Book Review 142 // Bug Hunt: Darkness Falls by Heather Graham, Hugs to Die For by Mike Resnick and Marina J. Lostetter & Deep Black by Jonathan Maberry

Long title this week, as I review the next three stories from the short story book Bug Hunt. We will get through Darkness Falls by Heather Graham, Hugs to Die For by Mike Resnick and Marina J. Lostetter & Deep Black by Jonathan Maberry.

As with all things let us start at the beginning with Darkness Falls (not the bad movie with the same name). Set on the planet Oleta, we are introduced to the main characters: Police Chief Tarleton and ex-colonial marine Captain Angela Hall. We found out that something terrible is happening at a local mine and the Police Chief believes Xenomorphs are involved. After refusing to help Captain Hall is arrested and driven to the mine anyways, where she sees on the monitors the first squad wiped out by what can only be xenomorphs. Unwilling to watch more people die pointlessly we watch as Captain takes charge and dives headfirst into the conflict. The true highlight of this story is the Blue Moon Centipedes. Gigantic centipedes seeded to this world due to their tunnelling abilities, saving the mining company money by using their tunnels. The only problem is when they breed with xenomorphs! Creating huge multi-limbed and clawed organisms. Great read, really enjoyed this one and a standout tale.

The next tale is Hugs to Die For by, Mike Resnick. Set sometime after the main trilogy of Alien. In this story, we are shown inside a Weyland-Yutani science lab, where they use Facehuggers to collect the acid blood to use it within the industrial industry and a melting agent. Now of course shit hits the fan and somehow the Facehuggers team up and make the great escape. It was an enjoyable tale but lacked depth, some interesting moments but ultimately a read and forget tale.

The final tale this week is Deep Black by Jonathan Maberry. A double strange tale for this one, up first, it is set after the third film and has the heroes(?) visiting the prison complex of the film, and the second strange part is the first person viewpoint it is written through. The complex has long been abandoned and our group has been sent to investigate a strange energy reading from an advanced stealth ship. Soon they make landfall and discover a Jĭngtì Lóng (rival to Weyland-YutanI) stealth ship, a highly advanced ship, that can mean only one thing, they are searching for Xenomorphs. Soon the team realizes there is no sign of humans and the only heat source is coming from inside the Jĭngtì Lóng ship. Unable to get a clean reading due to the stealth tech, the team loads up and prepares to enter the ship! Solid enough tale, a bit slow compared to the other two but would make a great opener to a novel.

Well, overall a good run of stories here. I am sad to think that next week is the final three! What will I read next? As always, I thank you for reading. I hope you will take a moment to use one of the links, and help support the blog. Thank you.

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