Dig into the overgrown weeds of any old JRPG discussion thread on a gaming forum, or just peak at the manic diatribes game players scrawl onto Twitter today, and you’ll largely be told by people who’ve been dedicated to their controllers for decades that you need to play Chrono Trigger.

Going off mass critical reputation, Chrono Trigger probably ranks just under Final Fantasy 7, and the oldest of these Video Game Sages will tell you why Trigger‘s actually better than Final Fantasy 7, even if you didn’t ask!

Ultimately, this Chrono Trigger review wasn’t written to determine where it ranks in the imaginary pantheon of Japanese Role Playing Games any ‘real gamer has to play’. Unlike the overbearing chiding for not playing it yet delivered to you in a string of tweets by ‘SuperSaiyanCloud’, we’d like to point out this Hall of Famer is still perfectly playable and every bit as charming today.

There is no need for the nostalgia goggles.

The one-off Chrono Trigger came about after Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakeguchi and Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii went on a research trip together in 1992 to study the newest developments in the world of computer graphics. We should mention some rando named Akira Toriyama who created some random cartoon called Dragon Ball had accompanied them, and they felt the spark to create something unique.

Development would begin the following year, with fellow heavyweight Nobuo Uematsu and future legends scriptwriter Masato Kato and composer Yasunori Mitsuda getting drafted along the way. The game’s original Super Nintendo release would manifest in early 1995 to instant acclaim. The game was essentially crafted by the JRPG supergroup to end all JRPG supergroups, and their combined talent, expertise, and artistic sensibilities still thoroughly shine when playing the game even now.

Being the diehards for these cretors that we are, we just had to write our own Chrono Trigger review.

Chrono Trigger launches quickly into what might be the most delightful introductory hour to any JRPG, using its colorful and since-iconic medieval festival setting to tease the player of the whimsy to come in their adventure. Like any Ye Olden Times town-wide celebratory affair, you’ve got your merry-making-men and your carnival games, but also giant fightable Neko Robots and a time machine that goes amok.

Immediately, a comic sense derived from Chrono Trigger’s joyful Dragon Quest lineage makes itself apparent, keeping the game light and refreshing, perfect for playing in hand-held bursts.

That haywire time machine, by the way, blasts Crono, our protagonist, and these other primo Toriyama cut-ups all throughout time. Cavemen times and Mad-Maxian futures alike are lovingly depicted via distinct pixel artwork that’s still quite stunning to eyes when you spend some time with it. The Jukebox’s worth of playful tunes from Nobuo Uematsu and Yoshinori Kitase fit these backdrops like a glove, and evoke a unique sense of place and time to each local you visit, often drawing from Final Fantasy’s unique Sci-Fi fantasy blend.

To be perfectly clear, with Chrono Trigger being a JRPG released in 1995, you’re going to have to stomach that oh so dreadful turn-based gameplay that Final Fantasy dropped after its first PS2 outing. This Chrono Trigger review can’t convince you to like that style of play if you don’t.

If you do like turn-based gameplay, or you are at least open to the idea after realizing you spent days fighting a giant monkey in Sekiro, the good news is that Chrono Trigger‘s one of the most approachable out there. Its real-timeturn-based system brings an active action bar to the game. That means that during a battle, the longer you take, the more turns the enemy will receive. If you now prefer a more relaxed approach, there is also the Wait mode, where if you’re in a command menu (like choosing an item or tech to use) time effectively stops.

The game also drops random battles entirely and instead incorporates fixed places for enemy locations on the map; your character levels will naturally progress as you travel through time. In other words, there is no need to grind.

Lots of the bosses have fun gimmicks that aren’t too difficult to figure out, which simulates some variety in your base JRPG gameplay. Honestly, if you enjoy Pokémon battles, you’ll be at home here.

Compared to a mainline Final Fantasy game, Chrono Trigger’s a little light on the story, less likely to jerk on your tears. However, you can actually beat this game in under 30 hours (if you don’t care about spending countless hours on discovering all twelve endings), with no time being wasted on grinding or nonsensical JRPG melodramatic convolution. Each minute in this relatively short adventure’s tight, every step through time precisely planned and impeccably designed.

Though you might not cry over what happens to party-friends Frog, Magus, and Ayla, you’ll come to treasure their peculiar company. They are much more lively than most SQUARE fare.

Many call Chrono Trigger a flawless game, and this 202X Century Chrono Trigger review doesn’t disagree with that assertion. It may be more limited in scope than its Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy cousins, but this concentrated bit of excellence feels especially fresh in today’s sequel- and remake-filled game climate.

You can play Chrono Trigger on PC and mobile, but we recommend hunting a DS copy if that’s an option for you.

One doesn’t need to search for long to discover that words like “totalitarian,” “fascist” and “political extremist” are all the rage nowadays. Most often they serve as little more than personal attacks, rather than accurate descriptions of the forces at play. To call an opponent a “fascist” is one of the most groan-inducing clichés of the modern times. While much can be said about each of these words, and what they actually mean, it is worth noting that while “fascist” has a very particular political and historical meaning, and the phrase “political extremism” is extremely relative, the word “totalitarian” literally has no meaning at all.

One could say that, like “fascist,” it has become a meaningless buzzword, but that would be incorrect, since unlike fascism it was always a meaningless buzzword meant to smear any system that doesn’t follow the liberal capitalist viewpoint, as we shall see below.

Where Does the Word Come From?

The word “totalitarianism” was brought into the popular consciousness by scholar and author Hannah Arendt in her first major work, the 1951 volume The Origins of Totalitarianism. The idea behind this book was that communism and fascism were both somehow connected, and formed the same sort of society, which was called the “totalitarian” society.

In Arendt’s hands, the major differences between the USSR and Nazi Germany disappeared. Her theory suggested that two completely different political and social ideologies can be considered fundamentally the same when compared with the author’s own—in this case, liberal capitalism, which is the only ideology put forward as not “totalitarian.”

Since then, media puppets, right-wing intellectuals and the ruling class in general have made great play with the word “totalitarianism,” a word that one hears blaring from every television.

The Theory of “Totalitarianism” is Unrealistic & Unscientific

Essentially, the term “totalitarianism” is not a scientific term, but simply a tool. Its place in history was on the side of capitalism when it sought to find a way to equate the USSR with Nazi Germany.

In fact, Arendt’s theory of “totalitarianism” has never measured up in the real world. There has never been a so-called “totalitarian” society, not even under the fascist dictatorships of Hitler and Mussolini, nor could one ever realistically exist.

It is quite odd to read Hannah Arendt’s Origins of Totalitarianism, because she has no understanding of how socialism and fascism work and grossly distorts them both.

For example, she offers literally no explanation as to why the USSR and Nazi Germany were on opposite sides during World War II, nor why Nazi Germany invaded the USSR, nor why the USSR entered the conflict even before the United States, or why 22-27 million Soviet soldiers and civilians lost their lives at the hands of the Nazis.

From the way she describes it, the Nazis and the Soviets should have been on the same side against the capitalist and liberal nations, putting aside for a moment the fact that fascism is actually a form of capitalism—a fact that, of course, she also ignores.

Did World War II, the single greatest conflict in all of human history, merely happen as a result of personality conflicts on the part of Stalin and Hitler? The fact that communists and fascists were on opposite sides and bitterly fighting against each other—all this is nowhere in the “totalitarian” analysis. All that it seen is a chauvinist attempt to mush everything together.

The Theory of “Totalitarianism” is Hypocritical

The word “totalitarian” is used often in place of, or as a supplement to, the word “dictatorship,” which actually does have a meaning. A dictatorship, or a rule by a single class unrestricted by any laws, can exist, such as the dictatorship of the proletariat, which is called “totalitarian.” However, liberal democracies are dictatorships of the bourgeoisie, and they are not called totalitarian.

The criteria often given by those that have a definition of “totalitarian” are:

• All facets of society are controlled directly by the dictator and the government through force; the dictator dominates all areas of life without exception.
• A highly militaristic society which glorifies the military and the police, as well as other armed forces of the dictator and the ruling government.
• There is no separation of powers; judiciaries, legislative and executive are all controlled by the dictator or the ruling party.
• The dictator or the party controls the thinking of the masses.
• There is no freedom of speech or religion, no freedom of the arts and no freedom of the press except that which glorifies the dictator.
• Political repression is practiced on those that dissent from the dictator or ruling party.
• Torture of incarcerated persons and political prisoners.
• Forced or compulsory military conscription.
• Subordination of the individual in favor of the dictator and the ruling government.

What is notable about these above criteria? All of them also apply to liberal democracies. One only has to replace “dictator” with “capital” and “the government” with “capitalism.”

The last point here is the most controversial, since most loose definitions of totalitarianism come from the idea of the individual being subordinated to the collective. Individuals within capitalism are subordinate to money and the means by which it is made, in this case, by work. What a person can do within those societies depends on his or her ability to pay money and to work. Do scholars call capitalist countries totalitarian? No. It is word which serves no useful purpose except in propaganda.

Why Is Our Society Not Considered “Totalitarian?”

Money, profit and capital rule our society absolutely. Every aspect of our lives is subject to the will of capital. There can be no freedom of speech or religion, no freedom of the arts, and no freedom of the press insofar as capital exists. You can say anything you want, but without capital no one will hear you, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what will happen when you say something that becomes a threat to the existence of the ruling class. Take a look at what happened to the Black Panthers.

Take a look at what happened to Fred Hampton, George Jackson and Anna Mae Aquash. Take a look at Kent State, where the National Guard murdered unarmed student protesters.

You can worship whatever god you want, but does your religion actually free you from capital? You can draw, paint, sing, and create whatever you want, but if it doesn’t make a profit, how will you continue, and how often will you be able to do it? And if it is not in the interests of capital, how will you get an audience, and how big will that audience be? If the ruling class doesn’t like what you have to say, you will be silenced or more likely, never heard at all.

If art is not in the interests of capital, it will not be published, especially if it goes against those interests. And the press is, by and large, owned by capital itself.

The whole definition put forward of both totalitarianism and “political extremism” only has value within the camp of capitalist ideology. The concept is simply an invention of reactionary intellectuals in the NATO bloc.

Four months after the government-commissioned Brereton report said there was “credible evidence” of Australian war crimes in Afghanistan, including the murder of at least 39 civilians and prisoners, and multiple acts of torture, the perpetrators remain in the military. No investigations for criminal prosecutions have begun.

This is only the starkest expression of an ongoing cover-up involving the Liberal-National Coalition government, the Labor Party opposition, multiple state agencies and the official media. For years they have sought to hide evidence of the atrocities, which occurred under a Labor government between 2009 and 2013.

The Brereton report was a damage-control operation, initiated after some details were leaked to the media. It suppressed more information than it revealed and absolved governments and senior military command of any responsibility, based on the implausible assertion that they had been unaware of the crimes. The report’s release was greeted by brief hand-wringing from politicians and the media over the impact that the revelations would have on “our military.” The issue was then dropped almost entirely.

It resurfaced at a Senate estimates hearing on Monday. Chris Moraitis, director-general of the Office of the Special Investigator, established at the recommendation of the Brereton report to conduct a criminal investigation into the allegations, provided an update on the progress of its work.

In short, Moraitis indicated that the body he heads has done virtually nothing. The organisation does not even have any investigators.

“We’re in the process of engaging investigators and we’re going to do that in the next one, two, three months,” Moraitis said. “That involves them being sworn in as special members of the Australian Federal Police and involves at least three weeks of induction in preparation, and involves us also doing a few other things.”

Moraitis is clearly working to a timetable prepared by the government. After the report’s release last November, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton and other government representatives declared that any criminal prosecutions, if they eventuated at all, would likely take up to a decade. These statements had the character of a directive rather than a prediction.

Moraitis’ comments underscored the character of the Brereton report, as a continuation of the cover-up. Conducted in secret, it was dragged out from 2016 to 2020. Investigators provided an untold number of military personnel with immunity for testimony, and much of the evidence was given on the proviso that it could not be used in a court. This was justified on the pretext of encouraging witnesses and participants in the crimes to testify freely.

The overwhelming majority of the material remains classified. The publicly-released version of the report contains few details that had not been previously reported in the media. Its descriptions of the war crimes were as vague as possible.

The main outcome of the Brereton investigation was to create a potential legal minefield, as to what evidence is admissible and what is not. Moraitis said his staff were sifting through the Brereton material to “help ensure investigators will only receive information they can lawfully obtain and use in criminal investigations and any future criminal proceedings.” This process is being conducted under a shroud of secrecy.

Moraitis’ testimony followed a report in the Murdoch-owned Daily Telegraph on March 16, which revealed that at least some of the 25 soldiers implicated in the war crimes remain in the military. The alleged criminals would not be sacked. They would be allowed to discharge from the army on unspecified “medical grounds.” No other media outlet picked up the story.

The article, apparently based on information provided from within the military, appeared just days before the Coalition, Labor, the Greens and other MPs voted for a royal commission into the treatment of military veterans and their high rates of suicide. The timing indicates that the hardships faced by soldiers, resulting from their deployment to predatory and illegal wars, will be exploited to obfuscate the criminality of what occurred in Afghanistan.

As for the victims and their relatives, the Coalition government stated after the release of the Brereton report that it did not intend to provide them with any compensation. A Google search indicates that the issue was last mentioned in the corporate media in December.

The obvious attempts to forestall any criminal prosecutions of the soldiers involved are all the more extraordinary, given that millions of people have seen cast-iron evidence of at least some of the crimes.

Last March, for instance, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation published footage from a soldiers’ helmet camera, showing the point-blank execution of an unarmed Afghan civilian in 2012. Had the murder occurred in any other context, the perpetrator would have been arrested, charged and sentenced years ago. Military whistleblowers, as well as Afghan victims, have also provided eyewitness accounts of some of the crimes to the media.

The bid to prevent the cases from ever reaching a court is motivated by several factors. When the report was released, some of the soldiers implicated indicated through the press that they felt “betrayed” and “scapegoated.” Shortly after, an image was leaked to the media, showing a senior special forces commander drinking beer from the prosthetic leg of a dead Afghan.

It was rapidly revealed that the man pictured was warrant officer John Letch. When he stood down after the publication, Letch was the Command Sergeant Major of Special Operations Command. Letch had worked at Army Headquarters and Headquarters Special Operations Command.

Whoever leaked the image of Letch, it was directed against the claim of the Brereton report that no one above the level of squadron command was aware of the violations of international law. The government and military command are undoubtedly fearful that if soldiers are tried, they will testify that they were merely following orders.

Many of the murders occurred after the Labor government of Prime Minister Julia Gillard ordered greater involvement of Australian troops in US-led “kill and capture” raids, supposedly targeting insurgent leaders in 2011.

In April 2013, then Chief of the Defence Force General David Hurley issued a secret directive to soldiers, warning that they could be “exposed to criminal and disciplinary liability, including potentially the war crime of murder” if they could not prove that those they killed were participating in hostilities. In other words, the crimes flowed from the government-led prosecution of a neo-colonial war, and were known to military command.

Clearly, there are also concerns that the true scale of the war crimes could be revealed if the alleged perpetrators are pressed in court. The Brereton inquiry acknowledged that there were likely many more incidents that were not covered in its report.

The latest proof that murder and torture were commonly used instruments of the occupation was provided by Shamsurahman Mamond, who worked as a translator for the Australian military in Uruzgan Province.

Mamond told the Special Broadcasting Service this week: “[In the] provincial reconstruction team, it was our job to connect with local elders and local people. They were coming and telling us what was going on out in the fields. They would say, ‘They’re destroying the whole house. They’re killing the kids and ladies and everyone because they’re looking for insurgents and Taliban.’”

The translator indicated that torture was routine at the Australian base in the town of Tarin Kowt. “My accommodation was a few metres away from the jail,” he said. “I saw sometimes they were taking people out of the car like toys, we also sometimes heard people yelling, it was sad because if someone is in the detention centre, they don’t have a weapon, they are not a threat anymore, there was no necessity for punishment.”

Such information runs counter to the promotion of the military by the entire political and media establishment, and preparations for its involvement in new and even greater crimes.

The last major media mention of the war crimes came in December, when Zhao Lijian, a Chinese foreign ministry representative, tweeted a condemnation of the killings. This was accompanied by a graphic, produced by a visual artist, showing an Australian soldier holding a knife to the neck of an Afghan child. The picture clearly referred to an incident described in the Brereton report, involving soldiers slashing the throats of two 14-year-old boys.

Labor, the Liberal-Nationals, the Greens and various independents all denounced Zhao’s tweet as a Chinese “attack” on Australian soldiers. The media treated the tweet as a far more serious offence than the killings themselves.

The hysterical reaction was a warning that ongoing exposure of the military was beyond the pale and would be treated as treasonous and “un-Australian.” This was directed against anti-war opposition, and was the signal for the war crimes to be dropped entirely from the press.

The denunciation of China also highlighted the fact that the cover-up of the war crimes is aimed at ensuring that the atrocities committed in Afghanistan do not get in the way of the preparations for Australia to play a frontline role in US plans for a catastrophic war against China.

Built during the second half of the 16th century by the Emperor Akbar, Fatehpur Sikri (the City of Victory) was the capital of the Mughal Empire for only some 10 years. The complex of monuments and temples, all in a uniform architectural style, includes one of the largest mosques in India, the Jama Masjid.

Brief synthesis

Fatehpur Sikri is located in Agra District in the State of Uttar Pradesh in northern India. It was constructed southeast of an artificial lake, on the slopping levels of the outcrops of the Vindhyan hill ranges. Known as the “city of victory”, it was made capital by the Mughal emperor Akbar (r. 1556-1605 CE) and constructed between 1571 and 1573. Fatehpur Sikri was the first planned city of the Mughals to be marked by magnificent administrative, residential, and religious buildings comprised of palaces, public buildings, mosques, and living areas for the court, the army, the servants of the king and an entire city. Upon moving the capital to Lahore in 1585, Fatehpur Sikri remained as an area for temporary visits by the Mughal emperors.

The inscribed property covers 60.735 ha, with a buffer zone of 475.542 ha. The city, which is bounded on three sides by a wall 6 km long fortified by towers and pierced by nine gates, includes a number of impressive edifices of secular and religious nature that exhibit a fusion of prolific and versatile Indo-Islamic styles. The city was originally rectangular in plan, with a grid pattern of roads and by-lanes which cut at right angles, and featured an efficient drainage and water management system. The well-defined administrative block, royal palaces, and Jama Masjid are located in the centre of the city. The buildings are constructed in red sandstone with little use of marble. Diwan-i-Am (Hall of Public Audience) is encircled by a series of porticos broken up at the west by the insertion of the emperor’s seat in the form of a small raised chamber separated by perforated stone screens and provided with pitched stone roof. This chamber communicates directly with the imperial palace complex clustered along a vast court. At the north side of it stands a building popularly known as Diwan-i-Khas (Hall of Private Audience), also known as the ‘Jewel House’. Other monuments of exceptional quality are Panch Mahal, an extraordinary, entirely columnar five-storey structure disposed asymmetrically on the pattern of a Persian badgir, or wind-catcher tower; the pavilion of Turkish Sultana; Anup Talao (Peerless Pool); Diwan-Khana-i-Khas and Khwabgah (Sleeping Chamber); palace of Jodha Bai, the largest building of the residential complex, which has richly carved interior pillars, balconies, perforated stone windows, and an azure-blue ribbed roof on the north and south sides; Birbal’s House; and the Caravan Sarai, Haram Sara, baths, water works, stables and Hiran tower. Architecturally, the buildings are a beautiful amalgamation of indigenous and Persian styles.

Amongst the religious monuments at Fatehpur Sikri, Jama Masjid is the earliest building constructed on the summit of the ridge, completed in 1571-72. This mosque incorporates the tomb of Saikh Salim Chisti, an extraordinary masterpiece of sculpted decoration completed in 1580-81 and further embellished under the reign of Jahangir in 1606. To the south of the court is an imposing structure, Buland Darwaza (Lofty Gate), with a height of 40 m, completed in 1575 to commemorate the victory of Gujarat in 1572. It is by far the greatest monumental structure of emperor Akbar’s entire reign and also one of the most perfect architectural achievements in India.

Criterion (ii): The construction of Fatehpur Sikri exercised a definite influence on the evolution of Mughal town planning, namely, at Shahjahanabad.

Criterion (iii): The city of Fatehpur Sikri bears an exceptional testimony to the Mughal civilization at the end of 16th century.

Criterion (iv): The city as a whole is a unique example of architectural ensembles of very high quality constructed between 1571 and 1585.

Integrity

The inscribed property contains all the attributes necessary to express its Outstanding Universal Value, and these are in a good state of conservation. Factors that previously threatened the integrity of the property, such as mining activities, have been controlled by the banning of mining within a 10-km radius of Fatehpur Sikri, but will require continuous monitoring, particularly in regard to illegal blasting. The extension of the buffer zone, and the establishment of pertinent regulatory measures, are critical to controlling the unplanned growth of the township and the potential threat to the visual integrity of the property. Adequate planning and the definition of clear guidelines for visitor use are also essential to maintain the qualities of the property, especially as relates to the potential development of infrastructure at and nearby the property.

Authenticity

The authenticity of Fatehpur Sikri has been preserved in the palaces, public buildings, mosques, and living areas for the court, the army, and the servants of the king. Several repairs and conservation works have been carried out from as early as the British Government period in India to the Buland Darwaza, Royal Alms House, Hakim Hammam, Jama Masjid, Panch Mahal, Jodha Bai palace, Diwan-i-Am, pavilion of the Turkish Sultana, Birbal’s House, mint house, treasury house, etc., without changing the original structures. In addition, paintings and painted inscriptions in Jama Masjid, Shaikh Salim Chisti’s tomb, Akbar’s Khwabgah, and Mariam’s house have also been chemically preserved and restored according to their original conditions. To maintain the condition of authenticity, guidelines are needed to ensure that form and design, as well as location and setting, are protected.

Protection and management requirements

The management of Fatehpur Sikri is carried out by the Archaeological Survey of India. Legal protection of the property and control over the regulated area around it is through legislation, including the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (AMASR) Act (1958) and its Rules (1959) and Amendment and Validation Act (2010), which is adequate to the overall administration of the property and buffer zone. In addition, the passing of orders by the Honourable Supreme Court of India assists the Archaeological Survey of India in the protection and conservation of monuments. An area of 10,400 sq km around the Taj Mahal is defined to protect the monument from pollution. The Supreme Court of India in December 1996 delivered a ruling that banned the use of coal/coke in industries located in this “Taj Trapezium Zone” (TTZ), and required these industries to switch over to natural gas or relocate outside the TTZ. The TTZ comprises 40 protected monuments, including three World Heritage properties: the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, and Fatehpur Sikri.

To prevent the entry of unauthorized persons into the tourist movement area and to avoid encroachments in the property area, a boundary wall has been constructed on the protected limits of the palace complex. In addition to the physical delimitation, regulatory measures are needed to prevent further encroachment and impacts on the visual integrity of the property.

The sustained implementation of the Integrated Management Plan is required for the adequate protection, conservation, and management of the property and its buffer zone. It is also the necessary mechanism to coordinate the actions implemented by different agencies at the central and local levels having mandates that have an impact on the property, including the Town and Country Planning Organization, the Agra Development Authority, the Municipal Corporation, and the Public Works Department, among others. Although the Archaeological Survey of India has been managing the visitors to the property by means of its management system, the Integrated Management Plan will need to ensure adequate visitor management and guidelines for the potential development of additional infrastructure, which will need to be preceded in all cases by a Heritage Impact Assessment.

The fund provided by the federal government is adequate for the overall conservation, preservation, and maintenance of the monuments of Fatehpur Sikri. It supports the presence of a Conservation Assistant who works under the guidance of the regional office of the Archaeological Survey of India and coordinates activities at the property.

The second of Titan’s new Alien trilogy, Alien – Sea of Sorrows, is written by James A Moore and is bizarrely set over 200 years after Out of the Shadows. “Why would a sequel after its predecessor be weird?” I hear you ask. This is due to the fact that the third (and currently final) book is set during Aliens, centuries prior to this novel. It just struck me as an odd chronological placement.

The novel itself is very much a direct sequel to Tim Lebbon’s previous novel and goes to show that this trilogy has is establishing a brand new coherent continuity. What stood out to me as I read the opening third of the novel was just how much that reminded me of the older novels. Rather than the self contained nature of the majority of DH Press’ last line of Alien novels, Sea of Sorrows felt a part of a bigger whole.

Something I really liked was that Jim Moore took it very slow to build up the action. The first half of the book was devoted almost entirely to the development of Alan Decker, the main character and the world in which he lived. The world building that Jim did in this novel was fantastic. The ICC, who Decker works for, was mentioned previously in Aliens but never really dealt with. Jim gave them further attention and looked into them somewhat.

As Weyland-Yutani makes a return in the novel he also dealt with their return to power. I was somewhat worried that this would be a little convenient but considering how the films always portrayed them as an omnipotent presence, the way Jim brings them back felt believable and further developed this unexplored period in the Alien timeline.

I was surprised at how much I liked Alan Decker. As I mentioned, Jim spent much of the earlier parts of the novel developing him and letting us get to know his family, his mentality and the world he lived in. It really helped me believe in his plight and his motivation throughout the novel.

Something that was worrisome going into the novel was how Jim Moore would present Alan Decker’s connection to the Aliens and thankfully it was dealt with tactfully and not over the top. Jim wrote Decker as empathic – this means he could sense the emotions of others.

Now if you’re going into this novel having not read any of the old Expanded Universe this might seem slightly off track for Alien. However, as far back as Aliens Book 1 (Outbreak), the Queens were able to influence humans via some form of telepathy. Jim Moore doesn’t have Decker reading the minds of the Alien, he has Decker sensing something incomprehensible from the Aliens that he can only interpret as rage and vengeance.

If you’re familiar with the synopsis of Sea of Sorrows then you should know that the Aliens are after Decker for his relation to Ripley. This is something that could be of concern to some fans coming into this novel. Following the events of Out of the Shadows, the Aliens “marked” Ripley’s bloodline. Jim doesn’t actually go into the specifics of it, only that they are able to sense his relation to Ripley.

This really didn’t strike me as anything negative. We know for a fact that some insects in reality are capable of “marking” targets – the Japanese Giant Hornet springs to mind. So combined with the genetic memory of the Aliens and their completely…well…alien-nature, I can quite easily believe that the Aliens were able to genetically identify Ripley’s bloodline.

Jim Moore splits his characters into three distinctive groups. We have a small group of main characters of which Decker is obviously a part of. After him we have Manning. Manning is the leader of the mercenaries that make up the bulk of the characters in the book and provide us with our action elements.

Both Decker and the reader have ample reason to hate Manning as you’ll find out when you read the novel. However, Jim Moore infuses his personality with enough badass and lets us understand him that it’s quite easy to forget what he did to Decker and just enjoy the ride. He’s shown to be quite the leader and I really enjoyed reading about him.

After Manning we have Adams, another merc, who forms an attachment to Decker. She was quite likeable and down to Earth, helping guide Decker (and us) through this new future we had found ourselves in. Her and Decker’s interactions were great and the pair carry a very believable relationship.

The last of our main characters is Rollins. Her character’s personality is very obviously based on Vickers from Prometheus and it’s easy to see this in every scene she is in. Her motivation is also quite a-typical of the older “get Alien specimen” stories and this lack of originality that makes her the most boring.

After this main core group, we have a similar number of secondary characters who are all given small but substantial attention. Many of these secondary characters are presented to be quite likeable and charming, must in the same way as how Aliens presented its secondary characters. I’m not going to spend too much space talking about these but I will throw a special mention out there to Piotrowicz.

Like with Manning, we have plenty of reasons to dislike Piotrowicz but Jim Moore handles him in such a way that it’s easy to forget his involvement. He is written as quite a charming, almost Hudson-like (pre-freak out) kind of character. His last scenes in particular are fantastic.

And lastly we get to the tertiary characters, of which Sea of Sorrows has plenty. Which makes sense. There’s an entire platoon of mercenaries, a whole terraforming expedition, plenty of scientists. Many of these pop-up for a mention, disappear and some reappear later on.

They also play a part in the one major complaint I have in regards to the novel. Towards the middle of the book, when they finally encounter the Aliens, the pacing just grinds to a stop. One bunch of tertiary characters will encounter the Alien, figure something out and then die. Rinse and repeat for another few chapters.

The book had been flowing quite well up until that point. Jim had kept it moving, using short chapters to keep the pages turning and never letting himself get bogged down. But once we hit the first encounters, it just stopped. The start-stop nature of these chapters pulled me out of the novel.

I understand that these books need to be accessible to readers who might not be as familiar with the films as the fans but I thought Jim had written himself out of this problem much earlier on in the novel. There’s a section on board the mercenary ship were the characters are being briefed on the Aliens but apparently not thoroughly enough. Had Jim just put all the necessary information here, we could have just kept moving along.

I was also disappointed to not explore the ship or the city in any meaningful way. Despite being back on LV178, we weren’t treated to any further development of the previous inhabitants or their mysterious leftovers. Considering how well Jim Moore had put into his world building of the post Alien Resurrection universe, this lack of exploration was disappointing.

One last concern that fans might have about the novel is that Jim explores a little with the “hivemind”. They’re short sections in which the Aliens are presented as an appropriately individual-less mind. He did nothing to offend any fans and one section later on – in which a Queen “communicates” via telepathy to Decker – is a nice touch that adds some more concrete intelligence to the Aliens.

Jim Moore handles the Aliens with respect, not treating them like the bugs many do. He continues Tim Lebbon’s raptor-like approach. However, as this novel is more akin to Aliens, we do need shooting and we do need to be able to kill them.

And to that without disrespecting the Aliens, Jim has his mercenaries packing plasma rifles – the power of the sun in your hands. Very dangerous stuff; and something I can easily believe is capable of killing Aliens (and anything that gets in the way). He did actually trip over himself and have random rifles be called pulse rifles which did get distracting at times.

This is a very ridiculous complaint but Sea of Sorrows is a completely different size to Out of the Shadows. Thish annoyed me slightly as it meant they didn’t fit together nicely on the shelf.

The continuity between Out of the Shadows and the effort Jim Moore put into his early world-building really helped make this novel feel part of a bigger whole, a feeling the Alien novels have been missing for years.

The way in which the book concluded also gives the feeling of more to come which I find hopeful for a more organized continuity for Titan’s Alien novels. However, with only one more on the horizon and with that book seemingly taking place during the infestation of Hadley’s Hope, I’m slightly worried we might not get to see the continuation of the story being setup by Jim Moore.

Over all I really enjoyed Sea of Sorrows. It’s quite definitely an adventure/action piece, more akin to Aliens than Alien. His characters are fun, his inclusion of Decker’s connection to the Aliens and the minor dabbling into the Alien hivemind was fun to read and handled in a very tasteful manner. I would happily recommend picking this one up as it feels like a return to the glory days of old.

However, the book didn’t explore the new extraterrestrials at all and the book plays out largely like one of the older novels, not really treading onto new ground. It seems as if the ending was built towards letting another novel play with the new elements later.

From Corporal Hicks at AvPGalaxy, I award Alien – Sea of Sorrows with a 7.5 out of 10.

1983 commercial for the Burger King Whopper featuring Elisabeth Shue