Claudia Gray’s ‘The X-Files: Perihelion’ Review – A Thrilling and Emotionally Charged Return to Form

It’s been six years since the most recent season of The X-Files aired, and to say it ended with a whimper rather than a bang would be a bit of an understatement. Ever since, the series has laid dormant. Every so often, rumors swirl of some kind of a reboot, but nothing’s materialized yet. But now, Claudia Gray invites readers back into the world of The X-Files with The X-Files: Perihelion, a tense, thrilling mystery that’s sure to entice even the most cynical X-Files fan. Picking up where the most recent season ended, The X-Files: Perihelion continues Mulder and Scully’s quest for the truth as they grapple with the realities of their reblossoming relationship and unexpected pregnancy. Put simply, Perihelion makes an excellent case for continuing The X-Files as a series of novels rather than an ongoing television series.

A Really Good “Myth-Arc” Episode – Told in Book Form

When the FBI asks Fox Mulder and Dana Scully to look into a serial killer targeting pregnant women and another who’s picking off former members of the shadowy Syndicate, their investigation leads them a bit too close to home. For the closer they get to their suspects, the more danger they face. With both killers seeming to possess unusual powers, Mulder and Scully have their work cut out for them. But something feels off about these cases. Some force seems to be connecting them. Somewhere in the shadows, a mysterious cabal lies in wait with a dastardly plan just begging to be enacted. Can Mulder and Scully bring an end to these murders and unravel this strange conspiracy? Or is life on Earth about to change forever? Claudia Gray’s The X-Files: Perihelion picks up the pieces from the show’s latest season and weaves them into a satisfying, emotionally charged tapestry.

The novel reads like the literary equivalent of an early-series “myth-arc” episode, perfectly balancing Mulder and Scully’s ongoing character arcs with the larger concerns of the series’ mythology. It’s a well-paced, compulsive page-turner that packs a lot of story into a relatively short book. Take the shape of a standard two-part X-Files episode and transform it into prose, and you’ve got a pretty good idea of what to expect from this book. And like those two-parters of old, The X-Files: Perihelion doesn’t really bring any of its larger storylines to a full conclusion. Instead, it mostly sets up avenues that future novels could go down should this outing prove successful. That’s not inherently a problem, to be fair. After all, it does feel like Perihelion is a pilot for an ongoing series of X-Files novels. But it’s something to be aware of.

A Return to Form

Above all else, Perihelion offers a return to form for The X-Files – a good “case of the week” story that gives Mulder and Scully a lot of room to grow emotionally with a sprinkling of the series’ larger mythology mixed in. Going into any of the specifics of Perihelion‘s plot would do the entire story a great disservice, but let’s just say that it feels like the opening story of a theoretical twelfth season. And that approach comes with exactly the strengths and weaknesses you’d imagine.

On the plus side, readers get to revisit Mulder and Scully and see how they’re coping with their newly rekindled relationship and newfound pregnancy. And Gray mines that for everything it’s worth, making their relationship the real underpinning of the entire novel. At heart, it’s a story about Mulder and Scully reconnecting with each other, dealing with their shared trauma, and beginning the rest of their lives. Gray perfectly captures their voices, breathing new life into these characters and pushing them down exciting new pathways.

On the flip side, however, there’s the actual meat and potatoes of the plot; the latest attempt to turn The X-Files‘ long-convoluted mythology into some kind of a coherent narrative. Yet, Gray manages to pull it off about as well as you could expect. Those who hated some of the reveals in the show’s eleventh season probably won’t be won over here. Gray doesn’t retcon or directly undo any of those more controversial elements, but she does manage to reshape them into something far more palatable. And on the horizon rests the promise of even more intriguing storylines. A future that, hopefully, will come to pass.

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, Claudia Gray’s The X-Files: Perihelion reopens the X-Files with a thrilling, emotionally charged novel that’s sure to please even the most skeptical of fans. With an action-packed plot that combines the best elements of the show’s mythology with a healthy dose of character development for Mulder and Scully, Perihelion makes an excellent case for the X-Files continuing as an ongoing series of novels. It’s not a total homerun; the ending’s pretty unresolved and the plot itself feels a bit derivative. But Gray so perfectly captures the essence of Mulder and Scully’s relationship that it’s hard to imagine someone walking away from this book without even the hint of a smile on their face. There’s just so much quintessential X-Files goodness to love here. And Gray’s absolute love of the series is so infectious that it’s easy to lose yourself in the story she crafts.

The X-Files: Perihelion is available now in hardcover and ebook from Hyperion Avenue/Disney Publishing Group.

Disclaimer: a review copy of The X-Files: Perihelion was provided by the publisher. All opinions are the honest reactions of the author.