Book Review 147 //Aliens: Berserker by S.D Perry

Unfortunately, I have struggled to find the Bantam the Book series in order so I have dangerously jumped forward by four books to number nine in the series. Now I have read the comics so I know what is happening and understand that the stories are written to be stand-alone pieces so there are no real spoilers to worry about.

With this in mind let us delve into the horror of Berserker.

Title: Berserker

Author: S.D Perry

Page Count: 230

Style: Paperback

Fluff: It is called a Berserker team - reckless, desperate volunteers recruited by the Company to destroy alien infestations. Based on the spaceship Nemesis, it consists of three brutal ex-cons who do all the grunt work and the Berserker itself, code-named MAX: an armed and armoured exoskeleton powered by the living brain of what was once a human, configured into an unstoppable killing machine.

When the Nemesis is sent to a massive space station, D.S. 949, the team finds an alien hive, the largest in history, with nearly a thousand hapless humans cocooned and incubated. The team mission: to destroy the aliens while leaving the terminal intact. The mission seems like suicide to the bug hunters and their small support staff. And that is perfectly fine for the Company... which wants no witnesses left to the terrifying secret of D.S. 949.

So firstly, let us get the important stuff out the way. Yes, we have seen this story before in comic format. It was a Dark Horse comic called, Aliens: Berserker. It was written by the legendary John Wagner of Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog fame. He was assisted by Paul Mendoza and Andy Mushunsky.

The novel adaptation does the comic proud. In this story, we find out about the Berserker squad. Made up of baiters, people whose job is to be captured by the xenomorph to be taken to the nest. Some specialist weapons experts to assist, and the armoured killing machine named MAX. Once the baiter is captured his suit becomes a tracking device allowing the MAX suit the ability to rapidly find the Queen and kill her. The MAX suit is full-on future tech, anti-acid armour, flamethrowers and a giant-sized pulse rifle, all of which allow it to destroy a nest. But the real twist is the squad being made up of felons who can reduce their sentences in exchange for completing missions. Real dark shit. 

Having completed a mission the team is expecting some RnR when they are forced back into action, following the communication blackout of a research space station near their location. Following a quick detour, the team finds themselves facing a space station overrun by the Xenomorph. Needless to say soon the shit hits the fan and the mission goes awry. Leaving only three members of the team alive at the end.

Perry did a great job bringing the comic to the written page. We bounce between characters in a well-executed manner, that moves the story along in easy to understand way. This was an enjoyable entry to the series and I am so glad to have read it.

Now to get back to finding the other novels. As always I hope you enjoyed and will support my blog by using the link below.

Buy the book (Amazon Link): Kindle Edition - Paperbacks are hard to find

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