Labyrinth
(Aliens Omnibus: Volume Three )
S.D. Perry (1996)

On the space station Innominata the infamous Dr Paul Church has built a maze of tunnels. Church is hiding the results of his latest experiments. His aim: to bring human and Alien together as one being.

Colonel Dr Tony Crespi has one ambition–to work with Church. But one by one the men on Innominata have been dying in the attempt to meld Alien and man.

This one is less about the Aliens, and more about the Doctor who wants to advance the human race by splicing in a bit of extra DNA.

Of course things have to go wrong, people turn up do disagree with his plans. Fortunately there are his pets that can deal with intruders…

Rogue
(Aliens Omnibus #3)
Sandy Schofield

Welcome to the former penal colony of Charon, where a labyrinth of underground tunnels offer shelter to an Alien hive.

Professor Ernst Kleist rules, whose specialty is making humans disappear. Captain Joyce Palmer is bound for Charon. Only she and a few hand-picked Marines can stop Kleist in his tracks.

This one started slowly with a lot of characters. When it took a turn to horror, I almost gave up. But in the second half it feels more like military science fiction. The action just kept ramping up until the end.

But the biggest surprise, was finding out that Sandy Schofield is the pseudonym used by Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith
for their collaborative works.

Revenge of the Judoon
(Doctor Who)
Terrance Dicks (2008)

The TARDIS brings the Doctor and Martha to Balmoral in 1902. Here they meet Captain Harry Carruthers , friend of King Edward VII.

Balmoral Castle disappears, leaving just a hole in the ground. The Doctor realizes it is the work of the Judoon – a race of ruthless intergalactic mercenary space police.

With help from Arthur Conan Doyle, the Doctor and Martha discover then stop a plot to take over the world.

All in less than 30k of words. This is the first work by Dicks I have read. He has written over 80 stories for Doctorr Who.

It’s an easy and fun read, and he really gets the characteristics of David Tennant’s Doctor.

Alien Harvest
Robert Sheckley (1994)

Royal jelly, the most illicit of Alien by-products, is keeping Dr Stan Myakovsky alive. A once-famous scientist fallen on hard times, Stan is fighting off the repo-men and trying hard to patent the cybernetic ant that will reinstate his reputation. Julie Lish is beautiful, mysterious, and totally amoral. She has a plan so outrageous that there might be one chance in a million to pull it off.

Together they make an attempt to grab the ultimate treasure—royal jelly from an Alien hive.

It’s a well worn trope, a gang on alien ground trying to get the gold/elixir of life/Jelly. One by one they are killed off. The original protagonists must survive until the end to tell the tale. But a lot of action takes place as we try and work out who will be killed next.

Not a bad read, just a bit too predictable.

Aliens: Genocide
David Bischoff (1993)

Their queen is dead and the hive mind has been left to flounder on its own. On a world bereft of its only guiding force a schism is taking place: two strains of alien, formerly united by one all-powerful mother, now divide their forces for a world-shattering, acid-drenched war.

This is a variation on the Aliens film plot. A group of soldiers, accompanied by an Industrialist goes to a distant planet. They kill a lot of bugs, get into trouble and get out. Only this time, it’s taken from the point of view of a tough female marine… like Jenette Vasquez.

It’s fairly standard stuff, well written with a nice ramp up to the final battle.

This is the first book I have read by Bischoff, although he is credited as co-author on a number of the Harry Harrison ‘Bill the Galactic Hero’ books.

The Jamie Drake Equation
Christopher Edge (2017)

Jamie’s dad is an astronaut and is going to be orbiting the Earth for several months and Jamie already misses him badly.

Doing his homework at the observation lab one night, Jamie inadvertently picks up a weird signal on his mobile phone. Could it be from an alien civilization with a message for humankind ?

This starts as a lightweight adolescent book about a boy and his relationship to his father. Then it gets darker and intense. Only to be resolved by a rather magical deus ex machina.

Dream of Dragons
Age of the Sorcerers #8
Morgan Rice (2020)

Everything wraps up in a satisfying fantasy way in the finale.

Shield of Dragons
Age of the Sorcerers #7
Morgan Rice (2020)

In the penultimate book, the Dragons still wait.

Lenore tries to restore a fractured kingdom. Hidden enemies surround her, all vying for power, while a mysterious new adversary rises in the South, requiring Erin to be dispatched on a fateful mission to stop it.

Dusk of Dragons
Age of the Sorcerers #6
Morgan Rice (2020)

the many storylines and characters finally converge, in an epic battle for the  future of the capital and the kingdom. (Yes, the ‘good’ guys win).

But that may not be enough, as the Dragons have yet to make their play.

Crown of Dragons
Age of the Sorcerers #5
Morgan Rice (2020)

Things get interesting as the dragons finally enter the story. Just what will they do. Who’s side are they on and what are their objectives ?