Alien: Uncivil War

A Novel

By: Brendan Deneen

Narrated by: Austin Rising

War will always find a man like you.

This ALIEN story begins where most end: with a xenomorph loose on a damaged spaceship hurtling through space. Once a highly decorated marine, Chris Temple, a recently widowed single father to two young daughters, Jane, 11, and Emma, 8, is onboard. Despite his particular set of skills, Chris doesn’t get involved in the fight with the alien, instead focusing on keeping his children safe as the ship comes in for a crash landing.

The family land safely on an idyllic outpost planet, where Chris is told that the ship has been destroyed beyond recognition and nothing could have survived the crash. That’s only the first lie. Chris and his daughters love their new life, but something doesn’t feel right. Chris is a paranoid type, but just because he’s paranoid, doesn’t mean he’s wrong.

There are nasty surprises in store as Chris investigates the web of lies and conspiracies. After leaving a ruined Earth, it seems Chris and his daughters have crash-landed on a planet on the verge of all-out civil war. Chris will have to call on the battle skills he never wanted to use again in order to protect his daughters, deal with violence-hungry marines, and battle the xenomorph that’s killing people regardless of which side of the civil war they’re on.

©2024 Brendan Deneen (P)2024 Blackstone Publishing

Gimme summa’ that REDNECK ALIEN!

I have to admit, there’s only a little bit of redneck in the story, and I’m not completely sure if what there is might not be due to the narrator’s performance. But there’s one quasi-comic scene which, along with the narrator’s choice of interpretation, made me decide to use this title for my review. I enjoyed this new addition to the alien series. It had realistic characters, a complicated plot that continuously delighted me and a quadruple-layered frightening environment to add even more delight to this writer/editor.

There is the essential synthetic human character, but one that is very different from nearly every Alien story I’ve heard/read. There are 2 children - both daughters of a widowed ex-military special forces officer. Those are the good guys. The others vary in the way threaten this small family. Yes, the synth is part of the family,

As for the narration, it was excellent except for the problem many male narrators have when portraying women. The “femme fatale” has the voice of a 50-year old, chain smoking bar fly. It’s incredible that his characterization of young girls and a variety of other characters was so perfect - yet this one was so, so far off. In a way I could see how the character might have a voice like that - but at 2/3s of the story. Every time that character said something the least bit seductively it put my teeth on edge. It’s really tragic that such an amazing narrator has this one flaw, which impacts such an important character in the story.

But this is no reason not to listen to this outstanding work of sci-fi horror in the alien universe. Or to completely dismiss the very talented interpretation by the narrator. I highly suggest this audiobook for anyone who enjoys horror and/or science fiction.

Same as the Rest.

Not much going for it in the aspect of Aliens themselves but an overall good book regardless

it's an original story with new characters

The narrator was amazing! He really brought the characters to life. I do wish the story was more focused on the xenos, however. Overall, I did like the book.

Not really an Alien novel

A good human antagonist adds a lot to an Aliens story (see The Cold Forge) but this book might as well not even have had Xenos in it at all. They have no meaningful impact on the plot after the prologue and make very few appearances.

Also, this Aliens expert that Titan supposedly has (mentioned in the author's notes) should assign somebody to make sure the authors know what a pulse rifle is in-universe. It's not a ray gun. just listen to the Larry Correia contribution to Bug Hunt so you don't sound clueless about an iconic element of the universe. The same thing pops up in the excellent River of Pain and a few other novels.

Nothing. Nothing stands out.

Meh- it is not a bad book I guess, but it lacked proper development. I mean, a side character we only meet when they are killed monologues in their head for several minutes after the alien has already ripped their guts out(felt like AI?), but we have NO development on how the main family is joyous just a day or so after they loose everything. I guess Im biased now. Nothing is the same after reading “Aliens: Phalanx”, a novel so good I yearn for it on big screen but also don’t want it touched for fear Hollywood will screw it up.
This is an aliens novel- so it is never a waste of time tho- some will love it. Some will lament finding yet another book not as original as Phalanx! Lol

More Aliens, please!

I rated this story a 4 because I felt that the storyline needed more aliens. The opening scene grabs your right away but then we don’t hear from the aliens until about the middle of the the story. After that, they only are mentioned a handful of times.

Couldn’t tell if the narrator was AI or the writer

The story feels like something written to hold on to a license or something. I appreciate Titan producing alien content, but it doesn’t feel like there is a hear or real passion behind this novel. After being pleasantly surprised by Bishop, which originally seemed like nostalgia bait, this just feels like someone typed “Write me an Alien novel” into chat GPT. Admittedly this could also be because the audiobook narration gave a similar impression, except when doing some insane voice work anytime the kids talked. I don’t know though, if some of that was on the part of the mixing/recording studio because there was something going on with a that made everyone sound kind of nasally. I own almost every entry in this franchise in audio and text format, and this one really made me feel like I needed to stop that habit.

Not great.

The plot was boring. But the main gripe is that the xenos are an afterthought; the horror is not there and they’re easily killed.

It's not Alien

Most of the book has nothing to do with the xenomorph. Too many miraculous saves near the end.

just like everyone said not enough aliens

a little boring not enough alien interactions it's supposed to be an alien book for areason