Dream-Quest of the Unknown Xenomorph?! Reviewing the Aliens novel, "The Female War"

Finally got a chance to read the third book in this Aliens omnibus: The Female War, by Steve Perry and Stephani Perry. Every time I read one of these, I learn something new, and this time it was that these books--all three of them--were novelizations of comic books, and not the other way around, as I thought when I reviewed the first two.

Anyway, this book continues the story of Billie and Wilks, with surprise ending guest from the previous book, Ripley! People are having a new kind of dream about the aliens on Gateway station, and this book is about figuring out what the dreams mean and what can be done about them.

Horrifying, Fascinating, Excellent: Monster by Naoki Urasawa

This manga series was adapted into an excellent anime in 2004--that's where I first learned of it.

The anime was never licensed here in America, but the manga was. The manga is hauntingly good.

It's a complex story spanning something like 4000 manga pages, with lots of different themes and motifs. At its base, it's the quest of a doctor to right the wrong his own righteousness created. It's full of mystery, the shadows of tyrannical dead governments, life on the run, and questions of morality and philosophy. There are segments of high tension and dread, and equally well-handled scenes of explosive action.

The Skin-Crawling Island of Dr. Moreau!

I was going through some Amazing Stories and found out that they reprinted H.G.Wells's classic The Island of Dr. Moreau. I had never read it before, so I thought I'd give it a try!

The book was originally published in 1896, and there's a famous 1996 film that I never saw, but I did hear a bit about. Still, I knew little enough that the story was a bit of a surprise.

It combines a shipwreck story--a popular form back in the day--with dark, biological science fiction. It's written from the point of view of Edward Prendick, an English natural historian.

A Leap at Literary Chaos; A Look at some Harlan Ellison (Part 1?)

I recently picked up a collection of Harlan Ellison stories--it's called "Greatest Hits" but you know what that means: it's stories people other than Ellison think are "important," rather than necessarily "good."

I've never read much Ellison up until now. I read "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" once after watching the Retsupurae of the game.

Starting with the illiterate NPR headline and the (I imagine he rolled in his grave when they added the un-Ellisonly) warning about "outdated cultural representations and language," I was a little wary, but kept moving forward.