be disappointing. On the plus side it is still better than alien echoes.

Disappointed

The narrator lapses into "valley girl" intonations. It is often difficult to distinguish the voices of different characters.
The book is targeted to young adults. The plot is meandering.

Great Story with a interesting viewpoint

Slow starting but well told story with a focus on “vasquez”. Great structure and an interesting viewpoint on different perspectives and theyr goal. It is missing a bit of drive in the chase and combat parts. A wonderful addition to the alien universe!

Just meh. Vasquez deserves much better.

As an Aliens fan, I’ve probably seen the movie over 40 times, Vasquez has been one of my favorite movie characters since going to see the movie opening night. I’ve been enjoying the aliens expanded universe books, some better than others, but many of them recapture the fun, excitement, and menace of the original God movies. The movies are like roller coaster rides, full of fear and giddy excitement. And many of the books have been like that as well. Not this one though. Perhaps if the narrator had been better it would’ve been more enjoyable. But the flat tone, lack of individual characterization of all the characters, and constant mispronunciation of so many words made listening painful. So disappointed. I had to stop listening a third of the way through. I’d say skip this one if you love Vasquez.

Meh.

By far the weakest entry in the Alien series. Vasquez backstory is interesting, but after that it turns into a boring slog through a very surface level examination of loss and cliche ridden character development.