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

Weakened conclusion to a bad-ass character. Lacks commitment, closure, and falls short of the Aliens legacy.

Weakened conclusion to a bad-ass character. Lacks commitment, closure, and falls short of the Aliens legacy. Not enough time spent on Xenomorph interaction and I was seriously hoping for more intense and complex confrontations and moments. This book could have been so much more if it had been allowed to simmer better.

has potential but just not quite there yet.

so this has an ok story to it, granted it's a slow burn but the story has great potential. The one real issue I had with this audio book(⁠●⁠_⁠_⁠●⁠) was the slow reading and lake of emotion from the reader. I'll definitely be picking up a hard copy to read it myself again.

So so

It was ok. The voice was a little off putting and slow which took me a while to get into. I like the idea of the offspring of the badass Vasquez coming into their own but man the stories are so predictable and unoriginal. Every book and story is of a group of people that are lied into going on a mission only to discover the real reason they're brought there. Aliens escape, there's a fight, someone gets away. The same thing over and over. Gotta find another direction to go.

Could have been better worth a listen if you a fan

For me overall this was disappointing, when I found out there was a book from the Aliens franchise about Vasquez I was excited. Vasquez was one of the characters I wish would have survived from Aliens, she was bad ass. However, she is barely in the book, most of the story (in my opinion) is irrelevant and unnecessary. The voice acting was bad and it was really hard to get through the whole story. If you are a big Aliens fan its worth a listen but the best part is just about the very end of the book. And unfortunately its not that great.

Boring.

I’ve read every Alien novel that has any affiliation with the original series. This was by far the worst one yet. It started out decent with a nice origins story but continued on with no action. It was just pure boring. The end was anti-climactic and predictable. The reader of the story was solid,

“Meh”

I will say the narrator did do justice to speaking as the original Jeanette V. Aside from that- meh. As for the author- too much melodrama. Too much time spent on non-alien issues. And not hardly any time to explain the training and time with the unit. (Probably because when friends go to boot cam together- NO ONE suddenly commands a “unit” of just a few people in the fleet. Just doesn’t happen. NO time was spent developing those relationships- but yet it was a thing. Lastly- i dont know what to say. It was overall, meh. It kinda sucked. If there was a wee bit less of the preachy/self-righteous- commentary on the history of unfairness. (It was ad nauseam) and more info presented on the actual alien threat- might be a good book.

Light on the action

Not enough action for me. Aliens, and Predator for me should be mostly action. This one was mostly backstory from my point of view.

meh...left much to be desired

I've been an aliens fan since the first movie. Not to mention the comics and other novels. But I have to say I was so disappointed in how little Vasquez, J. was featured. The other characters didn't have much depth either. For an 11-hour read, only the last 50 minutes deal with xenomorphs, which was a letdown. I also felt like the musical references weren't realistic or relevant. The narration was robotic and lacked emotion. I didn't feel like I was "there". For example, after someone got killed, I had to play it back to make sure that's actually what happened because it's read in the same tone as if someone walked into a room and sat on the couch.

Decent but not my favourite

Was excited about this one but it didn't bring the same tension and resolution roller coaster as others in the series. While I liked the narrator and would listen to her read another book the overall lack of dynamic in the tone left the plot feeling very mellow and reflective. I liked the back story on Vasquez, examination of how she wound up where she did and how that legacy plays out, and connection with her family but overall the story didn't have the drive as other books. Maybe I like more dread and tension? Would love to see a followup that covers Leticia and her team, preferably by the same author.

Curious for her 2nd book

As others have said: hardly an ALIEN book. Characters are well written, though, and it didn't quite play out as I expected, so here's that. I'd be interested in the author writing a second one that did emphasize the alien in the ALIEN franchise.