The critically acclaimed author of Alien: The Cold Forge takes readers to a rogue colony where terror lurks in the tunnels of an abandoned Weyland-Yutani complex.“Shy” Hunt and the tech team from McAllen Integrations thought it was an easy job—set up environmental systems for the brand new Hasanova Data Solutions colony, built on the abandoned ruins of a complex known as “Charybdis.” There are … known as “Charybdis.”
There are just two problems: the colony belongs to the Iranian state, so diplomacy is strained at best, and the complex is located above a series of hidden caves. Charybdis has a darker history than any could imagine, and its depths harbor deadly secrets. Until their ship can be refueled, the McAllen team is trapped there.
The deeper they dig, the more Shy is convinced there’s no one they can believe. When a bizarre ship lands on a nearby island, one of the workers is attacked by a taloned creature, and trust evaporates between the Iranians and Americans. The McAllen integrations crew are imprisoned, accused as spies, but manage to send out a distress signal… to the Colonial Marines.
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Upon finishing Alien: The Cold Forge back in 2018, my most pressing concern was when Alex White’s next Alien book would be released. Well, that time has finally come with Into Charybdis hitting shelves earlier this week, and I couldn’t be happier. While markedly different than The Cold Forge, Into Charybdis is, in nearly all respects, bigger, better, and bolder.
Moving from the space station-based setting of the previous book, White moves the action planet-side, to a sparsely populated atoll in the middle of a highly violate, churning, and very stormy sea. A group of Iranian colonists are attempting to bring a data hub online and have contracted a group of Americans to help with the install. Unfortunately, when things go sideways the Americans are taken hostage, but are able to send out a distress call to the United States Colonial Marine Corps.
White does an excellent job presenting an interstellar riff on the Iran hostage crisis, and this concept could have been neat enough sci-fi fodder on its own. But, putting this highly volatile situation into the politics of the Alien universe makes for a real home-run, giving us various layers of intrigue with the usual Weyland-Yutani shenanigans and the conflicts between United Americas and the Independent Core System Colonies, a group of secessionists of which Iran is a member.
And then there’s the Colonial Marines themselves, as led by Captain Kylie Duncan, a hard-edge officer with a penchant for violence. Most often, the Colonial Marines are presented as front-line heroes, but White gives us a very different spin on these soldiers and their end-goals as they enter what is deemed by United Americas to be an enemy state. Whatever 80s-era romanticism James Cameron’s Aliens and subsequent media tie-ins might have imbued the Colonial Marines with, White swiftly removes as they are positioned into becoming an invading and occupying force more familiar to 21st Century readers, particularly those who have grown up under the shadow of a perpetual forever war in the Middle East following 9/11. In 1961, Present Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us of the threat the military-industrial complex presents to democracy, and the in-universe alliance between the US military and Weyland-Yutani is a welcome reminder of this threat (not to mention a number of real-life examples, including the militarization of police forces all across America).
Unlike The Cold Forge, White sets up a few characters in Charybdis that are actually pretty damn sympathetic. The sexism graphics designer Shy faces in her job, which is threatened by a disgruntled creep, is all too recognizable, and Iranian researcher Dr. Afghanzadeh is caught between conflicting loyalties as he tries to do the right thing but also can’t afford to be fired should he disobey his employer’s orders. Given the various factions competing for survival on this violent atoll, Into Charybdis has a large cast of characters by necessity — but, since this is an Alien book, don’t count on all of them making it off-world alive! White does a fantastic job delivering multiple brutal — and incredibly shocking — deaths that hit super-hard thanks to their focus on character work. Once the action kicks in, this sucker gets intense fast.
Alien: Into Charybdis is a remarkably fast read that belies it’s 560 pages. Packed full of memorable action sequences and more than its fair share of conflict, this sucker just moves and moves and moves. What makes it all the more remarkable, though, is its thoughtful commentary on patriotism versus nationalism, particularly given the highly jingoistic Colonial Marines, which is pretty much the last thing I would have expected in an Alien book. It’s a wonderful, and wholly welcome, bit of subversion and I will damn well take it! I dug the hell out of the commentary and political philosophies presented here, and the way White used these perspectives to shift this story into some unique places – and set up some intriguing angles for where subsequent Alien books, either by them or by the other authors playing in this universe, could possibly go. However, I find myself in a familiar position upon finishing this book as I was with The Cold Forge: I’m already eager and impatient for White’s next Alien book!