Aliens: The Female War by Steve Perry and Stephani Perry features two strong female characters. Ellen Ripley and Billie are pitted against the alien queen. Aliens: The Female War wraps up a trilogy started with Earth Hive and continued in Nightmare Asylum. The book is part heist, part war, and part relationships. The basic plot is that people have had close encounters with the aliens and develop dreams about the alien queen. The dreams are about the original alien that started the alien race. Billie gets an idea to use the dreams to track her down. The plot of the story, for the most part, works. The plan to eradicate the aliens of Earth could work. The pace of the story was slow in the first part and then ramps up to a worthwhile conclusion. The first half of The Female War spends a lot of time on tying up loose ends. It also welcomes Ellen Ripley back into the series. The second half is an all-out alien vs human war on two planets. Ripley is a fun character to have back and a total badass. These novels came out before Alien 3 but managed to cleverly keep everything in canon. The novel has one big twist that shocked me a bit. Aliens: The Female War was published on January 1, 1993.

Plot Summary: Ellen Ripley is back! The heroes of the first two books, Wilks and Billie, meet Ellen on a space station that is circling Earth, which is overrun with aliens. There are a couple of survivors on Earth who have been broadcasting their journey. Billie feels a kinship to Amy, a survivor down on Earth who reminds her of herself when she was younger and saved by Wilks. Ellen wants to liberate Earth from the aliens, but she needs a plan. Billie has the idea to use the dreams of individuals with close encounters with aliens. Billie has nightmares about the original queen who started the alien race. And she bets others do too. They form a database and use the dreams to pinpoint the queen’s location. They plan to kidnap the queen from the planet, bring her to Earth, and let the aliens come to her, then nuke the whole area. The plan is rejected by the higher, so Ripley, Billie, and Wilks must do it the hard way by stealing a ship, forming a non-sanctioned mission and crew.

What I Liked: The Perrys found a clever way to include Ellen Ripley. They did so without messing with the canon of the films. I liked that I got to read about Ellen Ripley being a badass. I liked how the dreams were used since they were a big part of the last book. The alien queen will not be taken lightly. I love that she uses the dreams to manipulate others. The heist of the Kurtz was fun to read. The second half of this book is pretty action-packed.

What I Disliked: The first half of the book spent too much time wrapping up loose threads. I wanted the cult that worships the aliens to have more of a role in the story. The setup for the action took a while to get going. The main characters don’t see an alien until over half the book. I feel that Perry struggled with Wilks’ character in this book. Wilks often seems to be in the way. He doesn’t have much to do.

Recommendations: Aliens: The Female War had a great ending, but the novel ultimately felt disjointed at times. The pacing in the first half was not good, but the book did have a kick butt second half. I love the character of Ellen Ripley and am a bit of an Aliens superfan. Before starting this series, I never expected to find a book without Ripley to be better. But Nightmare Asylum was a better book and my favorite of the series. I will barely recommend The Female War to my followers. It is needed to complete the trilogy, and it has Ripley being a badass.

Rating: Aliens: The Female War by Steve Perry and Stephani Perry. I rated 3.1 out of 5 stars.