bookheaven | The X-Files: Perihelion (Reply)

The X-Files: Perihelion by Claudia Gray

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was on the fence about requesting this from Netgalley. On one side I love The X-Files and I'm acquainted with the author from our fanfic days. On the other, it's set in the parts of the X-Files that I actively dislike. I always hated chain smoking man and the alien arcs, especially disliked the ending of the second series and this is enmeshed in it. At the end of the day I wouldn't have jumped on this if it had been any other author. This was a 3.5 read for me but I rounded up because it was less the writing that I didn't like and more I didn't care for the setting.

Let me get this out of the way since it’s in the blurb, Scully is having a late in life pregnancy which is 95% of this story so of course William has to be brought into this. Here’s the thing, grief is tidal and large. Naturally they’re thinking about William but that’s all they’re doing, chapter after chapter. While this isn’t unrealistic it also slows the pacing to a crawl in many places, especially over who really fathered William and what happened to him in the end.

There are a couple of story lines. The three major ones are 1. A serial killer who is cutting fetuses out of their mothers and may be able to affect electricity, exploding phones, computers etc. He is also hunting very close to Scully’s location in D.C. (my preferred plot) 2. The Shadow Man who can turn into a mist and teleport and is killing former Syndicate members (my least favorite simply because it plays into that alien arc crap that bored me in the show itself ) 3. Someone is doing things to DNA (I don’t want to say more than that and be spoilery)

There is dovetailing of all three plots so that was good. The lagging pacing however made the endings feel rushed (and it’s open ended which I find personally annoying but I’m sure the powers that be wanted it that way to set up the next book). What I did love was how Gray worked in what Clyde Bruckman prophesized for Scully. It was very clever. Scully and Mulder definitely felt in character which I loved.

Overall, I enjoyed this in spite of the rather repetitive angst over the pregnancy and William.

View all my reviews