Ben Brown's Reviews > Alien: Prototype

“Alien: Protype” is a familiar-feeling, but refreshingly unpretentious take on the (let’s face it, VERY well-trodden) “Alien gets loose in a facility and wrecks havoc” storyline, a narrative that has marked most of the franchise’s major creative output since…well, the moment of its existence.

Two things help to elevate the proceedings here, however: 1.) Tim Waggoner’s penchant for funny, at times even self-aware plotting (for better and worse, “Prototype” never feels like it’s taking itself uber-seriously) and 2.) the presence of Zula Hendricks, last seen slaying the Xenomorphs in the comic “Alien: Defiance.” Her inclusion alone helps make “Prototype” feel distinctly connected to the broader “Alien” narrative, transforming what are fairly stale proceedings into something that’s just a wee-bit more interesting and “plugged in”, stakes-wise. “Prototype” isn’t a great book, but it’s rarely a slog – which, for tie-in novels for this particular franchise, is kind of an automatic win.