I haven't played the video game of which this is the novelisation, though I have fast-forwarded through some of a Let's Play—it looks like a plausiblyI haven't played the video game of which this is the novelisation, though I have fast-forwarded through some of a Let's Play—it looks like a plausibly faithful adaptation of the basic content. The dialogue is certainly that "witty"/edgy banter typical of 201X 3D action-adventure video games, and the narrative is a fairly constant stream of narratively nonsensical staple "puzzles" ("I'll activate this one," Axel said. "You go 'round and do the other at the same time.") alternating with obvious cutscenes. It seems pretty bad at capturing the atmosphere, however: it's my understanding that in the game, you're on your own almost all of the time—isolated, if you will—and only rarely run into other people. The book tends to rush through or even skip over those lonely stretches in order to fit in more dialogue, which also removes any aspect of horror from the story. The other significant divergence from the game is the frequent flashbacks to protagonist Amanda Ripley's childhood—DeCandido correctly intuited that a play-by-play account of a very linear video game doesn't make for a very compelling novel, so he tried to break it up and make Ripley, the mostly-silent video game protagonist who by necessity is in every scene (other than the prologue, also not in the game), a more interesting character at the same time. He failed—hell, Ellen Ripley couldn't even really carry a movie, and Amanda doesn't actually have any distinguishing features other than "daughter of". Still, nice that the effort was made.
If you like the Alien: Isolation video game (and it seems okay, as the genre goes—at least it doesn't have a 3rd-person camera), this novelisation isn't better or worse than video game novelisations usually are, even if it does miss the point of the game. On its own, it doesn't hold up; even if you've never heard of the game, there's no way you're ever going to mistake this for anything other than a video game novelisation....more
Another extremely by-the-numbers Colonial Marines vs. Alien story, with the only "original" element being that in this one, the Alien carries a deadlyAnother extremely by-the-numbers Colonial Marines vs. Alien story, with the only "original" element being that in this one, the Alien carries a deadly disease that quickly kills anything it touches. Since they tend to do that anyway, it ends up making almost no difference to the story. Waggoner's writing is not of such a quality that it can save the uninspired premise. The main character, Zula Hendricks, seems to be an established character in some of the comics, so if you're already invested in those you might consider this novel to be worth your time, but, you know. It's not....more
Surprisingly good for an Alien novel—probably as good as they get, which is not to say it's one of the great science fiction novels in its own right. Surprisingly good for an Alien novel—probably as good as they get, which is not to say it's one of the great science fiction novels in its own right. I'll give it four stars because I've given Alien novels that are clearly worse three, but it's a low four.
The premise is relatively original (within the constraints of the microgenre—obviously aliens are going to get loose and kill people at some point), and the execution is uncommonly conscientious (White actually thanks consultants, whatever their actual credentials, in his acknowledgements; most of the other Alien novels feel like they never even saw an editor) and technically adequate. Some of the physics is still dodgy enough to annoy (a few minutes of exposure to decreased pressure from 1 atm isn't going to cause decompression sickness, and space ebullism—which he actually meant—that isn't immediately debilitating doesn't require hours of hyperbaric pressure to treat; oxygen doesn't explode; battery capacity isn't measured in kilowatts) precisely because he clearly thinks of himself as a clever hard-SF physics knower-abouter, and White clearly enjoyed American Psycho too much, but it's clear he cared about and put effort into writing the thing.
(It's unfortunate the publisher didn't—it would have been nice to see some original art of the chimpanzee aliens on the cover instead of another generic ridged-head drone. They could have reused some gorilla alien art, at least.)...more
This is the second book in an AvP trilogy that was only made part of this set of seven Alien novels I bought because its title begins with Alien:—neitThis is the second book in an AvP trilogy that was only made part of this set of seven Alien novels I bought because its title begins with Alien:—neither its predecessor, Predator: Incursion, nor its sequel, Alien vs. Predator: Armageddon, is included. This doesn't turn out to be a huge problem: much of the story of the first one is recapped at the beginning and throughout this one (and these are not hugely complex plots), and it's not so compelling that I really care what happens next. Tim Lebbon also wrote Alien: Out of the Shadows, which I read earlier and which was an Alien novel, and I have to say AvP's straightforward high-scifi action seems to suit him a lot better than Alien's nominal horror. While I don't have much of an idea what the AvP universe looks like beyond the two actual movies (and I do know it's older and bigger than those), Invasion feels like a much more successful entry in its franchise than Out of the Shadows did. It would be hard to call it a good novel—that's extremely beside the point anyway—but the writing feels considerably more natural. Thoroughly adequate....more
A direct prequel (technically a midquel, I guess) to Aliens, exploring the events on LV-426 immediately leading up to Ripley's arrival on the planet. A direct prequel (technically a midquel, I guess) to Aliens, exploring the events on LV-426 immediately leading up to Ripley's arrival on the planet. Golden puts a squadron of Colonial Marines in Hadley's Hope for no real reason other than to be able to make the protagonist a soldier man—a compulsion a lot of sci-fi writers share—and set up the dumbest-sounding possible sequel I hope I'll never read (I own four more of these books); said soldier man also has a romantical history with the one woman colonist seen in the movie, Newt's mom, because of course he does. Those choices aside, the execution is pretty much adequate, which makes this the best-written book in this disconnected "trilogy" by miles. A bunch of scenes from the movie, some of them deleted, are rehashed with sufficient fidelity. The story doesn't go anywhere unexpected—all of the interesting details are either already shown or strongly implied in Aliens itself—but it also doesn't go anywhere particularly stupid (apart from the sequel set-up), which is something.
I suspect too many aliens and non-impregnated colonists die in this to account for the numbers seen in the movie, but I'm not willing to do the math. (If there's another novel or comic addressing this I do not want to know about it.)...more
If the last one was Alien 3 but worse, this one starts out looking like Aliens but worse, but then it surprises by instead being about how there was aIf the last one was Alien 3 but worse, this one starts out looking like Aliens but worse, but then it surprises by instead being about how there was an alien city that was destroyed by the capital-A Aliens hundreds or thousands of years ago on this planet and Weyland-Yutani send in a bunch of mercenaries (not Colonial Marines) to recover artifacts accompanied by the protagonist, who is a bad-ass cool tough guy who is psychic and also a descendant of Ellen Ripley (Amanda Ripley died childless according to Aliens, but as these novels are now canon as well apparently, that's a retcon, not a plot hole), which the Aliens know and it causes them to hate and fear him especially. It's the sort of story you could see being played out over recess, if elementary school students watched the Alien movies (except that the purple Powerpuff GirlOC protagonist also has casual sex with one of the lady mercenaries on the day he meets them, because why wouldn't he?). Moore has definitely seen at least some of the movies, since he shamelessly mines them for scenes he thinks are cool—I'm not sure how he managed to miss the tone of the series so badly. The writing itself is fractionally better than Lebbon's in the first one, but it's hard to even see this as an Alien novel.
(The most irritating thing about this book is that the narrator calls the aliens Xenomorphs (capital letter, no qualifiers) at one point, so I guess that's their fucking name officially now.)...more
It's impressive that a novel this uninspired and by-the-numbers can also be this poorly executed. The story is Alien 3 but (even) worse, written by soIt's impressive that a novel this uninspired and by-the-numbers can also be this poorly executed. The story is Alien 3 but (even) worse, written by someone who thought Alien 3 was an action movie. The writing is bad even for the genre. By this time tomorrow I'll have forgotten every detail of the plot, and I won't be sorry for that....more
Why does a 66,000-ton, 1,095-foot space-to-space tugboat meant to tow a 6,322-foot ore refinery need to devote most of the bulk of its engine nacellesWhy does a 66,000-ton, 1,095-foot space-to-space tugboat meant to tow a 6,322-foot ore refinery need to devote most of the bulk of its engine nacelles to VTOL thruster ports, especially when it also has a dropship big enough to haul its entire crew a few times over? Why is its central body so big? To haul cargo as well? That would explain the massive docking module on top, if it's meant to enable quick movement of bulky loads, but its four cargo holds are absolutely tiny. Most of the space in the central body of the Nostromo is just pointless corridors, laid out like they're carved out of stone.
Anyway, the blueprints are fine, though they could use a lot more explicit measurements and a lot less noisy page filler. The text tying them together reads too much like advertising copy, but that's what books like these are, I guess; it's not a concept art or making-of book, so it was to be expected that it would be light on behind-the-scenes information. The four original movies and the two prequels are covered; Aliens had the most rational vehicle designs, Prometheus the ugliest....more
Loading...
