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socialbrad's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
lukasjay's review against another edition
1.0
Well here we go again. Rubbish by numbers.
This book is simply yet another checklist of Cliches, dialogue and references of its source material.
Curiously, despite seeming to be set in the ALIEN universe, and clearly disregarding Aliens existence it still seems to rip off scenarios and statements from the second movie.
I started off fairly interested, the descriptions of the location reminded me a little of the Sevastopol from the PS4 title Alien Isolation, and in some ways may have acted as a prequel to that story....BUT.
Not 5 minutes in and the author has given us the full cow. As we read scenes of xenomorph hostility on other vessels absolutely nothing about the descriptions is imaginative or interesting. Indeed, despite the seeming unique behavior of the Alien in the original movie (Which this story is supposed to be based around) we have been served up yet another bug hunt.
Nothing of the curious personality of the original Alien is here, once again they act like aggressive dogs and by the time Ripley turns up......yes....Ripley...again! (because we fans of the movies can not comprehend an original story without the uber goddess somehow turning up to smash any hope of a new experience in this universe) the story has become a literal Aliens inspired mosh pit.
So despite billing itself as an all new story and finally in the original canon before Camerons brilliant but dumb sequel we get a book written in exactly the same paint as the Perry Aliens novels of the nineties, in short this book is great if you are a fan of the series from Alien Ressurection onwards....but if your looking for a smart, original memorable Alien story here your going to wind up extremely let down
This book is simply yet another checklist of Cliches, dialogue and references of its source material.
Curiously, despite seeming to be set in the ALIEN universe, and clearly disregarding Aliens existence it still seems to rip off scenarios and statements from the second movie.
I started off fairly interested, the descriptions of the location reminded me a little of the Sevastopol from the PS4 title Alien Isolation, and in some ways may have acted as a prequel to that story....BUT.
Not 5 minutes in and the author has given us the full cow. As we read scenes of xenomorph hostility on other vessels absolutely nothing about the descriptions is imaginative or interesting. Indeed, despite the seeming unique behavior of the Alien in the original movie (Which this story is supposed to be based around) we have been served up yet another bug hunt.
Nothing of the curious personality of the original Alien is here, once again they act like aggressive dogs and by the time Ripley turns up......yes....Ripley...again! (because we fans of the movies can not comprehend an original story without the uber goddess somehow turning up to smash any hope of a new experience in this universe) the story has become a literal Aliens inspired mosh pit.
So despite billing itself as an all new story and finally in the original canon before Camerons brilliant but dumb sequel we get a book written in exactly the same paint as the Perry Aliens novels of the nineties, in short this book is great if you are a fan of the series from Alien Ressurection onwards....but if your looking for a smart, original memorable Alien story here your going to wind up extremely let down
lewis666's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
While the characters at times feel a little expendable, not giving you a whole lot of reasons to care about each individual, (which isn't exactly new for the franchise), this book is a ton of fun and fits perfectly in this universe.
It's well-written and the story set between the first two movies, "Alien" and "Aliens" was fascinating to me, witnessing Ellen Ripley's journey head off into its own little pocket universe away from the movies. It's relatively fast paced, moving quickly from one scenario to the next, which helps things progress as a light read, despite being very horror focused.
For me it dipped in areas, and by the end I didn't find myself completely wholeheartedly loving it as I hoped I would, being a huge fan and all. But fans of the Alien franchise, or sci-fi horror for that matter, should find this serviceable and tense. The steady, ongoing sinister plans of a certain character materialising in the background towards a satisfying climax was arguably my favourite aspect about the book. Don't expect to be moved at all, but check it out.
It's well-written and the story set between the first two movies, "Alien" and "Aliens" was fascinating to me, witnessing Ellen Ripley's journey head off into its own little pocket universe away from the movies. It's relatively fast paced, moving quickly from one scenario to the next, which helps things progress as a light read, despite being very horror focused.
For me it dipped in areas, and by the end I didn't find myself completely wholeheartedly loving it as I hoped I would, being a huge fan and all. But fans of the Alien franchise, or sci-fi horror for that matter, should find this serviceable and tense. The steady, ongoing sinister plans of a certain character materialising in the background towards a satisfying climax was arguably my favourite aspect about the book. Don't expect to be moved at all, but check it out.
rachelellyn's review against another edition
4.0
Thoroughly enjoy this Audible freebie. A good story for a 1.5 book (after book 1 but before book 2).
genauds's review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.25
foofers1622's review against another edition
5.0
This was amazing! I usually don't do the full cast when it come to audio-books but I've always loved the Alien series so I thought I give it a try. It did not disappoint! I felt like I was watching a movie but with my eyes closed. There were a few times that actually gave me the full out chills. I also got my Dad to listen to this with me and he loved it too. Laurel Lefkow does such an amazing job as Ripply, I really thought it was Sigourney Weaver reading it.
john87's review against another edition
2.0
A decent read that even at the best of times amounts to nothing more than fan-fiction which tries to both continue the story of Ripley (after the original "Alien" film) while simultaneously retconning itself before the end (because "Aliens").
I would've probably enjoyed this more if I hadn't read this *after* books like The Cold Forge & Into Charybdis (which are both fantastic Sci-fi novels regardless of the Alien property) or even Alien: Echo and Aliens: Infiltrator. It's all very by the numbers and predictable, held up by the fact that Ripley's portrayal here is admittedly well done and in line with her silver screen version.
Still, I look forward to hearing the audio drama version of this some time in the future as that's supposedly really well realized and elevates the mediocre story to a more captivating one.
I would've probably enjoyed this more if I hadn't read this *after* books like The Cold Forge & Into Charybdis (which are both fantastic Sci-fi novels regardless of the Alien property) or even Alien: Echo and Aliens: Infiltrator. It's all very by the numbers and predictable, held up by the fact that Ripley's portrayal here is admittedly well done and in line with her silver screen version.
Still, I look forward to hearing the audio drama version of this some time in the future as that's supposedly really well realized and elevates the mediocre story to a more captivating one.
lmmountford's review against another edition
4.0
I'm going to have to give this a 3.5 stars.
As a audio performance i loved it, lots of the dialogue was great though there were times it felt a little pushed to add on time. Though honestly i thought it would be a audio book, rather than a vocal performance. As far as the story goes, i thought it was great for the most parts though i would have prefered it if Ash had been more of a footnote rather than the full on villian. He killed far more characters than the aliens and it just didn't add up to the character shown in alien, but rather seemed like an attempt to introduce a cleaver way to up the body count without it being a simple alien gore fest.
There were some other small details that didn't make sense, like Ripley's indepth knowledge of the aliens when she had only seen it a few times in the first movie and hadn't wittnesed it kill anyone (other than kane through birth). Also the crews knowledge seemed a little to advance for what little they had seen on the computer monitors.
Yet these were only minor hindrances and except for the lacking of narative to describe what was going on, this was a very enjoyable read. Would recomend it to any alien fans.
As a audio performance i loved it, lots of the dialogue was great though there were times it felt a little pushed to add on time. Though honestly i thought it would be a audio book, rather than a vocal performance. As far as the story goes, i thought it was great for the most parts though i would have prefered it if Ash had been more of a footnote rather than the full on villian. He killed far more characters than the aliens and it just didn't add up to the character shown in alien, but rather seemed like an attempt to introduce a cleaver way to up the body count without it being a simple alien gore fest.
There were some other small details that didn't make sense, like Ripley's indepth knowledge of the aliens when she had only seen it a few times in the first movie and hadn't wittnesed it kill anyone (other than kane through birth). Also the crews knowledge seemed a little to advance for what little they had seen on the computer monitors.
Yet these were only minor hindrances and except for the lacking of narative to describe what was going on, this was a very enjoyable read. Would recomend it to any alien fans.
valentinegray's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0