Sunday, January 26

Alien Seventh Circle Review

Written by Philippa Ballantine
Published by Titan Books, London (2025)
ISBN: 9781803366975

When going into ‘Seventh Circle’ I had high hopes, after all this is a sequel to ‘Inferno’s Fall’ written by the same talented author; Philippa Ballantine. I’m pleased to be able to say that this book lived up to my expectations, with only one exception. In fact, besides the one blemish, I’d say that Philippa Ballantine has outdone herself and delivered a sequel that surpasses the original!

The Union of Progressive People’s (UPP) mining colony of Shānmén was wiped out by an Engineer Juggernaut ship during the ‘Inferno’s Fall’ book. Following on directly from that we find Zula Hendricks’ ship the Righteous Fury in hot pursuit. Mae Hendricks, the android daughter of Davis and Zula is with her mother and acts as the main character of this story. After a tense battle with the Juggernaut, the Righteous Fury is saved by the UAEV Blackstar.

"The enemy ship might not need internal gases, but as their combined attacks tore away a section of hull on the port side, it did irreparable damage to the ship's structural integrity."

- Extract from 'Seventh Circle' by Philippa Ballantine 


This brings me to the first mistake I think this novel makes. We never get to pick up on the mystery of the Juggernaut, or find out who bombed Shānmén, because that entire plot is dropped with no real resolution. If you’re really into this universe, like I am, then you no doubt know that this plot is continued within the Alien tabletop RPG. That’s all fine and dandy but it still leaves this novel with an entire plot point dangling. Even worse, if you don’t play the tabletop RPG then you will never get the answers to those unanswered questions. I have a feeling that this was less the choice of author Philippa Ballantine and more the choice of TitanBooks or even Fox/Disney. But I’m reviewing this book, and, regardless of the reason, it feels incomplete because a major plot point is just dropped and that feels unsatisfying.

After the Juggernaut is destroyed, the pilot of the Blackstar introduces himself to the Righteous Fury and it turns out to be a synthetic known as Rook. This isn’t the same Rook we saw within the film ‘Alien Romulus’; this is a character last seen in the novel ‘Into Charybdis’. Last time we saw this character they were inhabiting the Blackstar as the ship AI. Back then they went by Father, but since then they have acquired the body of a beat-up Bishop model. They tell Zula, Mae, and the rest of the Jackle unit about a list of Wayland-Yutani black sites related to Blue Marsalis’ work. This leads the Jackals to Minos Station where something goes horribly wrong. I’m not going to spoil what it is because uncovering what happened on Minos is the main driving force of this story. All I will say is that it leads the Jackels to a very interesting discovery.

Screenshot from the 1986 film 'Aliens' depicting scavengers investigating an abandoned ship.

An unknown amount of time later, a family of scavengers, the Pope’s, find Mae inside an emergency escape pod floating alone in space. She’s unable to remember anything about herself other than her name.
How did she end up stranded in space?
What happened to Zula and the Jackals on Minos station?
Both the reader and Mae herself are desperate to find out more. Mae finds herself dipping in and out of consciousness. During these episodes, she’s able to remember flashes of her past. We continue the story with the Pope’s as we’re let in, little by little, on the events that led Mae to the family. This dual narrative does a fantastic job selling the sense of disorientation that Mae suffers from as she struggles to remember herself and her past. This is what ‘Seventh Circle’ does better than anything. Creating a sense of confusion and disorientation that really allows you to sympathize with and understand the struggle that Mae is going through.

I think now is the point that we need to talk about Rook and Blue Marsalis. Blue Marsalis is a nonbinary scientist and close friend to Rook, from the novels ‘The Cold Forge’ and ‘Into Charybdis’. Blue is a very important character to me. When I first read ‘The Cold Forge’ only my wife knew that I identified as a nonbinary person. Seeing Blue struggle with their gender but be accepted by her friend Rook/Father gave me the confidence to come out publicly as nonbinary myself. This brings me to the biggest problem I have with ‘Seventh Circle’. When Rook talks to Zula about Blue, he refers to them as a woman and uses she/her pronouns. Blue lived in a realistic world, where they understood that not everyone would understand their nonbinary gender, so they accepted she/her pronouns from people who didn’t care enough about them to use their correct pronouns. But the one person, the only person in their life that cared enough about Blue to understand their gender was Rook. This could be seen by the way that Rook used they/them pronouns for Blue when no one else did. This is why it’s insulting to see him here, calling Blue a woman while using incorrect pronouns for them. It’s not just about gender, although that is important, it’s using pronouns to show the reader that Rook was the only one who cared enough about Blue to get this right. Yet here, that’s all thrown away when Rook uses, she/her to refer to Blue! This may be a small thing for most people, but you must understand that it’s not just about gender, it’s what the gender represents. Rook took the time, time no one else took, to understand Blue enough to recognise their gender. That’s gone now, trashed. This tarnishes not just the legacy of Blue but also the character of Rook and the relationship he shared with them.

"Doctor Marsalis was a complicated, tortured woman. Single-minded in the pursuit of saving herself from a terrible illness."

- Extract from 'Seventh Circle' by Philippa Ballantine 

It's only fair that I now mention another thing that this novel excels at, and that’s world building! I mentioned this in my review of Ballantine’s previous Alien novel; ‘Inferno’s Fall’. Having a story set amongst people living within the UPP allows us to learn more about life within their territory. I love this! After so many stories in all forms of media set within the United America’s (UA) space, it’s really refreshing to see what life within the UPP is like. During ‘Inferno’s Fall’ we saw what life was like for the miners of Shānmén, now we get to see what life is like for a family of scavengers under the UPP. I loved the time I got to spend with the Pope family. It allows us to spend time within their little ship, the Eumenides, as well as see what life is like onboard Guelph station. I really hope that Ballantine is able and willing to write more stories within the Alien universe because she has a real talent for bringing the world to life like almost no one else!

Overall, I think that Seventh Circle is one blemish away from being a 5 out of 5 for me. The world building, characters, and the way that Philippa Ballantine can bring you into the emotional mindset of her lead character are all exceptional! I want more of it. But I can’t look past the way that this novel misunderstands the characterisation of Blue Marsalis and their relationship with Rook. What for some may be a minor or non-issue, for me, is a dark mark on an otherwise extraordinary novel. Seventh Circle is still worth reading as it’s an exceptional sequel to one of the Alien series best novels!

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆